Backpacking in Glacier National Park

The first weekend in August Erik and I finally made it to Glacier National Park to do a backpacking trip. We left on the evening of Aug 2nd and stayed over night part way to the park. It only takes about 3 hours to get there from our house but we got a late start after Erik got home from work so we camped on the way up. There was a really nice couple at the spot next to us that were biking the whole continential divide trail from Canada down to New Mexico! We enjoyed talking with them and before we left in the morning we had tea and chatted some more. We got to Glacier around 9am and headed to get our back country permit and watch the bear video. Those are always exciting. Basically they had a great campsite set up in Glacier to protect not only the people but the bears. There are tent sites that are separated from the food prep area and then there are latirines separate from all of that. Plus they have bear poles for you to hang your food from. Works well to keep all the smells away from the tent. The route we chose was in the northwest corner of the park and the start of the route went along a long skinny lake about 7 miles. We decided that t would be fun to canoe that part of the hike. It was smoky from the fires that day. Here's a picture of us at the start of the Bowman lake:

It only took us about 2 hours to paddle to the end of Bowman lake and we didn't have to carry anything. Here's a picture of our canoe on shore and Thunderbird Mountain. It's still a little smoky at this time.

We shared a campsite with two other couples and a group of high school kids and their two leaders who were doing trail work through SCA (Student Conservation Association). They were on their vacation before heading home. There was a lot of lively talk around the MSR campstoves that night. (fires were, of course, banned)

The next morning we struck out on the trail about 9am with the big group of SCA's. It was nice to hike with a bunch of people for a change. Ok, I'll admit it I was a little bear wary and with a big group of noisy people I felt a little better. However, we did meet up with a bear! (must have been deaf!) I was the last in the group but the first to spot it and had to holler to get everyone to stop! It was a huge black bear. He looked at us and then just ambled on into the forest. We took a break of about 15 minutes and then headed on our way. At the next break spot Erik and I separated from the big group because they were taking a much longer break. Here's a picture of Boulder Peak from our stopping spot:

From then on we hiked alone. Then next part of the trail we started to climb the 2, 000 ft we were to climb that day up to Brown Pass and our campsite. I didn't like this part of the trail that much as we were climbing through waist to chest high thimbleberry and other bushes. The Trail was there but fairly over grown and it was hard using my hiking poles. (I should have put them away but I'm still trying to get my knee strong enough that I don't have to worry about poles) Here's a clear spot where we stopped to have a bit of lunch:

About 1:30 we made it to our campsite at Brown's Pass. Here's a pic of the tent set up:

Then we unloaded whatever we could so we could hike farther to Hole in the Wall campsite which was supposed to be the best in the area. I guess you have to reserve it in the spring. That was the best part of the day because the sights were so beautiful! Here judge for your self:

Thunderbird Mountain and Glacier: In this shot you can see Bowman lake where we started!Here's Erik on the trail. Some very interesting terrain we were covering! Here's the mountains and some fireweed. It's our new computer wallpaper: Here's our tired, dirty but happy feet that night! All miles added up to about 9-10 miles that day.

Our last day: Sunday. We wanted an early start because that lake that we had to canoe back on gets a terrible wind blowing the wrong direction after lunch so we wanted to be on it in the morning. So we had 6 miles back to our first campsite and then 7 miles to canoe that day. But here's Erik at the end of the canoe! Ahh, what a way to live!

We're so blessed to be able to expore so much of God's country! It's a beautiful place to be. And we're so glad to be heathy enough to push our selves to these places that many people don't ever get to experience. If this isn't Heaven then I can't wait to get there!

Our second visitor!

The weekend of July 21-23 we had the joy of having Erik's sister Monika come and visit with us! And what did we do? Of course, we went backpacking! Well, it was over 100 again that weekend and she's from Seattle so we had to get out of the heat a little bit. It sort of worked since where we hiked it was still pretty warm. But we got to pick huckleberries all the way down! I had just seen them at the Farmer's Market in town for $8/lb. and we picked them all for free! There are some pictures on Monika's camera of us enjoying the huckleberry milkshakes so as soon as she send's them I'll update this post.

