A Week with Dad

Well, tell us how your trip went. We all want to hear about your special experience.

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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDjason »

MarxMN wrote:Great trip report.

Since you posted the berry pictures I can help with some.

Bill
Thanks! I'll update the earlier post with the names. Bill, do you know which of the ones you recognize are actually edible?
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by MarxMN »

Thimble berry and service berry are edible. In my opinion thimble berry tastes good, service berry does not have much taste.
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Re: A Week with Dad

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Day 9: Monday, August 21st

Today would be the eclipse. Knowing we had a decently long day, with a couple of side trips and a long break for the eclipse, we decided to get an early start. We didn't have a thermometer with us for the trip, but I think this was the coldest night/morning that we had. This was the only night I slept with my hat, socks, and fleece, and while I was still ok with my layers and the bag zipped all the way up, my 40 degree sleeping bag was feeling a little cool. I know I need a better bag, but with only a trip a year (if I'm lucky), I never seem to be able to justify buying a new one.

At any rate, we woke up to a cold morning and started packing up early as neither of us really felt like sitting around very much. Plus, with the characters in camp, I was actually looking forward to chatting for a few more minutes with the crowd. There were several groups with long days today, so everyone was up early. The German guys did not disappoint as they pulled out a couple dozen eggs (still in the cardboard cartons), along with some sausage. The camp hosts/volunteers were headed out this morning too, so they joined in. They were hoping to get to a clearing on Flattop for the eclipse.

Just as we finished up with breakfast and I was headed back to our site to grab my pack, another hiker rolled into camp. He looked a little out of place as it was only 8am (at Fifty Mountain) and he obviously had not camped here. He also was wearing only a spandex shirt and shorts with a fanny pack (with bear spray attached) and was booking it with with some hiking poles. As he came through camp, we was looking at his phone (which he was using as a GPS device) trying to figure out if he'd missed a turn. I started talking with him and he asked where the trail was to get to Stony Indian Pass. I told him he was on the right trail and it would continue on out the other side of camp. I asked him where he was headed and he said he was going over Stony and then through the Tunnel back to Many Glacier. He said he had started that morning at Many Glacier and was making a dayhike out of the Northern Circle loop! As it was only 8am and he as already ~20 miles in, he must have gotten started in the dark. I have to assume there's no way he started anytime before 4am - and maybe even earlier. I can't imagine hiking up Swiftcurrent Pass in the dark. Anyways, as he didn't want to slow down too much, our conversation was brief and he was on his way. I know Heff saw him that evening around Elizabeth Lake - and I've heard someone else reported seeing him even later at the tunnel - so I think he made it. All the same, there is no chance I am ever going to try that.

We got out of camp around 8:15 or 8:30 and started up the big hill. As it was cold and we were hiking in the shade, we both started with pants and jackets - another first for the trip. At the top of the first big hill, we decided to take the side trip up to the Sue Lake Overlook. I'd never done it before, but it turned out to be a really simple, short hike up. It probably helped that we stashed our packs in some rocks about a third of the way up. Hiking without the full packs made it feel like we were floating.

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We stuck around for a while at the top as it was a gorgeous day and the warmth from the sun was nice after hiking up in the shade. On our way back down, we picked up our packs and shed our jackets. We also were unsure of when the eclipse would be starting, so we broke out our eclipse viewing glasses and tested them out. Turns out we were still quite early, so we got moving again hoping to get far enough to get a good view.

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I'm not sure how far we got, but I think we stopped around the point where the trail turns back around the ridge to head up to Cattle Queen Creek. We found a good spot where with some large flat rocks to sit down at and have a snack. We watched for about an hour until it had passed the peak and the moon was headed off to the other side. After we got moving again, we made good time to the Cattle Queen crossing and then stopped there for lunch. While eating lunch, we watched a bald eagle soaring through the area for a good 20 minutes. We had seen eagles the last couple of days, starting at Kootenai - where an Osprey had been keeping a very close eye on him. They had both landed in the trees just across the outlet stream by the camp where they stared each other down for a few minutes before the Osprey chased him off. I wish I had had my camera as they were only 80-100 feet away. But anyways, we watched the eagle at Cattle Queen until it came down and landed in the cliff band a little bit above the creek crossing. In the picture below, you can see the area where it landed in the dark cliff band in the center of the frame. Not sure if there was a nest there, but we didn't see the eagle take off again before we left.

