Recommendations For Wife And Son Hike

Have you taken a great hike or want to? Post a note here about the various trails and hikes in the park.

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wjlapier
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Recommendations For Wife And Son Hike

Post by wjlapier »

My knees no longer can take the longer hikes in the park so my wife and my son are going on a couple of hikes without me. Just curious how much time to allot for the hike to Grinell Glacier Viewpoint? We might take the boat and I'll stick around and fish and enjoy the scenery while they hike.

Same for Dawson Pass?

Thanks!
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Re: Recommendations For Wife And Son Hike

Post by Jay w »

Grinnell Glacier Viewpoint? Is that the peak of Angle's wing? That's a hump. It's always hard to tell how long it takes for a hike because there's the conditioning aspect. So there's the runners, cyclists, skiers, who come from a competitive background and then there's 40 something desk manager, and then there's the desk manager with a bad hip or gimp foot. The next thing is there's just how much time you spend taking pictures and going, "Wow, check this out."

Anyway, it's a hump as in a solid 8 hrs for the well motivated and in shape.

If you do Dawson Pass, you might as well do Dawson_Pitamakin, and that's an all day deal. 19 miles (without a boat, but a boat doesn't save time). So again, an 8+ hr deal for the well motivated and in shape. More like 10 hrs for mere mortals. Probably 12 hrs if a 20 mile bike ride sounds like a long one. Bring plenty of water as there basically is none on the trail. Just hiking Dawson would take less time, but I'd have to check a map for calculate distance.

Hope that helps. Pete might give a different answer. BTW, great hikes.

Jay
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Re: Recommendations For Wife And Son Hike

Post by PeteE »

wjlapier wrote:My knees no longer can take the longer hikes in the park so my wife and my son are going on a couple of hikes without me. Just curious how much time to allot for the hike to Grinell Glacier Viewpoint? We might take the boat and I'll stick around and fish and enjoy the scenery while they hike.

Same for Dawson Pass?

Thanks!
Can you clarify what you mean by Grinnell Glacier "view point"?
You talking about the place where the pit toilet is that's about 1/3 mile below the area most people go up by the melt pond?
If so, that's about 5 miles one way and about 1500ft? of elevation gain and virtually all the elevation gain is the last three miles.
The spur trail that goes down to the boat dock is about 2 miles from the picnic area trail head--flat most of the way.
Kind of steep downhill to the boat dock area where you could fish. Might be tough on your knees.
Maybe let them do the hike out to the glacier on the conventional trail while you...
Hike to the boat dock via the other side of the lake which is pretty flat. You can fish and wait for them at the boat dock.
Hard to say how long for them to hike in and then back to the boat dock for the reasons Jay pointed out.
I love that hike. It takes me around 8-10 hours(RT) depending on how much I stop for pics and how long I hang out at the glacier.
Maybe someone here who's done it that way can tell you.

Dawson Pass is a bugger--especially if it's a hot day.
I've gone up to Dawson both times I did that loop hike--once with a full backpack when I did it as a two night backpack.
Doing it as day hike years ago like to killed me LOL. Took me around 12 hours as I recall.
Great hike though. Windy on the divide.
And Jay is right about the lack of water so take plenty.
I think SueZ did it last year. Maybe she can help with the times.

Sorry I can't help more.
Neither of these are for anyone with bad knees imo.

pete :wink:
"If you are not curious, you will learn nothing" -Goethe-

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And when you're born in America, you're given a front row seat."

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Re: Recommendations For Wife And Son Hike

Post by wjlapier »

Grinnell Glacier Viewpoint--the map on GNP webpage has it labeled as a ViewPoint but it is the upper Grinnell lake. They would probably hike from the boat dock at Lake Josephine, but maybe the picnic parking area by Swiftcurrent.

As for Dawson, I haven't been up there in about 13 years. My wife and I climbed up there and around to Cutbank valley during our honeymoon--1992. My oldest and I climbed up there and made it back to the boat dock just in time for the last boat. I don't see my wife and the younger son making the circle route mentioned. Basically up and back down the same way.

Thanks for the info.
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Re: Recommendations For Wife And Son Hike

Post by Sue Z »

I did the Daw-Pit hike last year as a backpack with an overnight at Oldman Lake. Also, I did it counterclockwise. The ascent is much gentler in that direction. Pick your poison.

I feel that I could have done it in one day without all the backpacking gear - given good weather and a really early start.

The five mile section above treeline from Pitamakan Pass to Dawson Pass is spectacular. It is also, however, a narrow, rocky trail with a steepish drop off and stiff wind, so you do need to take care.

I'm old and slow and out of shape, and with the backpack and 90-degree heat and lots of photography, it probably took me 14 hours total hiking time to do the 16? miles from the Two Med campground to the boat dock. Stop laughing. I said I'm old. I think I could have done it in 12 hours as a day hike, but I would not have made it to the boat dock in time, and would have had to walk the last two miles. I'm sure a person in good shape could do it in much less time with a lot less whining.

I don't think the boat saved any time, as there were a lot of people waiting there and we didn't make it onto the first boat that came. Had to wait for it to return.
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