Ear, thanks. Your site has some great photography. I threw a comment your way early trying to provoke a comment (just for fun), so it's good to hear from you. ND, sorry to step on your recent update.
6/28/18 Thr, Lee Ridge (to the Belly)
Ok, time for a hike. I know, when you think of the Many Glacier area, the top hike that comes to mind is Lee Ridge. Yup, and if you get there early, you’ll even beat the crowds.
We left Many Glacier valley and it was another crappy day in Glacier. Yeah, more blue skies and boring pictures with white clouds. Well, unless you like that sort of thing.
By the time we got past the cows and cow sh1t, it was cloudy up at Chief Mountain (both the mountain and crossing). Perfect. I got out of the car and started moving a few items in the pack, and Julie complained that mosquitos were all over the car. Perfect. Man, this is just like home. Even time I come to Glacier there’s never any mosquitos and nothing says deep woods like Deep Woods Off. Of course the Minnesota purists would say you need to toughen up and skip the DEET, but I like the smell of napalm in the morning. I had Julie give me a few squirts on the back, and area I can’t reach with a pump dispenser, but I figured I’d wait before lathering up anywhere else.
So, for those interested in camera gear, I was carrying three small lenses, a Contax 28mm 2.8, a Contax 50mm 1.7, and a Nikkor 105mm. These are all old manual focus lenses “adapted” to a Canon camera and the lenses are sharp as hell…and not that expensive. So small, sharp and light. As the truckin’ song says, I have a long way to go, and not much time to get there, so I skipped a tripod. I think the hike is 17 miles, but I wanted to take my time and get a bunch of pictures.
Ok, I’m off like a prom tuxedo. The first part of this hike is through a mosquito sanctuary protected as a World Heritage site known as the Culicidae Territory. (Don’t believe me.) So I pulled off the wind breaker and gave myself a few squirts of napalm. A bit later I decided I better get a couple picture of the woods before I walk right by it.
The best part of this hike is when you break out of the woods near the high point of the hike.
I also like the hike down to the Belly River Ranger Station because there are quite a few deadwoods along the way. Due to time restraints, I didn’t feel comfortable stopping as often as I’d like, so I guess there’s a reason to come back next year.
So far, I haven’t seen anyone on the hike. It was a great break from the crowds of people in Many Glacier valley where people march almost snout-to-haunches. Strap on a feedbag, and the picture is complete. At the ranger station, there was a ranger talking to a hiker, and that was it. So, still quiet.
On the way back to Chief Mountain trailhead, I started running into camping parties. The most interesting one was a couple with a newborn that wasn’t happy. I’m not sure how old it was, but it was small, maybe 6 or 8 weeks. It was strapped to the front of mamma, and she had a very volumous backpack. I said something along the lines of “Wow, I am impressed” and got out of the way. Dad said, “Well, she’s not impressed,” and only a few more words were exchanged. They weren’t going to let a little thing like having a baby get in the way of a great permit. Tip-of-the-hat.
Of course that leaves a million questions. What kind of diapers, are they cloth diapers, are the washing out the diapers, are they packing out the diapers, who’s changing the diapers, how many diapers, do diapers attract bears, ….
It was about this point I started realizing that I was going to be early for my 5 o’clock parking lot rendezvous. So my GPS path started to resemble a drunken sailor. Oh, look at that stream over there. Oh gee, look at all the horse sh1t. Where’s the feed bag.
On the long way up to the parking lot, I was leap-frogging a mother and son. I would take some pictures, and then I’d pass the backpackers since I had a light pack. The son was dressed up in long pants and a jacket and I asked if he’d like some napalm (since we’re in Culicidae Territory). His pack was off like a prom tuxedo and he promptly lathered up. Ironically, we only had about 500 feet to go.
I include this picture because it was my favorite at the time I was talking the pictures. For some reason this field of thimbleberry looked really cool. As the mother and son hiked by, she commented that that’s a great picture. Sometimes a great looking scene doesn’t really translate to a great shot.
Back in the parking lot I had some time to kill. First I ate and then stretched, and then started walking around taking a few shots.
First I found the source of the horse sh1t.
Then the pickup truck was hard to ignore.
Finally, I found a better shot of thimbleberry.
Since I just got back from my 6 month post op appointment this afternoon, I figure I’ll throw out a few words on that. Last winter, my afib kicked in during ski races, and it lasted long enough, and was consistent enough that I was able to get a monitor and send data off to my EP (electrophysiologist). He has a conservative reputation, but at our first meeting in 10 years, he recommended an ablation. Basically a procedure to cut off electrical signal in the pulmonary veins from entering the left atrium. Think of like a welder making a seam, but the atrium has very thin skin so you have to be really careful. The Glacier trip was 3 months post-op and certainly no big deal physically. But about the time I was getting back to doing workouts, I was taking three weeks off to go hiking. So far so good. Various monitors are not detecting afib and I’ve been able to kick it pretty hard. The weight has been coming off slow, but a couple of months without eating should solve that.
Ok, dinner was at Two Sisters and yup, the car still had mosquitos.
-Steps: 19,130
Jay