Montana: Hasta Luego

My friend Dave and I have a lot in common.  On his birthday and last day of our trip, he asked to be left alone–no driving to the national park, no crowded trails, and silence. Dave headed off to hike some closer trails outside the park, while Ruth, Julia and I drove about 90 minutes to  East Glacier/Two Medicine.  Dave did a lot of the driving during our hiking days.  I was glad that he was getting some needed alone time.

The East entrance was a lot less crowded than the West entrance even though it was a Saturday. We warmed up with a nature trail and the short hike to Trick Falls.

Next, we drove Two Medicine Campground, which I immediately put on my list of places I want to camp when I’m in the area again.  Perfectly-sized sites for a small trailer, the campground is directly across from a beautiful lake with big mountains all around.

It was time for some hiking.  Julia promised easy hikes with moderate grades. Our first destination was Paradise Point.  We continued down the twisted trail towards Rockwell Falls.

Somehow, the trail signs changed, providing a destination of Aster Falls and only a couple of tenths off the main trail.  Ruth suggested hiking to the top of the falls and coming back later for the bottom of the falls.  We quickly agreed, although the trail began to climb and then climb away from the falls.  Without Dave to complain to and knowing that  the route was her idea, Ruth silently climbed and climbed and climbed.

The trail did not end at the top of the falls but did provide a beautiful scenic overlook at which to take a break.  On the way down, I found an unmarked side trail that did lead to the top of the falls.  The route was challenging.

Once on top, we scampered across a couple of big rocks to get to the other side.  Then we followed a trail back down to the base of the falls.

The day’s hike provided just enough difficulty that everyone felt good.  But, wait, there was a bonus.  Between Glacier’s entrance and the town of East Glacier,  we saw a young Grizzly bear run across the road directly in front of the car that was in front of us.

Now, I’ve seen a Grizzly bear up close on my last Glacier trip over ten years ago.  In one of the more stupid decisions that I’ve made during hiking, I continued hiking with two companions past a Grizzly that was eating huckleberries a very short distance off the trail.  When we reported the occurrence to a ranger, he scolded us for getting too close.

The car in front of us had no trouble braking to avoid the Grizzly.  The bear headed directly into the woods on the other side of the road.  This was an ideal Grizzly encounter.  No harm, no foul.  Well, the photo that someone took from the back seat could have been better, but the photo-taking opportunity was very limited.

That night, we celebrated by going out to eat at the outdoor space of the Gunsight Saloon in Columbia Falls.  The local Subaru dealer sponsored a Texas band.  Everyone had a good time.

Dave and Ruth

Julia and John

Not mine, but next time...

Kenai Fjords National Park

During our stay in Seward, Alaska, we drove one morning to the Kenai Fjords National Park to hike up to Exit Glacier.  The Visitors’ Center opens at 9 a.m., and the parking lot is often filled by late morning, so we were there at 9 sharp.

As we walked up to the building, someone shouted out to us that the 3 1/2 hour guided tour on the Harding Icefield Trail had just left and we could probably catch up if we hurried. Julia and I jogged quickly up the trail and asked permission to join the group, which consisted of the ranger and a father/son.  The ranger agreed and then talked for about five minutes about bear safety on the trail.

“I’m not trying to scare you, but this is bear country, and I want you to prepared,” he said, letting us know that he had bear spray, but we should holster up with our own if we had some (I did).  It turned out that this ranger usually did boat tours and that this was only his second hike of the season on this trail. We quickly started our ascent through heavy forest and brush.  “There are bears all around us,” he said, “but they generally keep away from people.”

We learned that he was not going to take us on the entire trail, but was only going to go far enough that we would be able to get a good view of the glacier. On the way, he instructed us on all types of trees and plants, including several very toxic ones.  It was very informative, and we were glad for the guided hike, even though the group went slower than our usual pace.

At first glance, the glacier looks like a long, steep saucer or sled hill.  But upon further review, it contains crevasses that would easily swallow a person or even a house.

At the meadow overlooking the glacier, we parted ways with our ranger and continued up the Harding Icefield trail on our own.  The trail climbed more steeply above the top of the glacier so that we could see the beginning of the Ice Field from the High Cliffs segment of the trail. In the photo below, you can see a mountain rising up in the distance within the icefield.  That mountain was only briefly visible before fast-moving clouds buried it in the mist. The ice field extends back 3 miles from the top of the glacier.

