THE BACKGROUND
Jeremy loves to backpack/camp and goes for a few days with his guy friends at least once every year. There are sometimes freakish ticks, sometimes snow, sometimes rattlesnake hunts, sometimes tears of frustration, no doubt there is grunting and male bonding; but there are never any girls named Liz involved. In fact, the extent of my hiking/camping experience can be summed up in 2 (separate) nights while I was a counselor at a camp where I led 10 whiney girls ½ mile off a trail and kept them alive in the woods overnight.
The Itinerary: Spend some time in Seattle to visit my favorite 9 year olds and then to Glacier National Park in Montana for some backcountry camping. BECAUSE:
-The Seattle part is obvious.
-Jeremy has had Glacier NP on his list of places to see since forever
-The way he wants to see it is through the grime covered eyes of someone who rarely showers and sleeps in the woods
-I like to make Jeremy happy (sometimes)
-Finally, I have not even the slightest interest in whatever backcountry camping is, but in the past I have been know to suck it up for the sake of an adventure.
BEAR COUNTRY
So we arrive in Montana on Thursday in the afternoon. I am sad to say goodbye to my WA family, sleep deprived, and filled with nothing but trepidation about the next 6 days. In fact if I am honest, I am counting the days until we leave (….only 5 nights, you can do this….). We arrive in the airport and have a red mustang convertible as a rental car. Great right? But then once we pile all of our stuff into the backseat and trunk there is VERY LITTLE room and it becomes obvious that a red mustang convertible might actually be THE WORST car ever to take on a backpacking trip. In bear country no less. On the way from the airport to the park Jeremy hands me a packet of information and asks me to read it. I read 7 pages of information with titles like “How to Survive a Bear Attack,” “How to Remain Unattractive to Bears,” and “How to Identify Which Type of Bear (black or grizzly) is Attacking You.”
The take home points are:
-ALWAYS carry Bear spray (think pepperspray on steroids)
-Always assume a bear is right around the corner, beside you in the woods, or lurking in your campsite. i.e. be prepared to use the bearspray at any moment
-It is best to avoid a bear (duh) so keep all smelly belongings, and food in your car or hanging from a bear proof pole, or in a bearproof locker. Never eat or prepare food by where you sleep or in your tent. Don’t drop tasty smelling food on yourself (this proved to be especially challenging for me)-BUT if you insist on being clumsy, wash your stained clothes off before sleeping in them.
-Don’t surprise a bear-in other words yell out and clap every few steps while hiking thus warning a bear that you are coming around the bend so they can either get out of your way or be better prepared to eat you. NOTE: Some tourists think carrying a bell is effective but local Montana folks call them “dinner bells”…. We passed on the bell idea.
-If you see a bear and it doesn’t see you, turn around and go back, or try to sneak quietly by it (downwind of course).
-If you see a bear and it sees you, stop yelling out and start talking quietly while backing up. You may want to turn to the side and crouch thus making yourself seem even easier to eat, or you may want to drop something to distract the bear, like a hat…..yes you read that right!
-DO NOT yell out or act aggressively towards the bear (it has no natural predators so it isn’t likely to be scared by you) UNLESS the bear is stalking you, or wanders into your campsite, or seems like it could be scared easily.
-If the bear charges you, step to the side and dodge the attack, or stand your ground because it is likely a bluff attack, or lay on the ground on your stomach and cover your neck with your hands (keep your pack on to add another layer of protection against mauling).
-NEVER NEVER NEVER give the bear food or anything it will eat (food, toothpaste, your pet, etc.) Once a bear learns that it can be rewarded by attacking a hiker-it will be an attacking bear and pose a threat to others…better to let it attack you-once the bear realizes (hopefully quickly) that you don’t taste good, it will stop attacking you and all other hikers are safe from this bear. In other words, take one for the team.
-Finally, all bears have their own temperament and personality so what works on one bear might not work on a different bear or even on the same bear twice. If you get attacked, assume you did not choose the right response. READ: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN BUDDY!
So after that lovely reading, I am now filled with trepidation AND TERROR.
THE TERRORible NIGHT
We get into the park and it immediately starts POURING rain….seriously torrential downpour. We wait until it is only a slight downpour and run into the backcountry ranger station where they give us our pass and make us watch a video very much like the light bear reading I did earlier. I am not amused. We drive to our campsite. The guy who checks us in reviews all the bear warnings and advice and reminds us that since we have the stupidest car ever, we can’t leave anything smelly in the car (b/c of the soft top) it all has to be crammed into the tiny trunk of the mustang. Great. There are signs everywhere reminding you that you are in bear country, aka part of the food chain.
Our campsite is easily the best spot in the whole campground area, we are right by a crystal clear lake (McDonald). We set up our tent in the rain and hang a tarp so we can get ourselves all packed and ready for our backcountry adventure the next day with only minimal wetness. The mustang provides exactly zero space for packing in the car and no hatch-coverage to protect us from the rain. In other words, the car is even more worthless than originally anticipated. The rain finally stops for 20 minutes and we eat our subway hoagie by the lake (far away from our tent), skip some rocks, explore for the other 8 minutes and then run back to our tent when it starts to rain again.
I normally like sleeping in the rain, it is so soothing. But not in a tent. Not in bear country. In a tent, rain sounds like inconsistent tapping, or like a bear roaming around outside. So I am wide awake most of the night, Jeremy periodically sleeps in between when I say things like, “did you hear that?” “Was that a growl?” “Honey, wake up, I need to go to the bathroom.” At one point, I did say to Jeremy, “do you think I will be ok (i.e. not attacked by a bear) going to the bathroom alone if I take my bearspray with me?” He replied, “I don’t know.” Hmmmm thats not helpful. So he escorted me to the bathroom.
WHAT THE *@$%!
So after a very painful night of little sleep we are off on our backcountry adventure. We drive almost 2 hours into the North Fork area of Glacier where we grab our packs and wish our stupid mustang well as we depart into the wild. While packing our necessities for our 4 day adventure Jeremy and I had many conversations that went like this, Jeremy: “honey, you have way too much stuff!” Liz: “Are you kidding me? I only have two pair of shorts for 4 days!” Jeremy: “Really, is your face cream necessary?” Liz: “You can't be serious?! I don't want to be greasy for 4 days!” Jeremy: “How many pairs of underwear is that!?” Liz: “A clean pair of underwear everyday is not negotiable.” So I am all packed and ready with what I believe to be a very slimmed-down version of what I will need for the next 4 days. I put my pack on after Jeremy helps me pick it up. And put my best “lets get this over with” face on. We start walking, maybe 100 yards away from the Mustang when Jeremy notices that I am hunched over like Quasimodo and that the pack is actually walking me. So he suggests that I pull this strap and tighten that belt and suck it up a little. So I do my best to stay vertical and keep walking. 50 yards later it is clear that I am struggling. So Jeremy says, “I could probably take some of your things.” This is the point where I wish Jeremy wasn’t such a nice guy. In retrospect I would have preferred him to say, “Walk your butt back to our stupid car and leave as much of your excessive things there that you need to until you can stand up straight.” But alas. So Jeremy takes a lot of my things and miraculously I am vertical again.
When planning this 4 day hike I have been warned by my husband that our first day’s schedule looks like “hiking 7 miles into the woods beside a lake with little-to-no elevation gain.” I mean, 7 miles seems like a lot but really I can run a mile in less than 10 minutes so how long could it possibly take? 5 hours actually. 5 hours of rain and sun and more rain beside a very beautiful clear lake. 5 hours of yelling “hey bear” every few feet, 5 hours of steady, increasing pain in my shoulders, hips, thighs, and feet. By the time we arrive in camp I am not right….my body is broken. My mind….well lets just say I am not a happy camper. So I nearly crawl to the first campsite available (there are 4 total in this spot) and Jeremy suggests that we explore the pretty lake and the woods around us. AHAHAHAHA I reply with something almost exactly like, “I resent the fact that you took me on this marathon hike only to arrive at this beautiful place with absolutely no energy to see it.” With that I dive into the tent and take a nap. Jeremy explores alone with his bearspray. Did I mention it was raining?
Please note that I had also been informed. That day 1 was our “easy hike”. Day 2 is 9 miles with an elevation gain of 2610 feet. YIKES! Throughout the day Jeremy tries to be helpful saying things like, “well I am worried about tomorrow but I think we can just take our time…” and “tomorrow is going to be really hard for you but we will take a lot of brakes…”
TRIMMING THE FAT
I wake up from my nap on the right side of the sleeping bag for a change and realize that today was only the beginning of my pain. So I decide that since we will pass back through this very campsite in 2 nights, I will be leaving all my crazy extra things in a bag on the bear pole to return to in 2 nights. Or best case scenario someone is stupid enough to steal the bag and has to carry my face cream out themselves! Jeremy returns to the tent to find me furiously scribbling a growing list of items including: shorts, all underwear, face cream, extra cooking pot, my tin plate, my mug, my water bottle, just to name a few. Suddenly the idea of sharing utensils and a toothbrush never looked so good. So after making a plan to leave almost all of my things behind, I am feeling better and am determined to be a better camper. That night our freeze dried dinner was the best thing that I had ever tasted. We brought along a freeze-dried dessert which I thought would be cool to eat on our last night (like a celebration) but we ate that on the first night so we didn’t have to deal with the extra 7 ounces. While sitting by the fire, I try to reassure myself about the bear situation and tell a Montanaian who is also camping there that night, “gosh they really try to scare you about the bears, I mean they make it seem like there could be a bear around every bend in the trail!” He gives me a look and then replies with, “well, there could be.” Insert my nervous laughter here.
That night I took a Tylenol PM and despite the rain and threat of a bear attack slept like a dream.
A NEW DAY
We wake up to the sounds of the woods…..ONLY the sounds of the woods…..THE RAIN HAS STOPPED! So after breakfast of oatmeal and packing up our things, and hanging all my excess stuff from the bearpole we are off on the 9 mile, 2610ft-elevation-gain hike. FYI: 2610ft is larger than most mountains in Pennsylvania. With almost all of my stuff hanging from the bearpole, I am carrying my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, the cook stove, a pot, huggie (hate me if you must) and a non-sweaty outfit to wear to bed. In other words, I am a new woman! I should also mention that I start this day with a different attitude. I am going forward with an open mind, intent to understand why Jeremy loves such a painful pastime. We hike away from the lake and have to cross a few rivers…sometimes on whatever rocks we find, sometimes on fallen tree trunks. Actually I had what I suspect might have been a panic attack mid-tree crossing. In my defense the tree was wet and slippery and I was 10 ft above a raging river, AND I have been known to be quite clumsy. Jeremy, being the freakishly athletically gifted person that he is, crossed twice to help me get to the other side. Maybe it was best to marry a nice guy after all.
We hike about 2 hours and were huffing and puffing when we passed some hikers coming down the trail who said, “rest up now, you haven’t even hit the switchbacks yet!” More on that later. So we continue climbing and we pass our first bear scat (poop) so we are especially vigilant about calling “HEY BEAR.” I guess it worked because we didn’t end of meeting any bears that day. We worked our way uphill, gradually climbing from mucky overgrown trails into grassy rolling meadows covered with wildflowers. Reds, purples, pinks, yellows, whites, and blues dotted these beautiful meadows! As we start to clear the tree line we can see enormous mountains all around us, some are even covered in snow! We pass a few waterfalls and start seeing some really exceptional views when all of a sudden we meet the switchbacks. Which are a nice euphemism for trails that zigzag straight up the side of a mountain. So we climb them…sometimes fast sometimes slow but gradually our view gets more and more impressive. The view is enough to distract us from the pain of the switchbacks and we found ourselves taking a ton of pictures of huge looming snow capped mountains only to discover that 6 switchbacks later we were ABOVE those same mountains! This type of hiking was extremely motivating. I could see (and hardly believe) how far I had hiked! Eventually we arrived at Brown’s Pass, meaning that we still had 2 miles to go but that blessedly the switchbacks were over! In the very far off distance we spot 2 small hikers who are winding there way around another mountain and Jeremy says, “I bet they are going to the same campsite that we are….?!” By this point, I am used to the pain and am actually in total disbelief that the switchbacks are over and that we (think: I) were able to climbed so high. We looked out and could see the snow patches that had seemed so high above us at one point were now significantly lower than we were! We were motivated to get to our spot, which is called “Hole in the Wall” and has been described as “one of the most desirable camping spots in all of Glacier National Park”. Jeremy does do his homework ☺ So we start heading off for the last 2 miles and find even more rolling meadows filled with little ground squirrels and sunshine and Bear Grass. Think: SOOO BEAUTIFUL! The sky is so clear that at one point we can see the lake where were started our day…it is a tiny speck in the distance!
HOLE IN THE WALL
Finally we started to wind around the side of the mountain (just like those tiny hikers had been doing) and when I say side of the mountain I mean: we are walking on a thin 2ft wide trail that has a sharp steep drop off on one side (i.e. suicide) and a hard rock face rising as high as you can see on the other. It is almost too much for me to even look anywhere but down, watching to make sure that my feet miraculously hit the tiny trail and not the sharp drop off. Of course Jeremy is staring around in wonder, stumbling over rocks and such, and basically threatening to trip his way off into the sharp drop off at any moment. If not for his freakish athleticism (and my kind reminders to watch where the hell he was walking) I am sure he would have plummeted to his death.
Eventually we round the side of the mountain and get our first glimpse of where we will be staying that night. It looks like God took an ice cream scooper and scooped out a tiny round hole in the side of a mountain. This hole is a green lush oasis among a mountain of brown rock. Because there is melting snow almost constantly on the tops of the mountains, the hole in the wall has something like 15 waterfalls coming down the sides of it. All around us are these TOWERING mountains and blue skies and I am literally moved to tears. We arrive in our campsite and find an open spot (there are 4 spots) nestled in some pine trees right beside a beautiful clear stream (flowing down from a waterfall of course). The other side of the spot looks out onto this breathtaking panorama of snow capped mountain and the rest of the “hole”. While sitting by our tent and hanging out all of our previously-rain-soaked clothes, all you can hear in the background is a symphony of waterfalls. I finally understood: THIS is why you go into the backcountry.
THE TURNING POINT
Backcountry is just a term used to describe some remote place, way off the beaten path, so far removed from the rest of the world that you are able to see nature in the wild. The views would be impressive to anyone but after working for it (I mean the switchbacks), I think I had a real appreciation for just how special that spot was. We were 15 miles into the wilderness away from everything and I felt so small compared to the HUGE splendor all around! All day, it was just Jeremy and I and the amazing wilderness. We didn’t do anything but talk and hike for hours. And even as I write this, I cannot explain to you how special that time was. It was amazing to hear Jeremy say, “hands down, this was the best hike of my life,” but it was even more extraordinary to discover that I loved hiking it too! No one was more surprised than me: I LOVED BACKCOUNTRY CAMPING! What a privilege to see such magnificent things!
THE VISITORS
On our way into “the hole” that night we spotted some Mule Deer (which are basically white tailed deer on steroids….i mean they are BIG). So as we are hanging our stuff out this mule-deer-doe walks right up to us, not more than 6 ft from us!? The other hikers tell us that mule deer crave salt and can smell our stench from far away so they come into camp looking for our disgusting boots, socks, shirts…well they could settle for anything of ours because most of our things are pretty sweat-drenched at that point. We had dinner in the designated “food preparation” area, meeting 3 other couples who were as dumb stuck as we were by the beauty of the place-2 of the couples were actually from Montana and had spent a lot of time in Glacier. After dinner I visited the campsite’s “pit toilet” which was a toilet seat and lid made out of a box over a deep hole. That is it. So when sitting on this “toilet” you had a front row seat to watch the glorious scenery all around! I told Jeremy “that was the best view that I have ever had from a toilet!” So we got back to our tent and I am arranging things while Jeremy sets up his tripod and old film camera to take some night shots later. I say to him, “are you sure that you should set it up now? What if that deer comes back?” Jeremy “I am sure it will be fine.” So we are in the tent playing cards when we hear something animal-like outside. Jeremy grabs the bear spray (the bears are everywhere in the lower areas and in in the mountains) and pokes his head out and sees a mule deer buck 2 ft from our tent! As he’s grabbing his other camera he notices that there are actually 4 bucks….BIG BUCKS! One had something like 8-10 points. And they are essentially all around us! By the time I poke my head out of the tent all I can see are antlers, RIGHT BESIDE Jeremy’s tripod! The deer came right up to us, it was really special and also slightly frightening to get to see those deer so close. After a while, the deer left and we went to sleep to the sounds of waterfalls all around us….much more soothing than rain it turns out.
IS THAT A DOG?
The next morning we are the last to leave camp because we spent several hours exploring the “hole”. We took a billion waterfall pictures and walked to the edge of the hole where is drops off into the side of the mountain. On our way out of the hole, back on that horrifying trail around the mountain and I notice a yellow lab up ahead on the trail! And I think, “who the heck brings there dog out here?” Until it dawns on me that I am actually seeing a wild mountain goat….3 of them! So we watch 2 adults and a baby mountain goat fly down the impossibly vertical drop off which is the side of the mountain! The very same freakishly high drop off that I was worried about tripping into. It was so awesome! We could actually hear their hooves hit the rocks and watched as the goats sent a cascade of rocks down the mountain with them! We could never have seen that from the roadside! We hiked down the switchbacks, amazed again at how far we had gone in just one day. Our return hike was beautifully sunny and we arrived back in our campsite by the lake around 3ish. We swam in the ice-cold, crystal clear lake and rinsed off as much of our grime as possible. It was bittersweet to see my bag full of extra stuff still hanging from the bearpole!
THE CHAMPS
The next morning we packed up our stuff and were on the trail by 7:30am. We planned to hike out fast, get back to our car, and drive through the main road of the park to the other side where we would sleep in a campground. At this point (since my backcountry camping conversion) I am a hiking force to be reckoned with. I don’t mind the pain because everything is already sore, and really once you’ve finished a 2610ft elevation gain, a 7 mile hike is a walk in the park. Plus who knows what kind of crazy wild animals we could see! We did pass some fresh bear scat on the way out but didn’t see a bear…at that point we were much more interested in seeing a bear than we were on day 1. Each day that went by that we survived the wilderness made us feel more and more capable that we could live through a bear encounter. We have heard that the main road of the park is awesome and that we should plan to spend most of the day driving it. So we are motivated enough that we hike the 7 miles back to our car in less than 3 hours!
We arrive back at our Mustang and amazingly it is still intact (I was picturing the soft top being shredded by bear claws). We throw all of our stuff in the car, put on our sandals (it was heavenly to take off my boots) and since it is the most beautiful day, we put the convertible top down and drive out of the woods.
GOING TO THE SUN
The main road of the park is called, “Going to the Sun Road” which pretty much sums it up. We got on this small road and started climbing towards the sun. We stopped at a few turn offs and were astonished to see deep rivers of crystal clear water, filled with colorful rocks. Apparently the many rivers, lakes, and waterfalls in the park are glacier-fed and so they are VERY cold but also unbelievably clear. We drove higher and higher and the views were incredible, we climbed to the top of the Going to the Sun Road and there were Glaciers and Snowcapped mountains all around. Turns out that the Mustang was a dream to see this mountain from…the convertible gave us an unobstructed view of the splendor around and above us! The road was a narrow strip with a steep drop off the side of the mountain on one side and the shear face of the mountain on the other side. It was a little unnerving! We passed some sleeping mountain goats and then we wound our way back down to the eastern side of the park.
Most visitors to the park spend their entire visit on or at some point of the Going to the Sun Road so we passed a lot of people. In fact it was a little troubling after being alone in the wilderness for 4 days. We eventually arrived at St. Mary’s campground-a very harsh reminder that we were back in civilization. We were basically 20 ft from several other tents/campers in a field. So we ate our last freeze-dried dinner, took a swim in an ice cold lake and headed out in search of pictures and grizzly bears. We drove out of Glacier and through an Indian reservation back into the park to an area called “Many Glacier.” We drove slowly, looking for grizzlies in the woods we did get to see some elk…but no bears.
