AKay09
Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2015
- Messages
- 96
This is my first ever trip report, I hope it's not boring!
On June 21st 2015, two friends and I left from the Chicago suburbs for Glacier National Park. We decided we're young so we could make the drive straight through, well we did but that was a very rough 27hours! Almost hit about 400 animals, had some long patches of very dense fog at night and my friend ran over part of a truck tire, which she found out later did some damage to her trans pan.
Anyway our trip took us from Bowman Lake up to Goat Haunt and down to Kootenai Lake and back, so 50 miles over 6 days. My friend Kyle and I had very limited backpacking experience in the Smookies from the year before but my friend Sara had zero experience. Neither of them listened to me about training for the trip so they had some rough days. Hope you don't mind some pictures...
Our before picture from the night before the hike started. Kyle, Sara, Andy(me)
Day 1: 7.10 Miles from Bowman Lake to Bowman Head Campground. Had to head back to town to grab our permit, the road from Polebridge to Bowman Lake is not well suited for cars, but we managed.
These signs were all over the place but sadly didn't see any.
Snack break.
Fishing at the campground.
This guy was wondered through the site.
Had a few different groups with us that first night and met some really cool people that I won't soon forget. That first night was just a great time.
Day 2: 8.60 miles to Hawksbill Campground. Started off a little thick but was kind of fun.
The hike up Brown Pass was pretty grueling and my two friends were struggling a good amout. I thankfully had trained for a few months prior to the trip and was pulling away easily up the pass, not to brag...okay just a little
. My buddy Kyle was pretty pumped to be almost to the top!
The top of Brown Pass was the only time the full 6 days that we had clouds and the sun disappeared.
My friend Sara was really struggling after we got over the pass and we had to stop for awhile at a small lake/pond. We ended up relaxing for about an hour while she dozed off and built her strength back up.
Day 3: 9.30 miles to Kootenai Lake
Had to take a swim in the 50 maybe 60 degree water at Kootenai.
At about 9pm a Moose made an appearance on the other side of the lake and so we watched him through my camera for about an hour before something in the woods scared him and he took off running. (I'll get a link to a video of the moose up too)
We caught about 10 trout also that day and before the Moose popped up we cooked one up! So tasty!
We're weird...
Day 4: 9.10 miles to Francis Lake. Francis Lake is amazing, we made really good time getting there and were able to spend hours just lounging on the rocks, fishing and watching the waterfall. Had a doe hang out by us for a bit as well which was nice.
Day 5: 8.80 miles back to Bowman Head campground. Day 5 was rough. Hiking back up over Brown Pass was brutal, we tried to get up early to beat the heat but the heat was ready for us nice and early. The temps were easily in the mid to high 80s by noon and for sure made it to 90 that day and the next as well. We did a lot of swimming when we finally made it to the site and we weren't alone. All day we got to share the site with 3 deer, 2 bucks and 1 doe. At first it was cute and fun but they were a real pain. They kept trying to steal anything we left out and one managed to get my shirt while I was swimming and chewed some nice holes in it. While we were sitting around the fire as the sun was going down, one of the bucks tried to take the shirt right off of Sara's back.
Day 6: 7.10 miles back to the car. This day went pretty easy for the most part. It was very hot again so we took our time and went nuts on drinking water. When we got back to the main campground we took a swim, washed up a little and listened to a loon. Of course we had to stop at Polebridge and grab some bear claws and beer!
Of course we had to stop at Polebridge and grab some bear claws and beer!
We decided to go a little out of the way on the drive as well and took a detour over the Going to the Sun Road. It was really cool minus the long line of cars we had to follow and the heat scared all the animals away as well. The cars thermometer was reading 94 as we were going over the road. Pretty sure it was a record heat wave when we were there.
Overall our trip to Glacier was absolutely amazing. It pushed us physically, was incredibly beautiful, met some amazing people and basically just loved every minute of it! The only site we had people company was Bowman, which was nice since it was the only site where we could have fires. I hope all the pics didn't scare you away or bore you too much, thanks for reading!!
