August 14: Sperry and Comeau Pass

Beautiful Lake Ellen Wilson in the morning.

I didn't wake up as early as I though Ii would, finally crawling out of the tent at 7:30 to another sunny Montana morning. The smoke wasn't too bad but I noticed it thickening almost immediately. Great. I walked down to the beach to discover Jeff wetting his line just down the shore. he was having some decent luck, pulling in 3 or 4 smaller trout which neither of us could identify with any certainty.

After snapping off a few photos I went to roust Yumi from her sleep. It was already 8:15 and I wanted to be on the trail and down to Sperry before everyone else to get the primo campsite overlooking Lake McDonald.

We did a quick breakfast and left camp before anyone and began the horrific climb back up to the trail. Things hadn't changed since yesterday and I found myself needing to take a short breather from the climb out. Yumi wasn't interested in saving her breath. Instead, she railed on the NPS for being stupid. I couldn't blame her but wondered if she'd ever forgive the builders of the trail leading down to Lake Ellen Wilson.

As soon as we got up to the main trail we continued our climb towards Lincoln Pass. I remembered this stretch as mildly strenuous but felt no discomfort this time. Back in '05 we had to do both Gunsight and Lincoln passes in one shot which made this section of trail seem harder than it really was. Even Yumi with the sore knees didn't have much trouble, needing only to stop a couple of times to catch her breath.

Lake Ellen Wilson and Gunsight Pass from the trail heading to Lincoln Pass.

We got another nice rest break when we encountered another goat and her kid dug into the trail, probably trying to beat the heat. Just like the day before, I walked slowly up to the pair and gently coaxed them along. Instead of moving off the trail like the pari yesterday did, these two continued along the path for roughly a quarter-mile before finding some enticing grass to eat. It was a lot of fun having a four-legged escort despite their slow pace.

The slower pace did mean, however, that the group from Madison was catching up to us and would do so when we stopped to make a cell call near Lincoln Pass. I knew that in 2005 I had talked to Yumi from this place and she was looking forward to talking to her kids this time around.

As we were finishing up our calls the Madisonian's arrived and asked if they could make a call to their daughter who was home along. It was the least we could do after they gave Yumi a nearly full bottle of Motrin and a novel to read during the afternoon.

Now that the race to Sperry was a dead heat I thought we were cooked but caught a break up at the pass when they stopped for a break and to take pictures. I told Yumi I was going to run off ahead and secure the site I wanted and started descending so quickly my ears began to pop. I took note that the campground sign was facing an awkward position and hoped Yumi wouldn't shoot past and thought of putting my hat on the post.

The Lincoln Lake drainage through the haze near Lincoln Pass.

The site I wanted, the furthest from the sign was open but much smaller than I remembered it to be. In 2005 Andy and I were able to get both our tents up without a problem but I was having doubts about fitting my cloudbursts large footprint onto the uneven, rocky tent pad. Eventually I was able squeeze it into a suitable spot and began getting some gear ready for the hike up to Comeau Pass.

It seemed to be taking Yumi a long time to make her way down to the camp ground so I started walking back to the main trail to find her. Turns out she did miss the sign and hiked all the way down to the Chalet before figuring out her mistake. (Note: as of 9/2/07 Yumi is now the proud owner of a Magellan Maestro 4040 Mobile GPS unit. This won't help her on the trail but it will help her when she's driving). She wasn't in too pissy a mood after her extra half hour's worth of hiking, probably due to the knowledge she'd soon be eating real food.

We quickly got the rest of the gear unpacked and made plans to meet the Madison group at the Chalet for some lunch. The four of them would be making the hike up to Comeau Pass also and were intrigued when I told them of the yummy fried egg sandwiches I'd gotten there a couple of years ago.

Dorf on the way up to Comeau Pass.

This could have been the tastiest lunch we'd ever eaten on the trail. Yumi went for the fried egg sandwich, turkey soup and lemonade while I opted for the sandwich and bread, but also got to sneak a little bit of the soup. I passed my tube of chips around the table to round out the meal---again, the least I could do to repay the Madisonians for their generosity.

