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I woke up again at about 0620 and
immediately donned my fleece for the only time during the
hike. A quick check of the small thermometer on my pack
zipperrevealed a crisp 45 degrees. It was so chilly I could
even see the breath of the three moose feeding across the
lake. No wonder those suckers are so big...all they do is
eat.
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| Yumi looking back towards the Waterton
River Valley |
One of the coolest things about the mountains
is how they change depending on how the light hits them.
Instead of being in the shade, the mountains behind the
lake were now illuminated by the early morning sun. I took
a few pictures and soaked up the view while Yumi continued
to sleep soundly.
As much as I would have liked to let
her sleep, we needed to get an early start today because
we had 11 miles to do and almost half of that was uphill.
I woke Yumi up and we walked over to the food prep area
and started munching on bagels with peanut butter and jelly.
The only thing missing was milk and I cursed myself for
not bringing some in the powdered variety along. Of course,
Yumi had her coffee to get her going. After gobbling down
a package of bagels between the both of us we loaded up
the food bag and took down our camp.
By 0755 we were ready to go. I told Yumi
that I needed to hit the latrine before we left. As I approached
the door I noticed that the latch was undone and could hear
a scuffling noise inside. “Damn, what the hell is inside
there?” I thought to myself. Just then Mike emerged,
scaring the shit out of me. He laughed and said something
about how he thought he was making enough noise. Hey Mike,
try speaking next time. When I told Yumi about I thought
she was going to die laughing. Whenever we talk about Mike
this story always gives her the giggles.
We said good-bye to Mike who told us
he’d see us later as he’d have to pass us on his
way to his camp at Cosley Lake that night. He figured to
get off by about 0900 and I had to wonder how long it would
take for him to catch us.
We hit the trail at 0810. I really didn’t
know how long it would take us to cover the 11 miles to
Mokowanis Junction, but I told Yumi we could be done by
1500 if we really pushed or we could really take our time
and get there by 2100 as we had more than enough daylight.
I had hoped to get there by 1700 with anything earlier being
gravy. I harbored some silly notion that we’d have
enough energy to make the short 2 mile round trip to Mokowanis
Lake after dinner that evening.
The Waterton Valley Trail was basically
flat until we got to the Stoney Indian Pass Junction a mere
2.4 miles and an hour away. There was some minor uphill
climbing but nothing too strenuous. I was beginning to feel
pretty good when we hit our first serious uphill just afterleaving
the Waterton River Trail. Almost immediately the long sleeved
shirt came off. I am a profuse sweater and knew it wouldn’t
take long for me to soak the shirt in sweat. It also didn’t
take long to realize that that this section of the trail
was the beginning of the ascent of the pass. Then Yumi saw
the sign that said we had about 3.6 miles of climbing to
do before we got to the pass. Ugghh. Let the fun begin!!!
The one nice thing about hiking is that
you can go at your own pace. We did just that. Our packs
were bulging with food for the five remaining days so the
going was on the slow side. Our lungs were doing fine but
we had to stop often for 10 to 15 seconds to rest our legs
which were burning from carrying the extra weight. The climb
was not a lot of fun while hiking through the dense woods,
but once we got nearer the tree line we started to get some
views and added energy.
We met a young couple heading downhill
who said they had left Stoney Indian Lake about an hour
ago. Great. That meant we probably had 2 hours to get to
the lake and another hour to the Pass after that. We thanked
them for the information and continued up the mountain.
Yumi asked if I wanted to use the trekking poles purchased
specifically for this trip and the long vertical climbs.
It sounded good to me so I gave them a shot. They really
did help ease the strain on the legs but I felt guilty about
using them while yumi was starining so I offered her one
which she graefully accepted.
We came to a clear area with access to
Pass Creek and took the opportunity to get a drink and take
a short rest. Feeling better after the short respite, we
continued our push towards Stoney Indian lake, stopping
to look back at the valley we were leaving behind.
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| Yumi takes a break on a snow field
after climbing Stoney Indian Pass |
After what seemed like forever, but in
reality was only a little more than 3 hours since departure,
we spotted the lake. Three hours...not bad I guess. Typically,
it was gorgeous. We decided that we would eat lunch right
there at the backcountry food prep area. While Yumi got
things ready I went to pump some water for our bottles from
the lake. I heard Yumi talking with someone and shortly
discovered that Mike had made up to the lake as well. He
would continue on and told us that he might see us next
week while hiking the Two Medicine area. A nice guy. I hope
he didn’t get sick from that Kootenai Lake water.
Salami, cheddar cheese and Ritz crackers
never tasted so good. Even the horde of flies could not
deter the joy of this feast. I could see a disturbing trend
beginning to emerge, however. We had a lot of salami and
cheese left over. Further, we had figured that we would
probably eat 4 energy bars between the two of us each day.
So far we hadn’t even touched them. Despite the physical
exertion we were not eating any more than we would on a
normal day at home---probably less. The one thing I didn’t
want to do was lug a bunch of food I didn’t have to
up and over these passes.
