Steps in the Right Direction: Day 7 Belly River

Today we are going on a backward hike with 790 feet drop down to the valley floor first, which means you have the pleasure of hiking back up that elevation when you are finishing your hike.

Total miles today 12
Trip total 77.2

Rainbow

End of rainbow

Bear

When we got up this morning it was another bright blue sky day over at our Duck Lake house. We ate breakfast, did a load of wash and then headed to our car to ride on up to the Candian border where the Belly River trail head is located. As we are driving on the terrible duck lake approach road, we noticed a very bright rainbow over the front mountains of Glacier. We stopped and shot a a few pictures. The mountains looked very socked in with rain and low hanging clouds. Although it did not look too inviting to hike in, the rainbow was great for viewing.

While we were watching the double rainbow and dodging free range cows on the road up to Belly River trailhead we saw our first bear. It was on the road and as we approached it, it really looked just like another black angus standing in the road. Well, it looked like a cow until it turned and ran. Bears and cows look very different when they run... We slowed down and took pictures from the safety of the car. I practiced my quick draw bear protection of running the electric window up and down a few times. I can do that in two or seconds or less. I'm fast with that little window button I don't need bear spray!

We made it to the trail head and readied ourselves for a wet hike. Looks like it rained here most of the night and now it's just grey sky. What we were not prepared for was all of the mucky, murky, sloppy, slippery, greasy mud which made up the trail. Kathi pointed out that it is days like these that make days like yesterday so special.

With all of the mud and muck, most of the time my eyes were on the trail, trying to negotiate staying on my feet rather than slipping and falling in to the mud. It really was yucky hiking!

Once down on the valley floor we have open meadow views of mountains on both sides of us and ahead of us we have the scenery of a snowy topped mountain. Mt Cleveland the tallest in the park at 10,479 feet. The mountain stands at the foot of Upper Waterton Lake. Waterton lake is a lake which is shared with Canada. Five miles of the lake are in the United States and five miles in Canada.

For today's hike we are on a destination hike. We are heading to a back country ranger station that is the farthest away from headquarters than any other station in the entire park. The first ranger hired for the job of running this station was a guy named Joe Cosley. He was hired because he was a local hunting trapper in the area and was very familiar with the land back in the Belly River range. He was later fired from that position because he was found to be poaching. Poaching even back in those days was considered bad business, so he lost his job. But during his time with the park system, he was responsible for naming many of the mountains and lakes in the Belly River area. Ok, I'm one hundred percent positive the Indians had Indian names for the all of the mountains and lakes long before, but Cosley changed them all to whatever he wanted to call them. Apparently he named several of the lakes for women he dated. What a way to win a gals heart. There is a small museum in the front of the ranger station with historical pieces to help tell his story. The building itself was built in 1925. And in the winter of 2012, for the first time it sustained significant winter storm damage. The site was so damaged that a trail crew was assembled to be helicoptered into the site to fix the hole in the roof in order to save the historical building. They cross country skied out when the job was complete.

After this bit of history, we walked to the back of the site and visited with the horses while talking with the ranger/warden. The ranger and his wife live out in the backcountry all summer maybe hiking out for a day or two along the way, but one of them always needs to stay at the site. This ranger was very friendly and talkative. The horses were very tame and friendly as well, one kept trying to eat on Kathi's hand/wrist and backpack.

For the return trip we just put the hammer down and hiked the 6 miles back. Kathi and I talked with Bob from Austin, Texas, so a shout out to Bob. Bob had been on a hike earlier this week out to Cobalt Lake with us. Bob does volunteer work at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center down in Texas. Bob is very knowledgeable about the flowers in Texas and was attentive to the flowers in Glacier. Between Kathi, Bob and I we had plenty to talk about while hiking the 6 miles back to the trailhead. It is always fun to compare notes on what we had all seen while hiking in the park this year. Bob is a frequent visitor to Glacier and like our friend Gene loves to come and walk through Glacier, soaking in her vast glory. At this point I'm also giving a shout out to Gene. We met Gene several years ago in Glacier National Park on a hike and still keep in touch with him. We had hoped to be hiking a few trails with Gene and hiking friend Joe but were unable to connect with dates. Gene was just returning to his home from a trip to India. When at Glacier, Gene likes to see bears as he hikes, so he can shoot them with his camera. He carries one of those 'big cameras" and wants to see bear, we carry two of those little point and shoot cameras and do not want to see bear...

Oh sorry back to the hike. Our ranger leader led our group hike until we got to the portion of the trail where the 790 foot incline began. At this point she said she liked to hike this last section slow, so if we wanted to head on out we could. That was a nice way of saying: I'm not in cardio vascular shape and I need to go slow, so you head on up while I just work my way up sucking wind. Well in her defense the trail was mostly in the hot sun with little or no wind blowing.

As we headed up the last half mile we met a group of three men that asked us of we had seen any keys laying on the trail? They informed us there were two girls up at the trail head who had hiked out and were missing their car keys. Oh,oh...... So the last half mile we kept our eyes on the trail, but saw no keys. By the time we reached the trail head the person who had lost her keys had just returned from using the phone at the border crossing. It seems rather odd to be standing so close to an International border, but the border control building was only 50 yards from our trail head. The girl who had lost her car keys was trying to maintain her composure, but clearly upset. As I would be too. She needed to get the VIN number off of her rental car, hitch a ride to Kalispell, get a new key cut for that rental car, rent a new car to drive way back to the Belly River parking lot to retrieve her first rental car, then she and her hiking friend could each drive a rental car back to Kalispell to return the two cars. Kalispell is most likely a 3 hour drive one way from where we were standing. What a mess. Ok, lesson is: ALWAYS ATTACH YOUR KEYS TO SOMETHING THAT WILL STAY WITH YOU. While we were standing there in all of the drama, she was able to arrange a ride to Kalespell for the first leg of her journey.

Kathi has sort of lost her patience with me through the years because whenever we leave the car parked somewhere I ask her if she has the keys.

She looked at me after all of this drama and thanked me for always asking.... Nice!

Oh and my last statement of the Belly River trail is save it for when you have nothing else to do. Sort of a snoozer. There are so many more trails which are more exciting!