Lake McDonald

After looking at the web cam photo of Lake McDonald that Patti sent on Wednesday, Donna wanted to go to Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park on Thursday.  Since my shoulder is still healing I am not suppose to do much. This recent nice weather has been too much of a temptation to do work around the ranch.  A short drive and hike should keep me from using my arm and shoulder too much. So Thursday afternoon we drove to the Park.

No one was at the Park entrance to monitor admission; but Donna has a Golden Eagle park pass so we drove on in.

We first drove to look at the Camas Road.  It is still snow covered and closed.  We then drove to Apgar and looked at Lake McDonald.

Then we drove up to the Lake McDonald lodge area. Part way along the way we stopped and walked down to the lake to see the view.

Near the lodge the Going-to-the-Sun road was snow covered and closed at that point.

We got out the car and walked along the road until we could take the the North McDonald road that crosses McDonald creek before the creek enters the north end of Lake McDonald.

View of Lake McDonald from the bridge over McDonald Creek.

Ariel view of the previous photo.

There we looked at the scenery and several deer before walking back to the car.

The snow on the Sun Road was hard packed and easy to walk on. The snow looked only to be several inches deep.  In a couple spots the road was clear of snow.

The sun was bright and warm in the clear sky. The temperature, in the 40s F, was relatively warm.


I was able to use my new GPS unit.  I am still figuring out how it works but I got the following data from the device.

The distance we walked was 3.3 miles round trip.

Here is a chart of the elevation change.   The chart may look dramatic but the total gain/loss was not that much as the difference between the minimum and maximum elevation was only 74 ft.  I don't know why the chart is not a mirror image of each half of the trip.

Here are 37 photos from our hike: https://picasaweb.google.com/109566462412251958234/LakeMcDonaldFeb2016?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJTP8oXD8cXbdg&feat=directlink

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Snyder Lake 2015

Saturday, May 2, I went on my first hike of the year.  It was a nice day on Saturday and Patti convinced me to go on a hike.  She chose Snyder Lake.

Snyder Lake is a hike best done in Spring or Fall/Winter as the snow on the mountains that surround the valley with the lake adds to the hike.  The other times I hiked to Snyder Lake had been in November and January.

http://tallpineshiker.blogspot.com/2008/11/snyder-lake.html
http://tallpineshiker.blogspot.com/2010/01/snyder-lake-in-january.html

The elevation of the lake is 5,246 ft.  The length is 787 ft and the width is 427 ft.

On Saturday there was only snow the last quarter mile or so to the lake.  The lake had open areas of water.

We seen a handful of other hikers and two men from Michigan who were camping on the snow by the lake for several nights.

Bridge over Snyder Creek near the lake's outlet.

We also seen a relatively fresh pile of bear scat once we left the Sperry/Gunsight trail and were on the trail to Snyder Lake.

We did not see a bear.  We did see a garter snake.

We also seen some diving ducks in the open water areas.  Patti researched them later and found they were  Barrow's Goldeneye.  (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barrows_Goldeneye/id)   I didn't get a decent photo of them as my camera's zoom doesn't work.

Patti counted about 20 fallen trees across the Sperry/Gunsight and Snyder trails that we either had to go around or crawl under.

The trail ends along the lake.  Due to the snow we were able to walk along the snowed covered lake to a scree/rock field at the head of the lake near where Snyder Creek enters the lake. In the Summer I believe it is brushy and there is no trail to this part of the lake.  A large part of this rock area was snow free and warm.  It also provided the best view of the lake.  We ate our lunches on one of the large rocks along the lake shore.

For 21 more photos, follow this link: https://plus.google.com/photos/109566462412251958234/albums/6145275298395069121?authkey=COnbhaOfvOfAaw

Here is a 1:10 video of Snyder Creek leaving the lake and a couple short segments of water flowing across the trail: https://youtu.be/LjVX4i4HJpo

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Mt Brown lookout in snow

Sunday February 21, under a clear sky, I hiked up to the Mt Brown Lookout in Glacier Park.  This trail is the steepest trail in the Park.  I climbed 4,305 ft in 5.8 miles.  The maximum elevation was 7,487 ft.

