08/02/02 Hiking Parkside National Recreation Trail (3 miles round trip):
Fairly thick frost on the windshield this morning. Low 50's at 7500 feet at 8am.
I saw the sign for this trail yesterday and thought why not? As it turns out this is basically a trail back to the campgrounds below. It leads off into a stand of lodge pole pines and comes out on a meadow where I scared up a 4-6 point buck with velvet antlers. It seemed quite large and a rusty tan color.
After crossing the meadow it was back into another lodge pole pine forest. Then along a small ridge and down to the 1 acre Greenough Lake. A little past that I saw the beginning of the Greenough Lake Campground and turned back.
Hiking Glacier Lake Trail (4 miles round trip):
The Glacier Lake Trail is at the end of the 8 mile dirt road I've been camping on. Its rated as moderately difficult and rises 1000 feet plus some ups and downs to a couple of lakes. The drive in has a lot of great views.
I met a guy from Billings at the trailhead and we headed up together. We talked as we went, something I'm not used to going up hill. The talking got to me and I had to let him go ahead. I followed behind but had another bout and then another. Legs were good, lungs were good but the heart rate was kinda erratic so I turned back. Maybe better luck tomorrow.
08/03/02Hiking Emerald Lake Trail (6 miles round trip):
Rain last night and strong winds for 15-20 minutes, probably around 35mph. 50's this morning with bright sunshine and 5-10mph wind at the Glacier Lake Trailhead. I had to grab my fleece vest and gloves.
I started up the same trail as yesterday, starting at 8700 feet. The trail rises 1000 feet before dropping down 300-400 feet to Glacier Lake. This is a very pretty trail with great views the entire way, including the drive in. Cliffs and peaks rise 2000 feet or so on all sides on the drive and funnel into a narrow horseshoe. The horseshoe is where the trail runs.
Two brooks tumble down from way above for quite some distance. at .5 miles the trail crosses Moon Creek on a large, hewn log bridge. The first miles is a steady, moderate climb with all those great views of the cliffs and peaks from different angles. After that is 1/2 mile stretch where the going gets steeper, approaching the difficult level.
Aware of my problems yesterday, I took things slowly with frequent 15-20 second stops and, as expected, had no difficulty. It did take me almost 1.25 hours to travel the 2 miles to Glacier Lake with 15 minutes of rest time.
Although there were 5 cars in the parking lot I only found two groups of overnighters; a couple and a family of 5. After I spent 10-15 minutes with each group I continued on the trail.
I crossed the Glacier Lake spillway to the other side. Actually I crossed over a bunch of pretty solid logs, stumps and branches because the spillway itself was just a little too deep and I didn't want to get my new Merrells wet.
A short leg of Glacier Lake sits just above Little Glacier Lake. I followed it to the end of the 1/4 mile long lake and then climbed a couple of small ridges to Emerald Lake. About 1/2-3/4 miles long, pretty much the same as Glacier Lake, maybe a little narrower. Very pretty with walls rising up out of the lake many hundreds of feet and with some dirty snow still in various nooks and crannies.
One of the guys told me about nearby Moon Lake via another trail. Shortly after the Moon Creek bridge an unmarked trail shoots off from the Glacier Lake Trail. I found it at about the 7th switchback after the bridge and will try it tomorrow.