One of the fortunate few-part 2 (Belly River Backpack)

Various pre-trip messages were flying between the group members talking about food, gear, and gear weight. Jen has a dehydrator and actually uses it, so she was making me jealous. Teapot sent a few websites with good food ideas, but my plan was to choose mass produced, factory made, GMO packed, fat laden, salt loaded food. That is, use the Mountain House food that’s been sitting in the basement for years. Yum.

First off, I’m not a backpacker. Yeah, I’ve dabbled on some solo overnight trips in northern Minnesota, with my brother for a couple trips, with two friends in the Boundary Waters, but nothing resembling a large group and certainly not for a week. The “Todd” (Floral Park) hike made me realize that a group is a team, so if I forget TP a solo hike, I have to fend for myself, but with a group, they will offer up their prized paper and then wonder WTF. Before this trip, I counted the sheets per visit, multiplied by a week, and then doubled that. Yeah, really.

Gathering a group means 1. Getting people to commit, 2. Getting people to show up, and then 3. Getting people with all the qualities you’d like in the backcountry. Hence the title of the blog.

I Nikwaxed the nearly unused tent and set it up.

We talked about hanging food, and decided I didn’t need my cord. (We could have used that cord.)

I tested the stove.

I also did a “test hike” with the pack. This showed that 40 lbs was about my pack limit. My legs aren’t as strong as years ago when I’d haul 5-10 lbs of photo gear in addition to the camping gear.

One thing I didn’t test was the water purifier. This is something I use on most trips to Glacier, and the design just seemed too simple to need testing. I conveniently forgot that I put this in use during the Nixon administration.

Water purifier with old filter (center) and new filter (right)

As it ended up, I use every sheet of paper I brought, I was a few stakes short of a “full set” for the tent, the stove worked fine, but the water purifier didn’t. I guess the old filter finally clogged.

Who’s in, who’s out

There was some question of who was going to be on the backpack. Injury reports were being updated, and a final starting team was announced, then another injury report came in. During the process, we also decided on a meal at the Cattle Barron the night before kickoff. Some had good steaks, some were “just fine,” which seems to agree with the online reviews. I think it depends on if you were lucky to get a good cut of meat.

The motley crew at the trailhead: me, Tibber, Debra, Maia, Teapot, Ipasha Jen

Gable Creek, 1 star review

Underwear in the bushes. No view and the mule was dirty.

7/9/23

Not two miles into the hike, we went from 6 hikers to 5. The group had spread out, and Tibber, in the caboose location decided to turn around.

Train I ride, six coaches long
Train I ride, five coaches long

Surprised? Why yes. This put a damper on the hike and the first night until Jen pulled out some rum. Some being more than one liter but less than two. I don’t recall if it was pre-rum or post-rum, but we hiked over to the ranger station and with some coaxing by the mule whisperer (Maia), Ellen (the mule) came over for a visit.

Having dinner

The ranger station is under construction.

Ellen.

Ellen is dirty, but she loved the attention.

You’ll pretty much get a flash card download here. Well, you’ll pretty much get a flash card download for the rest of the trip.

Helen Lake, 1 star review

The hanging pole was too high and had no pole.

7/10/23

Morning stroll

Before breakfast, I when out for some photos and ran into Alison, the ranger. She checked our permits the evening before, and Jen asked, “Are you Alison?” And then there was a whole “kumbaya” moment about some rescue up on Gable Pass, yada, yada. (I jest Jen.) My point here is that post-kumbaya, we seemed to have a connection with Alison, who we’d run into a few more times on the trip.

Alison, off towards Stoney Indian.

Breakfast (Gable Creek)

Debra’s (left) and my tent (right).

The Hike, just keep left.

Some random stream.

Some random tree.

Some random waterfall. (Might be Dawn Mist Falls.)

Some random lake. (Might be Elizabeth Lake.)

The evening at Helen Lake was beautiful. It had been a fairly long day with full packs, and at the lake we lowered the pack weight by consuming some liquids. Some serious weather drifted by just west of us and soaked the campers down at Elizabeth.

I love the end of basically every valley in Glacier: Cracker, Bullhead, Iceberg, Upper Kintla, etc. I had never been to Helen Lake and it did not disappoint.

It’s easy to see why hiking from Ahern Pass to Helen is difficult even though it looks so easy from above.

