Friday, October 13, 2006

Fish Lake

Friday the 13th was not an unlucky day for me. On this day I hiked with my hiking group to Fish Lake in Glacier Park. Hiking today was Joyce, Bill, Arnie, Sue Ann and I.

It had been almost a month since I last hiked with them. Between my Washington trip and some rainy weather before that, I missed three or four weeks of hiking.


Since the hike was on the west side of the Park - and the overnight low temperature was 27 F - we met later than usual at 9 am. We actually started hiking at 10 am.

Joyce made and brought a delicious huckleberry dessert in a cake pan. Before the hike started we all had a piece of the dessert. Sue Ann made an apple pie and our plan after the hike was to have another piece of the huckleberry dessert and then a piece of Sue Ann's pie. Not only does this group like to hike, they like to eat desserts.

The temperature was 37 F when we started and since much of the hike was in tall pine trees we all dressed in layers. The first part of the hike was steadily uphill so we warmed up nicely. Our trail started at the Sperry trail head. Our total mileage for the hike was 6.8 miles.

Joyce was wearing her "Hike Naked" t-shirt ("Put a little color on your cheeks"). That led to a conversation about hiking naked. I found I wasn't the only person in the group to have hiked naked.

Toss in skinny dipping and talk of streaking - and everyone's approval of these activities - and I suggested we name our group "The hike naked group". A few of our hiking group members not present today are much more prim and proper so the name probably won't stick.

During the initial climb we got a good view of Lake McDonald.


Along the way we crossed a freshly built bridge over Snyder Creek. Sue Ann commented the bridge must have been made by men as the builders left wood chips and sawdust all over the bridge. Sue Ann said that women builders would have swept the bridge clean after they were done building the bridge.


We crossed a second creek: Sprague Creek.



Fish Creek had no visible inlet or outlet. It seem to be part swamp and part lake. I half expected to see a moose there, but did not. We did see two loons on the lake. They dove underwater to feed and seemed to spend far more time underwater than on the surface. Bill said he saw a few fish break the surface. Otherwise it was extremely quiet.


After our lunch break we decided to see where a side trail to the east/southeast went. We thought it would go around the lake to access it on the other side. Nope. It went around and up above the lake, then left the area. As we all are adventurous, and since it had been only a 2.9 mile hike to the lake, we went to see where this trail would take us.

On and on we walked. Eventually through the trees and down below we saw a lake. A big lake. It turned out to be Lake McDonald.

More walking and we finally came to signs.

We had been walking on the Snyder Ridge Fire trail. We were now at an intersection with the Lincoln Lake trail.


It was 6.3 miles to Lincoln Lake so we decided to not go there. Bill had hiked to the lake a few years earlier and he didn't care for the hike as it was entirely among trees with no views. For our short hike we went down hill until we reached the Sun Road.  The trail was steep.


Here are a few views of the Lincoln Lake trail as we walked to the Going-to-the-Sun Road.


Back at the Sun Road we had an undetermined amount of hiking back to Bill's car. The road was flat, but paved, and harder on the legs. The men joked that we needed the women to show their legs in order to hitch a ride for us. Very few vehicles were on the road but soon a SUV came and Joyce flagged it down - without having to show her legs. We only needed a ride for Bill but the couple said they had room for all of us and we squeezed into the SUV.

The couple were on vacation from California and visiting the area for four days for the first time. Even though their SUV was rented in Spokane Washington, it had California plates. Knowing Californians don't have a good reputation they would have preferred a vehicle with another license plate. Back at Bill's car we gave them each a piece of Joyce's huckleberry dessert as thanks for the ride.

After we left Glacier Park we went over to Sue Ann's house for apple pie. She lives in suburban countryside, meaning her house is out of the town in a rural area but neighbors are all along the road. The house is old but nice. Next to the house is a 100 year old log cabin which is gorgeous inside and out.

Sue Ann's house is tastefully decorated, and with the classical music playing, I felt like I was in some fancy restaurant in an old lodge.

After the desert and conversation Sue Ann needed to put another log in her fireplace. She asked if I could split a log for her that she was unable to split it. It took a few chops but I was able to split it.

Then she gave me a birch tree log to see if I could split it. Then another log. Arnie joined in bringing logs and soon I had split a half dozen or more logs. Sue Ann said she was impressed by my log splitting ability, and I said she knows how to use flattery to get a person to split logs for her.

Then it was off to home with several plans for hiking and/or biking next week. As Sue Ann is a big mountain bicyclist I mentioned the Hiawatha trail across the Montana/Idaho border through the mountains near Lookout Pass. The trail is on an old railroad and has a number of old tunnels. Bill and Joyce also were excited about bicycling the trail and we made plans to do so. However, later I checked the trail's web site and found the trail closed for the season October 1. One of the disadvantages of the mountains is that high elevation activities end in the Fall.

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