Glacier National Park Backpacking/Camping Trip Day5

We hiked back to the trailhead on day 5. On the way back, we saw fresh bear poop, so we thought that there might be a bear around. Indeed there was a bear a little ways ahead of us. It ran away, so we talked loudly and slowly hiked.

Mr.S: Hey bear!

me: Good morning bear!

Mr.N: Are you still there?

Bear over the lake

We didn't encounter the bear again, so it probably hid in the bushes or somewhere.

After we hiked another mile, we took a break on a lakeshore. We saw a bear across the lake (see picture below). It was in the distance, so we were relaxed and observed it. The bear was an adult. It walked near the lake and then went back to the bush.

Bears in Glacier are different from Yosemite. They are less accustomed to human beings. They usually run away when they see a human. They haven't learned how to break into cars. So we could keep food in the car. The Glacier bears haven't learned how to get food hung from trees yet.
Califronia bears break into cars, show up at campgrounds, get food from bags hung from trees, and they are not as afraid of humans as Montana bears. I enjoyed seeing the Montana bears who are not used to human. Also I thought that we need to be more careful for bears not to get used to humans. 

After we came back to the trailhead, we drove from the west side of the park to the east. The road was called
"Going-to-the-Sun". It was a very scenic road and all visitors drive it.
It was really scenic but I felt weird seeing so many normal visitors, because I was in the wilderness and saw only 10 people in 5 days. According to Mr.N's mother, people say, "We did Glacier!" by driving the road.  She said ironically, "What does doing Glacier mean? After they did Glacier, they do Yellowstone." 

I got her point. It is a great view, but driving doesn't make you feel like being deep in the wilderness.

Anyway, we arrived at the Two Medicine campground. This was a first-come first-served campground. Kindly, Mr.N's mother who lived near the park saved the spot. How nice of her. She pitched a tent and put a kayak as if somebody had already camped there. The most important connection is a local person, not a park ranger.

Glacier National Park Backpacking/Camping Trip Day4

Pocket Lake near Boulder Peak

We packed up and went back to the Kintla Lake.
I was a little worried to climb up the gully with a heavy pack, because we took 3 hours to descend it. Although it was very scary because the rocks were wet, ascending was a little easier than descending and it took us 45 minutes. 

Because it didn't take 3 hours, we climbed up to Boulder Peak as a side trip. 

From Boulder Peak

We couldn't just leave the backpacks because bears or marmots could get food from the bags. We hung up our backpacks with ropes on a device. To hang them up, I needed to have ropes both sides of the device. Usually people tie a stone to a rope and throw it to the other side of a device. Because I had never done it before, I couldn't throw a stone correctly. I tried more than ten times. By the 5th time, all campers there were observing and cheering me on. Mr.N kindly offered to throw a stone for me, but I insisted that I would do it myself (Thank you Mr.N). Finally after ten minutes, I was able to throw a stone over the device. It was stupid, but I had fun.

The scenery from the top of Boulder Peak was incredible. It was a 360-degree view. Every direction had undulating mountains. The mountain range in the north was in British Columbia, Canada. It was my first time seeing Canada in person. In the East, the steep mountains with green turned into the rocky portion of the glacier. I was just amazed and thought, "I didn't know that this gorgeous place existed."

I felt like I got more experienced by doing this kind of hardcore stuff.

Being off trail was a great experience. It was really quiet and so remote. Nobody was there except for us. Wild floweres were very colorul and pretty. It was nice to see the flowers were opening by having sunlight in the morning. A lot of plants were there. I enjoyed the sounds by walking in the bushes and trees. I felt good by smelling the scent of dirt and small plants. I loved the sound by hiking on the rocks. Rocks in the Glacier were really colorful. Green, purple, and red. They prouduce noise like that of instrument. On the rock, in the basin, on the suddle, we talked and smiled. What a precious time.

Glacier National Park Backpacking/Camping Trip Day2 and 3

Day2 was quite memorable. After having a campfire and dried my wet shoes (they were still completely wet by wading in the Kintla lake to avoid the bear). We hiked at a good pace on trail to Boulder Pass. We kept a good pace even in the off-trail section and reached the last downhill. Mr.N went to check how steep it was and said that it might be really steep. Anyway we started descending. 

It didn't take me long to notice that it was the steepest portion I had ever descended with a heavy backpack. It was a trickle in the gully, so, it was very slippery. Also we had heavy backpacks, it was challenging to balance. During the descend rocks often fell, so only one person was able to move at a time. It was only 400 feet down, but we took 3 hours to decend. 

I was scared but I would say it was a surreal experience because the scenery was incredible. The huge glacier was in the distance. Steep mountains, Mt.Kinnery and Kintla Peak in the back, and a big waterfalls made by the glacier were making a huge and powerful noise. After the descend, I was tired but having dinner in front of tremendous glacier was just amazing and I will never forget it.

