Glacier Park Chat
Sept 1. - The day before
Stocking up with the required amount of backpacking cheese.
- IMG_1449(1).JPG (120.24 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Spending the night at Many Glacier Hotel to have a relaxing night before taking off.
- IMG_1454.jpg (73.33 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Sept 2. - Morning of departure
The morning view from Many Glacier Hotel. I thought it was neat seeing the moon over the peak there in the morning. I'm going with that being good luck.
- IMG_7221.jpg (175.57 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Here I was trying to figure out how best to pack Teapot's prize for the yearly Going To The Sun Road contest. There was indeed an actual prize last year! Tibber graciously donated hers to Teapot which was very nice of her! Though those were waiting in the trunk of the car at Swiftcurrent Lodge for the very end. I don't think I could have carried 8 all the way to Granite Park. And truth be told here.... Only 3 made it full to Granite Park... The Vienna Lager was gone before we left the parking lot at the border crossing.
- IMG_1464.JPG (81.54 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Inside of the Many Glacier Lodge. If you've never had a chance to visit it, I really recommend it. It's a neat bit of history.
- IMG_7223.jpg (236.1 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Chief Mountain in the background on our ride up to the border to the Belly River Trailhead with the help of Wyett from Backpackers Ferry. He's great at helping shuttle you around when there's not a shuttle around.
- IMG_7227.jpg (186.53 KiB) Viewed 442 times
And now we're on the Canadian side having just walking through the border crossing into Canada awaiting to be picked up by Kelly with Tamarack Outdoors (who was also awesome!) to take us to Waterton so we could take the boat back into the US at Goat Haunt to actually get started on our hike.
- IMG_7230.jpg (147.15 KiB) Viewed 442 times
A few pics from the boattaking us from Waterton in Canada to Goat Haunt in the US.....
- IMG_7236.jpg (278.88 KiB) Viewed 442 times
- IMG_7237.jpg (177.13 KiB) Viewed 442 times
- IMG_7240.jpg (366.25 KiB) Viewed 442 times
After having gotten off the boat at Goat Haunt.
- IMG_7243.jpg (314.55 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Finally actually getting started now on the hiking portion. We'll be spending a night at Kootenai and Fifty Mountain and Granite Park Campground before hitting the chalet.
- IMG_1474.JPG (85.88 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Our first night was at Kootenai. I got a chuckle out of the bear paw in the outhouse door.
- IMG_1490(1).JPG (47.51 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Sept 3. - Morning at Kootenai
- IMG_7249.jpg (284.1 KiB) Viewed 442 times
- IMG_7251.jpg (454.85 KiB) Viewed 442 times
On our way to Fifty Mountain
- IMG_1494(1).JPG (146.12 KiB) Viewed 442 times
- IMG_7256.jpg (465.39 KiB) Viewed 442 times
- IMG_7260.jpg (204.62 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Somewhere in here we passed someone who mentioned they saw a couple of grizzly bears near the trail, so we had our heads on a swivel around here... We ended up not seeing any until after we were at camp and all set up.
- IMG_1497.JPG (92.37 KiB) Viewed 442 times
- IMG_1504(1).JPG (86.35 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Spending the night at Fifty Mountain. It's a great spot. Quite a few people there that night, plus one guy without a permit. Not exactly sure where he setup camp. The whole camp spent a good portion of the early evening standing around just a little ways to the Granite Park side of camp watching this mamma griz with her 3 cubs. It was quite the site. They were in the distance quite a ways as it took a small set of binoculars to get a good look at them, but it kept everybody a little on edge going to sleep that night. What wind we did have was going straight towards the bears so they were definitely aware of our presence, but aside from the mom occasionally looking directly at our fairly large group, they all stayed where they were and we all stayed where we were. One of the most interesting things was the cubs unique color variations. One was quite dark almost like a black bear. One was what I'd think of as a traditionally brown colored grizzly, and one that was almost white. It was really quite unique. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of any of them that night. It's was still pretty neat to see though....
- IMG_1510(1).JPG (115.83 KiB) Viewed 442 times
- IMG_1516(1).JPG (144.35 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Yep, the privy has no walls there, but you actually get pretty good privacy with it being surounded by trees, so it's really quite nice, asside from the lid being broken when we were there, but it works.
- IMG_1517(1).JPG (228.42 KiB) Viewed 442 times
Sept 4th will follow......
That was a fun night! Followed by an amazing sunset!!
