We started out walking along the west shores of Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine. The trail runs right above the shoreline. The water is a gorgeous aqua color. Then we went off to Grinnell Lake with its beautiful waterfall tumbling from the glacier hidden above. Then we went over a rise and across a ford that used to be bridged to a spectacular double waterfall called Morning Eagle Falls. Then along and above it to the cirque above. There was a very long climb switchbacking up to Piegan Pass. We passed other narrow little waterfalls and snowfields on the way up, then looked down at a small turquoise lake flanked by two tiny royal blue ones. It was cold and windy at the pass, so we went a little way down the other side to eat lunch. We saw hordes of dayhikers who had climbed up the other way from the road. Most were turning around at the pass (and thus missing the beauty of the waterfalls and lakes on the other side!) We headed down on easy sidehill along the side of a cirque. I stopped to do my usual look up and around for wildlife, and was amazed to see a mountain goat. It was far away, but visible to the naked eye. Another posed picturesquely on the skyline. That was exciting. The only other animals we saw today were deer at the campground this morning and again at the Reynolds Creek campsite, a scared big rabbit, a fearless hoary marmot and several importuning ground squirrels. (I like their orange noses and feet though.) The descent was through light coniferous woods interspersed with fields of flowers. Beautiful. Across the way was a glacier and a small waterfall. We turned off the main path and the trail became overgrown again and quite steep. We descended through big trees to the highway at the Jackson Glacier overlook (missing the tunnel under the road somehow). We ignored the tourists and they ignored us as Jim doctored his foot. Then we descended into the woods to a small two site campground near Reynolds Creek. We passed an impressive waterfall nearby. It wasn’t tall, but the volume of water going over it was impressive. It rained very gently for a while this afternoon, but since we were already soaked from the dense overgrowth, it didn’t matter. The stream near the campsite was too cold and fast to be very tempting for a swim, especially since it appears that the waterfalls continue just beyond the campsite. Today’s high was only about 60, so I’m not desperate for a bath. My hands, face and feet are clean, that will have to do. I’m really tired, pleasantly so, mostly. I just feel like I’ll sleep deeply. A few late afternoon glimpses of sunshine led to an attempt to dry out the tent and socks. With 8 lbs apiece of food, our packs feel heavy, but we made the 15 miles in good time. We’ve eaten, filtered water, hung the food and I’m ready for bed, but the sun is still lighting the tops of the trees. I like campsites with a view, but this one is hidden in the trees. We are sharing our camp with a young man from California who is doing our route in reverse, except the last three days. He has done about 2/3 of the AT. The rain here has not made him happy. He’s ready to stop, but still has 2-3 days to go. There are lots of flowers everywhere - blanketflower, gentian, columbine, candytuft, etc. Lots of delicate alpine flowers up high, and fields of flowers (mostly fleabane, paintbrush and Queen Anne’s Lace) down below. The easy smooth trail means I can keep looking for bears and other wildlife, though we make enough noise as we go that we don’t see much.

Jim: Had breakfast at the restaurant - it was still pretty foggy and wet. Then we dropped off some excess food with the Campground Host. They had supplied us with stove fuel the night before (free) and we had packed a couple pounds of extra food - and they were happy to take it off our hands ( or rather off our backs).

We passed a bear on the way up to Piegan Pass during the climb above Morning Eagle Falls. We didn’t see him, but I smelled him and he was close enough that his cloud of attendant flies spilled over into the trail. But I wasn’t about to go poking around in the brush to find him. Getting up near Piegan pass, we could look back and see several lakes which weren’t visible from anywhere else. One of them was a brilliant royal blue and one was turquoise. The third was royal blue still covered with ice.

Lunch was on the south side of Piegan Pass where we harassed the local marmot and tried to dry the tent. There were lots of day hikers coming the other way - some of them doing the same mileage that we were doing that day and some of them just going to Piegan Pass and then back out. The trail from Piegan Pass to Going-to-the -Sun Road was another long narrow slab around a cirque that finally descended into an overgrown lower elevation trail. On the way down we met a local (Whitefish, MT) group who were resting (they were on the way up to the Pass). One of them asked if we were doing the CDT route through the Park. He was the only person we ran into who knew about the CDT in the Park. That may be partly because there are NO signs inside the Park that even obliquely refer to the CDT.

The Reynolds Creek campground was a welcome sight and we were early enough to dry out the tent (it doesn’t take long in this dry air). Again there was a deer at the campsite. This one was a yearling buck named Chester and he didn’t want to leave without chewing on something. Another early-to-bed after we prayed the sun down.

Day 5 - Day 7

© Copyright 1998 Jim & Ginny Owen