A Great Day
After camping at St Mary’s campground on the northeast side of Glacier, we packed up camp in the dark in order to get to the Many Glacier entrance, the northern most entrance. Our plan was to hike to Fishercap lake in search of moose. We found the lake but failed to see a moose.
Our next adventure was hiking to Grinnell lake. It was a 3.5 mile easy hike with only a 300 ft rise in elevation. The sun infused forest was enchanting. The trail was lined with red ripe thimble berries. Our hiking shoes matched the beat the ringing bear bell. At one point we heard twigs breaking but we never saw what was causing the noise. We walked over a suspension bridge before we saw the lake, a spectacular turquoise blue glacier fed lake.
The lakes beauty enticed us to climb to greater heights to see the lake From another perspective. We embarked on a 5 mile one way hike to Grinnell Glacier overlook. The hike was more intense with much greater increase in elevation. . However our fear of heights got the best of us as the switchbacks began to sandwich us between w cliff and a steep drop down, so after about 3 miles we headed back.
The scenery was spectacular. The hike down was much easier but by the end of the 10 mile hike I could barely pick up my feet-nothing that lunch with several glasses of water and couldn’t fix. The lodge where we ate was on Swiftcurrent Lake.
We went back to Fishercap Lake with our hammocks in hopes of seeing the elusive moose. It was a relaxing wait until a thunderstorm coming over the mountain quickly chased us to our car.
A really good day became a great day when driving out of Many Glacier we saw a group of people at a trailhead parking spot looking with binoculars. Tina spotted what they were looking at-a grizzly! There happened to be a parking spot so we pulled in and watched the bear amble past our car which allowed me to get some great shots with my long lens. One more check off the bucket list. Undoubtedly this was the only way we would have wanted to encounter this huge animal.
We went to a Ranger lecture at our campsite and learned that in
1967 two young were killed by grizzly in different parts of the park on the same night. Prior to that night bears were fed garbage and bears then learned that people are a food source and they become more aggressive. Since the August night in 1967 the park service has focused its management of bears by managing peoples’ behavior around bears. Just a few weeks ago a camper left food at a campsite and a grizzly got in to it. The bear kept returning to the campground over the course of a few days. Then the Grizzly aggressively approached a family picnicking at the shore of Swiftcurrent lake, the same place where we ate our breakfast and a place that is packed with tourists. Subsequently the bear was euthanized. There are signs throughout the park that say, a fed bear is a dead bear.
The evening ended with a game of gin rummy and laughter until we cried. A great day!
