08/11/02 Paddling Kintla Lake (10 miles round trip):
Got to Glacier National Park yesterday and spent most of the time looking for a camping spot. Finally found something at the northwest entrance.
Since I'm in the area I'll hit Kintla Lake and Bowman Lake, the only two northwest lakes you can drive to. Logging Lake and Lower Quartz Lake have trails a couple miles long leading to them. I may do the hikes at some later time.
Kintla Lake, 1 mile from the Canadian border, is kinda hard to get to, having to drive 10 miles of dirt road to Poleridge and then another 15 miles to Kintla Lake. Worth the effort though. This is another glacier lake about 5 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. Big, steep, heavily forested slopes come down on 3 sides to the 467 foot deep lake. The far end is a couple of peaks sloping into each other. Very pretty and motor boats not allowed.
Unfortunately, just as I got there the winds started. Stood there chatting with a guy while the 15mph winds quickly caused 2 foot waves to come washing to shore. I hadn't been on the water much for a long time. That combined with having come 25 miles over dirt roads meant I was going out anyway, at least for a while.
I launched into waves crashing on the shore without incident. I did have the PFD and spray skirt on. Good thing too as I was soon crashing through 2+ foot waves being blown at me. I paddled at a nice slow pace and made progress at about 1mph for 20 minutes or so. Much of the time the wind exceeded 20mph and I just held my own during those gusts.
After 20-25 minutes there was no let up in the wind and I'd had enough. Only took me 5-6 minutes to get back to the ramp, much of it spent surfing down waves up to 3 feet.
Hiking Kintla Lake Trail (3 miles round trip):
A trail leads part way along the western shore of Kintla Lake. Since I couldn't paddle the lake I decided to hike it. Nice flat trail with a few inclines. Passed several rotted logs all torn up, an indication of grizzly activity. 3 miles into the hike the trail begins to rise and veers away from the lake and continues on as part of a long backpacking loop to Bowman Lake, among other places. I turned back at this point. The wind was still blowing when I got back to the parking area so I left to get gas before I got stranded in the backcountry.
08/12/02 Paddling Bowman Lake (13 miles round trip):
Lower 50's, bright sunshine at 9am. Bowman Lake is 6.5 miles long, less than .5 miles at its widest. Forested slopes on 3 sides and 6-7 500 foot peaks sloping down to the lake at the far end.
In contrast to yesterday's strong winds, today was calm almost the entire time. A slight breeze blew most of the morning but hardly affected the water at all. It remained smooth, mirroring the slopes and peaks almost exactly.
10HP motors or less are permitted on this lake and only one of those was on the shore when I launched the kayak. Nice and quiet and peaceful with only the sounds of my blades splashing in the water most of the morning.
I was paddling along watching the peaks reflected in the water when I noticed a small cloud with lots of green and purple and gold highlights in amongst the white. Looking up I was almost blinded because the sun was almost directly above the cloud. Even so, I could see it was entirely white. What an interesting and very pretty sight to see those colors in the reflection. First time I've seen anything like that, kinda like a rainbow.
Two hours brought me to the end of the lake, the last 30 minutes or so paddling surrounded by those large peaks. Great trip. On the way back the motor boat passed me loaded with 3 guys. The camping gear indicated they wouldn't be coming back. Passed 3 or 4 canoes and other than a lone deer at the put in I didn't see anyone else.
08/11/02 Driving Going-To-The-Sun Road (52 miles one way):
My left shoulder was a little tender from yesterday's paddle so I decided to do the big scenic drive today. You're supposed to do this drive from east to west so you have the sun behind you for better viewing and photographs. Whadaya gonna do when you're over on the west side though?
After stopping at the West Glacier Visitor Center I continued on past McDonald Lake. Beyond that huge peaks and ranges loomed up and that is where the drive takes you. Up and up for several miles and several thousand feet. Once up among the peaks you're presented with deep valley panoramas, steeply forested slopes, hanging valleys and a glacier or two.