Just after the above photo was taken for us, another couple shouted out to us in excitement and pointed to a patch of alpine cover next to the ice.  It was too far away to show up in our photo, but this was our first and only black bear sighting in Alaska.  I thought the bear was pretty far away, but the local woman taking the photo told us that the bear was actually pretty close as far as sightings go.  “They are all around us in the park,” she said, “but you don’t usually see them until you get above treeline and have this type of view.”

Within a minute the bear ran off in the opposite direction and dropped below our view entirely.

Fortunately, this was not our only wildlife sighting on this trail.  On the way back down, we encountered the wild and dangerous Alaskan marmot.

This guy was very ticked off that we wanted to pass him, and he basically refused to move until I was just a few feet away, and even then I had to cough to get him to move off of his perch.  I later learned upon doing some research that he was likely a lookout for a whole family of marmots. I’m glad our close encounter was with the marmot instead of the bear.

We thoroughly enjoyed this hike, which was about 7 miles including our side trails.  We did not walk to the end of the Ice Field Trail, after receiving a warning of a grizzly with two cubs on the trail above the cliffs’ overlook.  The entire trail is 8.2 miles.

Eagle River, Day 1

After checking out of the hotel in Anchorage, I stopped at Sixth Avenue Outfitters to pick up my bear spray. We then picked up our rental car at Avis and drove to the Eagle River Nature Center. Staff was very helpful, recommending appropriate trails, consistent with my paranoia about becoming brown bear food.  She told us to run away if we see aggressive moose but to never run from brown bears.

All of the bear mauling stories made me very nervous as I walked the trails. My bear bell was jingling away as if my life depended upon it. As it turned out, the mosquitoes were a bigger problem than the bears or moose. Still, it was a great hike with amazing mountain views.

We did have one small adventure involving my wife Julia above. After taking an amazing panoramic photo, she reached for her hiking poles and flipped her iPhone over the side of that railing and into the stream. Somehow the phone landed on a little grassy rise that was not under water. I jumped (awkwardly climbed) over the rail and managed to retrieve the phone.

We hiked the Rodak Nature Trail, a small portion of the Iditarod Trail and the Albert Loop Trail.

Afterwards, we celebrated our survival at Eagle River Alehouse with a Mediterranean Pizza and Glacial Cask IPA.

Anchorage, Day 2

Friday and Saturday are both meeting days for Julia. During the afternoons and evenings,there are organized activities. There are also morning activities for the wives, ahem, spouses.  This is not my first rodeo, so I generally become hard of hearing, forgetful, and lose my spousal agenda for the morning activities, which often include shopping.

I generally sleep in a bit, go find a local place for coffee and a newspaper, and explore the surrounding area. Friday morning, I wandered around downtown, had some coffee and a pastry at Kaladi’s, and spent some time learning how to blog using WordPress and my iPad, having left my laptop at home.

Shortly after noon, we all boarded a charter bus and traveled to the sculpture studio and home of V Rae Art. This was a delightful space that was the product of 14 years of hard work by the artist and her husband. The inside was filled with works for sale, but my favorite parts were the outside spaces.

The artist’s husband explained to me that the pond liner needed to be replaced that spring after being torn up by a bear sow and two cubs.

After lunch on the studio premises and time to browse the pieces inside and outside, we climbed back on the bus and drove to the Alaska Wildlife Conser-vation Center.  This was a great opportunity to safely view Alaska bears up close– separated by both fence and electric wire.The animals are well fed and have large habitat living spaces. Feeding time was at 3:30 pm, and we arrived during a light rain at 3 p.m. There were multiple brown and black bears, along with a single grizzly.

There were quite a few people viewing the bears, but there were enough places along the fence to watch that I didn’t feel crowded.

Then it was back to the bus with the group and on to the Alyeska Ski Resort. We took the tram up to the top, dined on salmon at the restaurant, and took the tram back down to the bus. We were back to the room by 10 pm.  Still plenty of daylight, but we were worn out and had no trouble falling asleep after pulling shut the blackout curtains.