The trail to the Ptarmigan Tunnel is 5.2 miles and climbs 2300 ft. The trail has two major elevation gains, each over a short distance. The first gain is at the start and gains about 700 ft. The second major climb is at the end, from Ptarmigan Lake to the tunnel. Here the trail gains 600 feet in .9 of a mile. The remaining 1000 ft of elevation gain is spread out over the rest of the trail.
Click here to see another map. When you move your cursor over the red dots, photos appear of places along the trail.
This was about the first chance to hike to the Ptarmigan Tunnel this year. Because of snow the trail opens late. Then this year there were two sub-adult male grizzly bears frequenting the trail. The Park had the trail closed for many weeks due to the grizzlies. Finally last Saturday the trail was reopened as the grizzlies had moved off.
It was a very early start for me Wednesday. Joyce and her husband, Edley, came to get me at 6:45 am. I may have had six hours sleep. As mentioned in my post about the two Holsteins I also had cattle issues before I left in the morning.
There were eight of us in the hiking group today. Gary and Suzy weren't here today but Arnie joined us. Arnie is 81 years which surprised me greatly when I learned this late in the hike. I took him to be in his mid 60s. Arnie had no problem hiking this trail with us. Near the end of the hike when he was leading the group some people had trouble keeping up with his pace.
A short distance into the hike we met an interpretive ranger on his day off work. He pointed out an area on the south side of the valley where seven to nine grizzlies come out in the evening to forage. On our way back in the late afternoon we stopped a few times to scan the other side of the valley but didn't see any bears.
The interpretive ranger was a retired military man. He and his wife live in their large motorhome. He works at two to three national parks each year as an interpretive ranger. He hasn't worked at the same park twice. What a nice way to live one's retired life.
While there were open areas, the hike to Ptarmigan Lake was mostly in trees. A few miles before we reached the lake we caught up to a couple from Chicago, and they joined our group so as to hike with a larger number of people in case there were bears. I chatted with them for quite a while as they were interesting. He was born in Denmark and moved to the U.S. back around 1972. "The time of Nixon, McGovern, Kent State, etc." I talked of my visiting Denmark and Sweden.
Somehow we got on the subject of the minimum wage and the initiative on Montana's ballot this Fall to raise the minimum wage. That led to talking about big box stores and Walmart. Even though she described herself as a very liberal person, she did shop at Walmart - unlike many of my other very liberal friends. I had to tease her about shopping at Walmart. She took it well.
At Ptarmigan Lake we stopped for lunch. Sue Ann took her shoes off and waded into the lake. A few other people who arrived later also waded in the lake.
Two young ebullient women arrived and sat to our right. They left the lake before we did and we could see their progress on the trail as it climbed to the tunnel. The small white girl bounded up the trail then waited for the slightly overweight black woman to catch up before bounding up the trail again. Later Sue Ann, the Chicago couple, and I caught up to both of them at the tunnel.
Georgia and Jasmine. They looked to both be around 20. Jasmine was part Jamaican, English, and Cherokee. The blend did her justice as she was pretty.
Georgia is best described as being a "sprite". She was petite and seemed a little over half the size of Jasmine. Okay, that may be an exaggeration but that is the best I can do to describe her size. One could easily draw Georgia as a cartoon character: she seemed to be hiking boots and dreadlocks. Georgia is white as she originally is from New Hampshire and now lives in Florida. She said she accidently ended up in Florida.
"Accidently?", I asked. "How does one accidently end up in another state?" Her parents had divorced and a relative asked if Georgia want to stay with her for a while.
Georgia and Jasmine (from California) are working at a privately owned tourist restaurant and campground in St. Mary. Georgia said that the owners took one look at her dreadlocks and said she would be working in the campground and not the restaurant. I don't know, I thought her dreadlocks were cool. They fit her personality: lots of "wow"s and wide-eyed wonder and laid-back attitude.
If Georgia had been around when I grew up, I would say she would have been a "flower girl". You know, a hippie. But this being 2006 she wasn't wearing a flowing dress like the flower girls wore. Her hiking boots made her feet seem oversized, like a cartoon character. The rest of her outfit, blouse and short shorts, seemed more suited to tripping down a city street instead of a mountain trail.