Ohh here is the Moose video!
On June 21st 2015, two friends and I left from the Chicago suburbs for Glacier National Park. We decided we're young so we could make the drive straight through, well we did but that was a very rough 27hours! Almost hit about 400 animals, had some long patches of very dense fog at night and my friend ran over part of a truck tire, which she found out later did some damage to her trans pan.
Anyway our trip took us from Bowman Lake up to Goat Haunt and down to Kootenai Lake and back, so 50 miles over 6 days. My friend Kyle and I had very limited backpacking experience in the Smookies from the year before but my friend Sara had zero experience. Neither of them listened to me about training for the trip so they had some rough days. Hope you don't mind some pictures...
Our before picture from the night before the hike started. Kyle, Sara, Andy(me)
Day 1: 7.10 Miles from Bowman Lake to Bowman Head Campground. Had to head back to town to grab our permit, the road from Polebridge to Bowman Lake is not well suited for cars, but we managed.
These signs were all over the place but sadly didn't see any.
Snack break.
Fishing at the campground.
This guy was wondered through the site.
Had a few different groups with us that first night and met some really cool people that I won't soon forget. That first night was just a great time.
Day 2: 8.60 miles to Hawksbill Campground. Started off a little thick but was kind of fun.
The hike up Brown Pass was pretty grueling and my two friends were struggling a good amout. I thankfully had trained for a few months prior to the trip and was pulling away easily up the pass, not to brag...okay just a little
. My buddy Kyle was pretty pumped to be almost to the top!
The top of Brown Pass was the only time the full 6 days that we had clouds and the sun disappeared.
My friend Sara was really struggling after we got over the pass and we had to stop for awhile at a small lake/pond. We ended up relaxing for about an hour while she dozed off and built her strength back up.
Day 3: 9.30 miles to Kootenai Lake
Had to take a swim in the 50 maybe 60 degree water at Kootenai.
At about 9pm a Moose made an appearance on the other side of the lake and so we watched him through my camera for about an hour before something in the woods scared him and he took off running. (I'll get a link to a video of the moose up too)
We caught about 10 trout also that day and before the Moose popped up we cooked one up! So tasty!
We're weird...
Day 4: 9.10 miles to Francis Lake. Francis Lake is amazing, we made really good time getting there and were able to spend hours just lounging on the rocks, fishing and watching the waterfall. Had a doe hang out by us for a bit as well which was nice.
Day 5: 8.80 miles back to Bowman Head campground. Day 5 was rough. Hiking back up over Brown Pass was brutal, we tried to get up early to beat the heat but the heat was ready for us nice and early. The temps were easily in the mid to high 80s by noon and for sure made it to 90 that day and the next as well. We did a lot of swimming when we finally made it to the site and we weren't alone. All day we got to share the site with 3 deer, 2 bucks and 1 doe. At first it was cute and fun but they were a real pain. They kept trying to steal anything we left out and one managed to get my shirt while I was swimming and chewed some nice holes in it. While we were sitting around the fire as the sun was going down, one of the bucks tried to take the shirt right off of Sara's back.
Day 6: 7.10 miles back to the car. This day went pretty easy for the most part. It was very hot again so we took our time and went nuts on drinking water. When we got back to the main campground we took a swim, washed up a little and listened to a loon. Of course we had to stop at Polebridge and grab some bear claws and beer!
Of course we had to stop at Polebridge and grab some bear claws and beer!
We decided to go a little out of the way on the drive as well and took a detour over the Going to the Sun Road. It was really cool minus the long line of cars we had to follow and the heat scared all the animals away as well. The cars thermometer was reading 94 as we were going over the road. Pretty sure it was a record heat wave when we were there.
Overall our trip to Glacier was absolutely amazing. It pushed us physically, was incredibly beautiful, met some amazing people and basically just loved every minute of it! The only site we had people company was Bowman, which was nice since it was the only site where we could have fires. I hope all the pics didn't scare you away or bore you too much, thanks for reading!!
Ohh here is the Moose video!
