The date was a moving target: first Katie had to work around family plans; then the weather didn’t cooperate, which left some of the gals who had planned to go not able to make the trip; but in the end, five of the GiG plus Christina from Austria ventured up to Grinnell Glacier on a gorgeous, cool day.

The day started at 5 a.m. at the GFPS Distict Offices, a stop in Browning and then with dropping Gail and Sue at the boat dock at the Many Glacier Lodge/Hotel, while the rest parked the car and prepared to hike the entire 12 miles.

We had a few logistical issues but everything worked out until our return trip: Gail and Sue were able to get tickets for the boat, despite being on the wait list, while Katie, Mary N, Bonnie J and Christina hiked the NE shores of Swift Current and Josephine lakes. The hikers had to hustle to catch those who took the boat, but our timing turned out perfectly as we met at the junction where the boat dock spur joins the main trail.

This hike was loaded with people: busloads of students from Colorado as well as those from within and out of state and the country. We were passed constantly and also did our share of passing, making for delays.  We played leapfrog with the ranger-led hike. Christina commented that in Austria you would never see so many people on the trail. The crowds did dampen the experience a bit, but the views were awe-inspiring as usual.

At the top, where the glacier has created a lake from its melt, it was quite cold. Even with three layers, as well as mittens and hats on, some were still chilled, so we didn’t spend too much time at the glacier overlook, and no one ventured to the actual glacier. However, Gail and Mary did touch part of the glacier, a berg floating in the lake (called “Upper Grinnell Lake,” unofficially). It is always fun to glance up at the over look at the people who are looking down on the glacier from the Logan Pass side. And it's interesting to see the stromatolites,an ancient matted clump of algae, one of the only places in the world to see them.

We then headed back down the mountain, which really was a challenge with the people passing, going both up and down, at this point. We arrived at the dock a bit early, surprisingly, so Gail and Sue were able to catch the 3:45 boat instead of waiting for the 4:15. However, we hit our one snafu of the day: the boat was full so Bonnie, who had hoped to rest her legs on the return trip and take the boat for the last two miles, was out of luck and had to hike back with Katie, Mary and Christina.

Along the return, we were all impressed with Christina’s recall of the flower names that she had just learned. Not only did she memorize these flower names, but she did so in English, a foreign language to her.

We ate dinner at the Interlaken Lounge inside the Many Glacier Hotel and headed back home by 9:30, with a stop in Valier for Wilcoxson’s huckleberry ice cream sandwiches.


Who went: Mary N, Bonnie J, Gail, Sue, Katie, Christina

Flowers/Berries We Saw
Baneberry
Beardtongue/fuzzy tongue penstemon
Black twinberry
Cow parsnip
Buckwheat
Elderberry
False hellebore (corn plant)
Fireweed
Fern-leaf lousewort
Fringed grass of Parnassus
Goldenrod
Groundsel
Indian paintbrush
Lyall's angelica
Milk vetch
Monkey flower (pink)
Pearly everlasting
Pine drops
Showy fleabane daisy
Self heal
Silver-leaf phacelia
Speedwell
Spiraea (pink and white)
Sticky geranium (pink)
Sulphur buckwheat
Thimbleberry
Western tobacco root (valerian)
Willow herb
Yarrow
Yellow columbine

Our hike originally planned for the day, Piegan Pass, was out due to the trail closures of the St. Mary Fire at Reynold's Creek, so we headed to Firebrand Pass, a fitting hike for the wildfire that was raging out of control at the time, just one valley over. Firebrand Pass is located at the southeast corner of the park, a section that has no gate. We just parked at mile marker 203 on HIghway 2, six miles from East Glacier and walked in through a small gap in the fence just over the train tracks.
 
But not before Katie had us start on the wrong trail, causing a 45-minute delay getting on trail and adding a mile and a half to a 10-mile hike, not to mention even more bushwacking! We were on the snowshoe trail at Lubec lake, so we did get to see the old homestead from the life of Clara Miller, written about in the book Dream Chasers of the West,

When we did get on trail, thanks to Chrissie's map, we found fireweed galore, which followed us all of the way up the trail, going from regular fireweed to the stunted alpine version. The other flowers were out in droves too with the paintbrush, yampah, and angelica particularly abundant and the silky and silver-leaf phacelias dominating at the high elevations. (see list for everything we saw).