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After lunch, we continued on towards Ahern Pass. We continued to take our time and enjoy the views, so we didn't get to the overlook trail until maybe 2:30 or 3pm, but we decided to scramble up and take a look anyways. At the top, we arrived just in time to see a small family of bighorns making their way off of the goat trail (coming from the tunnel). One of them was quite brave and walked right past us, while the others hung back by the trail a while until we cleared out. For some reason, I didn't seem to take any good pictures of the sheep, despite their posing. Probably because I was looking too closely at the goat trail and possible paths down to Helen. With the warm summer, I think it wouldn't have been too bad getting down.

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After hitting the trail, we decided we should try to pick up some speed to get in before it got too late. So we powered on for a good while. The drift was, by this time, completely gone and there was no snow on the trail. We headed up the steps in the shade and enjoyed hiking through there while it was cool.

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We made good time the rest of the way and made it into camp around 5:30. We hung our food, grabbed a site, found some water, and then sat down to let our feet recover. For the first time on the trip, I turned on my cell phone and had enough reception to send a text to my wife (Verizon). Dad, I think, was on AT&T and didn't have enough coverage to get a text out, but he did discover he could make a voice call. So I tried that and was able to connect as well. My wife told me the boys were ready for my to come and that there was a depression in the gulf that the hurricane center was predicting has a 50% shot to turn into hurricane that week.

I wish we had gotten in a little earlier so we could have headed up to the chalet, but we were both so beat that we decided we just wanted to relax and get to bed. The camp here is nothing special and this time it was really really dusty. It was easy to see how dry it had been this summer. We could make out some smoke to the south, but still had pretty clear skies and were treated to another great sunset.

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~ jason
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Re: A Week with Dad

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Day 10: Tuesday, August 22nd

We had made plans to meet Tim and Laura at 2pm on the steps of the Swiftcurrent camp store, so we got another early start. We decided to just pack up and head out and eat some breakfast at the chalet, instead of camp, so we got to the chalet just after 8am. Unfortunately, there was no one at the desk (I wanted to buy a candy bar), but we sat on the chalet steps and ate some granola bars before visiting their restrooms and then heading on. We got to the pass pretty quickly and stopped for the obligatory photo when the view opens up down the valley.

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I think with our 'deadline' of getting in by 2pm, we hiked much faster today. Of course, it was also almost all down hill. We finally started seeing some hikers just before we hit the valley floor. At the stream crossing, we met a woman who had hiked up with her husband. He was going to continue on for a while, but she asked if she could hike with us. We felt a little cocky given the improved speed we had that morning and told her she was welcome to if she could keep up. Turns out, we just slowed her down. But she was a good sport and we chatted for most of the way back until she decided to dust us a half mile or so from camp.

We did have one adventure this day, as we hiked around a bend in the trial to find a mother and moose cow and calf in the stream just ahead of us. The mother decided she was ready to move on and came right up in front of us to cross the trail (in the picture below, you can just see her back going behind the rocks). Unfortunately, the calf was not as brave and the mother got quite a ways down the trail. There were some other hikers coming up the other way and the calf got separated. We followed cautiously behind, but ended up retreating again when the calf came running back up the trail after getting spooked. This time we were a little more conservative and eventually the calf was able to catch up. There was quite a crowd by the time they got to the lake, so we took the opportunity to keep moving and get ahead of them.