 

Day3 was also memorable. I saw the gigantic glacier really close and even walked on the glacier for the first time in my life.

Becuase we planned to camp at the same place for both the 2nd and 3rd night, day3 was a day hike. I felt that a daypack was really light compared to a 65L backpack. We got up at 6 a.m. Although sun had already risen, the glacier was not yet under the sunlight. While I was eating breakfast, the glacier gradually got sunlight and changed its color. It was beautiful.

We hiked on the saddle and approched the Kintla Peak. It was tough.
Being near the glacier was dynamic. I saw a huge black rock sliding on the glacier. It was in the distance, but the it sounds loud. Also I saw a part of the glacier removed from the huge main chunck. It was again the low and big sound.
At a glance, the glacier looks very calm and beautiful and seems to sit quietly, but it actually has its dynamics.

On the way to Kintla Peak, we encountered a very narrow ridge. It was only 0.5m-width. In one side was the 2000 feet cliff, in the other side there was a 500-foot glacier below. It was too scary to move on. It was stupid to keep going on such a dangerous rocky terrain so we decided to go back to our campsite. 

After coming back, I spent a few hours just staring at the glacier. 

It was a priceless time, tiny 3 of us in front of a tremendous but beautiful glacier.

 

Glacier National Park Backpacking/Camping Trip Day0 and 1

2015 summer we went to Glacier National Park for backpacking and camping. 

I was very excited about going to Glacier National Park for the first time. I had never even been to Montana.

Because the flight was at 6 p.m. on Friday, it was a little stressful to finish everything by 3 p.m. at work.

I went to the airport with a friend Mr.S1. He booked a cool service run by Way.com.

We went to the parking lot of somebody's house near the airport. The house has an extra parking spot, so they rent the space. After parking, we called Way.com, then Lyft took us to the airport. Way.com has a package service of parking near an airport and Lyft to the final portion to an airport. We were a little late, so Mr.N was already at the gate.

The first flight was on time, but the connecting flight was delayed an hour. So we ate dinner and went back to the gate. Then we noticed that the flight was delayed another hour. Because of the 2-hour delay, we arrived at the campsite at 3 a.m. However, we had to get up at 6 a.m. to go to the wilderness permit center the next morning (technically the same day)....

Can we get permits or even get up?

We got up at 6 a.m. to go to the wilderness permit center. Although we slept for only 3 hours, we didn't feel so sleepy because we were excited. 

It took only 10 minutes to get to the center. The wilderness permits were first-come first-served, so 10 people were already in line in front of the door. Because I had heard that it would not be very competitive in the Glacier, I was surprised. According to Mr.N who is from Montana, a line is rarely formed.  Luckily we got the permits as we wished.  Since we got permits for the undesignated area, we had to show them our bear canisters. The bear canisters are not required for designated backcountry campsites in the Glacier, so people in the center including rangers seemed to be surprised.  Because we live in California and Yosemite requires a heavy bear canister, our canisters were rare in the Glacier in Montana. It was fun and impressive seeing many people from all over the U.S. and world, according to car number plates and people's accents and language. 

After we got the wilderness permits, Mr.N and I got a cup of coffee. It was ridiculously expensive. A small cup was 5 bucks. The park is in the middle of nowhere, the price might be inevitable. Luckily the coffee was good. For some reason coffee is much better in the wilderness or in the mildde of nowhere. 

Then we stopped by a campstore to get fuel for backpacking. After paying, Mr.S and I couldn't find Mr.N. A few seconds later, I found Mr.N at a coffee stand. He was buying another cup of coffee. Really? He was sipping coffee 10 minutes ago. I had not even finished the coffee. 

I said, "Oh wow Mr.N is buying a cup of coffee."
Mr.S replied, "Really?"
Probably he was the most coffee addicted American I have ever seen. It's more than European.

Then we stopped by a bakery and had pastries with huckleberry. I don't remember clearly but probably Mr.N got another cup of coffee.
Then finally headed to a trailhead at 2 p.m. by driving dirt road for a while.

Upper Kintla Lake

We started hiking at 2 p.m. on the first day. It was very hot. 

BEAUTIFUL

I had expected that Montana would be cold, so I was surprised. The first day was only 12 miles and almost flat, so we hiked relatively slowly. Kintla lake was really pretty. 

When we had hiked about 10 miles and reached the point where the destination was visible, we encountered a black bear.

At first the bear ran away after hearing us. The bear was on the trail and went away from our direction. We continued to hike but it was behind a tree and now we were very close. So we slowly went back. The bear didn't move at all, so we needed to go off trail to avoid him. At right side there was a lake and at the left a steep hill. We climbed the hill and went back to the trail after a while. Then we again encountered the bear. We had believed that we passed the bear, but apparently not. Now he was at the hill side. So we decided to walk in the lake. It was quite hard to do it with bare feet, so I entered the lake with hiking boots. 

It was supposed to be a very easy day, but we had an adventurous day from the beginning.