 |
| The weather at Logan Pass
was much nicer in 2007 than it was in '04 |
|
I awoke later than I wanted, just
after 8 AM, and quickly prepared Yumi's coffee and began
to get things ready for our first day in the Park. We'd
decided to do an easy warm up hike from Logan Pass to the
Granite Park Chalet and back down to the Loop, the same
warm up hike I'd done during my 2005 trip. That would prove
to be a recurring theme of our entire visit though I did
want to get up to the Grinnell Glacier overlook after stopping
for lunch at the chalet.
The drive up to Logan Pass began
to lift my spirits somewhat. The smoke, which was very thick
the night before, seemed to have cleared out overnight.
The sun was out, traffic was almost non-existant on the
Sun Road and the temperature was pleasant. Further, we saw
no evidence of the November storm which ravaged the road
until we crossed the temporary bridge near the pass.
Arriving at the pass just before
10:00 we quickly realized that park visitation was suffering
from the surrounding fires and resulting smoke. The parking
lot was only about 1/2 full as we pulled in. After exiting
the truck we remembered how different the weather could
be up at Logan Pass. A pleasant 75 down in the valley, temps
up at the pass were nearly 20 degrees cooler with blustery
winds. We quickly zipped our pants legs onto our shorts,
laced up our boots and started up the Highline as we had
done 3 years ago.
The number of hikers on the trail
was astounding as it seemed everyone who ventured up to
the pass was hiking to the chalet. It took a while but soon
we were hiking by ourselves and not as part of a parade.
It also struck me that a good share of folks that choose
to day hike in the park really don't
have a clue what they're doing. I'd estimate that roughly
1/2 of the hikers were wearing shorts and not carrying daypacks
and would have been ill-prepared had a thunderstorm, cold
front or injury occurred. When we got to the chalet, we
noticed more than one group expecting to buy lunch there,
having to settle for beef jerky and Snickers bars instead.
One "gentleman" even went so far as to start bitching
at the poor guy working the counter but retreated when I
shot him a look as if to say "shut the fuck up, you're
the one who made the mistake..." but I'm getting ahead
of myself here.
 |
| Yumi relaxing
in front of the fire at the Granite Park Chalet |
|
The views on the way to Granite
Park, while not as good as in 2005, were not as bad as I
had thought they'd be, either. Lake McDonald was still visible
off in the distance, Heavens Peak hadn't disappeared, nor
did Flattop. Having spent a rugged week backpacking in the
Winds just two weeks prior, I found myself practically sprinting
up what few uphill sections of trail. Yumi was also able
cover the 7.5 miles to the chalet without incident or pain
or fatigue which was good news since she hadn't done any
sort of training for the trip due to her busy schedule.
We found a place at one of the picnic
tables in the "dining area", ate our GORP, beef
jerky and granola bars while noticing it seemed to be getting
cooler inside the building. The young employee at the front
desk who I'd saved from further beratement a few minutes
earlier noticed Yumi bundling up and quickly started a fire
in the pot bellied stove, motioning for her to come and
sit near it, which she gladly did.
After spending 20 minutes getting
warm I announced that I was going up to the Grinnell Glacier
Overlook and began lacing up my boots. I'm not sure if Yumi
really wanted to climb another 906' but she agreed to give
it a shot anyway.
After playing leap frog with a young couple who'd recently
moved from Michigan to Kalispell we were near to overlook.
Problem: the wind was probably blowing around 60 mph which
was enough to knock me off balance and Yumi on her ass.