I thought glaciers were huge chunks of ice, 100's of yards or more with deep crevasses, etc. Apparently, not so. The best I can determine they're simply ice formations that last through the summer and vary in size. The melting and freezing of the ice is what erodes away at the mountains.
Approaching Logan Pass (6700 feet) is a turnoff to view a large valley. After checking that out someone told me a mountain goat was grazing just up the road so off I go. Sure enough there he/she/it was, 20-30 feet off the road, grazing away, not a care in the world. I didn't really expect to see any, anywhere, and this was my first.
Hiking Hidden Lake Trail (3 miles round trip):
I stopped at the Logan Pass Visitor Center and took off up a boardwalk without checking what it was or where it was going. Wooden steps, which I hate, go up and up for a mile, then the trail continues upwards at a moderate incline. I overheard some people talking about the Hidden Lake and others saying it was 1.5 miles so I guess that's what it was.
Great scenery the entire way along the open trail. Deep valleys and tall peaks still rising up 2000 feet or more all around. Passed through a couple of small snow fields and near the top came to another mountain goat. This one pretty close to the trail also, lying down, not the least bit concerned with all the people taking pictures.
Then more people gawking and pointing up a talus slope. Someone was kind enough to point out a big horn ram sunning himself and 3 more rams off to the side. I got the binoculars out an watched for 5-10 minutes and passed the information on as new hikers came along. Although I'd seen several desert big horn sheep in the past these were my first mountain big horns. Really not much difference I could see. These were a darker tan to match the color of the slopes.
And just beyond them was Hidden Lake. It was worth the hike by itself but seemed a little anti-climatic after the mountain goat and big horns. It rested 500 feet below, nestled in among several peaks rising 1500-2000 feet above it.
Logan Pass and Hidden Lake Trail were really crowded on this weekday. As I continue on with the drive, every turnout was just jammed with cars. The drive ends in St. Mary and I swung north on US-89 for 8 miles to the road leading to the Many Glaciers section of the park.
A 12 mile road leads into this section. Halfway in is the Lake Sherburne Dam and you can see these beautiful peaks rising at the far end of the lake. Unfortunately that's about all the sight seeing for this section. The paddle on the upper end of Lake Sherburne would be great but it was covered with whitecaps on this day. There are many top notch scenic hikes here too.
This section is supposed to be heavily populated with mountain goats, big horn sheep, grizzly bears and black bears. Driving in I saw several cars along the side of the road so got out to check it out. It appears a grizzly bear has a den 100 yards up a talus slope and comes out at a certain time of day, every day, grazes a little, sunbathes a little and then goes back. These people were all lined up waiting for him to appear. I didn't wait though as I still had a long drive ahead of me.
I followed US-89 along Lower Saint Mary Lake down to US-49. I passed up on the Two Medicine section of the park. I thought it was right above West Glacier and would check it out tomorrow. Close but no cigar. It's right above East Glacier. West Glacier, where I had to go, is 45 miles farther down the road.
08/14/02 Hiking Huckleberry Lookout Trail (12 miles round trip):
Back at the west side of Glacier National Park. Stopped by McDonald Lake looking for a decent trail to hike but passed on those. On the way to my preferred campsite I remembered the Huckleberry Lookout Trailhead and stopped.
The trail sign said 6 miles to the lookout. Looking at the map showed the summit at 6500 feet. I was at 3900 feet but took off anyway. The first mile is perfectly flat through dense pine trees. Direct sunlight had a hard time breaking through the cover.
After a mile the trail turned gradually upwards and remained that way, at least for the next 3 miles. A deep valley opened up as I navigated up one slope while a steep and forested slope rose 2000 feet up on the other side.
Things remained that way till I reached 5500 feet at the 4 mile mark or thereabouts. The same view across the valley plus the steady climb became boring. I wasn't going very fast, less than 1.5 miles an hour and still had 2 miles to go. I started thinking about things that needed done and turned back.
On the way back down I noticed a lot of small maple trees turning red.