It was a big hike and a big group. Sixteen miles and 18 gals from two countries: Canada and the United States, a true international event. Dawson-Pitamakan loop is normally 18.8 miles but we shaved off .8 by shuttling the cars and two miles by taking the boat.

We really had a great time on board the 8 a.m. tour on the Sinopah, the boat named for the most commanding mountain at the head of Two Medicine Lake, meaning Fox Kit Woman. The guide gave us information about the mountain names, the geology, the sacredness to the Blackfeet as well as the animals and how the bison may be reintroduced to the park since the tribe has a herd.

We debarked at 8:30 and were geared up by 8:40. At the pit toilet a half mile down the trail, several needed to offload some coffee or other beverage already, so most of us scattered in the bushes since waiting in line for 18 people would take too long.  Others waited until No Name Lake spur trail another two miles away.  

This section of the trail is pretty nondescript, mostly in the trees with a few views of Pumpelly's pillar, a shard of a mountain standing out by itself. A handful of huckleberries here and there entertained us. We did happen upon a few hikers coming from No Name lake, probably campers. One gals refused to yield to us as the uphill hikers and tripped trying to go around.--and the trail was uphill as we climb around 900 feet to the lake. We didn't have time to drop to the lakes today, No Name or Old Man, Young Man, Boy or Pitamakan later on, as the Canadians had to get across the border and one car of U.S. gals were driving home too.

Once past No Name Lake, the trail really starts to climb, with steep switchbacks and often times, steep stone stairs, and oh, the flowers!  But we made it to the top by 11:30, even with stops to take pictures and enjoy the views of Two Medicine Lake, Sinopah and Rockwell Mountains, as well as Helen, Lone Walker and Rising Wolf Mountains.
 
The top of Dawson Pass blew us away, literally, as we had to layer up to keep warm while we ate lunch, but the views also blew us away. As we peaked over the edge to the other side of the pass, the mountains of the Cutbank Valley, Southern Glacier Park and St. Mary Valley came into view: St. Nick, James, Stimson (one of the six 10,000 footers), Jackson, Little Chief to name a few. We also marveled at the remains of the Lupfer Glacier and Pumpelly Glacier on Blackfoot mountain. We also enjoyed the deep greens of the Nyack valley, a bit marred by the Nyack fire from three years ago but still pretty.

After a half hour of lunch, break, photos and fun, we started to gear up. All of a sudden, we saw Amber go down to her knees, spitting and throwing up.  She had been hit with bear spray in the face.  Marillee had accidentaly elbowed her spray, attached to her front fanny pack, which knocked off the safety and depressed the lever slightly. Loural to the rescue with lots of water, rinsing Amber's eyes and face and cleaning her cap.  Somehow, Amber recovered after about 15 minutes and was able to keep hiking. In this way, she earned her trail name: Pepperjack, given by Nora.

It was a bit hard to face the trail after lunch as it rises another 400 feet in switchbacks before it curves around the edge of Flinch peak and turns into a narrow goat trail. Lorna later said if she had known about the goat trail part, she never would have gone, but everyone handled the trail easily despite the steep drop-offs on one side and the cliff on the other.  We walked about five miles high up on the goat trail, coming to two passes along the way, often called upper Pitamakan passes.  These give glances way down onto Old Man Lake and the Cutbank country.

At Pitamakan Point, just before Pitamakan Pass, we took another stop for pictures at this breathtaking place. Some even ventured all the way out on a narrow ledge to the actual point.  Others stopped at the rocks. We all took a group photo here.

Then we dropped over the pass, picking up the pace since we all felt the urge to head to the trees after being high up on the scree goat trail for so long. We did happen upon four or five other parties, all but one going the other way. The couple going in our direction were from Barcelona. Katie talked to them since she had just visited in June. Then at Pitamakan Point, we met two men from France.  Nora, who taught French, conversed with them as they took our group photo.

