Hiking Time!!!
So you have had the opportunity to get in shape for your virtual hike. So put on your best hiking socks, lace up your boots and here we go!!!
We arrive in Glacier by way of Calgary. We flew from Milwaukee to Dallas. Loaded the plane in Dallas on time and then sat on the plane for an hour and 40 minutes while the repair crew fixed the plane. No need to rush any fix job. Take your time and make sure all of the nuts and bolts get back nice and tight! Arrived in Calgary during the final weekend of the Stampede. Calgary during a stampede is an interesting place. Imagine everyone in town all dressed in cowboy boots, plaid shirts, wrangler jeans and cowboy hats… Kathi and I with our packs and hiking boots seemed a bit out of place.
Kathi and I stood in line for customs. We were going to claim the fruit, but we were wondering about the granola… does dried fruit count as fruit? Ended up forfeiting a nectarine to the officer. Yes, I guess our little nectarine is ok in the USA, but the pit of the nectarine is considered dangerous in Canada. Perhaps we might run off and plant it somewhere… I bet the officer just needed a nice snack for break time.
Drove from Calgary to the last town in Canada before the US border. We needed to purchase some groceries. I had spent a couple of hours on the Internet researching what we could take across the border. Basically forget about taking fruits and veggies. So, we tried to decide if strawberry jam was considered a fruit or condiment… According to the ‘rules’ condiments are ok to cross the border, fruits and veggies you can forget about… There is a $10,000 fine for trying to sneak something across. I felt reasonably sure we could find a lawyer to argue our case of condiment vs. fresh fruit in court if we got arrested.
USA border patrol was born in New Berlin, WI. His grandpa and grandma live in Rochester, MN. Most of his questions to us were based on what is going on back in WI… After thinking we were going to get the 9th degree on this border crossing we just had to play the happy traveler from Wisconsin and Minnesota. Geez that Minnesota accent comes in handy, yaaahhh.
We were up at 7 am and had a quick breakfast. This is the first time it dawns on me that we are going to be driving the Going to the sun road… Yes, this is the road we have rules for. I think I should remind Kathi of the rules before we get started. But before I get to the rules portion of the pre flight speech Kathi asks me if I could read the car directions book and go over how to shift the car down into third second and first… Ok, yes, that seems important! This rental has some different options on shifting so I get right to the task! By the time I finish reading the book and reviewing the important parts, we are up to the big open views on the road. I look up just in time to see a rock standing on the road. Kathi is breaking rule number one which we did not have time to review… she is looking at the scenic views rather than keeping her eyes on the road! Now this rock is not huge, but the kind you don’t want to hit with the tire. The size that can pop a tire or bust it off of it’s bead. One should not yell “watch out!” “Watch out!” should be reserved for falling rocks and avalanches… Of course we hit the rock with the front right tire. So I just do the sucking air between my teeth and wait for the blow out. It does not blow, but it did make some tense moments of conversation. We have less than a mile to the pass. The whole mile I am wondering if the tow truck would come up to the pass or if we were going to be reading the direction book again learning how to change a tire. We parked the car at 8:40. I got out of the car and did a tire inspection. Curt would be proud! No chunks missing, no hissing noise. Just this little sick feeling of wonder.
Put on warm clothes and rain wear as it was windy and cold. As we were dressing and lacing boots the rangers arrived at the parking lot. Out of the ranger car climbed the old ranger we met last year. The one who recited the John Muir passage to us last year. So I went over to him and said a kind hello, thanked him for sending us on a beautiful hike last year and asked him a few questions about the garden wall hike. He was said everything was open as far as he had heard. We wanted to know if we could get up to the glacier over look or if it was snowed in. He kind of smiled a sly smile and asked if we would be kind enough to go up there and report back our findings. He then asked where else we were going to be hiking while on vacation so I said: Garden Wall, Gunsight Pass, Siyeh pass, Crypt Lake, Carthridge- Alderson, Shadow Lake and Mt Assiniboine. He said “oh girl…you are speaking words of romance to me…” Well, let the romance begin!
If you can imagine the trail looking much like the drive up to this point. The trail is blasted out of the side of the mountain and of course there iare no guards rails. Oh, but there is this handy little cable with a garden hose wrapping it. Lots of people grip this little helpful tool. But this might be a good time to let you know that if you can balance on a sidewalk…you can walk down this trail! Really, there are way skinner drop off ahead on this virtual hike. Can you see the road about 500 feet directly below?
About three miles down the trail we run into these big horn rams right next to the trail eating glacial lilies.
Hmmm what is the rule when walking next to rams?
Hiked up though beautiful scenic views, the smell of the fresh mix of spruce and fir, the deep must of the woods, the sounds of water running and falling, the wild life…It is all good and good to be back! We hiked all the way back to within a mile of Granite Lodge. We hiked up to that last year from the other side. Today we took a trail up to Grinnell glacier overlook. This is .8 mile long with at 1000 foot gain in elevation. Imagine walking up a 35 % grade for .8 mile. This was hard for a first day at elevation… We took our time and paid attention to our heartrate monitors. We did not go above 85% of max. But let’s face it we were sucking some serious wind. I don’t care how much you work out, it is hard to go from 780 feet above sea level and work at 8000 feet above sea level. Ok, just keep going at a good pace. From the top we have the opportunity to sit and view a glacier that will be gone within an estimated time frame of 6 years...
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