Steps in the Right Direction: Day 5 Cobalt Lake

Cobalt Lake

Elevation gain 1,400 feet
Highest elevation: 6,680 feet
Miles hiked 11.7
Total miles hiked: 49

Today Kathi and I both have blisters under a toe nail. Ever have a blister under a toe nail? It feels better if you can get a needle under there and relieve the pressure. We have done what we can to prepare our feet for the day of hiking, but you can only do what you can do right... Our morning started with glorious blue skies. This was a huge surprise after all of the rain we received during the thunderstorm yesterday afternoon with rains that followed until late into the night. We ate a leisurely breakfast and then slowly drove out of our place and up the very unimproved rode we have to drive to the highway. It is about a mile drive on the side shoulder of a poorly traveled road. When driving on it you feel like you want to hang a cheek or two on the fender of the car on the up side to keep your car balanced. Those of you who have rider lawn mowers know what I am talking about.

We drove down highway 89 to highway 49 to get to the Two Medicine Lake area. It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get there. The road is a very curvy mountain driving road, the kind with with no shoulder and lots of free air on one side or the other. To make things even more challenging there were lots of free range cattle. One mother with calf gave us the stink eye as we were trying to go in the other lane to go around her. We did not think she was kidding around, she was ready to make good on putting a dent in our rental car! We backed off and let her decide what she was going to do.

We arrived at the parking lot with about fifteen minutes before the ranger led hike was leaving. We're hoping that Pat Hagan is going to be leading the hike. Instead it was Kelly. She was very good and informative, but Pat's forte is entertainment. We decide to go with the hike and try it out. The hike started out nice until one couple started asking for every flower to be named. And with every flower they wanted to tell us about every documentary they ever saw. Seriously, we have a long way to go and we are not even a mile into the hike but are forty five minutes in time wise. Kathi and I ditch the group. We inform Kelly that we are moving on ahead, and then throw down some dust.

Since we have seen a couple of bear scats on the trail we make lots and lots of noise as we hike. We practice singing solo and duets of our bear song.
Go go go yogi
You belong in a zoo
Go Go Go yogi
I don't want to see you

Go go go yogi
You know I don't taste good
Go stand by a tree and scratch on some wood.

Go go go yogi
Is that your big poo
Go Go Go yogi
I don't want to see you

Go go go yogi
You know I don't taste good
Go stand by a tree and scratch on some wood.

When hiking along one can really belt it out! The bear do not really care if you sing on key or not. Hopefully this singing will continue to be the best kind of bear repellant, Kathi has not practiced her bear spray quick draw since Sunday...and she is back in the lead.

The trail itself is sort of a rambling affair passing through spruce forest, past beaver dams and avalanche shoots filled with vegetation up past my shoulders. Since avalanche chutes are wonderful snacking habitat for bear, I sing the loudest while passing through these spots. We create some new verses to the old song "the other day I saw a bear, a big ole bear a way up there..." I'm sure the bear are holding their paws over their ears says nooooooo, not that song.

The trail does not begin the 1,400 elevation gain until we arrive at Rockwell falls. This falls is a series of 20 foot falls that cascade their way down about a hundred foot drop. The falls were running full and fast. We stopped and took a few pictures of Kathi standing in front of the falls since she works for Rockwell we thought it a nice photo opportunity.

Ok, since the climb has just begun we get ourselves into the groove of climbing. We are starting to get better views of the surrounding mountains which create the valley we are working up through. The mountains are quite a sight. The red and green argillite rocks make the view spectacular .

What is argillite? "Reddish-brown and greenish-gray in appearance, these rocks are comprised of argillite and quartzite material that was compressed under sea water to form mudstones. The chemical composition of these rocks, in addition to their place of origin within the Belt Sea - near shore versus deeper water environments, is largely responsible for the variation in color." National Park Service

The last 200 feet of elevation before the lake is a tease. You can see the shelf of the hanging lake, but the path just seems to be headed up through and away from where you think you are going. We can clearly see Two Medicine Pass past the lake and going to the top would add another 2.5 miles to our day along with another 1,200 feet of elevation. We decide not to head up to the pass and save ourselves for tomorrow's trip.

Finally the trail drops some 40 feet down to Cobalt lake and it does not look blue. Perhaps at one time when a glacier emptied into it it was, but not any longer. We meet up with an interesting couple, both in their 70's. The man was a former teacher, principal, and superintendent. He had done it all and was fed up with money or lack of funding creating a situation of disempowerment. The lady had had the surgery done on her toe which I need on mine. She said since the surgery her toes feel great. She is 70 and had the surgery four years ago and still no reoccurrence of the Hallx. ... She just wears her hiking boots tied kind of funny, which is what made me notice and say something about her hiking boot. You just have no idea how interesting this chat was until you have a really bad toe which does not want to bend and when it does it is a very sharp pain. So I felt encouragement that someday I will get that toe fixed!

After sitting at the lake for an hour the ranger led group finally arrived. We needed to pack up to leave as we wanted to get back into town and have supper at Seranos, a really good Mexican restaurant in East Glacier. This is the place all of the locals go to have a good meal.

The hike out was rather uneventful. We did some singing and story telling about Kathi learning how to back up a truck with a trailer attach to it. In her much younger days in the summer she mowed lawn for the county she lived in. Part of that job entailed putting the mower on a trailer and driving from park to park to mow. It also entailed parking the truck and trailer back into the equipment shed after the day was finished. Her boss standing with his arms folded across his chest just waiting for the chuckles to begin. We had a few good laughs over these stories as she had to learn by baptism by fire.

I guess I learned by backing a manure spreader back into the cow yard and under the barn cleaner. You had to get the spreader in the right position for farmer Curt or he would chuckle and say try again. A redo meant he would be standing and watching, shaking his head with a chuckle at all of your wrong turns... Of course if you let any cows get out of the gate while you were attempting to right the spreader location, you suffered the same head shake. Oh yes, and you earned the right to go and chase the cows back in which ultimately caused a bigger show!

All of that paragraph came about as we were we were wondering it we would like a camper. A pull behind camper of sorts. Of course during the ownership of a camper trailer one would have to back it up into a tight spot. And you can bet there would be a person or two who would be watching with the expectation of a chuckle or two... We have very mixed thoughts on the ideas.
the gift shop. We need some Cheetos. This is the only time during the whole year that we can eat Cheetos, and I don't want to run out of them! We make our way back to the parking lot and drop our packs off so we can go shopping at