The trail wasn't very worn, producing much bushwacking through waist-high grasses and flowering bushes. The fireweed, cow parsnip and false hellebore were often head-high. These conditions made it very easy to stumble due to now being able to see the trail, which held rocks and raised tree roots to trip us up. In addition, the cliff side was disguised due to the vegetation, and one gal did fall down the cliff partway from stepping off the side of the hidden trail. But a cut hand was all she sustained for injuries, thankfully.

Also along the way, we gained a bit of strength from the huckleberries that were just getting ripe. A few grouse whortleberries (mini hucks) were also ripening. The trail was full of elderberry bushes without berries as well as mountain ash with green berries.

Although the flowers and foliage were beautiful, we couldn't enjoy them much as we neared the top as we did face the famous Firebrand Pass wind.  The gusts increased once we hit the shale above the sheltered saddle, where we ate lunch, and sent us to our seats when we reached the top of the pass as it pushed us down.  The traverse down the scree slope was a bit hairy with the gusts reaching around the 60-mile-an-hour range and hitting us from behind and the side at times, again, throwing some of us to the ground on the trail. But the views on top of the mountains, with 8888 dominating the horizon, were worth it. It's too bad we couldn't have enjoyed them a bit more.

We met some through-hikers from Colorado hiking from Two Medicine who said they had a very difficult time coming across the pass with their large backpacks that caught the wind.  They had been out for four days and hadn't heard about the fire in St. Mary. In fact, they were very surprised to hear about it. We told them to be sure to check in with the ranger station so that the authorities know that they got our safely.

We also met a young couple day as well as a CDT (Continental Divide Trail) hiker who was returning to Marias Pass after being turned back by rangers due to the fire. It was the second time he had hiked the CDT, he said.

We arrived back at the cars at 5:05 and headed to Serrano's. After a half hour wait, we ordered food as we sucked down tons of water and ate baskets of chips as we waited for our food. We hit the road and arrive back in Great Falls at 9:30.
Who went: Chrissie, Sue M, Gail, Susan W, Bonnie, Colette, Katie and Christine, a college exchange student from Austria
Link to all of Katie's pictures.

Flowers We Saw
Alpine fireweed
Beardtongue/fuzzy tongue penstemon
Cow parsnip
Cushion buckwheat
False hellebore (corn plant)
Fireweed
Fern-leaf lousewort
Goldenrod
Groundsel
Harebell
Indian paintbrush
Lupine
Lyall's angelica
Monkey flower (pink)
Mountain dandelion
Parrot's beak (lousewort)
Pearly everlasting
Pine drops
Rattlesnake plantain orchid
Richardson's (white) geranium
Showy fleabane daisy
Seedhead anemone
Self heal
Silky phacelia
Silver-leaf phacelia
Snow cinquefoil/potentilla
Sticky geranium (pink)
Stonecrop
Sulphur buckwheat
Western tobacco root (valerian)
Wall flower (mustard)
Yampah
Yarrow

Berries We Saw
Buffalo berry
Elderberry (bush only)
Grouse Whortleberries (mini hucks)
Huckleberries
Mountain Ash
Red twinberry
Service berry (Saskatoon)

Other
Creeping foxtail
Raynold's Sedge
Sitka Alder )cones)

After a passport snafu prevented us from going to Waterton, four gals ventured up to the top of Logan Pass for hike to Hidden Lake.  The crowds, thankfully, were light, which might have been due to the morning rainy weather and socked-in clouds that we could see from the ridge line were blanketing the Flathead Valley area.

We left town at 5:30 a..m. and enjoyed a beautiful drive with the majestic Rocky Mountain Front following us to Browning. 

