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A hiker with hundreds of miles under her belt isn’t unique in this part of the world. But Joyce Moon, who has been taking intense hikes for
six years, is a bit of a different story. She started tackling Glacier
National Park’s many trails just six years ago, when she was 72.
Her last hike, a three-day adventure
from Logan Pass to Goat Haunt and into Waterton, started cold and wet
before a bit of divine intervention.
“I’m a Christian, so I prayed for good weather,” Moon said. “The clouds cleared up on the second and third days.”
She took four of her five children on that hike and was pleasantly surprised they were able to keep up without complaining. Kendra and Greg, Kari, Kristen and
Dave, and Jeff and Toni accompanied Moon on the hike, while Jerrold, the
fifth child, couldn’t make it.
“I was pretty proud of my kids,” Moon
said. “Everybody was really good sports. Jeff was pretty protective of
me, and was saying, ‘We have to get to the next campsite, Mom.’”
Husband Edley doesn’t go on hikes with
Moon, 78, and instead stays at the couple’s small cattle ranch near
Foy’s Lake while his wife treks through the mountains.
While she had been hiking somewhat all her life, it took Moon until her 70s to give Glacier Park a shot. “I’ve been kicking myself for not going up there earlier,” Moon said. “When I hike, I just feel free. There’s so much to see.”
Born in 1935 in the tiny Montana town
of Lambert, which now shares census results with Fox Lake, just miles
from the North Dakota border, Moon moved to the Flathead Valley as a
teenager. However, it wasn’t until a fateful
occurrence six years ago that Moon got up into the park. She saw a
hiking group sign-up sheet and decided to give it a shot.
That first hike, a 20-miler, went from Bowman Lake into the park’s interior. Moon was hooked.
“I’m going to keep doing it as long as
I can,” she said. “You’ve got to keep moving, or you’ll end up in a
wheelchair or stuck in front of the TV.”
Although Moon no longer hikes with the
same group she started with, she has built up a small group of hiking
acquaintances and has made it her goal to hike as many of Glacier’s
trails as possible.
Sometimes, like on the hike from Logan Pass to Goat Haunt, the septuagenarian must deal with some nasty weather. “It was awful,” Moon said of that hike with her kids, which took place from Sept. 18 to 20. “It was raining and snowing, and that
wind up near the top [of Logan Pass] really blows. My husband called me
crazy for going out.”
The later-season hikes are a result of
Moon trying to get big groups out in the park. The campsites fill up in
the summer, so August and September are the best chances to reserve the
sites. This means that her large group can go for three days into the
park without running into the hundreds of thousands of tourists that
visit during the warmer months.
Despite her accomplishments, Moon remains humble. “Compared to some people, I haven’t done anything,” Moon said. “God has kept me well and healthy.”
When not going on Tolkien-esque
journeys through the mountains, she loves to cross-country ski in Herron
Park near her home, take shorter hikes around Hungry Horse Reservoir
and make blankets for local charities. (She has more than 100 to her
credit at this point.) Moon also makes a mean huckleberry pie.
She also picked up the trumpet for the first time in more than 50 years in 2009 and joined the New Horizons Band. “I played in high school for half a
year, but I was so shy,” Moon said. “But everyone there is learning with
each other and laughing together.”
Keeping active and the brain healthy
is a priority for Moon, who doesn’t even have a working TV in her home.
Her part-time job at Sportsman & Ski Haus is just the cherry on the
top.
Already itching for next season, she
has a hike planned from Chief Mountain, on the east side of the park, to
Goat Haunt and up into Waterton.
If any hikers see a little lady
zooming past them on the trail with several tired-looking adult children
in tow, give a shout out to Moon as she conquers Glacier National
Park.
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_98eebf34-6139-11e3-ace2-0019bb2963f4.html