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The rest of the hike was uneventful and we made it to Swifty right at 1pm. We didn't see Tim or Laura, so we grabbed a bench and Dad headed in to find some ice cream. I started scanning the parking lot to see if I could find my car. Almost immediately, I spotted what looked like my car with what looked like Tim putting something in the trunk. I walked the 100 or so feet across the lot and it was indeed them. Turns out they had beat us in by a few minutes. So we all sat on the deck and started filling each other in our trips. After a few minutes, we decided to finish our stories over lunch so we went in to the restaurant. We had not yet showered, so I'm sure we offended quite a few people, but the food was pretty good. Although I could have probably eaten cardboard by this point and it would have been a relief from dehydrated meals.

Tim's trip report is already up, so that was the bulk of our conversation. After lunch we grabbed showers, checked out the camp store (hadn't made it into stores before our trip) and then headed out. We didn't get too far before we decided to grab some drinks, we made a stop at Park Cafe and had some huckleberry pie and ice cream, grabbed some gatorade, and got moving again. We were staying in Kalispell again that night as we were flying out at 6am the next morning, but we decided to take the Sun road as we hadn't gotten past Logan Pass in our two previous trips from the west side of the park. It's been since 2013 since I was last here, so I hadn't yet seen what it looked like post fire. It's a lot different! We had a lot of smoke, especially on the eastern end of St. Marys - so the iconic view of Wild Goose Island was washed out and you couldn't even see the mountains behind it. We hit no traffic until we got to Logan Pass. The parking lot was still about half full. Just as we reached it, a giant dually truck with Texas plates cut us off and tore down the mountain. It was wide enough that they barely fit in the inside lane, but no worries! They just took up both lanes around the corners! After nearly driving a car or two off of the road, they finally slowed down. We caught them at some construction, after which they started crawling down the road taking pictures. Eventually they pulled over and we zipped by to head out.

We stopped by Whitefish to say hi to Pete again (Hi Pete! Thanks again for all of your help!) and to drop off some carry on bags for Tim and Laura at the Firebrand hotel. After that, we hunted down a car wash (as my rental agreement said I wasn't supposed to drive on unpaved roads and we had several round trips to Kintla worth of dust on the car). We found one in Kalispell and I paid for the basic wash and then started following the instructions to pull in. For some reason, I didn't think of rolling up my window as I pulled in, so we were surprised by a blast of water right in the face and all over the inside of the car. So after frantically rolling it up, we dried off the inside of the car while the outside was sprayed off.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where we packed all of our gear up in our large duffel bags before getting to sleep.

Epilogue:
We had an uneventful trip home, but arrived back in Houston to hear that the tropical disturbance had become a named storm, Harvey. Dad decided to stay in Houston that night and head back home the next morning (4 hour drive). We considered heading out too, but at this point the storm patch was no where near certain and it was still likely it would hit as a tropical storm. So we decided to stay in Houston. Thursday, I went back in to work to try to catch up on two weeks of emails. During the day, the storm blew up to a Category 1 hurricane. I told all of my guys they were welcome to head out of town and work remotely. Only one guy decided to head out, but it was only because he was going to a wedding that weekend so he was going to beat the traffic. Everyone else came back in the next morning and we watched as it exploded to Category 4 status. At lunch, we called it a day and everyone headed home to prepare. I (along with 4 other men in the neighborhood) spent some of the afternoon helping another neighbor dig a drainage ditch from their backyard to the street.

Friday night, the first of the rain bands started to reach Houston. I put out a 5-gallon home depot bucket to use as a rain gauge. We woke up Saturday having gotten 4-5" over night. But in an odd turn of events, we ended up between bands and had a beautiful morning. All of the neighbors were out in their yards and the kids played in the puddles. We even went out to dinner that night before rain started back up around 7pm. It was really coming down and we had about 6" of rain in two hours, so before we went to sleep, I walked outside to take a look.. This was the first time I got nervous as water was starting to fill up our street. Luckily, we had again landed in between bands for a few hours. Other neighbors were out as well and we walked down to check the gutters. We found out the local bayou had already topped its banks and was flooding houses just a few blocks away. We weren't too worried about our home, but due to the layout of the neighborhood, we were now flooded in. So we took some time getting everything up off the floor before heading to bed.