By 1210 we had finished our lunch and
began the final assault of the pass. Though we only had
to go about 600 feet up over a mile of switchbacks, it seemed
like 6,000 feet. The trail up the face of the cirque was
some of the most rugged we would see during our stay in
the park. Adding to the degree of difficulty were the Mountain
Goats that seemed to be attracted to Yumi and a large snow
field that had to be crossed about 2/3 of the way up the
cirque. Yumi told me later that she thought about throwing
herself off the cliff so that I wouldn’t blame her
for not wanting to finish the trip.
Finally, near what I thought was the
top I heard the voice of an older man. I had to call out
“is that the top?” to which a voice replied “you’re
almost there!” Just one more switchback and I was looking
at one of the most prettiest views the park had to offer.
As is the custom, I found a nice sized rock and placed it
atop the cairn while Yumi sat down for a much-needed rest.
I wandered over to the ledge where the older gent and his
son were nibbling on a power bar and talking about their
hike up and the view now that they had made it. And what
a view it was. Lush and green looking west, more rugged
with lots of smaller streams and waterfalls to the east.
It was an interesting contrast. I opened my bag of GORP
and started to munch along with them. As it turned out,
Walter, the son, was a Madisonian. We talked for a while
about our route when Yumi came over. We each took pictures
of each other, wished each other well and began the long
descent sown into the Mokowanis River Valley.
It didn’t take long to also realize
that a long downhill march would be almost as demanding
as trudging uphill. After only a few minutes my knees were
starting to ache even with the help of the trekking poles.
The trail was very rugged at this point and Yumi said she’d
feel safer with one of the trekking poles in her hand. One
misplaced step could be the recipe for disaster. This stretch
was a real foot pounder but we were making good progress.
There were a few streams to cross which
slowed us down some, and some we could get across by hopping
rocks. The scenery was unbelievable and the camera was pulled
from its case with great frequency. We met a few groups
of day hikers out for a little jaunt to the pass. Why anyone
would do this would have been a mystery a few hours ago,
but was now perfectly clear: It’s the view, stupid.
One group of day hikers told us about
a traffic jam caused by a mama black bear and her cubs near
Glenns Lake. Seems that 8 hikers were held hostage while
the cub was treed and mama wouldn’t let anyone pass
until the little one came down. There was also a fishing
guide who almost fell into a larger stream in full gear
while trying to cross over unstable rocks. That would have
been pretty exciting for him as the stream flowed over a
cliff and about 300 feet straight down about 50 feet where
he almost went in.
Other than those little bits of excitement,
we kept walking and looking at the amazing scenery as we
descended into the valley. I got the picture I wanted: a
shot of the perfectly carved U-shaped valley with Glenn
and Cosley lakes in the distance.
At 1550, after another hour of downhill
hiking we decided to take a rest and a power bar. It appeared
that we were about 3/4 of the way down to the valley floor.
Now we had to only traverse a few miles of wooded terrain
and dodge mama bear and her cubs before getting to our camp
at Mokowanis Junction. No problem.
No problem except we were dead tired.
Yumi was not in the best of spirits as we trudged through
the woods and told me later that she wanted to quit. I could
tell by the way she kept chattering to keep the bears away:
“Here we are, bear, in the middle of nothing, Nothing
but brush and trees. Can’t see anything. Hello bear,
we’re coming through...coming through nothing but brush
and trees...” It would have been funny if she weren’t
so pissed and my legs and knees not hurting so much.
Finally at 1630 there it was...the campground.
It took about all of the energy I had left to check out
the available sites, but I found the best of the rest and
put up the tent amidst the mosquitoes which were not only
numerous, but seemingly coordinating their attacks. We managed
to slip on our sandals and apply a fresh coat of bug spray
and limped over to the cooking area and began supper. Tonight
we were going to have Yumi’s favorite: Isle Royale
Salmon. As usual, it was very tasty but did nasty things
to my insides. Suffice it to say that we slept with the
rainfly off the tent that night for better ventilation lest
Yumi suffocate from the toxic fumes I was emitting.
My buddy Mark was correct: this was a
“shitty little campground”, but I really didn’t
know how shitty until the next day when I could compare
it to something else we could have had. Really though, at
the time the only thing not to like was that water was a
short walk away and the skeeters. Even without water close
by, the mosquitoes were thicker than they were the night
before at Kootenai.
We did have some company to share the
misery, however. There were the funny high school boys from
Alabama. Though young, they knew what they were doing and
were doing it very lightly. My twelve year old carries a
heavier book bag than these guys were hauling. It didn’t
take long to figure out why they were so light...they had
no food. They gratefully accepted my offer of left over
salami and cheddar, as well as a ziplock full of banana
chips. Thanks fellas and I hope you made it to the boat
at Goat Haunt by 1600 the next day.
The other site was occupied by a father-daughter
pair. It was apparent that daddy was old school by looking
at his worn external frame pack and the stories he told
of hiking through Montana. The best thing about these two
was that the daughter worked at the Park Cafe and told us
they had the best pie around. Mental note taken on that.
We all sat around the cooking area for
a while until Father and daughter decided to hike over to
Mokowanis Lake. I really wanted to go but my legs were saying
“no way.” By 2000 we were in the tent ready for
sleep. Our toughest day was done and we had lived to tell
about it...with pictures to prove it.
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