Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Dragon's Tail with Brian

Wednesday, July 18 2007, Brian and I drove to Logan Pass in Glacier Park and hiked to Dragon's Tail, "Eden's overlook", and the Hidden Lake Overlook. A full day of hiking. Total distance: 9 miles.

I should note that we never made to the exact top/end of Dragon's Tail, just the common route. Apparently near, but below, the top where most people go there is a side trail on the south side where one can go to get to the true end. Apparently it is somewhat of a scarier route.

In the following map I marked in alphabetical order A - H the areas we hiked.
Car = where we left Brian's car
A = Logan Pass, where we started and ended our hike
B = the saddle between the unnamed ridge and Reynolds Mountain
E = Dragon's Tail
F = SE corner of Reynolds Mountain
G = Eden's Overlook
H = Hidden Lake Overlook


The parking lot at Logan Pass was full so we drove down the east side of the Pass to Siyeh Bend and parked there. We then caught one of the free shuttles back to Logan Pass.

Photo 1: Brian's car at Siyeh Bend parking lot. To the left, and beyond, of Heavy Runner Mountain is Eden's Overlook, one of our hiking destinations.

Photo 2: close up view of Eden's overlook. I made it to the middle 'hump'. Brian stayed on the ridge to the right of the 'humps'. You'll see why in a later photo.


As Brian and I walked on the trail to the Hidden Lake overlook I noticed people up on Mt Oberlin. I studied where it appeared there was a trail and decided I could climb to the top of Mt Oberlin.

Clements Mountain lay ahead of us.


The trail was free of snow though there was snow nearby.


As usual there were a number of mountain goats along the trail.



This photo was taken from the Hidden Lake overlook at the NE end of the lake. The red X is our destination on Dragon Tail.



Before we reached the overlook Brian and I left the Hidden Lake trail to take the informal trail to the Dragon's Tail.

The trail passes east of an unnamed mountain between Reynolds Mountain and Clements Mountain. Snow buried the trail along the shadowed flank of the mountain so I made my own trail.

We caught up to two older men. One was 74 and the other about the same age. They decided we would hike together with me leading the way so I could make footsteps in the hard snow for the others to follow in.

I learned one fellow was a member of the "Over the Hill" hiking group so I quizzed them about the group and heard stories about a few of their hikes. I heard the story about the old man who fell - and miraculously survived - as the group descended along the north side of Mt Reynolds.

The two guys also talked about the "Eden Overlook" on the other side of Mt. Reynolds, and how one could circle the mountain to return to Logan Pass. I was more interested in this than Brian as from where we stood, he could see what the terrain looked like. The story about the old man falling didn't encourage Brian either.

Once we had reached the saddle we were out of the snow. After photo taking and eating some snacks Brian and I continued on leaving the other two men to follow at their own slower pace.

Taken from the 'saddle', this photo is the view back east/NE towards Matahpi Peak (left) and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain (right). The 'gash' is the Sun Road as it goes down from Logan Pass. The "bend" in the 'gash' is Siyeh Bend where we left the car.


The next photos show Hidden Lake as seen from the saddle. Photo 1 looks SW and photo 2 looks NW. The red X in the first photo shows my destination on that hike to the Avalanche Lake Overlook. Can you see how I got from the lake to the overlook? Probably not as the 'trail' location can't easily be seen in this photo.  Most all the snow on the other side of the lake was gone by the time I later hiked here.



The first photo shows the spine's length and the second photo was taken near the top of Dragon Tail.



Here are photos of Hidden Lake taken from Dragon Tail. In the first photo, the left side of the lake is where Colleen and I later hiked. I remember walking out on the rocky point at the lower left side of the lake.

The red X in the second photo is the location of the Hidden Lake overlook.

Photos 1 and 2 are to the northern end of the lake, and photo 3 is the southern end of the lake.


Brian and I spent some time sitting at the top taking in the view. I also studied where I thought a trail could be between Hidden Lake and the Avalanche Lake overlook.

The green Xs and arrow are our trail from Logan Pass and over the saddle. The Garden Wall are the mountains in the background. Clements Mountain is the mountain on the left side. Oberlin Mountain is to the right and beyond Clements.


