My Hiking Journal – Entry 1

At my retirement party, my dear Mother, who knows me so well, gave me this journal.

She knows I dreamed of writing children’s books, and that my double major in college coupled Journalism with Psychology.  I have always enjoyed writing, and so it is no coincidence that I am here with this blog.

In any event, I decided to use Mom’s journal to capture notes about our hikes.  As with my Retirement Reports, you can expect this will be a regular feature of my blog.  So, here goes!

Saturday, May 6 – Beaver Lakes Trailhead – 5.2 mile loop

As most of you know by now, technology is not my forte, but I am trying to adapt.  Exhibit A: we did not have a copy of the trail map, so voila! I took a picture of the map at the trailhead with my phone and we used that to guide us on the trail, and saved paper (part of a tree) as a result!  

As our first hike after arriving in Montana, this trail was a gentle entry – rolling hills rather than straight-up elevation gain.  This trail was also popular with mountain bikers, so we did not have to worry too much about bears (they were making enough noise for all of us!).  So, this freed us up to observe our surroundings! (At Rainbow Lake, we met a biker who asked if we had the seen the bears.  She went on to say that there had been reports of a female grizzly with cubs.  Further, she said she had lost her bear spray somewhere along the trail.  Fortunately for her, we could say we had not seen any evidence of bears at that point!)

Montana has 22,000 miles of designated non-motorized trails.  Designated wilderness areas contain 4,000 miles of those paths.

Eighteen trails are listed as National Recreation or Scenic Trails, including more than 900 miles of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.

Glacier Park alone has over 1,000 miles of trails.  That's a lot to write about!

Linking to Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday