Who went: Gail, Mary N, Anita, Jaye, June with Madelon joining for one day.

We had to be “early” girls for this long drive and long hike to Cracker Lake with our lady friends from across the border. Our meet time of 5 a.m. came early as six of us made our way to Many Glacier to meet the six Canadians for our 14-mile hike.
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We hit the trail at 8:35, which put us, unfortunately, five minutes too late to avoid walking behind the first horseback tour. This hike shares the first two miles of trial with the trail rides, which makes this stretch a bit unpleasant, especially on the return trip.
But we didn’t let a few road apples or pee-muddied spots ruin our day, as it was filled with cascading creeks, waterfalls, wildflowers, wildlife and a gorgeous milky aqua lake at our destination.

The trail was a bit busier than normal, probably due to the other more popular trails being still closed. Even so, we did have a few snow drifts to cross as well as some rock-hopping to get to the bridges across Allen and Canyon creeks as the water is still high and flowing outside the normal boundaries.

We saw a few wildflowers on the first four miles of the trip, but once we hit the alpine region, the spring colors started to pop: glacier lilies literally lined our path, silky phacelia clustered together on the rocks, and many-flowered stickseed blended with the newly spouted bright green grasses. We counted over 30 different wildflowers.

After we reached the lake, we had a nice chat with some fellow hikers, who agreed to take our group shots for us.  Then we headed to the large rock by the camp site to eat our lunch.   During lunch, we enjoyed watching the antics of a huge hoary marmot and a goat on the cliff above us. It is probably was the nuisance goat that comes after unattended—and sometimes attended—backpacks. We saw one other goat on our way back, but no bears or moose, although we saw signs; and on the return trip, three of the gals in the lead heard huffing and a growl right where the trail was dug up in a place that hadn’t been disturbed on our hike into the lake.

After lunch, seven of the 12 opted to go to the head of the lake, passing by the old mine along the way. These gals logged a full 14 miles on the day while the others enjoyed the scenery some more and went back to the foot of the lake to wait for the others.

At 2 p.m., we all met back up and returned to the Many Glacier Hotel where the U. S. gals had dinner; we kept a steady pace, ending our hike at 4:40, 50 minutes early than expected. After eating, we explored the new spiral staircase and remodeled downstairs, which now contains the gift shop that is in the space of the old Heidi coffee and snack shop. However, there is a separate coffee/snack shop.

The spiral staircase is an updated replica of the original to the hotel that was removed when the old gift shop was placed over the top.  The new conference room, where night shows and ranger talks will take place isn’t yet complete.
We arrived home at 9:45 p.m. after enjoying an outstanding sunset on the way home. What a nice way to end a beautiful day on the second day of summer.

Who went: Laura, Lorna, LaVern, Sue Ellen, Dixie, Marilee (Canada); Sue, Cathy, Brenda, Jaye, Ellie, Katie (United States)

It was a day of wildflower ID. Some of the gals set out to find 25 different varieties. We counted over 40 on this gorgeous trek along the Rocky Mountain Front,a day that promised to be breezy, but we didn't mind the wind as it cooled us in the sun at the end of the day.

Besides the flowers, we saw fossils (some  of the gals took home a souvenir or two), a snowshoe hare in its summer coat, and the set of three waterfalls along Willow Creek.

We found it hard to believe that within 80 miles of Great Falls we have such beauty, so we all counted ourselves lucky when we sat down by the cascading Willow Creek to eat our lunch. We remembered Chrissie and talked about several of the hikes we had with her and again, felt lucky to be alive, realizing that we never know when it is our time to leave this wonderful world.

We left Great Falls at 7 a.m. and arrived back home before 4 p.m., after a long stop in Augusta to visit the General Store and then have ice cream at Mel's Diner.  At the diner, Jaye found a stray cat and wanted Katie to take him home. We asked the counter person at Mel's and he said he had been feeding that cat but that the cat needed a home. He told us we could take him.  He was a very loving cat, but Katie decided she better pass for now on bringing a kitten home. But he sure was cute and got a couple licks of huckleberry yogurt from her.

One a side note, Gail accidentally left her poles by the trailhead --but no worries, Katie's husband was hiking in the area the next day and picked them up. Gail was happy as the poles had been with her on many a trip, including the Dolomites.

Who went: Jaye, Gail, Sue, Katie

Animals and more animals—our day started with antelope just outside Great Falls and deer all of the way to East Glacier. And right before East Glacier, we saw the bison herd all bedded down on a hillside: the dark mamas lying next to their golden calves with the snow-capped Rising Wolf, Mount Henry and Dancing Women mountains as a backdrop. Absolutely one of the most scenic views we saw all day.

Then just over Marias pass, a moose was standing in the middle of the road; she darted for the bushes near the shoulder as we approached.

At the bridge by the goat lick, two goats peered at us, and at our short hike on the way home at Three Bear Lake, we saw a young spike bull moose that stared at us until running away as we clicked our cameras. Our last treat was a beautiful red fox who ran across the road and into the fields on our drive home.

But now the hikes:  We arrived in West Glacier just before 10 a.m. after a 6:15 start from Great Falls, picking up Marta at Pinnacle along the way.  The day was pretty, with a few clouds and a bit humid. We walked three miles up the McDonald Lake Trails, stopping at Rocky Point to get some pictures. We were amazed at all of the bear grass, hawk weed and bunchberry flowers along the trail and the lack of people.

Then we headed to Apgar, stopping at the McDonald Creek bridge to see the bunches of lady slippers that Marta has pointed out to us. There must have been 50 all grouped together. At Apgar, many of us had ice cream and then admired the lake views before heading back out to drop Marta off.

Then at Marias Pass, the nine remaining gals hiked the short part of Autumn Creek trail to Three Bear Lake to see if we could see one of the moose that hang out there, and sure enough we did. We saw the spike bull. We had hoped to see a mama and baby as they are often there too, but not this time. And luckily, we did not get blocked by a train on the way back. We were remembering our snowshoe to the same lake where we crawled under and over idling train cars—a scary decision we hoped not to make again.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Glacier for the day as we drove to Buffalo Joe’s for dinner. The server was very attentive and our food came fast, even for a group of nine. We arrived home around 8:30 p.m., much earlier than expected.
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Who went: Cathy, Linda, Lindy, Catherine, Marta, Gail, Jeanne, Brenda, Sue, Katie

Even though we were warned of gumbo roads from the rain the night before, we braved the two-track to get to the Gold Butte trailhead.  Fourteen of us met in Sunburst for this somewhat crazy ride, filled with gate crossings and ruts (six from Great Falls GiG and eight from the Canadian hikers group). Our backup plan was West Butte, but we were able to drive the roads--the howling wind dried them quickly.

Thank goodness the day wasn’t too hot as this hike is a steep climb (about 2500 feet of gain over 2.4 miles), but we did wish for a bit less wind as the gusts made a few lose their balance on the rocks a few times.

The meadows on the way up were filled with wildflowers: golden pea, prairie smoke, lupine, prairie rose, sulfur buckwheat, stone seed (gromwell), with some chickweed, spring beauties and a few shooting stars hanging in there.

On the way up, we left two of our gals huddled against the wind as they didn’t quite have their summer legs on yet. We promised not to forget them on the way down.

Once we left the steep grade and uneven clumps of the meadow grass, we were happy to get on the rocky talus game trails that were switch backed and at a more reasonable angle. The wind did howl around the butte, however, making this stretch a bit treacherous. A few gals stumbled when they caught gusts but the only mishap was a bloody arm. Several questioned if we should continue due to the wind. The leaders forced us on—saying we had come this far, we need to tag the top and sign the register, even if the wind is too bad to linger long.

At the top, the wind miraculously died down, making for a wonderful late lunch with 360-degree hazy views; we could the Rocky Mountain Front, Badger Two-Medicine, Glacier—barely, as well as Writing on Stone Provincial Park. Twelve gals summited. Along the way and at the top were American Indian prayer flags and a medicine bundle as this is a holy site for Montanan and Canadian tribes. We signed the register and took group shots before deciding to say goodbye to such a special place.

The way down was precarious at times as we picked our way down the rocky slope. This time, it was the grass that was a welcome reprieve from the loose stones that threatened to throw us off our feet. But we all made it down safely; and we managed to find our two comrades, patiently awaiting our return. (one small mishap: Sue scraped her arm when she fell on the rocks).

Before jumping in the cars, most of us wandered to Miss Jessie Rowe's grave that is along on the hillside (actually, there are five other unmarked graves). She--and the others--were left behind when the graveyard was moved to the Gold Butte cemetary due to an underground spring disturbing the graves. Read more here. And her grave posting on findagrave.com

We drove the quarter mile up the road to see the old mine and almost slipped into some deep ruts created by a truck going through the road when it was gumbo. Kuntzie did an excellent job negotiating the ditches before we turned around and headed into Sunburst, saying goodbye to our Canadian friends and then heading to Shelby for dinner.
Thanks to our cell phones, we found a nice restaurant in Shelby to rest our feet and have some much-needed food after our strenuous hike. We raced to get into the restaurant—and use the bathroom—before we realized that no one had let Ellie out of the way back seat. We joked that we had “left the baby in the car.” 

We shared many other laughs over our dinner. The meal was quite nice—many ordered the prime rib—however, the service was so slow, due to only one waitress on a Friday night. We felt sorry for her, but it took us two hours and 20 minutes to eat and pay our bill. We finally got up and went to the bar to pay.  This made us get into town at 9:30 p.m., way later than expected.

Who went: Cathy "Kuntzie." Katie, Anita, Ellie, Bonnie, Sue