Here are a couple views of Reynolds Mountain from Dragon Tail. Reynolds can be climbed without technical equipment. I'll probably climb it some day. I look at Reynolds and want to climb it. Other times... I think not. In these photos the climb doesn't seem bad. In person, the mountain is huge and its size and scale intimidates me. Especially when I stand on the trail beneath dark rock and look up for a way up through it.



Brian and I had started our day's adventure late so now it was late afternoon and the shadows were on the western side of the mountains. The temperature was on the hot side (in the valley the temps were in the low 90s F) and Brian was feeling the effects of the heat. Still I talked Brian into making the hike across the south side of Mt Reynolds over to "Eden Overlook". The trail was mostly level around Reynolds, then down a bit across the ridge out to the overlook.



Photo 1: the trail on the south side of Reynolds Mountain.

Photo 2: SE corner of Reynolds Mountains.



From the SE corner of Reynolds Mountains, looking back at Dragon Tail. The red X shows where we hiked to on Dragon Tail.



From SE of Reynolds Mountain, the view to the NE/east. The snow lies along the east side of Reynolds Mountain. You can see through the "gap" the 'gash' that is the Siyeh Bend part of the Sun Road. Beyond is Matahpi Peak and Going-to-the-Sun road. The blue in the distance is St Marys Lake.

 
Photo 1 is another view of Matahpi Peak and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain. Below the red A is where we left the car at Siyeh Bend. End is where one of my previous hikes around the two mountains ended up.

Photo 2 shows St Marys Lake.


In the next photos, on the other side of the long mountain ridge is the location of the Gunsight Pass trail. The glaciers in the third photo are the Blackfoot (left) and Jackson (right) glaciers.



The ridge curved southeast then to the east. I said, "I think we can go a bit further.", and on we went. While the view was very good, I wasn't convinced we had reached "The Overlook". The guy said the name was because one stands high over the Gunsight Pass valley and it is like looking down upon the Garden Of Eden.

I was looking down on the Valley and it was nice, but I wanted to make sure I had gone all the way to the best view. Finally Brian decided to go no further. By now we were going down as well as east. I continued on making my own way where I thought the trail should be. The ridge had turned into 'pillars' one had to go around, down, and up. After I made it to the first pillar I called it quits and returned to Brain. I was going down faster than going out.

The third photo shows how far I went. D is the farthest I hiked.


I was disappointed as the views - while impressive - were not up to what I had imagined. My expectations had been too high.

I took time to orient myself and looked at:
  • Blackfoot and Jackson Glaciers,
  • the Gunsight Pass trail location,
  • the possible trail around the east side of Mt Reynolds (of which I had lost interesting in hiking),
  • Siyeh Bend to where Brian's car was located, and
  • east to the length of St. Mary's Lake and out to the prairie beyond.



Brian was happy he had hiked to the Eden Overlook.

Here is an odd photo from my cheap camera. The photo shows Hidden Lake, Clements Mountain beyond the lake, the saddle, and Reynolds Mountain on the right side. The camera makes it look like I am hanging on the side of Reynold Mountain. I wasn't. The camera just took a strange photo.


On our return trip to the saddle Brain came across some of the local wildlife. I believe this is a marmot.


The old guy we had met earlier had told us of a way we could bushwhack along the west side of the unnamed mountain ridge north of the 'saddle' so we could reach the Hidden Lake overlook without having to go down and east of the ridge. There was a way to slip along and through the short cliffs on the west side. Brian wasn't up to the adventure, and frankly I wasn't all that enthused with blazing a trail now. So down we went through the snow back the way we had come up.

Once we reached the Hidden Lake trail Brian and I hiked over to the overlook and saw Hidden Lake from another viewpoint than Dragon Tail. Dragon Tail is south of the lake and the overlook is NE of the lake.

This photo was taken from the overlook and is looking west over the lake and into McDonald Valley.

It was getting late as we hiked back to Logan Pass. We didn't know the bus schedule and were concerned it was too late to catch the bus. To our relief the bus ran past 10 pm - over an hour from now.

When Brian and I returned from our hike we found that the Park Service had put up a sign indicating the Reynolds, Clements, and Oberlin Mountain areas were closed.



The Logan Pass parking lot was fairly empty when we returned, and Brian's car was only one of a few back at Siyeh Bend.


As usual it was dark and late when we returned home. Poor Brian, he was moving towards my (late) schedule and now he was eating his supper after 10 pm before crashing into bed. He did well considering the heat, elevation and distance.

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