MM #42: Moose, Marmots and Bears, Oh My!

We did it! We did it!  Our first 2-night backcountry camping trip is complete.  Unlike our last attempt, we did not get blown off the mountain.  But the journey was equally memorable.  Come along and see!

We left the house at 7.30 a.m., Spousal Unit driving his truck and Dear Neighbor Friend in her rig with me at shotgun.  Five hours later, we departed the Red Eagle trailhead.  Yes, it took 5 hours to drive to Glacier National Park, obtain our backcountry permit, traverse the Going to the Sun Road (GTSR), negotiate some road construction on the east side of the Park, leave the truck at our exit point and then go to the trailhead.  As time ticked by, I was itching to get on the trail.  Sometimes the getting there is the hardest part!  But it was a lovely opportunity to chat with my friend, and the views along GTSR never cease to amaze.

Singleshot Mountain reflected in an unusually calm St. Mary Lake

Goldenrod - hope you're not allergic!

It was a hot day by Montana standards, and owing to the Red Eagle burn of 2006, the dead trees offered little in the way of shade.  Nevertheless, I was entertained by the clack-clack-clack of the grasshoppers flying ahead of us on the trail, and the orange sulfur butterfly pairs in pirouettes above the sweeping prairie.  When we reached the first crossing of Red Eagle Creek, the cool waters beckoned, and it took only moments to shuck our boots and plunge our tootsies in the current.  I admired the workmanship of the suspension bridge, especially considering it is seasonal.  In other words, it is installed in the spring and rolled up in the fall.  That afternoon, we would encounter two more of these.  How much I appreciate the trail crews that make these fords a breeze for all of us.

Recommended load?  Sign says one hiker at a time!

A short while later, I paused to take the picture below.  The distant mountains were alluring, particularly given the heat and dryness of the open fields.

At that moment, Spousal Unit said "Moose!"  Sure enough, in the creek bed to our right, stood a young bull moose.  I adore moose, and I could have gone home then!  We stared at each other for several minutes, and he must have decided it was safe to dip his head for a drink.  He never moved from the spot, and we reluctantly left him to enjoy his bath.

Six miles into the hike, a hulking rock sill seemed to block the trail.  As it turns out, this natural feature, in damming Red Eagle Creek, creates Red Eagle Lake.  Upon traversing the sill and reaching its summit, the lake comes into view.  We took a short break at the foot of the lake.  Nearby, a lady ensconced in a camp chair under a tree alternated between gazing at the lake and writing in a journal.  At one point, she got up and turned over some socks, which were drying on a rock.  She asked about our plans, and when she learned we would be camping at the head of the lake, she advised that getting water at the head can be challenging due to the silt build-up there.  How kind of her to offer this advice.  This is one of the aspects of hiking and camping that I enjoy - a temporary community develops when you are on a hike.  Your interaction may only last 15 minutes or it may stretch to 36 hours, but there is a camaraderie that is born of shared experiences and the sense of being together in the vast wilderness.

It was a short mile to the head of the lake, and we quickly selected one of the two remaining campsites and pitched the tent.  We met our fellow campers, an elderly fellow traveling alone, and a dad and daughter enjoying some one-on-one time.  We had already met three young ladies along the trail, who would take the last of the four sites.  We splashed a bit in the lake to cool off, but this was dramatically limited by the deep silt at this end of the lake.  It also meant no fishing for Spousal Unit.  No one was in the mood for a fire, given the lingering heat, so after our dinner and a look at the twilight color on the lake, we retired to our tent for a few hands of Gin Rummy.  The last thing I remembered before I drifted off was the echo of a hooting owl.

Oatmeal fortifies us for Day Two

From the description above, it may seem that Day One was pretty special.  As I look back on it, Day One and Day Three are necessary for Day Two, the true highlight of the trip.  With 2,680 feet of elevation gain, we would ascend to Triple Divide Pass, and then descend 2,000 feet to Atlantic Creek campground, all while covering 10.7 miles.  As you will see in the following pictures, we traveled through widely varying terrain, and the scenery was jaw-dropping at every turn.

Still in the burn area

Red Eagle Gorge.  Blue-green rocks were stunning.  Little Chief Mountain soars behind me

We caught up with the three young ladies, and took turns posing with our destination as the backdrop.