Georgia and Jasmine planned to hike to the Chief Mountain customs station. They were now 5.2 miles into a 19 mile hike. Yes, the trail does go down from the tunnel but the end of the hike from the Belly River ranger station to the customs station is uphill. Though not up a mountain, 16 to 17 miles into the hike that uphill may feel like up a mountain. Then they would have to hitch a ride back to St. Mary.
After I took some photos of the two girls with Jasmine's camera, they bounded down the trail. Or I should say, Georgia bounded and Jasmine followed.
"Don't worry, we have plenty of food!" As they had small packs, I wondered where?
This is the view of Ptarmigan Lake with the tunnel in the background. Okay, you can't see the tunnel in the photo but trust me, it is there.
The trail as it switchbacks up the mountain to the tunnel. Look along the ridge for the lowest point. It is where the red rock meets the gray rock. Then go down towards the trees above the lower red rock. Just above the trees is a small back spot. That is the tunnel.
The lake and Mt. Grinnell in the background. Mt. Grinnell is on the south side of the Many Glacier valley and along its flank is where the ranger said one can see bears in the evening. The mountain on the right side is Ptarmigan Wall.
From the tunnel the view back towards the lake. Above the trail, above the snow, on this side of the trees, we saw a half dozen big horn sheep grazing. Mothers and babies.
I was the first to reach the tunnel and I called down that it had doors. The Danish man thought I was joking. It makes sense to have doors to keep the snow out. The doors were metal: heavy and thick. They looked old.
Here is the view as one exits the north side of the tunnel. The lake is Elizabeth Lake. This lake is in the Belly River section of Glacier Park: the very NE part of the Park.
While this view is impressive, I recommend hiking a half mile down the trail. To the west (left) are tall, jagged, snow covered mountains rising out of a high valley that has Helen Lake. Try as I may I never was able to see Helen Lake as the mountain's shoulder in my foreground hid the lake in the deep valley below. But we were able to see the very large Ahern Glacier.
Sue Ann told a story of when she hiked to the tunnel with a previous boyfriend. While he readied to take a photo, he had placed her bag on the stone wall, as can be seen in later photos. A strong gust of wind blew her bag over the side. All her important stuff was inside, such as keys, driver's license, money, etc. The bag came to a rest among the rocks below the yellow circle. You can see a line where the rocks come out a bit and don't go straight down. The boyfriend climbed down to retrieve her bag. When climbing back up and reaching a narrow steep section he lost his nerve and everyone there had to encourage him to continue. He made it. Crazy!
As you can see, without the tunnel, crossing the mountain is impossible unless you are a mountain / rock climber.
No snow when we were there, but it was cold! The rock was cold to the touch.
What an effort it was to carve the trail out of the mountain side! I believe the trail and tunnel were made for hunting access in the old, old days.
As I had hiked further down than the rest of my group, I caught back up to them as they waited on the southern side of the tunnel. This was in the sun and warmer. Here we sat and ate and talked with other people who had recently arrived. The interpretive ranger told stories of people and their bear spray accidents. A fun time.
Even though my arms were tired from the previous days work, and my wrist was swollen, I went on the hike thinking it wouldn't affect my wrist. I was wrong. I discovered the swinging action of my arm aggravated my wrist so it ached more by the time we headed back to the trailhead. I ended up putting my hand in the pocket of my hiking shorts. That helped my wrist but later my upper arm ached from not moving as I walked. Can't win!
I was very glad the group decided to take a break at Ptarmigan Falls. As we approached the falls I seen a young woman in a bikini laying sideways on a rock near the stream. Wow! Initially I thought it was some sort of photo shoot as everyone we seen on the trail were dressed for hiking.
She wore a small bikini and lay sideways reading a book. That bikini was small! I found a spot a short distance away from the group that offered a good view of the woman. Enough looking at trees - I wanted to look at her curves.
After our hike was over we stopped at the Park Cafe in St. Mary to have a slice of pie. A popular place with excellent pies. We sat outside on the deck and made small talk and savored our pies. A wonderful day. Perfect weather with clear skies and temperatures in the 70s.
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