Total miles hiked: 118.8
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| Boot Wash |
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| Hikers Shelter |
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| First Glimpse of Gunsight Lake |
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| Reloading water for the last six miles |
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| Gunsight lake shore |
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| Early morning friend with her baby |
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| First glimpse of Lake Ellen Wilson |
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| Bear is somewhere in the land you can see in this photo... Yo Bear! |
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| There are no showers available at the Chalet, but you can get free ones on the trail! |
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| Looks like the lake pours over the edge |
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| Interesting stripes of agrilite |
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| Nice trail |
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| Jackson Glacier in the distance |
Today we have another wonderful breakfast and share a story or two with two ladies who arrived yesterday by way of horse. They were both retired teachers and long time friends. In fact they were elementary school friends. They get together a couple times every year and do something exciting. Their plan was ride the horses up, stay two days and hike down.
We head off to pack up our items and hike out. We had talked with a few people who had hiked in through gunsight pass and they felt it was safe enough to hike out on. We know there are three questionable snow fields that will have to be crossed, but we have had practice crossing snow fields and have our ice stabilizers and poles ready to use.
We say our goodbyes and thank you's and head off on our Gunsight Pass adventure.
The last time we went this was up to Lincoln pass it was very snow covered. At one point Kathi slipped and fell, landing on her butt and sliding all the way down into a little snow basin at the bottom. Since the location of the slip and slide was not in any dangerous location, it was one of those laugh out loud moments. Well in truth it was a laugh out loud moment for me, and after Kathi's pants and underwear dried it it was funnier for her too. Or maybe she finally started laughing, because I could not stop laughing...moments like these give me the giggles for many miles!
We hike up and over Lincoln Pass and find we have gained the confidence of a mother goat and her baby. Momma goat and her baby follow us for a long time. We met a father and son hiking up out of the Lake Ellen Wilson camp ground. They said watch out for the grizzly bear, who was hanging out over there. Then we ran into a second couple who had spent the afternoon and evening hours with the grizzly yesterday. The bear had wondered into camp did some fishing off of the shore, went for a swim and then meandered off. They thought she might still be down somewhere around the trees down there. I'm thinking to myself, how in the world did you get any sleep knowing there was a big ole Grizzly in camp by you all night. I would have had the biggest fire burning all night that you could imagine. But then I think I would have had to collect a lot of wood for that fire in the trees where the grizzly might be so maybe no fire for me. Hmmm. Ok I would be sitting with my head lamp on and bear spray in hand all night.... Yeah, that what I would be doing.
We hike down along the side of Lake Ellen Wilson with out seeing any bear. We don't see any goats either, which might mean the bear is still in the area. At any rate, no bear for us. On the far side of the lake we see our first mountain goats, we feel pretty sure the grizzly is not in this area. At the far side of the lake we are heading up the head wall of the mountain, you can see the trail switchbacks up to the first hanging valley. On the way up the switchbacks we met the two trail crew guys who are responsible for all of the trail maintenance on this side of Gunsight Pass. We try to talk both of them into heading over the pass and clearing up the snow fields so we can safely cross them. They each chuckle and say that is another's crews responsibility. Rats!
We make it to the top of the pass and are able to view into two valleys. Really this type of views make all of the work of getting to the top so worth all of the energy required to get there. Sitting at the top of the pass is a small hut building with a metal roof and thick stone wall. the building is called Gunsight Pass hikers shelter. And considering the location it would be a perfect place to duck into if caught in a lightening storm as tree line is a long way away no matter which way you head down the pass. I will say that when ducking into the shelter, be prepared to share it with a friendly Marrmot as I saw he lives there!
We shoot a few pics and get on our way. We come to our first snow crossing and find it long in distance, but if you lost control, you have a pretty good chance of saving yourself if you fall on the first two thirds of the snow field the far third is pretty steep with a rocky landing a short distance away. Kathi blazed a cool track trail all the way across that one with no problem. When we got the other other side it was easy to see what the trail maintenance guy we met in the Highline trail was talking about. From the lower view you can see that one might just take an indirect hike up to the far right around the whole snow field and be so much safer scrambling up the side of the ground next to the snow. Perhaps the trail crew responsible for this side could move the trail to this better location... Second snow field was a snap. The third was a steep fall out with a nice free fall a cliff if you lost your balance. We met two people coming up the snow field, so we waited for them to go first before we headed down. They boot stomped some excellent steps into the snow field in which we were able to walk across very easily. Perfect! In between all of the snow field we are audience to stunning views of the brilliant glacier blue water of Gunsight lake against the red argillite rock of the surrounding mountains. What a beautiful section of trail to hike! The trail is sort of edgy and blasted out of the side of the mountain but never as thin as some of the trails we were on this week.
At one point in time there was a backcountry chalet at Gunsight Lake. The chalet was a perfect stopping point as the horse hikers had a perfect stopping spot on their way to view Blackfoot Glacier. At some point during its very first years the chalet was destroyed by an a avalanche during the winter. No attempt was made to relocate and or rebuild the chalet. Although this is one story you can find published about the Gunsight Lake Chalet, I was also able to find a story and dates which indicated the chalet was still around one year after the park service said it was destroyed. The story goes that the chalet was semi repaired after the avalanche, but then suffered a grizzly mauling the next year to the building causing the building irreparable damage. In either case the chalet is no longer in the area.
We hike down to the lake and are looking for a spot along the lake to sit down and have a lunch. As we are looking we come across the hugest pile of bear poo I have ever seen. And it is fresh. Not sure if we are talking minutes or perhaps an hour, but no more than that. It was fresh... So after a few 'ho bears', we weasel our way into this small opening by the lake to share with a small family. If there are kids I think the bear would choose to eat them first right?
We head on out for the the last six miles we need to hike in order get up to the road and catch the shuttle to our car. As we are heading out we have to step over the first pile of poo again only to find a second pile of pile a short distance away. WOW, that bear must really eat a lot! Or maybe there are two bear. Ok, turn your mind away from these thoughts, just talk loud and hike. Enjoy the sights.
Right enjoy the sights is not right. For the first mile we have over our back side perfect views of the Jackson Glacier and its basin, but to see it we have to stop hiking and look to the back side. The rest of the hike is in the forest and filled with cow parsnip and scratchy bushes. Really this type of hiking is boring. The miles don't seem to fly by when you hike like this. There are a few spots we look for moose along the way, but since the temps are pretty warm, chances are pretty slim we will see any now. Maybe if it were early morning or evening we would see some. As we are hiking I told Kathi that we had to hike up about a 750 feet in elevation to get up to the road. She did not remember that from the last time, I do, and the trail is right up next to a waterfall. There is one spot you can get out to see the waterfall, otherwise back to the woods, but just heading uphill. We are in ear shot of the road before we are in eye sight of the road. We can hear the shuttle bus at the bus stop. I told Kathi I had no desire to run up the trail to see if we could catch the bus. She laughs as she was just thinking the same thing.
We finally see the road, but standing there is a flag man holding a traffic stop/ slow sign for traffic. He informs us the bus just left. Yes, we know, since it is a climb to get up the last mile of the trail, sitting on the bench waiting for the next bus is exactly what we are looking forward to.
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