Cobalt Lake

Last Friday I went hiking in Glacier National Park. Joyce, one of the women who I picked huckleberries with, called and invited me to join her hiking group of friends.

Joyce and Gary picked me up at 7:40 am. Yes, I can get up that early when the occasion arises. We met the others at Super 1 Foods in Columbia Falls around 8 am.

There were six of us in total. The most any vehicle could carry was five so we took two vehicles with three each.

The group was:

• Joyce
• Gary - Joyce's nephew
• Bill - a retired R&D planner at Hughes Avionics. While he had worked for Hughes when Howard Hughes was alive, Bill started in 1952 after Hughes withdrew from public life so he never met him. I asked Bill if he thought Hughes still made suggestions that came through his department and he thought maybe so in the early years of his career.
  
• Larry - a number of jobs in his life, the last being a car salesman. He also is retired and now occasionally drives cars for that dealership when they need a driver.
• Sue Ann - an artist. Originally from Iowa she is a former Miss Iowa.
  
• me
  

I was the youngest person as all except Gary seemed to be in their 60s and 70s. I believe Gary is in his 50s. All except Gary and Sue Ann are retired. Do artists ever retire? Even though they were all older than me, they all hiked at a good pace, one I was comfortable with. Last week several of the people had hiked the entire Gunsight Trail over the continental divide. That hike was almost 20 miles.

They all are a variety of personalities, no one exactly alike but somehow have a common denominator as they all seem comfortable with one another. They seem to range from being quiet and a little introverted to an extrovert. The extrovert is Sue Ann. She talked a lot, had lots of opinions on everything, said what was on her mind, has led an interesting life, yet somehow wasn't annoying.

Sue Ann's sun sign is Libra. She said they are artistic and good lovers. My hearing is not the best as I have tinnitus and I missed "artistic". I confused it with something like cheapskate. I know, they don't sound the same. *shrug* That's how my hearing is sometimes. I asked Sue Ann again what the first word was. After she told me, she asked if I had caught the second words, "good lovers". Yup, I heard that clearly. I had no comment.

The group usually stayed together on the hike but at times people would stop and fall behind and other times people kept going and later everyone came together. The group order shifted and I was able to chat with everyone during the hike.

The hiking group has a hiking itinerary they develop and follow each year. They usually choose to hike a trail in Glacier National Park.



Today's hike was a 11.4 mile roundtrip hike to Cobalt Lake in the Two Medicine area of the Park.

Here is a link to Glacier Nat'l Park web page of the map where you can see photos that accompany the red numbers.

Two Medicine (in the SE part of the Park) and the southern Park boundary are the only parts of the Park I hadn't visited yet. I was happy to be able to visit the Two Medicine lake and area.


The previous day it had been hot but this morning was cool, cloudy, and rainy with a predicted high in the Valley in the mid 70s F. I wore cutoff jeans and upon arriving at the Two Medicine Lake to begin the hike I changed into long pants. I also had grabbed a light jacket at the last minute which was a good thing. During the hike it began to rain and I put the jacket on. I forgot to bring a hat. When it started to rain Joyce put on a rain poncho and then lent me her hat.

As we climbed the rain turned steady. We were 45 minutes from the lake when the three people ahead on the trail came back down as we climbed up. Gary had no coat and was getting wet. He had been in the Two Medicine area and this trail a few weeks ago. We held a conference on whether to turn back. Initially the sentiment was to turn around as it looked like the rain would continue for a while. The group thought about splitting into those who wanted to continue and those who wanted to go back. Larry said he would continue. I said I would join him. When Joyce decided to join us, the rest changed their minds and went with us.

Less than 15 minutes after we decided to continue the rain quit.

Along the way we saw Rockwell Falls, a clear mountain stream with wildflower petals floating in it, and closer to the lake, fresh bear scat. At least it wasn't steaming so it wasn't that fresh. But it was fresh. This group has seen lots of bears so they weren't afraid of the scat. Sue Ann said she seen 47 bears in her hikes last year.

The lake was in a mountain cirque. Some snow was on the scree that rose south of the lake and up the mountain. The shade made that area the last to melt. We sat on a few large boulders on the lake's north shore and somewhat out of the cool breeze.

Occasionally breaks in the clouds would let the sun through and we ooh'd and ahh'd enjoying the warmth as the sunlight dried our damp clothes. The sunlight moving along the mountain and lake was pretty.

More and more sun appeared during our hike back down the mountain and we now would meet other hikers on the trail. One young couple stopped to tell us they had seen a bear on the other side of the narrow valley a short distance down the trail. We stopped and looked and looked but didn't find it. The bear probably had moved into the berry bushes.

During the hike up Joyce, Gary, Bill and I stopped to smell the roses and to munch on lots of huckleberries. On the hike down the mountain we stopped to sample the thimbleberries. We also spotted lots of ripe elderberries. Joyce, Gary, and I used our lunch plastic bags and began to collect the elderberries. Joyce and I were especially "bad" about picking and picking the clusters of berries and we lagged behind as we found yet another group of bushes loaded with them. Joyce will make a batch of elderberry jam from the berries.

The trail had a wooden swinging bridge over a river. Only one person at a time was allowed on the bridge. It swayed and bounced up and down as I strode across it.

The photo is one I found on the web. The woman was not part of our group and is unknown to me.

On the hike back Gary, Sue Ann,and I took a tenth of a mile side trip to Aster Falls. The others continued back to the cars.

The photo is one I found on the web. The water was not running near as much as when we visited the falls.

A group of people were sitting on the rocks around and in the water. One older man was trying to fish in the small stream with no luck. We worked our way around him to cross to the other side, then up the steep bank. The fainter trail climbed up along the left side of the water. We climbed higher than what can be seen in the photo.

The falls were in steps with a fall then a round pool or two then another fall. The pools ranged from a decent size to small. Usually the pools were an empty bowl of just water. One pool was filled with rocks. That pool's round bowl was smooth but had jagged rocks filling it. Unusual as most pools I have seen have been empty or with only a few round rocks in them.

We climbed higher and higher and the trail got fainter and fainter. At one point as I stepped up a rock ledge I hit my head on an overhanging rock. Bang! Ouch! If I were bald I would have the same forehead mark as Mikhail Gorbechev.

Sue Ann and Gary waited as I checked the "trail" beyond another rock ledge. I found that the route ended as one had to be a rock climber to continue on ahead as the stream went right around a bend.

We found that going back down was harder than going up as we had to hop down over rock ledges and the ground was littered with loose rocks. We made it.

Before leaving I quickly checked out the Two Medicine store/gift shop/eatery. Yup. like the others in the Park, albeit smaller.

Driving through East Glacier we again saw the two dogs wandering down the middle of the road. I guess they own the place.

Back on Hwy 2 Joyce and Gary started to nod off. That was not so good as Joyce was driving. I then drove her car the rest of the way back to my place. They said they usually nod off after their hikes. I think it was my flat Midwestern voice telling stories that put them to sleep.

The group has some interesting and challenging hikes planned and I plan to join them.