Day 9 LAke McDonald up to Sperry Glacier Chalet

Todays hike: 6.7 miles
Total trip milage: 97.1

Today we pack up and clean up our Duck Lake accommodations.  For the first time in forever I do not feel like I want to take a picture of our dwelling.  Although it had everything we needed as far as kitchen facilities, the lack of drinking water and toilet paper was a deal breaker for us.  One would think at 200 bucks a night, drinking water and toilet paper might be included in the package price.  As I mentioned before we have a trap line set for mice.  We caught another mouse over night making a total of three in two days. I set the trap line before we left, so the surplus population would equal out a bit.  I might not have even known the mice were there if I had not seen one in the laundry room while I was changing wash.  The little guy was trying to scoot under a shelf. Oh yes, and the decon and empty traps sitting on the shelf in the laundry room was sort of a heads up on the topic.  Any way, we vacuumed a bit and tidied up leaving the place cleaned, we

We hike about five miles in the deep woods before we have any sort of views.

have $100 security deposit on this place and we would like to get that back.  We also have to take the trash out and put it in an out shed.  This shed was already full of trash so we had to balance our 8 days worth of bags on top of the teetering pile and close the door fast before everything fell out.We drive away from the Duck Lake house and look forward to spending our next two nights at the Sperry Chalet back country lodge.  The lodge accommodations are rather primitive, but the staff at the chalet will provide all of our meals and take good care of us.  We are planning on driving up to Logan's pass to park the car for the next couple of days.  Our thoughts are to park at the Pass, take the shuttle down to the Lake McDonald side of the park to hike into Sperry Chalet on the trail we know is open with no snow issues.  We are hopeful to hike out of Sperry Chalet by way of Gunsight Pass and then take the shuttle back up to our car which would be about two miles away.  From what we have gathered in trail reports, Gunsight Pass has ice axe crossings at long standing snow fields.  We hope to give it a few more days to melt and then try to hike out that way when we leave.

Kathi is getting really good at driving to Logan's Pass.  She has memorized all of the spots she should slow down and does a really good job of keeping both hands on the wheels and her eyes on the road.  Either she is getting better at driving this portion or I have new standards for acceptable driving patterns on this road....  Ok, but we are still parking at Logan's pass to allow a seasoned driver to drive the more dicey part of the Going To The Sun Road.

Our shuttle driver is Ed. He has been driving this side of the road for the past six seasons for the park service  Ed looks to be around 130 years old.  As we are driving to the west side Kathi is busy looking out the window at the jaw dropping sights.  The road is just hanging 3.000 feet up off of the mountain wall. The west side of the road past Logan's Pass is by far the most scary portion of mountain road here at Glacier.  Since Ed is of the age where one might be thinking of turning his keys over to his family because he should no longer be driving, I thought it was in my best interest to inquire just how someone might come to have this job of driving shuttle on the west side.  For instance: do you have to take a driving test that might include driving this very same stretch of road?  How about a medical exam? Are there any written test involved?  And would there be any ride along drives with an instructor on board?  Do you have to re-certify every year or is your license still valid from six years ago?  While I'm busy collecting this information Ed is busy asking questions about the Packers and Lambeau Field. Ed who is lives in Montana, and is a Sea Hawk fan, has been to Lambeau Field exactly the same amount of times as I have been. Once. Kathi is elated to be seeing all of the jaw dropping sights without me saying SLOW DOWN.  Since there were only Kathi and I on this ride, we had lots of time to get everyone's questions answered.

Ed also filled us in on what he knew about the fella they were looking for yesterday with the helicopter.  They found the guy and were able to extract his body.  He had been missing for a week.  They were investigating the circumstances to his fall.  Was he climbing by the Loop, was he blown off, or was he pushed.  I guess we will have to check back on the Glacier Park new releases online to find out if they post any additional information.

We spend an hour with Ed as he safely drove us over to the Avalanche Lake bus drop off point.  Here we have to wait to board a bigger bus to take us the remainder of the drive. The entire shuttle ride trip from Logan's pass to Lake McDonald  took us 1 hour and 20 minutes.  Before heading out for our hike up to the chalet we thought we should check-out the gift shop at the lodge.  Same stuff as every one else had.  So we headed for the trail with very full packs.  It is 11:30 when we first step onto the trail.  Geeze it is also most lunchtime...

The trail is littered with horse poo and buzzing with biting mosquitoes.  All of the daily supplies up at the chalet are brought in by horse pack train.  A person could also choose to rent a horse ride up to the chalet for the price of $170.  If you ride back out the same day the price is covered, but if you want to ride horse out on a different day it will cost another $170.  We did meet a pair of ladies who rode horse up to stay for two nights and then will hike out.  Well, with all of this horse traffic on the trail, horse poo is a common trail dodging game.

The trail up to the chalet is 6.7 miles and, 3200 feet up in elevation.  Today all of the mosquitoes are very blood thirsty!  We had to re-apply the bug juice OFTEN!  The trip takes us 3 hours and 25 minutes.  It is 99% in the woods, up hill with nothing to look at.  I am sort of panicking that we might run out of bug juice!

The last mile of the hike the views open up, there is a nice waterfall to the right and you can see the chalet sitting in the hanging valley up to your right side.  As we are making our final push for the chalet we pass a husband and wife taking a break.  We find out they are from Chicago and this is their 20th wedding anniversary.  It is also their first hike ever!  They had watched a tv documentary on Sperry Chalet and thought it would be a great way to spend their 20th.  They both were very excited about what they had seen, but thought their 25th might be on a beach somewhere as this was a lot of work!

At supper we sat with Phil and Marie, who are from Oregon, and now I have forgotten what city...  They wanted to take the train out to Glacier, but for what ever reason the train was delayed so they ended up flying and renting a car.  They still have high hopes in taking the train back home, but only if the train was running on time.  I guess the train from Glacier to Oregon has a bad rap of getting off its schedule.  Phil tried to explain it all to me in fine detail, but sometimes,,, my brain files items like that as unnecessary spam and deletes it :).  We chat all through supper and sit right at our dinner table and chat the night away until 10pm when the dining hall lights get shut off.  10 pm is officially quiet hours until the next morning.  We make it back up to our room to fetch headlamps and toothbrushes.  We have to go back down the hill to the pit toilets and sink to brush teeth and make last call.  That's right there are no sinks or toilets in the sleeping lodge.

The walls of the sleeping lodge are very thin.  You can hear everything.  And I do mean everything.  I will just say that ear plugs are a provided convenience to staying in the lodge.  Also there is no heat, but thankfully there are three wool blankets on the bed.
Now that I think of it, the drinking water at this place is drinkable, toilet paper is provided, and the signs on the wall say to hang your back pack up off of the floor so mice can not get in.  I feel better about this place already.

Welcoming committee Momma and baby Mt. Goat

Momma and baby meander around freely by the pit toilet and sink.
As a side note, when you have to get up and go in the middle of the night, this is what you have
to walk through.  Better bring a flashlight and expect to see many goats.

Chalet is sitting up in the hanging valley.
You can see a rock formation called cowboy and horse riding up on the ridge line.

Dining hall.
Last time we were here, there was six feet of snow all around this area, so only the roof line stuck out. and you had to go through a tall dug out snow path to get into the dining hall.

Cowboy and horse with setting sun shining on it.