Some Moods of Glacier

For many years, I had wanted to travel to Glacier National Park, as it had seemed to offer quite unique scenery, including some of the most "remote" backcountry trails that the national park system seemed to offer.

On backcountry permits

Glacier, like many national parks, requires one to book backcountry campsites in advance, with a pre-set itinerary. Personally I find this quite annoying, as it impedes my goals of going with the flow, seeing as much as I could in a day, and simply finding an empty dispersed camping site near where I made it that day. However, I also recognize the many positive impacts it has on LNT principles and reducing impact on the park itself.

Our goal was to get permits for the North Circle Loop, as roughly outlined in this AllTrails link.

With a particular exception, we got most of our sites as planned, with the exception of Elizabeth Lake Foot (substituted for Head) and Stoney Indian Lake (substituted for Kootenai Lakes). It occurs to me that if one is willing to have longer days — e.g. add 5–10 miles on top of a normal day — it is much easier to make a trip happen.

For various fun and practical reasons, our trip began by a subset of the group flying to Seattle, and then driving to Montana to begin the trip. The drive was set amongst a thick haze for a large part of it, partly from fires in Spokane, and an overall early fire season exacerbated by a historically low snowpack. Though mostly uneventful, the smoke made for an excellent sunset, a red sun setting into the smoke in the horizon.

We picked up the rest of the group from the airport, a rental car, and also our permits from the wilderness permit center. There, we watched a rather humorous safety video complete with a bear encounter, from the point of view of the bear, how to use bear spray, and other useful information. The rangers were exceedingly kind and helpful. We also drove via the famous "going to the sun road" which had views that were partially obscured by the aforementioned smoke, but nevertheless were quite magnificent.

We stayed at the Learning Tree Cafe and Campground, in Babb, MT, which was quite pleasant, due in part to the roaming dogs that were extremely friendly and affectionate, free wi-fi, a nice fire ring, and some nice park benches.

Armed with bagels and cream cheese, we set off on the Iceberg/Ptarmigan trail, next to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. Almost immediately, we saw a moose not far from the trail. We (I) would not see large wildlife for the rest of the trip. The first day offered a mix of forested terrain with canyon views. Wildflowers, which I later came to know are called "fireweed," felt as if they were "posing" for pictures. I greatly enjoyed taking these.

Various small lakes along the trail, such as Ptarmigan Lake, offered scenic rest stops to have snacks and fill water, as well as take nice group pictures with my camera perched precariously upon rocks. Day 1 also presented the famous Ptarmigan Tunnel, a 250-foot tunnel cut into the mountain to avoid crossing "Red Gap." We made our way to the Elizabeth Lake Foot campground, accompanied by a quite magnificent sunset over the mountains, and a dip (or two) in the frigid water of Elizabeth Lake. The campsites in Glacier National Park are quite large and can fit three tents (though we didn't do this :) ).

The smoke situation progressively cleared up during the trip, and Day 2 offered significantly better views than Day 1. We began the morning with lakeside yoga led by RW. We traced our steps back along the side of Elizabeth Lake, graced now with views of the mountains behind Elizabeth Lake.

This day featured a brief and tame crossing of the Mokowanis River, followed by lunch on the river bank. There we met a small group from the south who had a funny quip about the name of our campsite that night (mokowhat?). Rock skips of epic proportions were also achieved.

That night, the majority of the group had what I believe to be the best freeze-dried dehydrated meal on the market, butternut dal bhat (affectionately known as bndb).

Day 3 began with very lofty goals of a pre-dawn start to attempt to make it to the top of Mount Cleveland, with a back-up goal of "acquiring the ridge," or making it as far up as possible. We began around 4am, several hours before dawn, leaving camp intact, and proceeding with light packs. The foliage on the trail was moist with dew, and soon our pants, socks, and shoes were soaked. We did several "river crossings" which we later found out were easily circumventable by bridges that were obvious in the light.

We made it to the top of the "off trail" section near sunrise, attempted some highly subpar route finding, and proceeded to turn around. We were also freezing / shivering, a state of being that I never really escaped until the end of the trip. During one of these river crossings, I also dropped my phone in the creek, which, while I recovered, spelled the end of my phone for the trip.

After breaking down camp, we set off on the exact same portion of trail that we had just done, this time taking in the grand waterfalls and scenery. Clouds made for very diffuse light, which I found very appealing to take photos. It was certainly my favorite day for photography.

Upon arrival at the campsite, we were graced with a view of Kootenai Lake, as well as some beautiful clouds, which looked a bit like fingers caressing the mountain. After being eaten alive by mosquitoes, we walked away to prepare dinner. Shortly after, AS spotted a moose walking past the site. I wondered if it was going to the water to have an evening drink, so I ran after it, capturing what I think is by far my favorite photo of the trip, and perhaps one of my favorite photos I've taken.

Day 4 began with a rather funny experience to remove the rope required to hang the bear hang. MN decided to perform an epic Mulan moment to climb the bear pole to unhook the rope (hopefully this picture does not incriminate anyone). The day featured terrain that bore resemblance to my mental model of what mountains in New Zealand might look like. I remember RW setting a brisk pace at the front through rather overgrown trails.

I remember this day also being rather moist, with perpetually wet pants. We stopped to have lunch on a conveniently placed and sized rock. I once again was extremely cold, and had to do jumping jacks to stay warm.

I have very few pictures from the end of this day, partially because my phone was destroyed, and partially because I was so incredibly cold that I had no desire to operate my camera. We got to camp, huddled in sleeping bags for warmth, and had dinner. We then, after careful jugglery of wet and muddy clothes, all huddled in the largest tent to play ERS (Egyptian Rat Screw) and tell some rather peculiar (according to me) riddles.

Due to predetermined plans, this would be my last day, and the rest of the group would stay for one more day, at Granite Park. We began slightly earlier (though not that early), and we hiked through rather thick cloud cover. Several pictures I took I felt gave the impression of traveling directly into the clouds.

A few miles into the day, to make good time back to the car, I split off from the main group. MN graciously let me borrow her phone armed with music for the rest of the hike out. Following this, I encountered what some might say was rather miserable weather. I, however, could not be fazed. I was struck by the extreme beauty of the mountains enshrouded in clouds, further inspired by my newfound mood booster, the magic of music, and saying Hey Bear in various accents. I encountered a French lady we had seen several times before, who was purportedly impressed by my speed. I however, just needed to hike fast so I didn't get too cold and start shivering again. Below is a collection of pictures from my last day. Dare I say, I thought these views were strikingly beautiful, and perhaps representing a different mood of the park, one that was brooding, or pensive, perhaps?

Upon my return to the parking lot, I took a picture of our cars. On the drive out, I stopped by the side of the road to take my last picture of the trip. The return to the Airbnb and the airport without a phone was an endeavor in and of itself, but that is a story for another day. Suffice it to say that modern life becomes extremely difficult without a smartphone.