The way down was filled with the beauty of high mountain lakes, little jewels the color of turquoise: Pitamakan lakes, Old Man, Young Man and Boy.  Young Man was nearly dry. As we descended, we entered another flower zone with many bright yellow sulphur buckwheat, bright pink cushion buckwheat starting to seed out, lilac lupine and bright red paintbrush.

Then we dropped into the trees, noticing all of the dead whitebark pine trees from the blister rust desxribed by the boat guide hours earlier in the day.

We made lots of noise on this section as bears do tend to frequent the huckleberry bushes here.  But we only saw a couple piles of scat and spruce grouse that was not afraid of us; luckily, it wasn't in attack mode either.  The last two miles of this hike are brutal as they have many ups and downs on tired legs.  When we finally reached the bridge to the campground, we all let out a collective sigh. Then it was hit the bathrooms and load the cars to head to the newly reopened Whistlestop to eat while the Canadians headed to the border.

We enjoyed the Whistlestop food and had a nice time visiting with owner Linda. She said they are still kicking out the kinks in some of the processes--which we could tell, but it didn't take us too long to get seated, food ordered and food on the table.

Susan was staying over in East Glacier with her husband, but the rest of us headed back to Great Falls, arriving at 10:45 after a very hairy drive that involved drunks in the middle of the road, rez dogs meandering across the streets, a car driving 35-45 mph on the highway with no way to pass due oncoming traffic, a car driving into oncoming traffic to turn left, a car coming at us without headlights, two fawns about to jump across the road and us hitting a small animal of some sort.

Our group headed to St. Mary to meet Ann and a stay the night at the River House before our hike the next day. Our accommodations were roomy and had a covered back deck which was nice. We ate dinner at the Two Sisters and then spent sometime in the evening checking out our backpacks to make sure we had everything that we needed for our trip.

We arrived at St. Mary Visitor Center early for the first shuttle to Logan Pass, which left at 7:00 AM. The Highline Trail did not have too many hikers to start but it became very busy as the day progressed.  Haystack Pass was our lunch stop and then it was off to Granite Park Chalet. "It's like an 8 mile hike through a botanical garden!" Jean exclaimed. The flowers were so abundant, vibrant and profuse! There's no way we could begin to list all that we saw. Spectacular!!  

We arrived at the Chalet in the afternoon and were given a tour of the kitchen and then settled in our rooms. Mary and Jean went for water which is a half of a mile walk so we could prepare dinner. After dinner we listened to a talk provided by the staff on the history of Granite Park Chalet, wildlife and also about the Heavens Peak fire of 1936. The only people that were left at Granite Park Chalet at the time of the fire were the staff and they were able to save the chalet by putting wet blankets on the shake roof so the fire passed over the building and was saved.

On day two, Mary and Ann hiked to Grinnell Overlook, they were rewarded with a look at Grinnell Glacier and lake. They returned for lunch and the hiked to Swiftcurrent Lookout in the afternoon with 360 degree views at the top. The rest of the group had a lazy day visiting with the other guests and enjoyed the pack train of ten mules that brought supplies to the chalet.

After breakfast we started our journey down to Swiftcurrent by going over the pass and then past Swiftcurrent Glacier. The trail descends about 2400 feet and gives a beautiful look at Bullhead Lake, Red Rock, Fishercap, Swiftcurrent and Lake Sherburne. Our hike was coming to an end as we arrived at Swiftcurrent to find our car waiting for us which had been moved by others so we could hike out the Swiftcurrent way. We ate a much needed dinner at Swiftcurrent and then headed home.

Who went: ​Mary, Ann, Jean, Jeanne and Gail

Four of us left Great Falls at 5 am arriving in St Mary parking lot at 7:50 am . We quickly connected with Mary Irene and boarded the 8:00 am shuttle for the Siyeh Bend trailhead.