Once around the only section of trail that could even remotely
be considered exposed we were at the top. There were a few
folks on the way down, including a group of three that were
having a bit of trouble with the wind. I briefly spoke to
one of the gentleman then began inching my way closer to
the brink when he asked if I was "Dorf". Turns
out this was Sam from the Glacier
Chat page and he'd not recognized me, but the unmistakable
Geisha Hiker. Not a lot of Japanese women hiking the trails
at Glacier so I can't blame him.
 |
| Grinnell Glacier and Upper
Grinnell Lake from the Grinnell Glacier Overlook. |
|
In the meantime, the wind was blowing
so hard that Yumi had dropped to the ground about 3 steps
short of the overlook and wouldn't budge other than to head
back down towards the chalet without even looking at the
glacier or anything. I told her I was going to stay for
a while to take it all in and get some photos. With the
wife safely out of view I made my way up the ridge to get
a better view of the Grinnell Glacier below. Quite a remarkable
scene with large chunks of ice in the newly formed aqua
marine colored Upper Grinnell Lake. Further to the east
was Grinnell Lake, and even further the Montana prairie.
Run off from the snow field on the eastern face of Heavens
Peak looked metallic as it reflected in the partially smoke-dulled
sunlight to the west.
I inched closer to the precipitous
drop off to get the obligatory shot of my feet dangling
above 700' of air (Note: upon seeing that photo at home,
Geisha Hiker announced that I'm to be supervised on all
future hikes) then decided it was time to get down lest
Yumi have one of her patented worry fits. Turns out she
was making her way back up to the overlook. We met near
the exposed section and I told her she WAS going to take
a look. I took her hand and led her up to the top, took
a few more pictures and began heading back down. We still
had nearly 5 miles of hiking to get back to the Loop, Logan
Pass, eat dinner and take another shower. It would be close.
 |
| A look down at the aquamarine
Grinnell Lake |
|
Things were going well until we
got to the chalet and began our descent. Almost simultaneously
we both noticed sharp knee pains. Not good. As we limped
down hill I commented that at some point I would start to
cry. Yeah, it hurt pretty bad but neither of us cried and
by 6:30 had limped through the 2003 burn area back down
to the Loop where we waited for the shuttle along with another
pair of day hikers who's hiked up to the chalet with nothing
but 20 oz. of water between them. I had half a liter left
over which I offered to them. Just another pair of idiots
among many I guess.
The four of us had the shuttle to
ourselves and arrived at a near-deserted Logan Pass parking
lot. Naturally, the shuttle stopped about as far as it could
away from my truck so we still had a long hike before we
could head back down to St. Mary and dinner at the Park
Cafe. On the drive back down we began to wonder how the
tent was doing knowing a pair of campers had their tent
shredded by the wind there in 2004. I'd failed to stake
it down save for two guy lines and hoped the large air mattress,
sleeping bags and miscellaneous clothing would keep it anchored.
It did not. Our trusty Coleman 3-man
lay on its side, hanging by one guy-out line and stake.
The ground sheet was long gone but I had mistakenly brought
another just like it along so all was well. Seeing no apparent
damage we righted our shelter, staked it down and left for
the Park Cafe. Finding out it would be at lest an hour before
we could get a table we drove back down to the Two Sisters
and each ordered burgers which Yumi proclaimed deserved
an A+ rating---high praise from a non-burger eater. We quickly
ate, paid for our meal and drove back up to Rising Sun for
a shower.
Yumi has always thought it "stupid"
that there is only 1 men's and women's' shower which I usually
poo-pooed until tonight. The night before, with the men's
line 7 deep, us guys sacrificed shower time so that all
could shower, most of us taking less than half of our allotted
nearly 9 minutes (I timed it). On this night, however, with
three college-aged kids in line, and only 35 minutes left
before they shut it down, I was getting pissed. Each one
of the little pricks took the full 9 minutes, afraid they
would somehow get ripped off .40 cents had they not used
all of their time. I managed to get my shower in just before
10 PM, while Yumi finished up a few minutes later.
Upon returning to our camp we remembered
the mattress was under-inflated and quickly remedied that
situation then crashed soundly. It had been a long day,
our knees hurt and I was having serious doubts Geisha Hiker
would be able handle our rigorous backpack up in the north
fork. We'd decided to delete the planned Piegan Pass dayhike
in favor of a lazy day in West Glacier doing some laundry,
shopping and driving up to Polebridge and Bowman Lake earlier
that evening. I was a little disappointed but knew if we
didn't rest our achy knees we'd be in trouble.
|
