Backpacking with the Grizzlies

Nothing helps cure a sickness like going backpacking. Ok not really, but in my case, after our two down days traveling to Glacier National Park, that’s exactly what we did.

Glacier National Park has been, quite frankly, the bitch of the national parks as far as planning goes. We submitted our request for backpacking permits as early as we possibly could and received not our first choice, not our second, not even our third, but an itinerary the park created for us since apparently our other three requests were already snatched up by other travelers. This assigned itinerary was one night less than we had originally asked for, and included a shuttle at a cost of $60 per person. Additionally, the $30 fee for a backcountry permit is nonrefundable, regardless of whether you actually get to go on your trip. Grizzly bear eating hikers? Too bad. You don’t get to go and you don’t get refunded. Also, you have to obtain your permit at most 24 hours before your trip at one of the ranger stations, which are opened “usually” from 9-5 and closed for a one hour lunch break somewhere in there. Oh and the process to get your permit will take at least 30 minutes. 

When you’re trying to pack your stuff, catch a shuttle, and hike to your first site, it becomes a bit stressful working around the ranger stations’ lunch breaks, while hoping you’re not out a trip and $30 due to some natural force. However, by some miracle, obtaining our permit was not only painless, it was opportune. The ranger looked up a third night to add to our itinerary and found a spot at Old Man Lake, one of the prettiest areas of the park and right along our route. Glacier earned some points back for that one.

So, after our little adventure in the Tetons, it was back out to the wilderness for three nights, four days with lots of Grizzlies for company. 

The first day was, um, rather ugly. We were hiking through a burn area that encompassed about 10,000 acres of the park’s east side – the result of a man-made doozy of a fire in 2006. It burned so hot, that much of the soil has yet to recover, meaning very little growth nearly ten years later. Wh

This is.... pretty....

at was flourishing though, was raspberry bushes. If I am ever reincarnated as a bear, I will follow my nose to Glacier National Park and its huge spread of berries and wild. As it was, I wouldn’t be my father’s daughter if I didn’t eat as many of the raspberries as I could, and by the time we got to camp, my fingers were stained red. Wild raspberries are smaller than their domestic relatives, and a bit more tart, but taste more delicious than anything store bought when you’re hiking through the woods with a pack on your back.

Camping among the berries though, was another matter. Our camp the first night was at the head of Red Eagle Lake, about 6 miles south of St. Mary’s Lake. The scenery wasn’t much to speak of, with the exception of our resident moose, but at least the burn area afforded us a clearer line of sight through the trees and anything maybe lumbering among the berries. Our camp however, was a pretty little tent pad nestled right up amongst the raspberries, which led me to believe that we were almost certainly going to be eaten by a bear that night.

The reason I believed this was because the rangers do their very best to scare you shitless about bears on the trail. Their literature includes some of the following warnings:

• Startled bears may attack in self-defense
  

• Bears with cubs or with a kill will be extremely defensive and are likely to turn aggressive

• Bears can run up to 30mph, or 3 times faster than you – do not run

• Do not cook anywhere near your sleeping area – odors attract bears

• Human waste attracts bears, use the pit toilets when at your camp

• Do not hike at night

• Using bear mace increases your chances of deterring a bear attack, but your safety is not guaranteed

• Oh ya, and there’s mountain lions

In short, everything about humans attracts bears, who are huge, fast, super hungry animals that may just be pissed off by bear mace rather than deterred. Why are we hiking here again? Oh ya, because it’s supposed to be one of the most awe-inspiring parks in the U.S. Sigh.

That night, we cooked our food gingerly, bear mace an arm’s length away, and then prayed a bear wouldn’t find our camp among the raspberries. What would be even worse, would be leaving the tent at night, and so of course, at 1am, I had to pee like an Arabian racehorse. Nothing in my recent memory has taken as much willpower as getting out of the tent and pushing through the tall raspberry bushes towards the pit toilet. I just knew a bear was waiting to ambush me. 

Somehow, though, I survived.