We took our group picture at the trail sign before heading up along Siyeh creek towards the Siyeh junction 2.6 miles ahead. We enjoyed the spruce-fir forest along the way- a beautiful morning walking through the cool forest with multiple fields of colorful wildflowers, babbling brooks and stream crossings with some bridge crossings. Susan C. demonstrated her expert balance capability when crossing a bridge even posing on a one legged stance without her poles! After passing through Preston Park, a glacially carved valley which provided more lovely fields of wildflowers and a tricky stream crossing, we began to enjoy the commanding views of the landscape including  Mataphi Peak to the south, Piegan Mt. in the west, and pyramid shaped Mount Reynolds in the southwest.

We completed the toughest part of the hike up to Siyeh pass with multiple switchbacks reaching the top of the pass at 12:15pm. We met 2 female artists on the trail from Colorado taking photos of the area in prep for their next years show. They had driven 20 hours the night before from Colorado for an all women’s art show in Kalispell and with only three hours of sleep on board, were embracing one of the best hikes in the park!

We enjoyed the spectacular views from this vantage point while having lunch before heading down the 5.6 mile loop trail along Baring Creek to Sunrift Gorge. We had 1 trail “boo boo” along the way- Susan C. had a bee sting her just below her left eyebrow-thankfully it wasn’t a pirate maker!! And the first aid “after bite” saved the day!

Josh Shuter was our shuttle driver going both ways on the Going to the Sun road- What a fabulous driver! We finished our hike at Sunrift Gorge with feet a bit on the tired side and with high hopes that the shuttle would come sooner than later. Susie M. was first to the road and waved her arms in the air for Josh to see as he came to the shuttle station- fortunately for us, he patiently waited for all five of us to scurry up to the stop and allowed all of us to squeeze into the van! Hooray!!

Having said our farewell’s to Mary in the visitor parking lot, we headed off to St. Mary for a well earned and delicious ice cream cone before driving to Dupuyer for dinner at Buffalo Joe’s where we introduced Sara to the hot slaw salad!

Those who hiked: Mary Irene M., Sue M., Josy M., Sara J. , Susan C.

Flowers seen on the trail :
Elephant head, forget me not, Explorer’s gentian, bear grass, Indian paint brush, huckleberries, lupine, Columbine spires, potentella. Arnica, early everlasting, chives, anemone, death Camus, bergamot, chives, stonecroft, yellow serum,lyles Angelica, cow parsnips, milk vetch, fireweed, Moss champion, Pirate maker on the trail- one eyed mishap with nature, yarrow, orange mountain dandelion, everlasting, heart leaf arnica, Indian blanket, arrow leaf balsam root leaves, elk thistle, showy fleabane, valerian, silky saliva, Oregon grape, twin berry, cushion buckwheat, Yellow columbine,

Our trip had two purposes this time: shuttle a vehicle for our group that was coming out from Granite Park Chalet via the Highline into Many Glacier and while there, do a great hike! And that's what we did.

The day started at 5 a.m. to a trip to St. Mary to pick up Mary Irene and Mary S's car. We arrived around 8 a.m., got the car and picked up Mary Irene and then drove the pot-holed road into Many Glacier. There weren't too many cars headed in so we were hopeful on getting a parking space. On the way in, Katie noticed three spaces at the Grinnell Glacier/picnic area lot, but by the time we dropped off the car and a few went to the bathroom, the spots were gone by the time we went back.

In fact, so many cars were trying to park now, people were parking on the street and behind other cars. We didn't dare risk a ticket, so we returned to the Swiftcurrent lot and took one of the few remaining spots.Whew! It proves you need to arrive by 8 am. if you hope to get a parking place.

So we ended up getting in an extra mile and a half by walking the road
We got on trail around 9 a.m. The trail didn't seem too packed at first. We believed that most were taking the boat across the lake so the lake side was rather empty. We enjoyed the cool under the trees and the views at the boat dock at Swiftcurrent Lake.

As we came around Jospehine, we saw the boat head toward the far end. We hoped to keep ahead of those who took the boat and those on the Ranger-led hike. We did for a while, but many soon overtook us, including the ranger hike. We were so busy taking photos that we lagged a bit. During this time, a large bull moose shot out of the tree with a crash and crossed right in font of Amber and Josy--Josy scurried up the side of the hill. The bull was headed to Grinnell Lake and a few minutes later we enjoyed watching him swim across one end of the lake.We couldn't believe how quickly the moose made it down the hill! Note: it is very hard on this trail to find a bathroom place with the narrow trail and so many people.

When we finally reached the upper Grinnell Lake, we were hungry and relieved to get off our feet for a few minutes. We sat on a rock by the edge of the glacier water and soaked our feet while we watched crazy people jump in and get out on icebergs. One man stood on the iceberg and then lay down to create a snow angel on it--brrr.

After lunch, we continued cross country over the large rock ledges (took a bit of scrambling), formed by the glacier, and the gravel pushed into piles by the same force to view the watermelon algae turning puddles of water red and to see the remains of stromatolites, one of the best collection of them in the world. Rock after rock was covered in the remains of these ancient formations. Some of us added to our vocabulary with "stomatolite" and "insolation," which Josy informed us mean the exposure to radiation or sun's rays.

Then Josy, Amber and Katie decided to head to the Glacier (disregarding the warning sign) after Josy scouted the route over the outlet to the lake, the creek that forms the largest waterfall over the cliff. We did have to watch our step on thin ledges and rock piles as we sidestepped through the water to reach the far side so we could touch the glacier.

And we did touch the glacier, but as we were doing so, a large portion collapsed making a very large booming noise. We imagined Mary and Judy thinking we fell into a crevasse or being buried for good, but we didn't dare venture onto the Glacier. After the collapse, Josy was able to find a small piece that we could hold in our hand. It was amazing to hold this ancient ice, knowing it had formed many centuries ago. Of course, we took a pic!

At 2 p.m., Katie said it was time to head down. At the picnic area, we saw four goats, two nannies and two kids! Speaking of goats, when we arrived at the boat dock at Jospehine Lake, the boat was just arriving. When a family debarked, a child dropped his stuffed goat into the water. Josy and Amber quickly grabbed a hiking pole, waded a bit into the water and retrieved the goat with the hiking pole. Josy wrung out the water and handed the toy back to the child as he stood sad-faced on the dock. Way to save the day, Gals!

​After our break, it took us three hours to arrive at the picnic area (it took us four hours to go up). It was 5 p.m but we had to walk the extra .8 mile to the Swiftcurrent parking lot, so it was almost 5:30 by the time we completed. A stop in the restroom took longer than we thought due to many women in line.

Then it was off to dinner at Two Sisters Cafe. Katie was glad to see Big John was back for another season; he greeted her warmly with a hug. The food was good enough, the service adequate (the waitress rolled her eyes when we took a while to order), but what everyone enjoyed was the experience of this kitschy place with vanity plates and funny bumper stickers littering the walls and following the yellow brick road to the bathrooms.

Finally, it was time to drive home, first stopping in St. Mary to drop Mary off at her car. She was camping there and planning to hike Siyeh Bend to Sunrift Gorge the next day but was now questioning if two big hikes in a row was wise. Josy, who drove, was also planning to go on this hike. We teased her that she could sleep on the way.

We arrived back in town at 10:15 p.m. A great day for a hike.

Who went: Amber, Josy, Judy, Mary Irene, Katie

It was an early start to the day: Amber drove and picked up Katie (and interloper Tom) and then Brenda at Susan's house at 5:15 a.m. We arrived at St. Mary around 8 and Siyeh Bend at 8:30. Already the parking areas were full. Lucky for us, Tom dropped us off while he idled Amber's truck in the shuttle stop. Then he drove to Sunrift Gorge to start the hike in the opposite direction.

We encountered a few hikers right away and played leapfrog with them all day. Others, we actually passed. The trail was a bit more crowded than normal, but it was a Saturday in high summer. Even though it was August, the temperatures were quite cool with a very gusty wind.

We marveled at all the flowers: we counted over 90 different varieties, as we traveled through different zones as we gained elevation.  

