Goat Mountain

On Tuesday, Matt and I climbed Goat Mountain. It was the easiest of the three ambitious options he had offered for things to do on our days off. Goat Mountain is right across from Going-to-the-Sun Mountain and it accessed via the Siyeh Pass Trail. We started at Sunrift Gorge and followed the trail for about a mile and a half uphill before the climbing route breaks from the main trail. After a while, the climbing route trail disappeared and we started our own navigation up a drainage toward the summit. It involved basically a long, steep uphill on loose rock that was very tiring. At one point, we had to use our ice axes to cut steps into a snowfield in order to climb it, and at another point we had to crawl on our bellies to get through the subalpine trees.

The weather was exceedingly windy, which wasn't so bad since it was at our backs pushing us up the hill. At the summit, however, it was too frightening to stand up too close to the edge; one strong gust and it's game over. The wind was blowing a steady 40 mph, I would estimate based on my sailing experience. We crawled behind the cairn at the top and enjoyed the view: the Sweetgrass Hills to the east, Canada to the north (Cardston, AB was visible), through the mountains out to the Flathead Valley, and many of the other mountains on the east side of the park. There's also a nice view of Gunsight Lake from up there.

We decided to descend via Otokomi Lake and the Rose Creek drainage on the opposite side of the mountain. We crossed through an alpine meadow that a grizzly bear had very recently dug through to create a checkerboard pattern to the landscape for several acres. We boot-skiied down a long snowfield to reach Otokomi Lake. The most hazardous part of our day was crossing the stream at the outlet of the lake; the water was high and no one wanted to get wet with 5 miles of hiking still ahead of us. I found a place where it was possible to jump from one side to the other, but it required standing on a big drift of snow that appeared to extend into the stream. I dropped my pack, cut a launchpad into the snow with the ice axe, left the axe behind, and made the jump. Matt tossed both our packs and the axes over, then completed the jump. 100% success on a somewhat risky move.

We saw no other hikers the entire length of our trip. I did see a few gray-crowned rosy finches, one of which was doing some sort of courtship display.

Road crews are working on the 70 foot drift of snow east of Logan Pass. No word on when that's going to open up.

Blisters

Haven't had time to blog lately between all the hiking and limited computer access. I've hiked to Cracker Lake, Gunsight Lake and Florence Falls, and Medicine Grizzly Lake in the last 7 days. I got the biggest blister I've ever seen on my right heel, but it's getting better now. There's water running down the trails everywhere because of all the snow.

At Cracker Lake, we saw a couple mountain goats way up on the mountains, about a dozen avalanches in progress, a marmot, a squirrel, and wolverine tracks.

Florence Falls is so huge you can't see the whole thing when you stand next to it. Only if you're up on the Hudson Bay divide on Hwy 89 can you actually see it all. It's impossible to get a good picture of Florence from anywhere near it, but it's impressive.

Gunsight Lake is very beautiful. We saw one avalanche. A group of sandpipers were feeding along the ice in the lake and a female goldeneye swam by. We saw a western tanager.

Medicine Grizzly Lake is kind of an eerie trail. There were two bull moose feeding on the glacier lilies near the lake and grizzly bear tracks all over the trail.

No pics; no time.

High-Peaked Roof

The purpose of the metal shingles and the high-peaked roofs on the buildings here was evident this morning as 4-6 inches of wet snow fell in the past 24 hours. The snow is sliding off the roofs today as a mix of rain and snow continues to fall, creating a thick soup on the ground. I'm glad I'm not camping!

Weather

It's snowing.

Cold & Wet

It's still chilly enough that the mosquitoes aren't out, but with all the moisture I can safely predict that it will be a nasty mosquito season. Most days so far, the clouds have been hanging on the mountains and a mixture of snow and drizzle has been falling.

We took a walk out from Sun Point to Virginia Falls, a 6 mile round trip. It rained just hard enough to soak through my jacket by the end of the hike. I took a nap when it was over.

The shooting stars, glacier lilies, and more are all still blooming around St. Mary Lake, as well as a few orchids. I'm seeing flowers I've never noticed before, further underscoring my ignorance of plant diversity.

I saw the fox yesterday. It's still around.

Back in the Saddle

The drive back to Glacier was mostly uneventful. I weaved through a few showers across Montana and weaved through a few pronghorns running across the road. I did not kill any ground squirrels this time, though I did pass over one standing in the middle of the road; I can't imagine what that would be like from the squirrel's perspective.

I can't comment too much on what things are like at Glacier because I honestly haven't had time to explore. There are vast fields of glacier lilies and shooting stars blooming around the Hudson Bay divide along Hwy 89, as well as some snowbanks. The weather is cold, damp, and rainy. Some of the aspen trees don't have full leaves yet. Looks like I picked the right year to buy gaiters.

The St. Mary Visitor Center is all torn up, so we have a temporary information station in the fire cache, which is basically a garage with fire hoses. It's actually nicer than it sounds.