Aging, Animals, Awestruck

Odometer: 65,323
Fish Creek to St. Mary’s – over Logan Pass verrrry slowly.

Today was the most phenomenal day I’ve had in a long time. My legs are killing me (that’s the aging part) but the animals and awestruck were more than worth it.

Chris and I took off from Fish Creek a little after 9 this morning. As we’d already done the part of Going-to-the-Sun road that went to Avalanche Creek, the first 18 miles of the 30 to Logan Pass were smooth. Then we started stopping for photos… mountains, waterfalls, auto turn-outs – Oh My! There were a lot of stops. Some very beautiful places, especially looking down the valley just below Logan Pass. From what we learned from Ranger Tegan, glaciers carved those valleys. They indeed must have been massive beasts to do that. Amazing, amazing, amazing.





We made it to just below Logan pass at another turn-out – more waterfalls, more views!





I listened in on a guide talking about the Garden Wall hike. This is a 12-mile hike, almost entirely downhill, but has a ridge that is about 3 feet wide with a very large drop-off at points. Chris has some fear of heights and I’m probably just about there as well. We had debated doing it tomorrow, but tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 50 and potential snow showers over 5500 feet. Logan Pass is at 6600 feet. Great! My legs are so achy I’m not sure I could do it tomorrow, but anyway, after getting some information from different folks, we decided to bag that hike. Still, the guide said it is rated the #2 hike in America by backpacker magazine, so some day I will have to go back.

We tried to go up to Logan Pass to park, but parking was so bad we went back to this lower point. Walking up to Logan Pass, we saw mountain goats! Mountain goats! Five of them. So cool. Little did we know how much better it would get. We were hungry – yes, it was about noon already – so we walked back to the car and got food. By now parking was pretty much packed in, so we were lucky to get spots in the area. We walked back up and took the Hidden Lake trail. Along the way we saw more goats, then a big horn ram, and then more goats riiiiiiggghhhttt next to the trail.





So cool. A mama and baby no less!



That was amazing. The hike was short but through true alpine meadow, and there are still lots of flowers in bloom, which was lovely to see. I can’t do them justice, so I stuck to the large vistas, but I love the flowers. The Hidden Lake overlook was – as was so much of the day – awe-inspiring. You can see the peak of Sperry Glacier, Hidden Lake, more mountains… Thus far on the west side, I was pleased, but being from Washington not overwhelmed. Today at Logan Pass I was pretty awestruck. It’s a phenomenal landscape.





We finally started down close to 4 p.m. The first 1-2 miles was terrifying – narrow road, under construction, loose gravel, major drop-off if you screw up. I honestly couldn’t go over 30. But after those few miles, there’s a barrier, and forest, and it got easier. We did a few more photo stops, but I’d reached my saturation point and eventually left Chris to go check into my campsite.





St. Mary’s is nowhere near as nice as Fish Creek… sigh… but at least it’s only for one night. There’s some talk of a thunderstorm tonight, but thus far it has been very nice today, and the later forecast that I saw just said, “chance of rain.” So I’m hoping to get through the night. Tomorrow I’ll likely stop in, at least, to Many Glacier, and then head for the border. I’ve decided I’m taking the Canada route… a few more towns on the way, not feeling quite so isolated. There just isn’t much in North Dakota.

Chris decided to head up to Waterton tonight – with the snow forecast (more for the day after tomorrow than tomorrow) that may be a mistake, but Glacier has been amazing and I think it’s what I’d do too. We parted at the St. Mary’s visitor center – I’m very glad he’s been along. I would only have tapped the surface today if he hadn’t been saying, “Let’s go do this hike, let’s stop here for photos…” Saw some very cool things I wouldn’t have seen if he hadn’t been along.

But for now, I hurt… my lower legs are really aching. Calves tight, left Achilles still painful… when did this happen? Very annoying.

I’m looking tomorrow to get to Swift Current in Saskatchewan, Canada – I might not cross North Dakota off the list, but I will hit several Canadian provinces I haven’t been to before. Hopefully I can hook up to the Internet and post this along with some photos.