We ended up with 19" of rain from 7pm to 7am. The bayou was still over its banks and rising - it got as high as our sidewalk (6" below our doorstep). Again, we were fortunate to slip between rain bands for a few hours to let some of the water recede. The boys had a great time playing in the street (and then getting really good baths).

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I waded a few blocks away to see if I could help some of the flooded families out. There were people everywhere with canoes, jetskis, and even pulling air mattresses helping neighbors get things out of their homes. My wife made a bunch of sack lunches and I took them and water down to where people were being evacuated and passed them out. About this time, the coast guard helicopters came into the neighborhood and proceeded to air rescue a number of people from their roofs. It was very surreal watching this happen only a few blocks down the street and then seeing it on the national news.

This is the corner of our street, our house is just out of view to the left.
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Some of the neighbors helping get people out of their flooded homes.
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Four blocks from our home. The flooded bayou is just past the school crossing sign.
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The gap in the rain bands saved us from it getting much much worse. We went almost 12 hours without much more than light rain which let the bayou clear out a lot of the water. The major flooding started moving North and East of us, but it didn't get any worse. We were able to get out of our neighborhood after another 2 days. All in, we recorded 41.5" of rain in just under 5 days. The vast majority of that was the second and third day.

Houston has been working hard to recover and now, a month after, people are starting to adjust. There was an unbelievable response of people helping people - and not friends, just strangers helping anyone that needed it. It was great to see, given all of the acidic political rhetoric out there these days. I was planning a day off at our office for all of our employees for some team building in the coming weeks, but my team asked if we could cancel the 'fun day' and instead help a stranger clean out their home. So we took a day off of work, found someone in Barker Cypress that had had 2 feet of water in their home and gutted it down to the studs.

Anyways, there's still a long road to normal. But we survived and I was proud to be a Houstonian. I was in Naples, FL last week for work on the heels of Irma and got to see it all over again. Hopefully they'll be able to recover quickly too.

That's it! 2017 is in the books. Now looking forward to another trip!
Last edited by NDjason on Sun Sep 24, 2017 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~ jason
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by Heff936 »

That photo of the cliff section is where we encountered the Grizzly coming our way. The photos are awesome, especially around Fifty. Great trip report.

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Re: A Week with Dad

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Heff936 wrote:That photo of the cliff section is where we encountered the Grizzly coming our way.
Heff, I would not have wanted to see a bear on the trail there! I was looking closely, however, for bears in the trail below as it looked like an ideal spot and great viewing angle (high above with little chance of a bear coming straight up). Glad you guys had a safe trip!
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by tibber »

The drift was, by this time, completely gone and there was no snow on the trail. We headed up the steps in the shade and enjoyed hiking through there while it was cool.
so is the picture where the drift is? That seems such a narrow ledge! Great picture as the one of the sunset again.
That photo of the cliff section is where we encountered the Grizzly coming our way. The photos are awesome, especially around Fifty. Great trip report.

Heff
OMG!
_________________________________
It was very surreal watching this happen only a few blocks down the street and then seeing it on the national news.
:shock:
Amazing that it was only a few blocks from you...
I was planning a day off at our office for all of our employees for some team building in the coming weeks, but my team asked if we could cancel the 'fun day' and instead help a stranger clean out their home. So we took a day off of work, found someone in Barker Cypress that had had 2 feet of water in their home and gutted it down to the studs.
that's so awesome!
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Re: A Week with Dad

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tibber wrote:so is the picture where the drift is? That seems such a narrow ledge! Great picture as the one of the sunset again.
I believe the drift is a little behind me in that picture (not shown). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the ledge that comes down kind of empties into it. As you can see, there is a pretty steep slide down the mountain, so I can easily see why the park doesn't recommend travel without an ice axe and the knowledge of how to use it. But I've never actually been through here before it's cleared out.
Amazing that it was only a few blocks from you...


We were very fortunate. It's hard to describe how widespread it was. The Houston area covers hundreds, if not thousands of square miles, and the flooding was distributed throughout.
~ jason
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