The duck whisperer (Maia) called this duck fairly close to shore.

I believe Jen’s namesake is in the upper right corner.

Elizabeth Lake, 1 star review

There was underwear in the trees. The bear thingy was almost full.

7/11/23

The morning brought on and off rain, sometimes heavy. Since we only had to hike a few miles back to Elizabeth, we hung out in the tents. I was out early answering the call, but unlike Maia, I didn’t see the moose.

I don’t think the really heavy stuff is going to come down for a while.

How many attempts does it take to throw a rope over a pole?

During a break in the weather

The hotel (Jen and Maia’s tent).

As we were leaving, I stopped to snap a few photos since the light was not half bad. (Above). Elizabeth Lake (below).

At the Elizabeth Lake food circle, we ran into Mykhaylo (Mike) and his friend Adam who did research into some upper layer of the atmosphere or magnetic poles, or some crazy layer up there. So they had stories and videos of northern lights in exotic locations of the world. I also talked with a father and daughter who hauled in a fairly significant payload of photo gear. Meanwhile, I was slapping my socks on logs to dry them out.

Glenns Head, 1 star review

I was too tired to appreciate the beauty by the time I got there. The lake needs to be closer. There was underwear in the bushes.

7/12/23

The day started with wandering around the lake, and then down towards dawn mist falls with the camera.

It takes me about the same amount of energy to hike at 1.5 mph as compared to 2.0 mph, except that I wear the pack longer at 1.5 mph. So I started heading out in front of the group and for the most part, Debra (and sometimes Maia) hiked with me. This particular morning, I was going to take some pictures at Dawn Mist Falls and Debra decided to check out the trail to Ptarmegan Tunnel.

The light was pretty boring at the falls, so I continued the woods hike towards Cosley Lake.

Along the way, I ran into Alison on horseback hauling another two equine siblings in tow. By the time I reached Cosley, Debra, and then Mike and his buddy, and finally the rest of the crew caught up for the water crossing.

Mike hamming it up (above). Trees after the water crossing (below).

On the hike to Glenns Lake, the temp started warming up and I started sweating. Since I never wear a backpack all day in warm temps, I interpreted the sweat rolling down into my nether regions as stomach problems. When you have 157 sheets of paper, there’s not a lot of room for stomach problems. So I started stepping off a non-stop gait to the Glenns Lake latrine. Debra, the world class marathon runner she is, hung tough right behind me. Bless her heart. At the site, Debra commented on how quickly I hung the food sack. Upon QC checking the latrine, I was pleasantly surprised there was no issue. I.e., no reason to leave underwear in the trees. Whoop-whoop. I then informed Debra why I had a pepp in my step and scramble in my amble.

In the evening, I wandered down the trail towards Stoney Indian on a slow walk. When I say slow, I mean more loitering waiting for picture ideas. There was beautiful light and no wind. A few minutes later, Debra shows up with a bear spray, hands it to me and scolds me about leaving without it. Thanks Debra.

That evening we were sitting around the food prep area and a couple stopped on their hike from Many Glacier to Stoney Indian. I don’t remember exactly where their final destination was, but looking at him, he reminded me of Dave Chamberlain, a (local) xc skier who skied three world champs, won the Birkie, was an all-american, etc. This guy also had a minimal backpack (like he skipped the tent and sleeping bag) but had a hatchet on the exterior. His companion had a backpack with more bulk, but I would say her pack was also quite light.

I don’t remember if it was this night or the next that we had “Calzone” stop by. She was hiking the PNT. I had never heard of the PNT, but it’s the Pacific Northwest Trail which (from my read of the map) goes from Belly River through state and national forests to North Cascades, Olympic, and the shore of Washington and she ended at Cape Alava. Hell of a hike. An 80 day hike. On a related note, many through hikers are putting high pressure on the backcountry sites. I don’t have an answer for that, but it mirrors the pressure on front country sites.

Glenns Head, 1 star review

They should do something about the bees by the outhouse.

7/13/23

Perfect weather. Yawn.

I had read a few trip reports on Margaret Lake, so my plan was to hike to Margaret. Debra was up for the trip but Teapot’s boots had disintegrated, leaving one of her heels with painful blister(s). These things have a way of escalating, so it was best to tend the wounds. It seemed Jen and Maia were content to hang around the camp and doing some laundry. Delicates in the bushes? Might be.