Toni was our driver and she had never driven Going to the Sun road, but she was up for it in her little red new car! Luckily, we didn't hit road construction or have any issues along the way, so she had smooth sailing to the top of Logan Pass.  On the way down, we were treated to her sunroof views.

 At 9:30, we hit the Hidden Lake trail and enjoyed the many flowers: the magenta paintbrush, purple beardtongue/fuzzy tongue penstemon, yellow groundsel and pink spiraea. were particularly plentiful. But there may have been even more goats!  We saw so many mamas with babies and some singles as well as yearlings both at the overlook, along the trail and down at the lake..  

At the Hidden Lake Overlook, we also enjoyed watching some playful hoary marmots as they scampered among the rocks and ate the greenery.

After viewing the valley from the Overlook, we wandered a bit from the crowd to enjoy some views while we ate lunch. Then we started the steep ascent to the lake. The trail has many stair-steps that weren't kind to old knees, but we couldn't beat the view as we trekked into the valley with Bearhat, Clements, and Reynolds mountains looming around us while the sparkling waterfalls and deep teal blue lake beckoned us to keep going down.

We noticed that many people were speaking foreign languages, showing how popular Logan Pass is as a tourist destination. And we marveled at how quickly the 20-30-year olds managed to get to the lake.

At the bottom of the valley, we relaxed and ate the rest of our food.  Susan and Katie did a bit of bushwacking to reach a rocky point that juts out into the lake that Susan had seen from above at the overlook. While off trail both Katie and Susan were surprised by goats that wouldn't yield, causing them to be much too close for comfort. they also thought they were all alone in this remote area of the lake shore, but  found a family with a three-year-old girl who had done the bushwack too and had gone even farther around the lake, making them realize the effort of climbing up rocks, over tree trunks and through bushes wasn't much after all.

After Katie and Susan got back,  the group headed back up the mountain, again facing the stair-step rocks. We actually climbed up faster than we descended, making it in just over an hour. But then we had to go back down to the visitor center area.

We arrived at the car at 4:30 and then drove over the pass to the west side, stopping for dinner at the Belton Chalet. Toni was hungry for a burger but the closest they had was meatloaf. Were we surprised to see the "elegant" meatloaf adorned with edible flowers that actually tasted wonderful, if a bit spicy.  We were informed that they were baby marigolds. And as we drove away, we saw a gal from the restaurant in the flower garden picking buds. We all agreed that the specialty breads (an appetizer) with the herbed butter and goat cheese were the best. We had three orders!

On the way home, we had one more goat surprise:  in the cut before the goat lick, about 30 goats were grazing. What an amazing day.

Who went: Susan, Gail, Toni, Katie

Mountain Goat Study Begins at Logan Pass

Date: September 16, 2013 
Contact: Denise Germann, 406 888-5838 
Contact: Jennifer Lutman, 406 888-7895 
WEST GLACIER, MONT. – Glacier National Park, in partnership with the University of Montana, has begun a three-year research study on how mountain goats are affected by roads, people and trails in the Logan Pass area. Currently, six mountain goats have been successfully collared by National Park Service staff, University of Montana researchers, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks personnel with GPS or VHF radio devices. Collaring efforts will continue through the fall as weather permits. It is anticipated approximately 20-25 goats will be collared of the estimated 1,500 goats in the park. 

Data collected from collared goats will provide information on the animal's use of Logan Pass and adjacent areas, as well as movement on the landscape throughout the year. Collars will remain on the goats for three years at which point a mechanism will release allowing the collar to fall to the ground. The collar will then be retrieved by researchers. The use of the release mechanism means that goats will only be handled once. 

The study also incorporates observational, temporary marking, and visitor messaging techniques. Researchers will spend time observing and recording human-goat interactions. Informational signs about human-goat interactions will be placed in the Logan Pass area. A few goats that will not be able to be collared may be temporarily marked to enable a researcher to visually distinguish between individual goats. 

Research on bighorn sheep will be conducted simultaneously, with observational, temporary marking, and visitor messaging techniques. No collars will be placed on bighorn sheep, as individual sheep are easier to identify due to unique horn variations.  

