Things take a turn

Kalispell to Glacier National Park (9/21):

A day of defeats, close calls and bloodletting awaits us as we pull into Glacier National Park at 9 am. This park had been at the top of the list of places to go when we set out, though when we got there we found out that the middle section of the one road that traverses the park had closed the night before for repairs. We can still get to the east side, though we need to take highway 2 around the perimeter. So we go to the visitor center to regroup, and we wind up breaking down and buying some bear spray based on the advice of Park Ranger Doug – a grizzly of a man! - who does a sufficient job of impressing the threat on us (a choice quote: "Those alpine meadows you'll be hiking through are like summer camp for bears!" -M). We tried to pin him down on just how likely a Bear encounter would be, but he was cagey, and the closest we could get was when he said “it’s just a damned gamble” with a bit of a resigned sigh. It was clear, at least, that the east side of the park was the one to worry about, especially in late September, since there are fewer people about and the bears apparently like their odds a bit better (per Doug: "It's a quiet time, so the bears come out and think they have the run of the place. I always say, if there's gonna be an attack, it will happen in September" -M). That’s also the side with most of the hikes we wanted to do. We plan on two hikes today, one on the west, then around the park to one on the east, then camp on the east and do a longer one near the campsite tomorrow. The first is about 4 mi/500 ft incline, which is not nothing but along the lines of what we’ve done before, and passes uneventfully.

We then left the park to travel to the east side, stopping along the way for a picnic, where I somehow ran into a tree that gave me a scar on the forehead that makes me look like I had a brush with voldemort.

But moving on, we get to the trailhead for the next hike at about 3 pm, which means we’ll have to be a bit careful to be done before dark. We start off, and a number of things are quickly against us. Unlike the hike this morning, there are no people on the trail and no cars near the trailhead. It’s also very dense, such that visibility is only a few feet to either side. And most damning, we had to walk into a very strong headwind. As probably mentioned earlier, Bear theory states that one should make a lot of noise while hiking so the Bears will both hear and smell you coming and get out of your way. I personally think the opposite, that it is better to surprise the Bears than allow them to surprise you, but, we deferred to the rangers on this. So with the headwind, any noise or stink we were producing was quickly stifled. But we set off nonetheless, passed the obligatory signs warning of recent Bear sightings and asking us not to approach them, and us hoping they would extend us the same courtesy. (There are similar signs in Yellowstone and the Tetons, but the Glacier ones are more hard-core. Whereas Yellowstone and Tetons say that there are bears in the area and take precautions like locking up your food, the Glacier signs basically say: Bears come here all the time, people have been mauled and killed, and we can't guarantee your safety. -M)

By this point I’d developed a bit of a Bear threat level system, Tom Ridge-style, to wit:
Level 1 - no bear spray necessary
Level 2 - bear spray in holster
Level 3 - bear spray in holster, hand on handle ready to draw
Level 4 - bear spray drawn, finger on safety
Level 5 - bear spray drawn, safety off, finger on trigger

Yellowstone and Grand Teton were all level 1 as far as we were concerned, the morning hike was usually a 2 with bouts of 3, and this one was clearly a minimum 4, though it escalated to 5 at times. We passed a small open space and then into the woods again, where less than half a mile in Mandy and I both heard a growl off to our right. We couldn’t see anything beyond about 5 feet because of the underbrush, which is about how far away this sounded. Though we’ve both spent the last five years living in the city, we at least have the good sense to know that when the forest growls at you, it’s time to leave. Which we did, backtracking to the trailhead, and that was that. In retrospect, I’m a bit skeptical that it was an actual Bear growling at us, though Mandy gives 3:1 odds that it was, and in fairness to her I’m not sure what else it would have been, probably nothing good (it was not a chipmunk -M). So be it. (Bears: 1, Brad and Mandy: 0 -M)

The hike shortened, we drive along the other end of the road that’s closed in the middle, doing a small hike off that - Level 2 - then set up camp, a bit more nervous than we were before, but there were at least a few other people at the campsite, and we set up in the middle, using our fellow campers as a first alert system (or appetizers -M).
-B