Summer 2009 Gunsight Lake Day 2

Day Two Gunsight Lake


Were you wondering about that tire? Yes, that was the first thing I looked at this morning when I got up. I walked to the window and took a gander at the tire. I can’t believe that thing is not flat… But am I ever relieved.

We have to drive up that old road again. Kathi tells me to read about the parking brake and how one might deploy it and un deploy it. I read to her about the parking break. I’m starting to think she is just trying to keep me busy… Does anyone need to know about the Chevy 2010 Malibu? I can say I have read the book and understand it’s finer details! We arrive at the trail head without any problems or air sucking. And deploy the parking brake.

Today you are going to need reading material and bug spray. If you have bear spray bring that also…


We do not have bear spray as it costs $50 bucks a can and you cannot take it on the airplane. So we do loud hiking. Talk loud, laugh, giggle, tell bad jokes, practice math. Really. Kathi loves numbers so we start with a number like 34 +6=42x2=84 /4= 21/7=3x15=45/9=5 Ok…This little math games goes on for miles… I have to do all of the figuring on these math sentences as Kathi and her love for numbers just knows the answer while I have to spend a few moments figuring these things out. These are things you do after you already know all of the stories of the other person you are hiking with 

Anyway, put on your mosquito spray, and no you don’t apply the bear spray to yourself. You carry the can in a really easy gripping spot on your straps of your pack. Be ready to grab and spray. Remember to check for wind direction. If the wind is to your face you will spray and be immediately grabbing your face and eyes as the spray is totally hot pepper spray… Also remember you have at best a 15 foot shooting distance, with 10 seconds of spray. A grizzly and black bear can run 40 miles an hour for short distances. Even my highly tuned math skills can figure you have little chance of spraying the bear, a high chance of spraying yourself, and needing to change your underwear… Best to be really loud and scare away all wildlife while hiking! 12 x10 =120-40= 80…

Gun sight pass is supposed to be the epic hike at Glacier national Park. It has a chain of lakes, two mountain passes and some fantastic views along the way. The epic part of this hike is also 20 miles long. Most people do this in a two day hike. They hike up to Sperry lodge stay a night and then hike down to McDonald Lake the next day. Ahhh, we do not have reservations at Sperry lodge so we will only be going to the lake. We ponder the possibility of going up to the pass, but will reach that decision when we see it!


Trail starts and ends with a 600 foot drop in elevation over a mile and half down to the river bottom. This will mean a 600 foot walk back up at the end. Who thought that was a good idea?

The trail meanders along the river bottom through wonderful moose habitat. We see in the mud a track that is perhaps a bear paw or a beautiful arrangement of an old boot with no tread and perfectly placed nail marks. (my guess is 99% sure it is bear, I’ll leave 1% chance it was something else) We see all sorts of moose poo. We also see some bear poo- so we are being very LOUD! Yo, Bear, Yogi Bear! Funny we keep looking for any moose that might not have been chased off with our yelling. We saw no moose over the distance of 4 miles of the perfect moose habitat, gladly, I can say we also saw no bear. Frankly, I find the second part of that sentence to be more important than the first… Others might feel differently. They most likely have bear spray attached to their pack strap and feel they have a reasonable chance of spraying the bear.


Slowly we begin to leave the river bottoms and gain some elevation. This whole trail is filled with some very woodsy smells. Trail is heavily laden with cow parsnip and scratchy willows, columbine, bear grass, paint brush, and other flowers that I do not know the name of but like looking at. We make good time back to the lake.

The lake is beautiful, the day is perfect and the pass looks like we just want to sit and look at it rather than climb 1200 foot elevation in one mile just to get a different perspective of what we know is already a perfect view. So we sit down on a log at the base of the Lake. This is a perfect spot to sit and eat lunch and do some reading. Like I said earlier, you will need to bring some reading material along. Kathi and I forgot this little part of the packing this morning so we just sit and look, ponder, watch fish jump, skip some rocks, and swat mosquitoes. These mountain mosquitoes are pretty slow or do not have the brains of a mid west mosquitoes. You can kill these guys easy. Three might land on your arm and you can get all three without a problem. When does that ever happen back home.

We spent an hour just sitting at the lake, pondering, skipping, swatting. We decide to head back out. On the way out we see some trees that have barbed wire attached to them. These trees are special trees and are part of a big science experiment. Bear like to scratch their backs on trees. They usually use trees that are right along the trail as this gives them the best opportunity for nothing to get in the way of a good scratch. Remember trails are also animal’s highway through the woods. Much easier to travel on something clear of debris rather than trying to walk over downed branches and other deep woods clutter. So the scientists’ are gathering hair that the bear have rubbed and gotten caught in the barbed wire. They test the hair DNA and track what bears are in the area and what their traveling habits are. This experiment is a USA/Canadian project. Kathi and I stop at each tree and try to see if any hairs are caught in the wire. After close examination we determined there are no hairs. Perhaps the bear that dropped the poo had a friend to scratch his back…

We did have our first sighting of a martin loping down the trail at us. This looks much like a mink. It had gorgeous dark shinny coat and a mouse in its mouth. I was in the front. I stopped as I have never encountered this type of animal and was trying to think what the rule might be here… How viscous are these critters… Is it going to come after us??? The martin stopped with in15 feet of us. Looked at us, turned and trotted back the trail about 10 feet then turned again and headed for us. Stopped and decided to get off trail and get in the tall weeds. Hmmm! That was interesting. I never even had the chance to get my camera out to take a picture of it.

Hiked back on down the trail yo bearing and looking for any deaf moose. Gun sight Lake was truly beautiful and I bet the pass is spectacular, but by the end of this hike we will have added another 13 miles to our running total. So we are in two days at 28.2 miles hiked. Today we hike for 5 hours and 47 minutes, taking 31,335 steps and burn 1467 calories. Looks like dessert is on the menu tonight!!!