The research is a critical component of the current Going-to-the-Sun Road Corridor Management planning effort, as human-wildlife interactions within the corridor are an identified issue of concern. Interactions between humans and goats are increasing in the Logan Pass area, creating potential unhealthy and unsafe conditions.   

Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow said, "Mountain goats are an icon of Glacier National Park and the information gathered from this study will play a valuable role in future management decisions. Ensuring the safety of both mountain goats and staff conducting research is our top priority with this project." 

Five gals from the GiG joined five gals from the Canadian hiking group for a fabulous 13-mile day in the Snowy mountains.

The day started at 5:30 a.m. meet up at 4Bs, driving tot Eddie's Corner for a quick break, and then getting on trail at 8:30 a.m. The hike up the 2500 feet of elevation at the beginning of the day over four miles got our heart rates going and made some of us wonder if we could finish 13 miles when the first few felt daunting, but everyone made it the whole way without too much difficulty.

From the first few steps to the last, we were treated to hosts of flowers (see list at right).  The larkspur, lady slippers, white Richardson's geraniums and bluebells really stood out. However, the Pipsissewa (otherwise, known as the Prince's Pine) did elude us all day.

Besides a brief break out to a scree field, the first part of the hike is  in the trees until we reached the top of the ridge, that has 360 degree views and on a good day, one can see nine mountain ranges, including the Rockies in Canada and the Wind River range in Canada. 

Today, the broad ridge walk, while pretty, didn't produce the usual stunning views, due to the smoke coming from the 113 wildfires in Saskatchewan. But we still enjoyed what we could see, especially the glances we had of Crystal lake.

The Ice Caves didn't disappoint, as the formations were stunning, if a few had fallen, either due to warm weather or vandalism. We explored the cave for about 45 minutes, taking pictures of the icy stalagmites and stalactites.

We only saw four young men right after we left the ice caves. Otherwise, we had the trail to ourselves, with no one on the Grandview Traverse side.

After the caves, the hike follows the broad ridge, going up and down, revealing more views of the surrounding island ranges and the plains. The ridge then gives way to switchbacks as you descend at a more gentler angle than the climb.  About halfway down is the Grand View pinnacle, where we all posed for pictures overlooking Crystal Lake on a bit of a precarious ledge.

The last four miles is a bit of a slog going down the rest of the mountain and swinging to the east side of the lake and then back again. By the last mile that has some uphill, we couldn't wait to spy the cars; however, the brush had overgrown the trail, so our leaders overshot it by a half mile, so Mary and June walked even more than the 12 miles.

We arrived back at the cars at 7 p.m.--what a welcome sight-- and headed to Eddie's corner for dinner as we were all tired and hungry.  We got home around 10:30, so we didn't leave any daylight on the table.What a wonderful day with friends and meeting new friends.

Who went: Gig--Mary, Susan, June, Gail, Colette, Katie; Mountainview: Linda, Lorna, Laural, Laverne, Laura

Flowers We Saw

Alumroot
Anica
Bastard toadflax
Bistort
Bluebells
Blue flax
Canada violet
Chickweed
Cinquefoil/potentilla
Cliff anemone
Columbia clematis
Columbine
Coralroot
Cous biscuitroot
Cow parsnip
Cut-leaf daisy
Diamond Saxifrage
False Solomon seal
Fleabane daisy
Forget-me-nots
Goldenrod
Green gentian
Groundsel
Harebells
Hawkweed
Indian paintbrush
Lady slipper
Larkspur
Meadow rue
Milk vetch
Mountain avens (dryad)
Northern bedstraw
Richardson’s geranium (white)
Rock cress
Rock jasmine
Rosy pussytoes
Sandwort
Shining penstemon
Shooting star
Short-styled purple onion
Showy death camas
Shrubby cinquefoil
Sticky geranium (pink)
Stonecrop (sedum)
Strawberry
Sulfur paintbrush
Tall buttercup
Twin flower
Western bistort
Wild prairie rose
Wintergreen
Wood nymph
Woods pussy toes