4.5 Days, 34.3 Miles, and 1.5 Bears

That sums up my time in Glacier. I spent 4.5 days there, 5 nights, hiked 34.3 miles, and saw 1.5 bears (.5 because I'm almost certain it was a bear, but never saw its face). It was a week that wore me out - by Friday afternoon the only thing I could think about was sitting around doing nothing and sleeping in a nice hotel bed. But it was a week full of beautiful scenery and hiking 34 miles allows one time to think. I'll give a little bit of a summary of each day's hiking then what I gathered from the week as a whole.

Monday - I'm learning while traveling that I very rarely get to my destination in the amount of time I think I will. I never factor in gas stops, food stops, speed zones, traffic, etc. So I didn't get to Glacier until after 1 or so, and then I set up my camp spot. After this I drove up to the top of the park to a place called Logan's Pass, which has some amazing scenery, as scene below.

From here, I took a short 3 or 4 mile hike to a place called Hidden Lake. I actually started it the first time I got to Logan's Pass, but my chacos were no match for the glaciers on the trail and hail started coming that finalized my decision to turn around. Once the weather got a little better and my feet were better equipped, I actually made it out to Hidden Lake.

As you can see, the trail is along snow for much of the way

Hidden Lake

I saw some wildlife too around this area. Fortunately, it was not a bear.

Once I made my way back down, the fog started rolling into the valley. That was the thing that amazed me about Glacier and one of the things I learned during the week here. Weather can change drastically in 5 minutes. I started out, it was cold, hailing and gray. Then it changed to sunny and beautiful. Then foggy and chilly. All in about 2 hours.

Tuesday, I used a recommendation from my camping neighbors Jiggs and Cindy. They said a trail called Iceberg Lake in the Many Glacier area was really impressive. It was about 9.8 roundtrip and not too much climbing. So I decided to give it a go. This is probably the first time I've ever seen actual icebergs. It was very impressive. Plus, you are hiking into a box canyon the entire way up with an awesome ridge towering over the trail. A great all-around trail.

Driving into the Many Glacier area

The canyon I hiked into - the lake is right at the bottom of the bowl on the left

View looking away from the canyon

Once I got to the lake, there were a lot of people there. It still didn't take away from the enjoyment. It was beautiful. The water was freezing. I watched kids trying to float on icebergs into the lake. I saw a British guy dunk himself and got cold just watching.

Kid playing on iceberg

Wednesday I started out a trail called "Triple Divide Pass". It was WAY into the backcountry and they had all sorts of signs recommending not to hike alone. I got about 1.5 miles into it and just could not enjoy it. My senses were on high alert like never before and I was looking for grizzlies in every single nook and cranny. I decided to turn around and get back to the more populous part of the park. It was a great decision, because I ended up on the Loop Trail and saw a spot in the Garden Wall.
I had to hike about 4 miles up to Granite Park Chalet, kind of like Glacier's Mount LeConte Lodge.

Heaven's Peak, past Granite Park Chalet

The Garden Wall - I ended up going to that point in between the 2 peaks right in the center

Sitting at Granite Park, I was exhausted. I was ready to go back down when I saw a trail along the ridge.

If you look very closely, you can see where the trail splits off and goes up to the saddle in the ridge. Once I saw that, I didn't care how tired I was, I knew I had to go. So I set off, it added an extra 1.4 miles each way to my trip. Once I got to the point in the trail where it split, I realized how difficult it would be. It was only 0.6 to get up to the top, but as I found out the next day, it gained 957 feet in elevation over that 0.6. That's almost a 20% grade. At about 9,000 feet - that hurts. Every single step had comfortable Andrew saying "turn around, this isn't worth it". I don't know if my leg muscles have ever burned like they did going up that incline. Seriously, it was the hardest bit of hiking I have ever done. But once I got there, it was totally worth it. My view on one side was looking straight down onto the Grinnell Glacier, one of the park's largest glaciers. My view on the other side was a panoramic view of Heaven's Peak, McDonald Lake, and some other mountains. It was breathtaking (literally).

Thursday, I was literally too tired to do any real hiking. I ended up taking the shuttles from one end of the park to the other, and just watching out the window. I saw Lake McDonald:

And a few waterfalls:

I will just say, the thing that impressed me about all these was the clarity of the water. It was the clearest water I have ever seen, and it had this bluish-green tint. So cool to see.

Friday was a trail based off a recommendation from a serious hiker I met on the shuttles. He told me to check out a trail called Scenic Point. It was way down in the Two Medicine area, so I had to drive way out of the park and about 40 miles just to get to the trailhead. It was totally worth it though.

As beautiful as this was, it was also probably the windiest place I have EVER been. At times, the wind had to be gusting at over 60 MPH. I took a video on my phone and the wind is deafening. You can't even hear me narrating at times. It was beautiful though. I looked back into the mountains with the Medicine Lakes below. Then the prairie was out the other direction. A true 360 view.

By the end of this day, it was all I could do just to drive back to my tent. Totally worth it though.

But what did I learn from this grueling week of hiking? 2 things. One, I've always loved hiking and have begun to put my finger on why. Obviously I love the view and physical activity. But also, its so similar to life. The trails are often long and difficult, lots of climbing, cuts and bruises along the way, and if you're like me, doubt along the way why you decided to try this path. But then you get to the end of the hike, and all of that is forgotten. All you can see is a view, and every cut, bruise, sore knee, dry mouth, etc. is a forgotten thought. You almost appreciate them because they were a part of the process of getting you there. As I go through life and I often get "scraped up", I am learning not to get too down on these as they happen. I think back to my hiking analogy and think of how worth it it will be at the end. God's got the path covered, He knows every twist and turn and can assure me that the path will get me there.
Secondly, I see an analogy with pictures. I love taking pictures as I hike (as you probably already know). So often while I'm hiking, I think "wow, the view can't possibly get any better than this" as I'm only partially towards the destination. But inevitably, the destination almost always has the best views. Same with life - it's so easy for me to think "this is it, it doesn't get any better". But it does. Time and time again, the disappointments follow through to better views than I thought were possible. It involves patience and I often dislike it, but I'm learning to stay steadfast through it.
These analogies may not make any sense. But they are working for me and I wanted to write them down. Thanks for bearing through with me.

Thomas and me are about to leave Portland and head for Mt. Rainier. I'll catch up with some posts about Portland, the Oregon coast, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, and anything else here soon. Peace.