After lunch we began our hike up to Comeau Pass. From the Chalet it looked like a daunting climb but was looking forward to hiking at a quicker pace, sans pack. Jeff and Linda got a 5 minute head start on young Graham, Doug and I but we soon caught up with them and set a blistering pace up the snaking switchbacks on the opposite side of the cirque. For the first time during our trip I found myself hiking at a pace I was comfortable with. Even so, Doug and Graham were doing their best to leave the rest of us behind---both very strong hikers.

At one point it became clear that Jeff's knees were giving him some problems but he gamely sucked it up and followed his wife, Linda, upward, eventually catching up to us near the stairway just below the pass.

If I had to pick the one individual in their group I would least want to hike with it would be Linda. While a very nice woman, hiking with her would be like hiking with a tri-athlete. I don't think she ever got tired, or at least didn't show it, and pretty much could have put the rest of us to shame had she wanted to.

Once we got higher up the cirque things began to get interesting. About 400' below the pass was a terraced hanging valley holding numerous small tarns and smoky views down towards Lake McDonald. There were also a lot of people up there enjoying the water and scenery, probably close to 20.

After a few more switchbacks we approached the blasted out stairway that would take us up to the pass. By now we could feel the wind blowing down over the pass from the other side and were quite curious what it would look like once up top.

Our first views from the pass wee unlike anything I'd seen before. We'd only been hiking for an hour and a half but it seemed like we were in a totally different world. As Jeff said, the landscape looked like Mars with all the red rock and absence of any vegetation save a few hearty wildflowers. A few Mountain Goats were standing sentinel, giving us a few odd looks but not bothered by our presence. To the north and west was a large, scraped out hanging valley holding small tarns filled with glacial milk of various hues. To the northeast a large snowfield and a huge moraine. We took a few photos of each other and set about to explore this high alpine wonderland.

This was one of the most incredible places I've ever seen in my life.

I wanted to hike over to the furthest tarn as it contained the most incredible shade of aquamarine water I'd ever seen, but the rest of the group wanted to go towards Sperry Glacier. Had I taken the time to look at my map I would have gone off on my own to get a look at Avalanche lake below the hanging valley. Next time.

Sperry Glacier.

Other than a couple of dayhikers who'd hiked up from Lake McDonald and would return the same way, we had the entire area for ourselves. We followed some cairns and mysterious small yellow signs over moraines, through streams and glissaded down small snowfields until we reached a spot near the Sperry Glacier. Naturally, Linda wanted to explore the area from a closer vantage point and set off. Graham, not yet trusting middle-aged folks (not even his mother) followed. Not trusting teenagers to keep middle-aged folks from getting into trouble, I decided to go along too. Doug and Jeff stayed behind.

Glissading down a few more snowfields we soon found ourselves near the tongue of the glacier and decided on a snack and a few more turns of duct tape around my damaged boot. We probably spent 20 minutes taking it all in and even convinced Linda that peanut butter on potato chips was probably the best-ever snack/lunch. Sadly it was starting to get late in the afternoon and it was time to get back so the three of us hiked back up to Doug and Jeff, then began back for the pass.

Since Yumi had been sitting at the chalet by herself for nearly 4 hours I started back ahead of the others and raced back down to the chalet in about an hour. The only excitement I have to report is two big fat marmots scurried across the trail just ahead of me, almost getting kicked in the process. I made a quick stop at the chalet to fill up my bladders and water bottle then back to the campsite at 6:20.

Crevices near the tongue of Sperry Glacier.

Yumi was perched on the granite veranda with her book. Her afternoon wasn't boring after all and, in fact, she'd just finished the novel minutes before. I gave her a brief synopsis of our hike and gathered a few supplies and walked over to the food prep area just as the Madison group was arriving back at their camp.

Dinner was a quiet affair as those of us who had hiked up to the glacier were fairly wiped out from the day. But what a day it was. Unfortunately, nobody felt like staying up to talk on this night which was a bit of a bummer for me, but I was ready to hit the sack myself. Tomorrow? A long way downhill for Yumi. Hopefully a partial day of rest would have her feeling better.