She arrive early on a Sat morning and we packed up the car and headed out to the Mission Mountain. We travelled about 1 1/2hrs to our trailhead. There were a lot of horse trailers parked at the trailhead and we passed many horse trains on the way. Note: always try to get off the trail on the DOWN side and talk softly so the horses don't get spooked. We hiked in about 5-6 miles that day, mostly uphill and camped at Piper Lake. We were in Wilderness area so there are not any designated campsites so we picked a nice rocky outcropping and pitched our tents there.

Erik napping at the end of the hike:

It got a little smoky the night from some fires burning on the other side of the Missions, but it wasn't too bad. In the morning it was a little hazy. Here's a shot of the campsite (with stuff all over the place!) We swam a couple times right off the rocks there, it was very nice!
On Sunday morning before heading back to our car we hiked up a ridge we could see from our campsite. Here's some pics from the top: Sorry I can't get the pics of Monika and Erik and me and Erik to post. Oh well I'll try another time! Next up Glacier National Park!

More camping!

Do you ever get sick of hearing about all the camping and hiking we do?? I hope not because it is the most interesting stuff we do right now out here! We have been stuck indoors most of the time now with all the fires in the area causing dangerous air quality. So hopefully this weekend we're going to norther Idaho where there is no smoke, we hope any way!

But now to back up just a bit, I am almost caught up with the past adventures. Going back to July 14 and 15 when I was working Erik went on an overnight backpacking trip by himself. Again the temps in Missoula were over 100 and since I work nights and would be sleeping during the day he just wanted to get somewhere cooler where he didn't have to be quiet. So he went back to the Anaconda-Pintler area and did a good loop but he was a little diappointed when he didn't pop out above tree line so he didn't reall get any "grand" views. Anywhere in the wilderness is a great view if you ask me! Oh, and I tried to get him to post but he thinks I do a better job at it! Here's some pics from his trip: (i'm glad he labeled them!)

This is Elephant Head flower. If you look closely you can see the flowers resemble tiny elephant heads:

Erik in front of Lower Carp Lake:

Pretty Beargrass along the trail:Upper Black Bear Meadow:

View from Warren Pass:Well, that's it for the pics. Erik said he had a good time but he would have rather been hiking with me! Awwww! The next post highlights one of our visitors! Check it out.

Storm Lake Pass

Some of you that I have talked to know that July was extremely hot here in Missoula, way above average temps. (Sort of what Like MNis experiencing right now) For 5 weeks we did not go below 90 for the high temp. Over the week of the 4th when I was off in high country visiting with Kirstin and Chris poor Erik was at home with no AC in temps of 101-105! So I got back on Friday night and we left Sat morning for the high country again, some car camping and hiking to try to get away from some of the heat. It worked because we went up a couple thousand feet and the temp went down at least 10-15 degrees. We got to camp by a lake and hike up to Storm Pass in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness. The trail was nice and there was a lot of free camping in the area so we'll have to remember that. We'd also love to backpack in the area looks really nice. When we were hiking on the trail the weather was turning a little scetchy so I didn't take too many pics and the ones I did take aren't the greatest but here's a few for you to judge for yourself.
On the way up the trail. Notice the flowers beside the trail. Hard to get a good picture of the flowers but in real life they add so much color!

Sign post at the top:

Here's a picture of one of the peaks at the top. The trail you see goes on deeper into the wilderness. After that we heard thunder getting closer as you can tell by the clouds. It rained on our way down but luckily the lightning didn't get too close. Until the next post!

Friends and the 4th part 2

Hi again, I know, I know I was going to post yesterday but didn't get the chance. Not sure how many of you check this everyday anyway..... But here's the next day of hiking I did with Kirstin and Chris. We only had about a 1/2 a day to hike so we did a shorter trip to Glacier Lakea dn some of the lakes around it. It was about two miles uphill. We had a good time and got to fish again. Check out the photos of that trip:
On the way up:


Here's a view of the valley we were hiking up. You can see a litttle bit of the trail on the left and way down at the bottom is where we started.
He's a little guy that came bounding right up to me at one point of the trail.
Friends:
Two Views of Glacier Lake. It was so great to do this trip and hang out with my friends! I am missing you Kirstin! Can't wait until Christmas!