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Adventures of the Spirit Eagle - Glacier NP - Day 11

  by Jim & Ginny Owen

Friday - August 7, Atlantic Creek to Upper Two Medicine Lake (14.3 miles) -

Ginny: A group of kids, employees of the park on their days off, came into camp late last night - they are doing the Norris Traverse, without the Red Eagle Valley walk. I am a bit jealous.

Lunch at Pitamakan Overlook - incredibly, outrageously beautiful. There are red, purple, yellow, blue and green mountains in all directions. The valley at our feet has two aquamarine lakes (Pitamakan and Lake of the Seven Winds - love that name!) The next valley over, Dry Fork, has a couple of lakes, the pyramid shape of Flinch Peak behind, a view of Two Medicine Lake 8 miles away, and the flat Plains. beyond. To our left is the Nyack Valley - narrow Cut Bank Pass, the glacier on Mt. Thompson, Triple Divide Peak, mountain after mountain and green valleys between. We can see valleys heading off in four different directions from here. For the next three miles we walk on or along the Continental Divide to Dawson Pass. It’s a longer route than the "official" CDT, but the views are spectacular. (They won’t let horses up here because the drop-off is a couple thousand feet and the trail is rather narrow.) The wind is blowing and the sun is shining. Happiness is. We saw 11 bighorn sheep at Pitamakan Pass - a group of six down by the lake, two on the other side of the pass, and three on the way up to the overlook. It was a steep climb to the overlook, but well worth it. I love this high country.

Later: Coming toward the campsite, we were tempted to go on to the main campground and try to get a reservation there so we could get a milkshake and hamburger (hiker hunger has settled in), but we decided to have a peaceful night by the lake here instead. Besides, this campsite is closer, and we’re tired. It makes tomorrow longer than we expected (15 miles instead of 10), but this site should be much quieter than a busy RV campground. At the trail junction there was a bright yellow sign warning us to watch out for a mountain lion that is active in this area. That’s only the third warning we’ve seen - the one at Waterton regarding bears and berry bushes, a warning near Granite Park Chalet warning tourists about bears along the Highline Trail and this one. Evidently the bears have been coming a bit too close to the Highline Trail - probably the most popular trail in the park. We heard about a bear coming right up to the Visitor Center at Logan Pass, and another story about the ranger at Granite Park running out with his bear spray while a day hiker stopped to take a picture of the bear that was approaching him on the trail. After about 15 miles, over 3000' elevation gain and loss, we are pooped. Jim is feeling the effects of too much sun, I think. We walked along a narrow track 1000' above the Nyack Valley and then turned the corner to descend to the Two Medicine Valley. It was extremely beautiful. We saw 12 more Bighorns, including several nursing kids. They were only about 50' from the trail - well camouflaged until one stood up as we passed by.

We are camped near Upper Two Medicine Lake in a narrow valley between Lone Hiker and Helen Mountains. We thought our reservations were for the main campground at Two Medicine, but we were wrong. (There are three Two Medicine Lakes - Upper, Lower and just Two Medicine.) A thunderstorm seems to be brewing. Wind and big gray cumulus clouds have cooled things off. I jumped in the lake anyhow. It felt wonderful, but too cold to stay in long. This lake is funny because it has tons of dead wood piled up at the end of the lake. Not rotted, just ghost trees lining the beach.

Today was a very good day - but a bit painful because of the prolonged downhill. My knees are saying unspeakable things to me, and so are my toes. (Jim lost two more toenails because of the downhill.)

I am not ready for this to end. Only one more day. Yes, I want a shower (need a shower!) and food, but this has been so good, so beautiful. The hike from Pitamakan to Dawson Pass was some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve ever seen - but it all is around here. As Jim said to someone, "Glacier is everything we expected, and more." I was worried that it would be a disappointment because of all the other people -- I don’t like crowds -- but it is worth doing. A lot like Colorado last year, but without the rain and altitude sickness.

Jim: Another day to remember - the trail was the usual relatively flat approach to the pass along a stream followed by steep, steady uphill switchbacks. At the base of the pass were a couple lakes where we pumped as much water as we could carry. Halfway up the hill we saw a group of female bighorn sheep and I caught sight of the south end of a northbound male. We took a break when we got to Pitamakan Pass and spent some time with the awesome views back toward Morning Star Lake and off into the Oldman Lake drainage. Then we started the next 600' climb up to Pitamakan Overlook and saw another group of female sheep but these all had their young ones with them. Got some good pictures here. Lunch was at Pitamakan Overlook where the Nyack and Coal Creek drainages became visible. The trail then turned the corner and slabbed along a 12" wide goat path on the western side on Mt Morgan with a 2000+' drop into the Nyack Creek drainage just inches from our right boots. The trail then got to the southernmost end of the ridge and made a sharp left turn at a little platform where there were just unbelievable views back into the Nyack and Coal Creek on the right and into Oldman Lake and the Dry Fork drainage on the left. Then the trail slabbed along the western side of Mt Morgan and Flinsch Peak above the east side of the Nyack (still with that 2000+' drop only now it was fractions of an inch from our right boots rather than inches) for another 2 miles to Dawson Pass. At the saddle between Mt Morgan and Flinsch Peak we could also see back down into the Cut Bank valley and over to Pitamakan Overlook where we had just had lunch a little while ago. We met one group of guys going the other way and they looked a little worried. They asked us if they'd passed Dawson Pass yet - they had. But we didn't tell them how far they still had to go on that goat track - it wouldn't have made them happy. When we got to Dawson Pass I finally found a place to drop my pack and get out my hat - we'd been out in sunlight at 8000' for about 3 miles and I was fried - but I wasn't about to try to get the hat while we were on the goat track. Even Ginny wasn't comfortable with that one. But the scenery was absolutely fantastic. I've never seen anything to match it, but I'll keep on trying.

The trek from Dawson Pass to Upper Two Medicine Lake was a long tough downhill that got to both of us. There were a lot of dayhikers and then we met a group with backpacks who said they were headed into the Nyack. Hope they were carrying a lot of water cause they had a 3 mile climb to Dawson Pass, a 3.5 mile walk across the goat track that we'd just finished and then several miles down an extremely steep trail into the Nyack before they'd get to another water source. And they were starting this trek at 1600 (4 pm).

We were both ready to get to the campground tonight. We found a campsite practically right on the lake - and pretty much isolated from everyone else. Ginny went for a swim - I wasn't that ambitious. And I had a really bad sunburn on my head. There was a young married couple and another group of 2 couples at the campground when we got there. The young marrieds offered us a quesadilla at dinner - and it was delicious. The other couples offered us a ride from Two Medicine to East Glacier the next day (that's where they had parked their car) but we couldn't do that - can't be real "thruhikers" if we're yellow-blazing. They also offered to carry out our garbage, but since we're going to the same place - and our packs are lighter than theirs at this point, we couldn't in good conscience do that either - but it WAS a form of Trail Magic and we really did appreciate the offer. People really can be good if you give them a chance. Two more guys wandered into the campground while we were eating and promptly went off to see if they could catch some fish for dinner. They weren't successful. Another sleepless night for me - I've got a cold. That's something new - I've never gotten sick on a trip before (except for the altitude sickness in Colorado last year).

Day 10 - Day 12

© Copyright 1998 Jim & Ginny Owen