"We know to make noise to keep the grizzlies away; we know how to use bear spray if a grizzly attacks, but what do we do if one is just standing on the trail?" We got this question from two German gals who were hiking ahead of us but returned to warn about the grizzly. "We saw a grizzly at the bridge. Should we just go on past him?"  Good question, we all thought--should we go on?  This happened at the far end of Josephine Lake.

Well, we decided all seven of us would stick together and stick to our original plans, but two of us took out our bear spray and removed the safety, just in case.  Needless to say, we did not see the grizzly again.

Our day started at 6:30, when we left the district offices. We arrived at Many Glacier at 9:30 a.m. and hit the trail five minutes later.  The trip around Swift Current lake was gorgeous, with not much wind, so the reflections in the water were spectacular.  Signs of moose were everywhere: fresh hoof prints and droppings, so we kept a good watch.

When we arrived at Lake Josephine, we were treated to dozens of goats and sheep along the west flank of Grinnell Point. We watched them for a few minutes before moving on to the end of the lake, where we ran into the German gals that we had met at the beginning of the trail and lent a can of bear spray.  They told us the tale of the grizzly, which made us think a moment before deciding to continue. At the end of the lake, we came across much wolf scat dotting the trail as well as a spruce grouse, which flew and then posed for us in a tree.

We had lunch at the boat dock at the Oastler shelter before heading up the trail toward Grinnell Lake. The German gals had intended to try the Glacier Overlook, but we told them-- and they soon found out-- that the angle of the snow was too steep to attempt so they headed to Grinnell lake along with us. When we came to Cataract Creek crossing, however, we decided instead to go to Hidden Falls and call it a day as the clouds were moving in and the snow on the far side of the creek at a steep angle.  The German gals did go all the way to the lake, crossing the creek with bare feet and walking in the snow with no poles to keep them from slipping. We all wished for younger days as we watched how agile they were. The trail from the shelter to the lake was about half snow covered, giving our legs a workout.

On the return trip, we traveled a loop, opting for the east side of Lake Josephine, resulting in a loop hike around the lake. On this side of the lake, we saw even more moose sign and tracks and faced many fallen trees. We got good at going under, over and around fallen logs, giving our legs a further workout. On the way, we heard loud noises, which we recognized as rams butting heads, but the trees hid our view of across the lake.

We arrived back at the car around 3:30 p.m., only to meet back up with the gals from Germany, who returned our bear spray. They reported being attacked by two spruce grouse, which prevented them from traveling the east side of the lake the way we did. However, retracing their steps produced another sight for them: a cow moose in the lake!  In addition, they had seen the rams clashing their horns together on the side of the lake.  These two gals were so grateful that we had lent them bear spray. Otherwise, they s aid theywould not have ventured forth and seen everything that they did: sheep, grizzly, moose, goats, various birds. After the hike, they were headed to Canada to find a camping spot.

After loading our gear, we headed back via St. Mary for the scenic route--what a treat (and when we passed the Many Glacier Hotel, sheep were all over the road, licking our car; we had to drive slowly to push them out of the way after shooting tons of photos). On the way home, we did hit a bit of rain and even a few snowflakes. We ate at Buffalo Joe's in Dupuyer and shopped at the Cache, purchasing local honey, some books and grandbaby items. The construction wasn't too bad going into Bynum, but the clouds obscured our views of the Rocky Mountain Front.

 We arrived back in Great Falls at 7:30. What a gorgeous day.
Tick count: one so far

Who went: Gail, Mary N, Susan, Toni and Katie

, On a day predicting scattered showers, nine of the GiG headed to the Highwoods to climb Windy Mountain. The weather had other ideas.

After a false start with a bad turn that turned into a gorgeous drive toward Widow Coulee, the gals got their only views of the day on the drive to Thain Creek Campground. The campground is still closed, preventing a pre-hike potty stop at the outhouses, so we headed back to the trail head to begin our hike.

When we started on the trail, around 9 a.m. the clouds were high; but not a mile into the hike, the graupel started to come down, necessitating that we get out the ponchos and other rain gear.

The nine stream crossing didn't prove too difficult as the creek wasn't very high. Most of the gals managed to keep their feet dry by jumping rock to rock or walking on logs that crossed the creek. However, on our return, we noticed the snow had brought up the creek levels, hiding some of our rocks that we had used to cross on the way up. By now, the snow was really coming down and starting to stick to the trail.

A gal passed us by early into the hike, and then we saw a teacher running with his two dogs at the top of the pass. He was doing the Windy Peak Loop, a trail of around eight miles.

After we gained the pass, we attempted to go up the peak; however, it was snowing so hard that it was hard to see the trail. Plus, there were no views and the wind was coming up. So we saved the peak climb for another day and headed back down, completing about a five-mile day.

On the way down, some parts of the trail were very slippery mud, causing us to hike just to the side of the trail to get a purchase in the vegetation.

We were able to kick the snow off a few flowers on our hike: pasque flower, Cous biscuit root, spring beauties and kitten's tails.

We were back before 1 p.m. And although the day cleared in Great Falls, the clouds hung over the mountains all day--so much for Katie's prediction that Saturday was the better day of the weekend.

Who went: Kathy D,, Mary S, Catherine, June, Mary N, Doris, Toni, Katie, 
Link to all of Katie's pics