Glacier National Park

Through the years, I have hiked what amounts to a couple thousand miles of trails, mostly in northwest Montana. This trip to Montana I added a couple miles to that tally.

While I sometimes hike by myself, I often hit the trail with a friend or two. My hiking partner on this little jaunt was a guy I grew up with and graduated from high school with, the infamous Steve Robinson.

We decided to hike in Glacier National Park and after a scone and a swig of coffee at Montana Coffee Traders (which sits where the old Pines Cafe once stood and keeps the big-pine-tree-trunk-in-the-restaurant theme though the top of the tree was lopped off when the name changed and bucked up and sold off to local history buffs and perhaps a tree hugger or two), I piled my gear into Steve's pickup and we set off to the park.

Summers up at Glacier Park are hard to beat. Cool breezes, fantastic scenery, and rangers wearing Smokey the Bear hats. What a deal. It's 20 bucks to get in the gate unless, like Steve and I, you have an annual pass.

Going up through Apgar Village and on around Lake McDonald, we saw very little wildlife and few tourists. It was nice riding in the passenger seat of a vehicle for a change, so I took advantage of the down-the-cliff views as we wound our way up the Going-To-The-Sun Highway and along the Garden Wall. When we topped the summit at Logan Pass, we stopped to ask where the closest phone was as Steve needed to make a business call. Who knew there were so many good-looking young female park rangers of the helpful sort. They told us we needed to head about 12 miles over the east side of the pass. This helped us choose what trail we would hike on, as well.

After the call and me snagging a Flathead Lake Monster soda pop from the nearby store, we headed back up toward Logan Pass. Our trail of choice turned out to be Siyeh Trail. I geared up (this means I put on my photography vest, camera, hiking pole, hat, sunglasses, and sunscreened myself if I was smart) and we headed up the trail. Siyeh Trail, if you take it all the way, will take you over a pass; we decided not to go that far. The scenery was phenomenal and I got a few shots of it as we hiked up through some trees and out onto the bare mountainside (bare of trees, that is). Speaking of bears, we saw none, but did encounter a number of ground squirrels who weren't too please with us intruding on their territories.

As with most hikes I take with others, there is humorous conversation and a generally good time had by all. This hike was short enough neither of us got too winded or acquired any blisters. The best thing, of course, was that we discovered an incredible patch of huckleberries, unpicked, all along one section of the trail. I'm not sure if berry eating is against park rules but I pretended I was a grizzly bear a couple times and got telltale purple stains on my fingers and likely on my face, as well.

Back at the trailhead, we dusted ourselves off and hopped in the truck, and drove back over Logan Pass and pulled over for lunch (we'd stopped at Super 1 Foods and stocked up in the morning) with a view. As I was preparing to shoot photos, Steve realized he'd driven several miles up over the pass with his tailgate down and topper door up in the air. Thankfully you can't drive fast on Going-To-The-Sun Road, so all our gear was still neatly in place along with our lunches. We both had a good chuckle about his oversight. It also proved I'm not the only absent-minded thirty-something loose in the world.

It's always a good hike when everyone comes out of it healthy and unharmed with stories to tell.

Later, back at my brother's house, I decided to snap a shot of him hard at work at his house. He was bucking up the last of a large number of logs for firewood chopping. The shot captures the essence of summer life in northwest Montana.