Day two, the scenery got better. We finally left the burn area, and climbed a pass to the Triple Divide and over to the next basin. The triple divide pass is named as such because when you pee on top, some of it runs to the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean, not that we did that or anything.

We decided we liked the communal cooking areas at the backcountry camps assigned by the park to prevent bears eating humans in their tents, and the second night at Atlantic Creek we met some interesting characters.

One group was a self-righteous crew of locals. They were out hunting for places to plant white bark tree seedlings, a tree that apparently has lost over 50 percent of its population in the park due to introduced fungi. The leader of the group didn’t speak to us much as she cut up her fresh cucumber and zucchini to have with her quinoa salad. Psssh. Locals.

It's amazing what you find appetizing backpacking

The other group camping with us consisted of a young man from California and his friend from Thailand who were gourmet backcountry chefs in my mind. The young man in particular was very interested in foraging and living off the land, and had informed us that he and his friend had made a huckleberry crumble for dessert the other night. Their dinner, Ryan and I eyed hungrily, consisted of a lake trout caught that day seasoned with garlic and spices. Breakfast the next morning was equally impressive – hash browns with fresh bell pepper, cheese and sausage. Compared to our typical meals in the backcountry, it was all Ryan and I could do not to drool all over our new-found-friends’ food.

Day three – our gift from the ranger – was by far the highlight of the trip. It involved climbing over Pitamakan Pass through beautiful forests and around clear blue lakes. Waterfalls drifted downwards like ethereal white wisps from the cliffs, large snowfields clinging to the boulders above fueling their shimmering plummet. Wildflowers dotted meadows which opened in bright clearings from the trees. Compared to our first day, we were quite enthralled with our surroundings. We were even forgetting the bears we were so busy taking in all the scenery. At this point we hadn’t showered in about six days, and so we were thrilled when some local hikers we passed informed us of a natural shower not too far uphill from Morning Glory Lake.

Perfect!

The icy water was enough to take your breath away, but the sun soon warmed us back up and we felt at least slightly cleaner heading back uphill towards the pass.

Once we reached the summit, we were met with the grandeur we’d heard of from Glacier National Park.

Ryan also had his first meeting with a marmot, and about jumped out of his skin when it came investigating too close for food.

Our last night in Glacier at Old Man Lake we felt like pros. We even slept soundly, although bears were surely not too far.

We were up early the next morning, and it was lightly drizzling, more like misting, as we headed out of camp at about 7:30am. About 1.5 miles down from camp, we heard a hiker shouting “Hey bear! Hey bear!” “At least you’re not that annoying” Ryan said over his shoulder. “Ryan, stop right now,” was my response, “That person is talking to a bear.” Sure enough, we inched forward and shouted to the hiker, “Black bear?” “Grizz!” he responded, “about 50 yards off trail!” We felt confident about this distance and so we walked and met the hiker who was pointing uphill to a huckleberry bush. Ryan’s eyes grew wide. The bear wasn’t 50 yards away, he was more like 50 feet away, much to close to stop and get out a camera. I looked through the trees, just as he lumbered to a fresh patch of berries, and gasped. No animal has ever been so beautiful and terrifying at the time. The grizzly was a younger bear, but still easily over 300 pounds. His fur was a beautiful golden, with a lighter patch on his hump, the signature of his species. We’d been so scared of meeting one of these animals the whole trip, but now that one was in front of us, we were transfixed. The hiker who had first come across the bear was hiking solo and was particularly nervous, and Ryan offered to walk him a little ways up trail while I furiously tried to motion to him that we shouldn’t press our luck too much and be moving on ourselves. When we parted with him and safely got past the bear, we rejoiced. What an incredible Glacier experience.

We finished off the trip to the park in the most iconic way we could, driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road through the park. Ya we were pretty awe-inspired.

Now we’re off to Washington and North Cascades National Park, assuming the fires burning in the state don’t hinder our plans. I feel fully recovered from my illness in the Tetons, and neither of us have felt more alive after our meeting with the Grizzly.