Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Last Summer

Okay so it has been a year since I last updated my blog and I thought it might be a good idea to get caught up before we start a new adventure in Thailand. I will start with last summer and our trip out to Montana. We began planning our trip to Montana back in October when I made reservations for Rob and I to spend a night in Glacier Park at the Granite Park Chalet. The plan was for Rob and I to leave the kids with my parents and hike into the Chalet spend a night and hike out. Reservations fill up very quickly for the two Chalets in the park and we were lucky enough to get a spot.


We took the Highline trail which begins at Logan Pass to the Chalet. It was a beautiful day at the start of our hike, although all day we watched as the clouds spilled over the Garden Wall. When we were less then a mile out we saw the first lightning, we were fortunate to make it to the chalet before rain set in. We signed up for our cooking time and settled into our room. After a dinner of freeze dried beef stroganoff and a bottle of wine that we hiked in the rain had stopped and we went for a short hike and watched the deer all around the chalet.


The next morning we got an early start as we headed down Swiftcurrent trail towards Many Glacier. It was a cool morning and the clouds were beautiful as the rose from the trail. Rob somehow talked me into taking a detour and hiking up to the Swiftcurrent fire lookout or as I like to refer to it the death march. We were the only ones on the trail that seemed to never end. As we got passed the tree line the wind was blowing hard and I was freezing but eventually we made it to the top. On a clear day they say you can see to Canada, but it was nowhere near a clear day. It made Rob happy to get to the top of the mountain and now that I have had almost a year to recover I might agree to do it again, but I would make sure I had bear spray as we did see evidence of bears.

After our detour we continued our way down. On the way we meet a mangy marmot who tried to chase me down the mountain. We also saw big horned sheep and lots of huckleberries. We heard from hikers coming up that there were bears, but we were lucky enough to not see them till we had arrived in Swiftcurrent and where in a car. We hitched a ride back to Logan Pass with another couple we meet at the chalet. Then it was time to drive back to the cabin and see the kids.

This was one of the best trips I have ever taken and I look forward to the kids being old enough that we can all do it together.
View of the mountain we hiked to get to the lookout, taken at the end of the Swiftcurrent trail

View of the many lakes we would be hiking around


Small waterfall we saw on the Swiftcurrent trail


Darcie and the Mangy Marmot

Fire LookoutView of the ChaletRob and I on the Highline Trail



Highline Trail

Rob on the Highline trail


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