Debra (on left) climbing Pyramid creek

Another “end of the valley” view in Glacier. Love it.

On the way back, we stopped and talked with the guys at Mokowanis Lake. I gave them a hard time that their tequila (Cuervo 1800) was cheap.

Mokowanis Lake

One guy was talking about hiking up to Margaret that day, I looked at the sky which looked like rain, and with a glint in my eye said, “Yeah, you should do it.” Right on cue, it started to lightly rain and Debra and I immediately started to leave. I put on my rain jacket and Debra didn’t wait. A couple minutes later, it was downpouring rain and Debra didn’t have a rain jacket.

Back at camp we waited out the rain in the tent, then hung clothes to dry.

The sun came out, but it wasn’t long before it started to rain again, so I pulled the wet laundry off the line.

That evening, I again wandered around taking pictures, this time with bear spray, but I didn’t think the light was quite as interesting.

1/2 second, hand held on the bridge railing. It took a few tries to get one fairly sharp. No stabilization on the camera or lens.

1/3 second.

Word on the street was a juvenile bear was tearing down tents. The rangers closed the site and set up decoy tents, but the bear didn’t return, so the site was reopened.

A crazy mouse was running around the food ring. It would jump up and down and act like it was hallucinating. “The mouse is on acid.” I know, I know, post a photo or it didn’t happen. Sorry, no photo.

Cosley Foot, 1 star review

Someone left their britches on a branch. Garbage in the galley.

Clean air turned to smoke for our last day.

Packed and ready to go. “Hey, don’t you have a self timer?” “Why yes I do.”

We ran into a moose and a little while later Alison on horseback again. At Cosley, we had our pick of the sites.

Debra and I (above). Teapot, Jen and Maia (below). Teapot in green.

It was a pretty lazy day hanging around the campsite and prepping food. I got out for a photo walk, but the woods were pretty uninteresting.

7/15/23

The hike out

The group wanted to get a fairly early start, I’d guess we started at 8:00. I again took off early so I could get a photo at Gros Ventre Falls.

I snapped this quick thinking the light wasn’t good and then threw the backpack on and hiked up to the main trail. (The group had passed me.)

The previous day, Alison asked Jen to stop by the ranger station. When we did, Alison was training other rangers to train horses.

Ellen, the redheaded step child. (A mule.)

On the hike to Chief Mountain, we ran into a gaggle of, what appeared to be college aged women. Essentially all of them were dressed in nearly identical stretch pants and sports bras, and there was little evidence of food or water. “How far is the lake,” one asked. I replied, “You’re about half way” and Debra replied, “What lake?” They were undeterred.

A bit further down the trail, I felt like I should have some water, so I got out the filter that wasn’t working well. It worked well enough to top off a bottle.

A few stepped later, I stopped for a photo. Jen and Maia also stopped but a bit upstream. See them left center? No? Here ya go.

Here’s the photo for which I stopped.

This was a great group to hike with. I found out a lot about marathon running from Debra. Teapot has a relaxed disposition that makes conversation easy. Jen was more of a firecracker, keeping things lively, and Maia was the young energy the group needed.

St Mary 7/16/23

We…well, our travel agent booked two more nights at St. Mary. As was the case with Many Glacier, the primo sites were empty while our site was small and sun exposed. I headed up to Sun Rift Gorge for some evening photos.

Dragon’s Tail, 7/17/23

The next morning, I was up early and heading to Logan Pass. Sheep were right at the trailhead to Hidden Lake. It took me a while think about taking pictures, maybe because I only had a wide angle lens. They were almost within arm’s reach and not particularly afraid. Of course once they sensed me hurrying to get a camera, then they started walking away.

The early start was really too early for good photos of Hidden Lake, which is in the shadow of the mountains.

Off towards Dragon’s Tail.

Up on the start of Dragon’s Tail.

I ran into a couple up there who brought along four children. The smallest was not happy, and after greeting them and walking by, I went back and said something like, “I’m so impressed that you got the whole family up here, would you mind if i take a picture?” The first photo was the best, but it was severely overexposed. The two older children were so proud.

Drive home, 7/18/223

We only made two stops for photos on the way home. One was in Hindale:

…and the other (as I recall) was south of Wolf Point.

Ok, thanks for reading.