Trip of the Iceberg

Glacier National Park to Spokane (9/22):

We made a second go at Glacier today, hoping to improve upon yesterday, which had at times been alternately disappointing and scary. I was really disappointed about the closure of a large section of Going to the Sun Road, the only road that transverses the park, because Lonely Planet calls it “arguably the most spectacular drive on the planet”. Brad was disappointed about the closure because it meant we had to detour around the edge of the park to make it to the other side, meaning we did not make spectacular time. We were also a bit shaken up after our encounter with Mr. Growly, which we were eager not to repeat.

But today Glacier did not disappoint and was only briefly mildly scary. I thought the night would be difficult, what with the sub-freezing temperatures and thinking we’d wake up at every tiny noise, convinced a grizzly was seconds away from tearing up our tent and us inside, but the night passed comfortably and uneventfully, and we even slept a bit late in the morning. The morning weather was sunny and mild, also an improvement over the ominous, cloudy skies of the day before. We packed up our stuff and headed to the nearby Iceberg Lakes trail. This was by far the most ambitious hike we’d made to date—4.8 miles one way to a lake, with a 1200 ft increase in elevation. After a steep initial climb, we skirted the tree line for several miles, going in and out of forests and alpine meadows before reaching a lake at the base of a glacier-y mountain. The scenery was gorgeous—we had panoramic valley views for much of the hike, and the lake at the end had crystal-clear water that reflected the mountains and glaciers in a sort of carnival-sideshow way. It’s probably worth nothing that our parks guidebook, published in 2007, says that there are a number of iceberg chunks floating in the lake, and we saw none today. The glaciers are disappearing fast—at the current rate, all the glaciers in Glacier will be gone before 2050. (Just god giving us a big ole hug, as per tina fey -B).

Iceberg Lakes is one of the most popular hikes in the park, so we figured there would be strength in numbers against any big mammals on the path. We quickly passed everyone ahead of us on the trail, so we were the first hikers going through that day, which was probably less than ideal bear-wise, but also meant we had the lake to ourselves once we got there. Brad hikes at the pace you would walk if you were inappropriately dressed in the dead of winter and the F train made you late for a meeting. While I normally prefer a more pensive pace, it works well for me now because I’m not getting much exercise sitting in the car all day, so this makes me feel like I’m doing something.

Brad went first on the path, brandishing the bear spray, while I placed myself in charge of the clapping brigade in the rear. A couple times we heard a large animal trampling through the underbrush nearby but nothing too make us think we were in imminent danger. At the very end of the hike, we came across three white-tail deer about 20 feet ahead of us on the path, and we watched them for a few minutes before they scampered off. Given that we accidentally parked pretty far from the trailhead, all told it was about a 10 mile hike. Especially at the sections towards the lake, I was really out of breath, whether from the cumulative effects of the hike or from the altitude. Afterwards, my legs were more sore than probably they’ve ever been, even after running 10Ks, 10 milers, or the half marathon a couple years ago. My arms and hands were also pretty tender from all the clapping, and I felt compelled for hours afterwards in the car to emit more squawks and claps at appropriate intervals.

That was a big enough day by itself, but we still had a long drive ahead of us. After the hike, we headed west towards Washington. It took us three hours just to get around and out of the vicinity of the park. Also, for some reason we can’t really explain, we never really bothered to eat for the whole day, so it was 5 before we got back to Kalispell and had our first meal of the day, by which point we were slightly delirious. From there, we left Montana through the Idaho panhandle before stopping in Spokane, Washington for the night (pronounced spo-CAN not spo-CANE, which I have been pronouncing incorrectly forever). After a 10 mile hike and 7 hours of driving, we treated ourselves to a hotel night rather than camping.

I thought Yellowstone was exhausting, but Glacier was draining on an entirely different level. The first day, it seemed really ominous. It was completely overcast until the early afternoon. Since we were so high in the mountains, the clouds were barely above our heads, lending everything a gloomy tinge. There were very few people around (especially in the Two Medicine area where we had our abortive hike), which was a huge change from Yellowstone where there were always people around. The wilderness was much more rugged and untamed. I liked the hikes better in Glacier, and they seemed a lot harder than the other parks we’ve been in. Our guidebook described a couple of hikes that we did in the Tetons and Yellowstone as “moderate”, and we literally ran for portions of those. In Glacier, even the “easy” trails seemed harder than these. And the worries about bears of course made us a bit anxious, which was draining in its own way. We also added some new wildlife to our list of what we’ve seen: an elk ran beside us on the road for a bit on the first day, and we also saw a mountain goat climbing some rocks above us while driving through.

Montana seems like the kind of place where you could spend weeks or months exploring everything, so we’re pretty sad to leave after only a couple days. A couple observations: (a) They have the most intense and graphic anti-meth commercials and billboards that I’ve ever seen; and (b) like Wyoming, the on-ramps to the interstates have cattle-guards at the bottom, presumably to prevent wildlife from wandering on.

Despite Glacier’s name, the North Cascades National Park in Washington state actually has more than half of the glaciers in the US, and that’s where we’re headed now.

-M