Glacier National Park - 08/2012

Several months ago, Scott (a co-worker/friend) asked if I wanted to go backpacking with him in Glacier National Park at the end of August and without much thought I said yeah, I was in.  The trip was a Point to Point hike, starting in Two Medicine and ending in Saint Mary, a total of 33+ miles over 3 days and 2 nights.  Scott's sister, a student at UM (boo griz), was also planning on coming along, but at the last minute she had to cancel because of an orientation class she had to attend in Missoula...but who was she kidding, a degree from UM is a joke to begin with and she missed out on an awesome weekend.

So our hike was scheduled to start on Friday morning, but Scott and I were invited to play some poker with the TD&H Big-wigs after work on Thursday, so we decided to stick around Great Falls and do some gambling.  The games were going pretty well for me as I was in the final 3 player left (11 people started the night)...by this time it was already pretty late and most everyone there had to work the next day so we decided to call it quites.  Of the 3 people left, me and another guy had the most chips, so we decided to give the "small stack" his $20 Buy-In back, and split the remaining $200 between ourselves.  So Scott and I were finally off for Glacier at ~10:00 pm with an extra $100 in our pockets.  We made it up to Two Medicine by about 12:30 am, found a camp spot and decided rather than pitching a tent, we'd just hop in the truck bed and catch some zzz's under the topper.

Day 1 - ~14 Miles: 

We awoke to rain.  I had that stomach dropping feeling like I forgot something and then it hit me...sure enough, I forgot all of my food for our hike: breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 3 days.  So Scott and I were scrambling to find extra food.  Luckly Scott had an extra dehydrated meal and I was able to find a little trading post in East Glacier where I could pick up some additional food.  Our initial plan was to catch a boat ferry up Two Medicine Lake, then hike over Dawson Pass to Pitamakan Pass and down to Atlantic Creek Campground, but since we got a much later start then intended b/c I forgot all my food, we had to forgo the Dawson Pass route.  The day was a mix of wind/rain/sleet/hail/snow...which actually isn't too terrible to hike in, except for the fact that I didn't have great shoes on and my feet got soaking wet, causing some nice blisters to form.  We didn't have any wildlife sightings, although we did mistake a burnt stump in the distance for a little black bear.  When we finally got to camp, we set up the tent and then proceeded to make a fire to get dried out.  The evening was actually very nice as the weather moved out and we had good company around the campfire.  But, there was some collateral damage to my right shoe as I was trying to dry it out by the fire that resulted in some burnt leather & rubber...needless to say, that is the last trip those shoes will be making.

Day 2 - ~ 11 Miles:

Day 2 started out great, getting up and over Triple Divide Pass in the first 3 miles of the hike...after that it was all downhill (literally) to our next camp.  While filtering water on Day 1, Scott's purifier went ka-put, so we were forced to rely on bumming other people's filter for the rest of the trip.  About halfway to our next camp site, we ran into a group of guys that were pumping water out of a little stream and decided to stop and ask to use their filter.  While chatting, they said a little ways down they ran into some moose on the trail, so keep an eye out.  Sure enough, not more than 10 minutes later, Scott and I came up on two HUGE bull moose...deciding that we were out weighted by oh say 1,000 each, we went bushwhacking to avoid the massive animals.  Once back on the trail, we made good time to the next campground, Red Eagle Lake (head).  The rest of the day was spend sitting around B.S-ing and enjoying the scenery.  As dusk set in, sure enough a even BIGGER bull moose comes walking through camp on his way to the lake for an evening drink.  We admired him out in the lake for some time, where he was just munching on plants and taking some pretty healthy drinks of water.

Day 3 - ~ 8 Miles:

Our final day was just a nice easy hike out to Saint Mary, relatively flat the whole way with a net elevation loss of ~800 feet.  The majority of the last day was spent hiking through an old burn area from approx. 10-15 years ago (?).  When we finally arrived in Saint Mary, we headed over to the visitors center to wait for the park shuttle to take us back down to Two Medicine where the truck awaited.

All in all the trip was really good...I'm thinking that a Glacier backpacking trip may have to be a annual thing.  Its so close to Great Falls and truly is one of the prettiest places I've ever been.  Thanks Scott for inviting me :)