North Circle Route 7/31 - 8/5 trip report (day 3 updated)

[llholmes1948]

Pete,

Interesting (and perhaps rare) to see the Ahern Drift area with no snow on the trail. Thanks very much for posting that.

Lyman

[nkrainywindlg]

I'm jealous that you saw bear grass! I haven't seen much blooming since my first trip several years ago, so I'm going to try to get to the park earlier next year. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Last year I missed the blooming season of bear grass, so this year I booked the trip a little bit earlier than last year. I guess mid July to early August would be the good time to see bear grass. If you visit the park in mid July, you can find blooming bear grass in lower elevation, especially many glaciers area. I saw a lot of bear grass along the trails.

[nkrainywindlg]

I'm enjoying the report. You'll cover ground I haven't seen, so keep it coming.

Jay

Thank you! I will keep updating my report~

[nkrainywindlg]

Great photos and thanks for posting those. If I am oriented correctly, I believe the snow patch is Ahern Drift which is often a challenging place to cross on the northern Highline. In past years the Park Service would normally use dynamite on this drift every year to blast out some snow and make it more passable. I haven't heard if this has been done in the past few years. The trail crew would also shovel a tread across the drift and it looks like the trail crew in the photo may be just starting to do that.

I have heard that a portion of the Highline trail near Ahern Drift collapsed a few years back which made the surviving trail much narrower in that section. I have never seen any photos of that section and i don't know if it has been repaired but maybe someone knows.

Lyman

Yes, it is Ahern Drift and the trail crew was cleaning the snow on that date. We were so lucky that they were just there. The north Highline was maintained very well. We saw a couple of groups of trail crews were working on the trail. They removed some of the heavy brushes and repaired the trail.

[nkrainywindlg]

Great report!
And thank you for the nice compliment!
I just wanted to let you know I hadn't forgotten about your report.
Been busy with my sister and brother-in-law.

Lyman is correct about Piegan Glacier in an earlier post.
And that is Ahern drift.
I hiked that section on the way to Helen Lake overlook last year in Mid July. No snow. What a difference!
The "collapse" may have happened and the trail narrowed. I don't know.
However, the trail was plenty wide imo all the way through that section coming down to the drift and beyond.

But what do I know?
The "Garden Hose" section of the Highline that scares so many people ain't "narrow" in my opinion.

Great report. I'm glad there were good flowers for you

pete

I'll be away for 3 days. Sis and I hiking to Sperry Chalet tomorrow for 2 nights !

Last year was a lot warmer and dryer. This year's weather was a lot better. I am so glad that I made a right decision to do the hike this year!
And yes, Highline is not narrow. It is pretty easy to walk on.

[nkrainywindlg]

Day 3, from fifty mountain to Stoney Indian lake, 8.2 miles.

Since I was sick on day 2 evening, my husband was really worried about my health condition. He even wanted to change our original plan. Instead of finishing the rest of 4 days, he wanted to leave the backcountry on day 3 through flattop. Luckily when I woke up in the morning, I felt a lot better, but extremely hungry. Remember that I didn't eat anything last night. We had oatmeal and hot cocoa for breakfast. It took forever to get and filter water. The water source was a little bit far from the food preparation area. By the time we left the campground, it was around 9:30 am. Among 5 groups of campers in fifty mountain, one group headed to packers rooster through flattop, 2 groups headed to goat hunt directly, and another group planned to spend one night in stoney indian lake and then head to goat hunt.

Fifty mountain area was sooooo beautiful, so the view along the trail from fifty mountain to Stoney Indian Lake was really nothing to see compare with fifty mountain. This 8.2 miles hike was not bad. The first 2/3 of the trail was all downhill, and the last 1/3 was all uphill. The last portion took me forever. By the time to reach Stoney Indian, it was around 3 pm. Stoney Indian lake has 3 campsites. One group of people arrived just before us and took one site. We picked one site and left the one with mountain view for the family that we met in fifty mountain. However, they didn't show up for that night. We think they skipped Stoney Indian and directly headed to goat hunt.

Stoney Indian lake was beautiful. I had a quick bath in the ice-cold water.

The food preparation area was small but with good view. The pit toilet was up on a hill and without any coverage. But this toilet has gorgeous mountain view.

I have to admit that I really made terrible decision while I was preparing food. I prepared over 2000 calories per person, but most of them were from energy bars. I supposed to eat at least 3 bars a day, but after eating energy bars for 2 days, I wanted to throw up every time I saw it. Since we finished all our oatmeal in fifty mountains, we decided to split our dinner into two meals: one pack of dehydrated food for breakfast and one for dinner. That means two of us had to share the 600 to 700 calories per meal. We end up only consumed about 1000 calories per day. My husband and I went to bed with almost empty stomach. Since only two sites are occupied and the whole campground was up in the mountain, I felt we were so isolated from the real world. The night was quiet, until the rain came...

Leaving beautiful fifty mountain~~~~~
20160802_102209 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

20160802_100735 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

Stoney Indian Lake

20160803_103346 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

20160802_171709 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

20160803_103807 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

where we came from
20160803_090056 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

The toilet with mountain view
20160802_193132 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

View from the toilet
20160802_193146 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

View from the food preparation area
20160803_093435 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

Just outside of our campsite
20160803_103236 by Chie Chie, on Flickr

Pad Phai was my favorite.
20160802_183614 by Chie Chie, on Flickr