Glacier National Park Backcountry Adventure (2 of 3)
Monday, August 22nd, 2011August 1st-August 2nd
We had the double task of packing up our campsite and packing our backpacks for the overnight trek when we woke up plus we realized after studying the map that we had a long drive ahead of us to get to the trailhead, so we tried to get an early start. The road to Polebridge was even more primitive than we expected and it took us about an hour and a half. We followed the mountain range with its snow-capped peaks and passed through an area that had been very heavily damaged by a recent forest fire. We passed the ranger’s station and took a rough dirt road towards Logging Creek, the start of our trek. We couldn’t have gone any further if we wanted because the road was washed out from there. If we were looking for isolation, we had found it.
We started the hike in around 11:30. The first part of the trail passed through an area that had been affected by the same forest fire we saw from the road- a lot of the trees were down giving us a view of the river below. Then we passed through a huge meadow of wild flowers. We were both on alert for bears clapping our hands loudly whenever we came around a corner or up a blind hill. About five miles in we came to the first primitive campground (the half-way point between ours and the trailhead.) We still hadn’t stopped for lunch and this seem to be a suitable place, so we stopped in the camping area next to Logging Lake for bite to eat. From there, most of the trail was through the forest through some dense brush. We could tell that it hadn’t been used that much as we pushed our way through shrubbery, all the while making as much noise as we could to scare off hungry bears. Finally we came to a small stream crossing and arrived at our campground. There were two guys from Texas already there collecting wood for a campfire. We hung our food from a 20 foot pole (out of reach of bears) before finding our site. I washed the mud off my legs in the lake and rested my aching feet before setting up the tent. We were joined by a group of Boy Scouts from Minnesota, so in the end this isolated trek turned out to be pretty popular. In the Glacier NP primitive campgrounds, there is a communal food preparation area away from the tent areas- they make every effort possible to keep bears away from sleeping hikers- making it easy to meet people. During dinner and breakfast, we had a chance to talk to the other trekkers.
We were a little bit disappointed with the scenery on this trek and wanted to explore other areas of the park, so we got an early start back the next morning. We stopped near the lake for a snack and met some people on horseback. We hadn’t seen much wildlife, and no bears up to this point, but we were still making noise. Fabien suddenly stopped in front of me. “Shit, it’s a bear.” I didn’t really understand at first. “Let’s go. It’s a bear and it’s big.” The whole time I wasn’t sure what was going on. The bear was scared off into the bushes. I never saw the bear, but Fabien claims it was the biggest one he’s ever seen. I think it made the trek worth it to him. On the way out, we passed a French family trekking in, our neighbors from another campground and then another group of guys from Texas. The path must have gotten more use in those two days than the whole year. We got back to our car, dusty and hungry. We drove up the road a little bit and found a place to have lunch by a lake. Then we stopped at the ranger station to report our bear encounter. On the way back there was a small traffic jam- people stopped to see a black bear near the side of the road. We ended up going back to our cozy campground in West Glacier- a shower sounded good.
Posted from Custer State Park, South Dakota
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