Big Sky Country

Craig and I went on a backpacking vacation to Glacier National Park in Montana. Beautiful place. Not the raw altitude of many other parks in the Rockies so you can still breathe, yet, the trails and terrain are quite rugged and beautiful. Bears everywhere. We saw or had encounters with nine bears in our short stay. We took two days to hike in to Red Eagle Lake, stay overnight, and hike back out. About a 12 mile hike using the long trail around the back end of St. Mary Lake. Really gorgeous. There are two campgrounds at the lake. When we got to the first campground the only other people there were three guys who were just morons. They had a huge smokey fire going (they had cut down a small green tree and were trying to burn it, rather than using the dead wood) and for dinner they were cooking ham and bacon. Friends, Glacier is bear central. Their dinner was a big red warning flag. Plus, they were cooking right next to their tents and all of their gear was piled nearby. Craig and I looked at each other and decided we didn’t want to hear the screams in the middle of the night as those three jerks were eaten. We moved on to the back campground. We were the only one’s there and we set up shop. That night, it was a New Moon so it was really dark. The entire sky was clear except for a thunderstorm over the mountain across the lake. Stars in the sky above, while we watched lightning flash over the mountain peak and hear the low rumble from the thunder. So bloody cool !!!!

Craig and I made a good team camping. I’m a morning guy and Craig is an evening guy. As I faded late in the day, he was setting up camp and being productive. In the morning, as Craig sat comatose with his coffee, waiting for consciousness to arrive, I was taking the camp apart and packing up. Synergy.

We also took a day hike back to a campground where we spent a day enjoying the scenery. Again, no one in camp. When we came out later we checked in at the ranger station and had a conversation that went kinda like this.

You boys have a good hike?
Yep. We spent all day back at this campsite (pointing to map). It was really nice there.
Um …. You were at that campsite?
Yes.
All day?
Yes. Why?
Weren’t the chains up?
Chains? No. Why?
Yeah. That campground’s been getting ripped up by Grizzlies lately. We closed it. Chains and signs should have been up to keep everyone out.
No chains or signs we saw.
Hmm. I’ll have to go back and check later. Bears probably ripped them down. I’ll have to put them back up. You say you spent all day back there?
Yes.
Well, you boys had a run of good luck then.
OK. Well, nice talking to you.