This hike has gradual elevation gain until Preston Park, a lovely meadow area with tons of greenery and blooms. We even saw the elephant head flower, so pretty by the moose pond. No moose though. We only saw a bit of bear scat and a few old moose tracks. Then the climb starts, switchbacking though scree on the side of Mahtapi Mountain. 

Brenda started to complain about the steep climb, but she made it look, easy even as she griped a bit. 

The views were glorious too, especially looking toward Mount Reynolds at the top of Logan Pass. But we couldn't enjoy them too long on top as the gusts were approaching 60 mph.  So we ducked below some rocks that blocked the wind a bit.  While everyone enjoyed lunch, Katie took a peak over the pass to see if Tom had arrived. He had! He was talking to a couple who were going down the other side. All of us marveled that Tom had gone .8 miles farther than we had an had covered 1200 more feet of gain.  It made us feel like slackers.

After lunch, we put two rocks on the cairn in memory of our deceased GiG members: Chrissie and Colette/Coco

Then it was down, down , down facing the huge wind gusts that were throwing us off balance. We enjoyed even more flower varieties, mostly purple penstemon, yellow arnica, blue explorers' gentian, sulphur buckwheat, and bear grass. Eye candy for sure. And we had eye candy with the views of St. Mary Lake as well as Baring Creek with its red rock and huge waterfalls flowing directly off the Sexton Glacier.

Soon the gentle switchbacks got a bit steeper as we headed to the creek. We were all looking forward to resting at the cascades before our last mile along Sunrift Gorge.   However, Susan took a tumble and hurt her wrist.  She wasn't sure how to even get up because she didn't want to put her weight on her arm to get herself upright. But she managed with a bit of help. She wanted to soak her arm in cold water so we headed right for the creek.

The creek was "rototilled" by bears. All of the exposed bare ground had been overturned, making us feel a bit uneasy. And Susan had another mishap: not wanting to sit down as she was afraid to use her arms to get up, she leaned over and approached the stream on a flat rock. She put a foot on a wet portion and slipped, getting her legs and boots soaked. We had to help her get out before she tumbled down the stream a ways.

We forgot about soaking the arm and decided to get off trail quickly and get some ice from Two Dog Flats Cafe at Rising Sun for her arm.

it seemed a long mile to get out, but Susan did fine. When we arrived at Rising Sun around 4 p.m., Tom had taken the shuttle and had been waiting for over an hour. We explained what happened to Susan. Then we ate dinner and drove home.

We got home around 8 pm, worried about Susan's wrist, which had started to swell some more.
The next morning, she went to immediate care after a painful night and found out her wrist was broken. It ruined her plans to go to Granite Park Chalet. Katie and Amber felt awful that we had talked Susan into going on this hike, even though it was one she wanted to do.  She still said she was glad she finally got to hike Siyeh Bend to Sunrift Gorge.  Oh my!

July 25th. We started our big adventure early in the morning, picked up our preordered coffee drinks at 6 am at the Glacier Perk Coffee shop at St, Mary Lodge , and headed off to the parking lot at the St. Mary visitors Center where we parked the cars and waited for the 7 am shuttle to Logan pass . We had dropped our shuttle car off at the Swiftcurrent motel parking lot in Many Glacier the night before and enjoyed our last supper at the Many Glacier Hotel.
​
We arrived at Logan pass at 7:50 am, and were on the Highline trail headed for the Chalet by 8:00 am accompanied by winds gusting upwards of 40 mph. It was a chilly start to our hike requiring wind breakers to cut the morning chill . We enjoyed many fields of bear grass along the way and a mountain goat who seemed nonplussed by our presence on the trail.

We were blessed with perfect weather allowing for beautiful vistas along the way. Although we did not see any griz, we did pass several fresh piles of bear scat along the trail, arriving at the chalet at 12:30 pm. The staff at the chalet were very informative while checking us into our rooms and giving us the grand kitchen tour with instructions on compostables, what to do with left overs, kitchen reservations, travel in twos with bear spray to water facility, etc.

The afternoon was open to spend time just relaxing or hiking as desired . Roni, Deb and Julie opted to hike up to the Overlook while Anita, Sue, Sara and Kuntz elected to kick back and relax.

Roni, Deb , Julie and Mary enjoyed their homemade pizza for dinner and even had enough to share with chalet staff and the rest of our group!! Delish!!

After enjoying the 7 pm coffee hour, hosted by the chalet staff, and their informative talk, we headed off to bed.

Day two at the chalet:
After breakfast, Roni, Deb, Julie, Mary, Anita, Sara and Kuntz hiked up to Swiftcurrent Lookout leaving at 8:30 am and returning at 12:30 pm. They all raved about the panoramic views . They have stories to tell about the huge Marmot who attempted to steal Sara’s poles and Anita’s Gatorade.

Sue waited at the chalet until 9:30 am for others to appear on the trail before hiking up to the Overlook. She laid memory stones there for Julie Anne (daughter), Chrissie (dear friend/GIG member), and for Jim Buley (Sara’s husband).

It was a leisurely afternoon with some enjoying a game of “Greedy”- a dice game that some of us learned to play from Katie last summer in Yoho. Others enjoyed the scenery and even took a little nap!!

We spent the later part of the early evening with all eyes on the hikers who were slowly making their way down the rocky face of the eastern wall adjacent to the Overlook- who even knows how they were able to get out to that part of the slope!! “Ranger” Bob took their names and reported them to other park officials even though they insisted “they do this all the time!!”.

The evening chalet program included “Ranger “ Bob and his story of the Night of the Trapper Fire in 2003. He received a National honor for saving the chalet and the 39 people trapped there that night. The highlight at end of the day was seeing a deer in velvet walk through the chalet grounds , a Grizzly bear excavating the side of the mountain through the spotting scope and watching the sunset . (also heard about a sow and two cubs at the water facility a quarter mile down the trail)

After breakfast the next morning , we packed up and left the Chalet at 8:07 am, heading up the trail to Swiftcurrent Pass where we took our traditional group GIG picture at the cairn. The wind accompanied us over and down the pass making our travel a bit dicey at times with gusts upwards of 40 mph. This is a corridor that the grizzlies use to move between Granite Park and Many Glacier so we stuck close together as a group and were “bear aware." At one point, someone yelled “there is a bear on the trail”. This began a host of whistle blowing, “hey bear” yelling and high anxiety discussion about what to do with nowhere to hide . Once we determined that the bear was not moving, we inched our way down the narrow trail only to find a “Bear stump" on the side of the trail that provided us with what looked like a dark silhouette of a bear from afar… Ha- time to relax and laugh a little!!

The rest of our descent into the valley was met with more pleasurable sightings- a cow moose grazing on a hillside and a large Bbl moose in velvet trying to disguise himself while standing in a stream with only his head sticking out of the bushes!
We completed the last switchback, arriving at upper Bullhead Lake. We separated into two groups below Redrock Falls (faster and moderate fast) and completed our hike at the parking lot at Swiftcurrent Motor Inn at 1:30 pm. After having a late lunch as a group at Two Sisters Café, we parted ways and headed home . What a great trip!!  

Participants: Sue, Sara, Mary, Anita, Kuntz, Roni, Deb, Julie
Some of Flowers on the trail:
Fields of Beargrass, Yarrow, Glacier Lily, Sticky Geranium, Monkey flower, Spirea, Cow parsnip, Wild Bergamot, Yellow Columbine, Indian Paintbrush, Blanket flower Arrowleaf Bslsomroot, Harebell, Stickseed, Huckleberries, Heart of Arnica, Indian blanket flower, Pussy toes, Mountain Penstemon, and more!!
Animals seen: Grizzly bear seen through spotting scope at Granite Park chalet, bull moose, cow moose, many marmots!!, chipmunks, ground squirrel, mountain goat, buck deer in velvet