Triple Divide Pass is the lowest point to the left of the snow fields

Panorama at the same location

Top: fields of Pearly Everlasting

Bottom left: Twisted Stalk in fruit stage  Bottom right: Baneberry fruit

The trail remained fairly level and finally gives way to lush fields.  High on Split Mountain, I spotted a group of mountain goats - three adults and two young ones.  The white coats stood out against the red rocks.  A bit further on, an impressive waterfall emerges from a cleft on the same mountain.  Fortunately, Spousal Unit is not easily distracted, and he was the one to see the young black bear on the hillside to our right, only 75 yards away.  We stopped in our tracks and continued making soft noise.  After a couple of minutes, he turned and headed up the hillside.  We did not see him again.

We passed several more waterfalls of varying sizes as we progressed up the valley of Hudson Bay Creek.  Below is a video of my favorite.

With all this moisture, wildflowers were abundant.  I was in heaven.

At the head of the valley, the trail begins its assault of Triple Divide Pass in earnest, switching back across parklands and scree slopes to the Pass.  Even on the scree slopes, Nature finds a way.

Upper left: Wild Chives          Upper right: Western Pasqueflower in seed

Lower left: flowers in a stream bed        Lower right: Yellow Columbine

Nearly at the top, we can see several "lakes" formed by melting snow.

The bright blue color is from the glacial "flour" in the water, which refracts light and creates the color

At the Pass, we met a party of five from Holland.  While swapping stories from the day, they told us about a mama grizzly and cub they had passed in a huckleberry patch.  "She was huge," they said.  We thanked them for the tip as we would be passing through that area in a couple of hours.  And then they left us to enjoy the solitude of Triple Divide Peak.  The Peak is so named because water in this area will enter one of three watersheds and ultimately end up in the Arctic, Atlantic or Pacific Oceans.

As we began our descent, Medicine Grizzly Lake dominated the landscape to the right of the trail (the left is a sheer mountain).  I stopped frequently to look and take pictures - doing otherwise was to risk a tumble off the steep cliffs.

Yes, that is Man with Hat, dwarfed by the red cliffs.  The narrow trail hugged the cliff almost all the way down

Can you see the ribbon of a waterfall at the head of Medicine Grizzly Lake?

Rocky nature of this south-facing slope permits abundant flowers, but it's tough on trees.  We saw

marmots (lower right), golden-mantled ground squirrels and Columbian ground squirrels

Two-thirds of the way into our descent, Spousal Unit suddenly said "There's the grizzly."  My heart was in my throat, and he quickly added "She's way down there."  Looking through the binoculars, we could see her bulk moving easily among the bushes in the valley that ascends very gradually to Medicine Grizzly Lake.  And occasionally, the cub would appear, and run to catch up with Mom.  We turned this into a snack break, and for the next 30 minutes, observed the pair, giggling out loud at the antics of the cub.  But the best was yet to come.  When they reached the shore of the lake, they both waded in and proceeded to splash about, at times appearing to play with each other.  It was a joy to watch, and all the better for being at the end of a pair of binoculars.  As described by the folks from Holland, the sow loomed large; I can only imagine her size if you met her close up!

The trail finally flattens and enters the trees near the campground.  It was raining ever so slightly as we arrived, so we rushed to set up the tent before it could get worse.  Of course, by the time it was erected, the rain eased!  We soon got to know our campmates for the evening, and enjoyed the banter around the food preparation area.  From my perspective, Atlantic Creek campground is prettier than Red Eagle Head: it is nestled in trees, which offers more shelter and a little more privacy than the meadow nature of Red Eagle.  The creek runs just past the food prep area, down a short hill, and this makes it easier to access fresh water.  Our campsite, while treed, was in a larger opening than the night before, and we had room to play cards outside the tent following our dinner and coffee/Honey Jack.  Altogether a satisfying ending to a 7.5 hour hike.

In the afterglow of the whiskey, I reflected that I enjoyed the pace of the day.  More casual than our

normal rate, I felt I had the opportunity to truly absorb the environment

Day Three dawned cool and misty.  Originally we planned to break camp and take a day pack to Medicine Grizzly Lake in order to see it and for Spousal Unit to fish.  Given we had seen the lake from above, and more importantly, it seems inhabited by a grizzly sow and her cub, we abandoned the idea.

Upper left: Blanket flower     Upper right: Bad Marriage Mountain

Lower left: Cut Bank Creek      Lower right: White angelica

The four miles to the trailhead/our truck resembled a stroll compared to Days One and Two, and visions of a cheeseburger and a hot shower danced in our heads.  Since we shortened our day, we would have time for an adult beverage and a meal at Glacier Park Lodge.  Yum.

But part of us was already missing the backcountry, and anticipating the next adventure.  Will you join us?

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter