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| Hiking | 6.92 Miles |
959 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.92 Miles | 4 Hrs 9 Mns | | 2.03 mph |
| 959 ft AEG | 44 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | July 7 - I drove from Idaho Falls to Helena MT via Butte MT and stayed the nite at an old Howard Johnson's. The drive was beautiful as usual as I made my way north through Idaho and into Montana. It seemed quite green to me. I think I forgot to mention how much snow there was in the mountains around Salt Lake City. The grasshoppers were fierce for most of my drive north. And as I stated in my ID Falls trip report, I got my lunch at the Dillon MT Safeway, including a Poke Bowl that I would eat in Helena. I stopped at my usual Rest Area just this side of Butte. There was some nice wildflowers and of course the views toward the Humbug Spires and Fleecer Mountain are really nice. I picked up fuel at Helena's Costco which wasn't too far away. What I thot was interesting is they set up 3 stations for window washing.
July 8 - I started a little later from Helena for my drive to Glacier Park which included a stop at Starbucks for a giant iced latte. The only problem with this is there aren't many places to stop once you leave the freeway to use the facilities. I finally found a full service gas station/restaurant/grocery store in Choteau, whew! And of course, the search for Huck It began, but none here. Looks like they planted some canola fields this year so it's always fun to see. The views were clear too, so that was nice as I parallelled the Rocky Mountain front to my west. As I was driving, I also really noticed how steep the hills are as you go in and out of giant valleys in this part of Montana.
I fueled up at Browning so that I would have enough for running around Glacier Park. Also, I wiped down the windshield and front of Tonto3 which was starting to smell like dead grasshoppers  . I took the drive on Duck Lake Rd 464, a drive I always enjoy and today was no exception. This is the best road to take if you're going to Many Glacier.
I arrived at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn where I waited for about 20 minutes for everyone else to arrive including Deborah (from Big Arm MT - my former classmate), Tina (from Calgary, glacier chatter), Jen and Maia (flew into Calgary the nite before from Chicago, also glacier chatters) as we were all staying here for the nite since the Campground was closed to soft-camping because of bear activity. That bear would eventually be euthanized. While I was waiting though, I went on my Huck It hunt at the Swiftcurrent store and scored two six-packs  .
We got settled in our rooms and then headed for the Cattle Baron Supper Club where we met up with Jay (from MN, glacier chatter) who would be going with us and his wife, who was staying at a campground in Canada in their travel trailer. We had a great steak dinner, altho I cut up most of mine to take with me. It is a HUGE piece of beef that would actually take me 4 sittings to finish. It was so good, even cold.
Back at the rooms we finished packing our packs. We all had heavy packs and I started stressing about the weight and with my mental state, I was very worried. I've done a 5-nite backpack (2019) here before and managed just fine but I think this pack was a couple pounds heavier. My tech gear was very heavy. My pack wasn't really bulging or anything. We had breakfast at a restauarant in Babb before our drive to the Chief Customs border and Trailhead. Deborah ended up at the other border crossing that's about 20 minutes away so we had to wait for her, but no big deal.
THE HIKE: Well it didn't go well. I can't do a 42 pound pack (could have been heavier as I don't know for sure). The first part of the hike is in the shade below the very tall trees with tall thimbleberry bushes on each side of the trail. I do enjoy this part but everyone was off to the races so I was already behind a lot further than I like. I hiked down the hill and into the meadows trying to get comfortable with all this weight but it just wasn't happening.
At one of the bridge crossings there were 3 female rangers trying to get some signage up for stock not to use the bridge as some planks were loose. It was a small bridge but enough for a horse to put its foot through. I have noticed the last couple years that there are many more female rangers, good for them!
I gave thot to going to GAB and then hiking back out the next morning. But Tina came back to check on me and we took a break where the Belly River is right next to the trail and that's when I called it. The rest of the group had gone ahead, way ahead; so I felt bad for Tina trying to catch them. We hugged. We all knew I might not make it.
However, getting back up that hill with this heavy pack almost did me in  . I'll spare you the details as it was sad and pathetic, but I made it. I had hit the ground a couple times, on purpose. I was coming up with different ideas as to how to get out of there including emptying part of my pack and hiking up the 1.5 miles and then come back for the rest of my stuff. Thank God for the little bit of rain that got me off the ground, literally. I was glad to finally reach the forest as the grade moderates somewhat. There was also some shade to keep me moving, granted slowly.
I was thirsty (as I didn't have that much water) and tired, but on the way up figured I would try and get a cabin at the KOA. Needless to say, I did a lot of talking to myself to get up that mountain. Thankfully I had the rest of the day. It was just so hard taking the heavy pack off and keeping track of the bear spray and then putting it back on and the bear spray plus a piece of foam I had to use between me and the bottom right side of my pack.
Luckily the KOA had a cabin available; not sure about tomorrow nite. I grabbed some Huckleberry ice cream  and then drove to the St Mary VC so I could get the schedule for the ranger guided hikes. I returned to the KOA to see if they had some HuckIt beer and they did, BUT, it's no sale alcohol weekend at the Reservation. I whined and said I had a hard hike and was looking forward to a cold Huck It as I had two 6 packs in the car, but they were warm. Well the KOA gal saw my distress and let me exchange mine for their cold 6 pack, how awesome is that!!! I went to the cabin and drank my beer and ate some steak while listening to the birds. It took it awhile to cool off as it was a hot day in the park which I'm sure added to my distress on the way down that mountain.
I clearly made the right decision as I would have been pretty miserable for a good part of that backpack trip, plus it rained a few times. Tina ended up blowing out her boots and lost a couple toe nails along the way. She commented to Deborah that I would not have been happy on a few days of this. My desire is bigger than my abilities. So I tucked my tail, hung out at the KOA, did a ranger-guided hike, planned on two but the weather precluded the second one, and went to the ranch a couple days early.
Drive from Idaho Falls to Glacier Park [ youtube video ]
around Many Glacier [ youtube video ]
Drive to Belly River, hike and St Mary KOA [ youtube video ] |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Paintbrush, Lupine, Angelica, Coralroot, Sticky and Richardson's Geranium, Cow Parsnip |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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. It's such a beautiful site but kind of hard to photograph. Surprisingly, I didn't take any videos or the videos didn't load up as I was starting to have trouble with my Ultra 20. So the videos I made are slideshows but still reflect the beauty of the hike despite the flat skies. An hour and a half later we arrived at the swinging bridge above the Belly River and passed by Gable Campground without stopping as everyone wanted to keep moving. The wildflowers are quite intense in this area. The Belly River Trail has lots to offer, thus 5 stars, altho I would like to dock it one for the elevation gain of the last two miles.
in Glacier but as of 2014 it was 16 including the tallest, Cleveland. We felt like we knew each other so well even though we haven't met. She and her daughter from Chicago were there and also Matt, who I met in person last year. So we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed out to the picnic table and talked until fairly late.... well until the wine was gone, ha!
. I guess it would be equivalent to seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. We've seen it before but every time it's just breathtaking. 
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