Mon, Sep 2nd
I loaded up the bike and headed for a hike that’s been on the radar for years. I found the trailhead (I’ll have you guess where), then headed for a quick pitstop before coming back and unloading. A ways into the hike, I got off the bike (took a mental note on where the bike was), and hiked maybe 200 yards to a berm looking for a landmark.
Nope, not there. I rode a bit further and repeated looking for the landmark.
Nope, not there. Finally I found what I was looking for.
So, today’s hike was Crypt Lake, but without the boat.
-Hike: Crypt Lake
-Distance: roughly 10 miles (round trip) by bike and 8 miles (round trip) hiking
-Elevation: A lot more up than expected. Has to be around 2000 ft anyway.
On the map (yup, I looked at one), It looks like you can mt bike at least to the campsite along Middle Waterton and maybe to Crypt Lake boat landing. I’m basing that on where the little picture of a mt. bike is and assuming they put the mt bike in the middle of the trail’s length. The trail? Bosporus, but who’s ever heard of that.
You might remember that Dave C did this hike earlier this year, and I think he understated the stress of biking through grizzly country. There are open fields, but most of the trail winds through forest where the sight lines are pretty narrow or really narrow. It would be easy to be cruising along at 10 mph and come across a bear 20 ft away that’s tucked in the brush. From my experience hiking up at Kintla, I know that bears sometimes don’t care (or don’t hear) you coming, and the last thing I want is to T-bone a bear. So I was doing a lot of yelling nonsense.
After passing the Vimy Peak Trail, which is clearly marked “No Biking,” there were sections of the trail that were “trenched” and I was catching pedals on the sides of the trail. Between that, crossing dry stream beds and not really being sure if I should be mt. biking this far back, I locked up the bike out of sight in the woods. (This involves taking off the front wheel. I realize no one will probably take my bike, but in its day it was a fairly pricey bike and I’d be screwed if someone took a front wheel.) After hiking another few hundred yards down a smooth section of trail perfect for biking, I went back and grabbed my bike to continue biking.
There are about six sections of the trail with dried stream beds filled with scree. It looks like there are some big flows of water in the spring. A few of these are rideable if you want the challenge, but after about three, I abandoned the bike again. From here it was about 3/4th of a mile to the campground. At that point, there is a “Y” in the trail and there’s no way to ride a bike further, hell, it’s not even easy walking. By the map, it’s only about 1.5 miles to the boat landing, but with a ridge or two, rocks, and overgrowth (it’s worth gaiters), it definitely hikes longer.
At the boat landing, I was expecting a trail something like Iceberg Lake, but the trail does a series of climbs over ridges before finally making the long ascent to Crypt Lake. It was dry as could be (the trail has some dirt resembling flour), but I can imagine the streams are really beautiful when the water is running.
I’m sure you’ve heard that this trail involves a ladder and tunnel. The tunnel is narrow enough that I ran had to take off my pack and I ran my shoulder into overhead rock a few times. (Yeah, it left a mark.)
Finally, I made it to the lake and had some lunch.
When I started thinking about my water supply, I started getting worried I was short. Damn, I should have thrown a bottle on the bike. Even though it wasn’t that warm, the humidity made me sweat like a pig (Waterton seems warmer than Glacier the times I’ve been there). My white shirt was soaked, and after putting on a dusty pack a number of times, I ended up ruining the shirt. (It was a new one from North Carolina.) Anyway, I took a few pictures on the way down,
and then I just cranked it up and headed home.
Fortunately, there was a light rain keeping things cool on the way home, but I wasn’t sure if the skies would open up. As I flew through the boat landing, I got empty stares from people like cows looking at a passing train. Oh yeah, there are a couple of “critter cams” near the boat launch and trail head. I found one of the cameras after taking a leak. The rain pants went on and off since the brush was wet.
Another thing Dave said in his write up was that it’s down hill on the way home. Yeah! I think my mind was so preoccupied with bears on the way out that I didn’t realize I was climbing. On the way home I just said screw it and let ‘er roll. I rode quite a few sections at 15-20 mph screaming like a baby. With calm winds, I wondered if people having tea at the hotel were wondering what the hell was going on in the woods over there. “MOVE OVER SMALL BEARS, THE BIG DOG IS COMING THROUGH.”
Time to get out was 3.5 hrs and damn it felt good to get out. For some reason, this hike left a mark. Maybe it was the lack of food, the lack of water, a long day on the trail or the stress of riding through griz country, but I was glad to be out of the woods. Really glad.
It was no problem with the boarder crossings! I guess my five day beard was “pre-terrorist” length.
Jay