THE DAY HIKE
The next morning we got up before the sun and packed up our tent for the last time ☹ How bittersweet it was, especially considering that I started the trip out counting down the days until it was over! I had come along way! Jeremy took some fantastic photos of sunrise while I managed to sleep in the tiny passenger seat of the Mustang. Then we were off on our last hike. The 10 mile Siyeh Pass (pronounced sigh-ee) was described to us as “the best day hike in all of Glacier NP.” Jeremy, taking into consideration that we are fatigued from our previous 4 day hike-a-thon, suggests that maybe we should consider a different (i.e. shorter) trail. But since I am a new hiking woman, I insist that if the Siyeh Pass is called “the best day hike in the park” we are hiking all 10 miles of it! This was the first “loop” hike that we did, basically meaning we started on one side of a mountain, hiked up it and down the other side. At the bottom we would plan to catch the parks free shuttle to take us back to the starting point, thus completing the loop. We had asked a ranger which side of the loop was an easier starting point and we chose the route that was only a 2110ft elevation gain inside of 3200ft! We started climbing almost immediately through beautiful meadows of wildflowers, and gradually worked our way up out of a lush gorgeous valley and onto the side of a cliff. We met the Siyeh switchbacks and they were punishing. On our way up, we heard some rocks moving to our right and there, not 50ft from us, was a baby big horned sheep! How cool! The views were spectacular but the climb really was brutal. We finally arrived at the pass, just as huge clouds started to roll in. Because we were well above the clouds, our view of the surrounding valleys was completely obliterated. So we waited it out (and realized just how lucky we had been to have such clear weather at “hole in the wall”). Eventually we could see and got some great pictures. We even spotted herds of big horned sheep roaming the valley below! INCREDIBLE!
THE GLACIER
We walked through the clouds and started down the other side of the mountain until it seemed like we were parallel to Sexton Glacier. So we took a little trail towards it hoping to get a better view. After about ½ a mile we sat down and had a little lunch (beef jerky, trail mix, etc.) and then Jeremy said, “I’d like to get a little closer to the glacier to see how big it really is.” The thing is that everything is so massive and impressive all around (the mountains, the drop-offs, the waterfalls) that you almost can’t grasp how big it all really is. So we head off toward the Glacier. After another ½ mile past where the trail ends, we are marginally closer (“it seemed so close…”) and Jeremy is ready to concede that he is close enough. Of course, now that I am a hiking genius, I insist we continue…saying something like, “I’ll be damned if I let you get this close to the Glacier and turn back.” So we trudge through another ½ mile and actually stand on the glacier itself. It is snowy and cold as you might expect, and it is MASSIVE…in fact, WAY bigger than it had seemed from the trail. And it is melting before our eyes. Scientists predict that ALL of the glaciers in the park will be melted and gone by 2020…in just 10 years!
We turn to head back to the trail and start to feel the first real waves of weariness. We say things to each other like, “once we get back on the trail, everything will all be downhill” And from Jeremy, “someday I will thank you for making me stand on that glacier…but not today.”
THE LAST FEW MILES
We reach the trail and see a marmot (think: mountain ground hog) and a huge Golden Eagle soaring above us! AMAZING! Then we start down the switchbacks. If you’ve ever hiked, you know that going down hill a considerable distance is just as painful as going up hill. The constant pounding on your joints and the unbalanced walking really does take it out of you. We are heading down into a gorge filled with beautiful pine trees, centered all around an incredibly huge waterfall. We basically follow the waterfall down lower and lower into the gorge. It is beautiful! Somewhere around the 10 mile mark (remember we added an extra 3 for the glacier-stand) we run out of drinking water. We are almost too tired to care….almost. I have to say that even a hiking genius like myself can reach a place where hiking becomes painful. by the time we are on the final mile we are both limping and have decided that stopping to rest and sit is actually more painful (well the getting up from the sitting position) than just limping forward. All the while we are getting lower and lower into the valley and closer and closer to the crystal clear waterfall. At one point Jeremy confesses “I am about done with hiking.” We fantasize about what magical food we will order at the restaurant that night to help deal with the pain….i’d actually like to add that we met quite a few REALLY OLD people hiking that trail in the opposite direction (3200ft elevation gain)…THAT IS HUMBLING! At this point I am praying to see a bear just for the benefits of the adrenaline rush and Jeremy is wondering if he would have the strength to get his camera out. Then we begin to consider provoking a bear attack to put ourselves out of our misery. So eventually we are encouraged by sounds of the road below us and we know that if we can’t make it-at least someone will find our bodies in a timely way.
