Today we left the back country. I am relieved to be done. I love how scenic Glacier is but, after yesterday, I’m glad to be out of it (I think my nightmares will be haunted by visions of being pushed towards a cliff and the sounds the winds make going through the pass – they sound like a jet engine that’s really close). Continue reading “Day 8 – Out of the Woods”→
First off: good news, we weren’t eaten by a bear, so, woo! But today has been a day.
I was still a little sore this morning but a hike was doable. Planned is 2700ft up, 1800 ft down, so it should be easier on my knee. We left at 10 or so, and it should be a 6 hour hike, so, ideally, an early day.
The day started sort of okay. I still didn’t have much appetite, Robert’s knee was still stiff, but we got packed up and set off for Poia Lake by about 10 AM.
We are in the backcountry, woo! What a ridiculously long day: 11 miles, 7.5 hours, 2480 feet up, 2518 feet down. The morning was frustrating because it was cold, I wanted to get up and see sunrise, the tent was wet, and we had to repack our backpacks before setting out for the trail. We still decided to stop at Johnson’s Cafe for a nice hot breakfast before setting off for the trail head to Elizabeth Lake via Ptarmigan Tunnel.
Today is my first backpack hiking day. Let’s just start at the beginning of the day.
After a good night’s sleep, we once again wanted to be up for sunrise. I was able to get up 15 minutes before it and get out of the tent into the cold. Lara stayed in her warm sleeping bag. She had hoped (without communicating this desire to me) that I would open the rainfly so she could see it as well. Continue reading “Day 6 – Into the Woods”→
We’re headed into Glacier NP’s back country this morning, we’ll be back in a couple of days and there will likely be a flurry of posts from both of us (Lara will be posting the backlogged days as well). Just bear with us, we should be able to get some good wifi on Sunday or Monday so we can post pictures.
For now, here’s the view we had from our campsite in Glacier:
Today was nice and relaxed. I wanted to get going somewhat early, but as we’ve mentioned, we’re bad at mornings. So we eventually got packed up, picked up some groceries and gas and got out of Helena to head up to Glacier NP. We checked the weather last night, so we knew we were in for a bit of wet, but we also were pleased to discover that the peaks had a new dusting of snow. Continue reading “Day 5 – Lara Needs To Catch Up On Her Blog Posts”→
Today was a relatively quiet day. We left Helena to head up to Glacier. We had hoped to get on the road by 10. We started off pretty well we got breakfast at 9, had everything in the car by 9:45, and started it at 10… but… we needed to get some errands over with first. Gas, groceries, and a stop at the credit union delayed our departure until 10:45.The 5.5 hour drive was fairly straightforward. We had a small stretch on the interstate (30 miles), and saw some impressive cliffs. The highway driving was uneventful, except for some ridiculous winds. There were spectacular views of the Rockies to the west, abd awesome plains. Right before we got to St. Mary’s (the main Eastern entrance to Glacier) we drove through an open range… so, there were cows along the road, and, in a couple of cases, on the road.