THE TOURIST SIGHTING
So the last 100 yards of our trail connects with the much more sensible tourist overlook of the gorge. So the smart people who park there cars and walk ½ mile (TOTAL) can have an idea about what the 10 mile hike is like without all the 10 mile hiking. So we meet a few tourists at this point, they all looked at us a little concerned like we might be close to dying of dehydration or suffering so much that we would throw ourselves over the gorge….they were right to be concerned. They tell us, that 13 miles in the woods without so much as a bear footprint (although we did see the scat) and we had “just missed” seeing a black bear climbing around on the one side of the gorge. “See look, you can still see the bushes moving.” Jeremy and I sit down in disbelief…and exhaustion. All of the other tourists leave and we are left looking at the bushes rustling. All of a sudden I say, “is that the bear’s head?” Jeremy says, “is it going to try to cross the gorge on that small tree trunk?” Yes actually to both. So we got to see this black bear cub climb across a 15ft gorge (at least 30 feet above the rushing stream below) on a tiny fallen tree trunk! How cool was that! Like our own little circus show. We were still a little peeved that we had gone so far into the middle of nowhere only to see a bear at this tourist point but we did feel lucky to have seen the tight rope walk!
THE FINAL MEAL
Never had we been so glad to see the Mustang, and never had it felt so good to take off our boots. We drove down the Going to the Sun Road and out of Glacier NP…mostly just sad that our adventure was over…but also a tiny bit giddy at the thought of a shower and a menu. We passed a fresh huckleberry stand (tis the season out there) and had some huckleberry icecream (YUM). We arrived at Grouse Mountain Lodge where we had made a reservation called the “dine and stay package”. Basically we prepaid to eat in the Lodge’s restaurant is what it boiled down to. The lodge caters to golfers so you can imagine how out of placed we seemed at check in….two fairly young people who looked like they had been in the woods for 5 days…
We got into the room and I wanted to dive onto the bed…the problem was that I was disgusting beyond all reason and I didn’t want the bed to smell like I did. So I exercised an impressive amount of self-control and stepped away from the bed. I took a freakishly long shower and washed my hair 3 times... By the time that Jeremy showered we were almost too tired to go to dinner….almost. At dinner we went a little crazy, the thought of freshly made anything was so enticing that we ordered way too much. I ordered caesar salad because there isn’t a lot of fresh veggies on the trail (read: none) and Jeremy ordered Buffalo wings…because he is Jeremy and has never played by anyone’s food rules. Then we split steak and bbq ribs and ate everything (except 6 wings). I was almost licking my baked potato…I’m not sure if it was the best potato ever or if it just reunited me with my to best friends: salt and butter. In any case we were a little sick from our overeating and fatigued but a short dip in the lodge hot tub eventually cured us.
FINAL HOURS
Despite the fact that we had a wonderfully soft bed, a shower, and no real need to get up early, the next day we got up at 6am in one last ditch effort to see a grizzly bear. It’s amazing to think about how desperately we (think: I) prayed not to see a bear during that first TERRORible night, and now a few days later to be out in search of one…well told you, I came a long way. But no luck. No bears. But we did get to drive around the beautiful countryside one last time before we left. Then we flew home.
REFLECTIONS
Overall, we were disappointed at not seeing a grizzly or a moose but we did really get to see a lot of really cool animals. I’ve done my best but the views really were indescribable. The shear hugeness of the mountains, the clearness of the water, the quietness of being in the middle of nowhere…it was such an incredible experience. At risk of sounding too dramatic, it changed me. It is almost impossible to remember my dread, my trepidation, and my apathy about backcountry camping. I didn’t like the pain or the pack-carrying but it was all part of an experience that I really did love. Being with Jeremy in the wilderness, planning with him, packing with him, and passing all of those hours together on the trails…it was as good as therapy ☺
The moral of this story is that you should never assume that you know everything about what you like and dislike. Don’t assume that because you typically like to be clean, you will hate being dirty-under the right circumstances you might not care. Don’t assume that since you prefer napping to exercise that you wouldn’t be invigorated at the idea of a 10 mile hike in the right location. Don’t assume that because you love all things foodie, that you couldn’t survive on trail mix, beef jerky, and freeze-dried whatever. I am here to tell you that you could and you might even like it…
P.s. I am still confident in my dislike of canned tuna…some things you do just know.
P.s.s Click here to see our photos and to read Jeremy's commentary