Needless to say I was tired after the 11.6 mile hike of almost 8 hours (though to be fair I spent over an hour up at the lookout).
 
The hike was all in snow.  Enough people had used snowshoes to get to the lookout that the snow was packed enough that I was able to reach the lookout without using my snowshoes.  I did carry them on my back the entire way as I thought I may need them when I got on high.

Leah was also at the Park on Sunday and took the following two photos.  I believe the lookout is where I marked the photo with the red O.  I started the hike at the lake level.  Mt Brown is the mountain behind the lookout.  That is about 7 miles away.

Here is the view from near the trail head at Lake McDonald.  The lookout is the white bump under the u in 'Lookout'.  In this view you can see the mountain with the lookout is separate from Mt Brown.  The final photo also shows that.

The views were great and I took 200 to 300 photos.  I haven't had time to go through them to weed duplicates and bad photos and to stitch other photos together.  But here are a few photos.

Lots of snow up there!

Leah's first photo was taken at the far end of Lake McDonald near Apgar Village.  That is about 7 miles away.

 

The mountain just under and to the right of the snow hanging from the lookout roof is Huckleberry Mountain.  I don't remember if I wrote about that hike that I did last Fall.  As you can see there is so much snow that the walkway around the lookout was filled to the railing level.

Photo 1: the rightmost peak of the three peaks is Heaven's Peak.  I forgot the names of the other two peaks.
Photo 2: Mt Brown

Blue

Blue skies lead to a blue mood?

Yesterday Joyce and I drove 100 miles and crossed the Continental Divide in search of a blue sky.  We found it once we reached Maria Pass.  The mountain tops held the clouds back and it was solidly clear and blue to the east.

Sun!  Oh, glorious sun!

Around East Glacier everything was coated in a thick frost.

We skied 7 miles to Two Medicine Lake and close to the shadows from the clouds trying to get past the mountains.  The wind brought occasional snow flakes flying floating by.

Late afternoon we watched the looming clouds and anticipated the loss of sunlight as we drove back to and under the massive line of clouds.  Even after we entered the cloud's shadow we could still see the snow covered mountains to our side lit by the sunlight.  Then all traces of sunlight were gone.

Today I have a 'hangover' from my blue sky experience.  It is gloomy and gray here yet again for another day and the forecast has this forever.  I miss seeing the blue sky.

Tonight there was a story on the local weather forecast that said that the Flathead Valley has had five days of blue skies since December 1.  Only five days!  Fortunately I spent a few weeks back in Minnesota and North Dakota since December so I saw more than just five days of sun.  Still... I want more sun.

It didn't help that Leah forwarded me some photos taken by a friend of hers who hiked up to Mt Brown Lookout last weekend.  This hike is on my list of things to do this winter and I haven't made it up there yet.

Got outside for some fun in Glacier

I finally got outside for some fun this Winter.   Thursday I cross country skied 11 miles on the Old Ranger Station trail in Glacier Park and Saturday I hiked to Snyder Lake (9 miles round trip and again in Glacier Park).  Yes, I said 'hiked'.  While I brought my snowshoes along I didn't need them as the trail was packed down to hard snow.  On some parts of the trail, stepping "off trail" meant sinking into snow up to my knees, and in one case almost to my waist.

Late Saturday night and Sunday it snowed. Officially at the airport we had 1.3 inches of snow.  But at my place I am sure we had closer to 3 inches.  Anyway, the new snow made it pretty and white again, as with no wind, the snow fell straight down and blanketed everything.

Here is the view of Lake McDonald when I hiked Saturday.

Snyder Lake in January

Saturday, January 30, Patti and I hiked up to Snyder Lake in Glacier Park.  Yes, I said 'hiked'.  We had brought our snowshoes along but found that for the most part the snow on the trail was packed down hard enough to walk on.  I ended up carrying my snowshoes on my back the entire way.

When we started quite a number of cars were in the Lake McDonald lodge parking lot near the trail head.  Next to us was a young couple getting ready.  Next to their car was another couple part of the group.  They were going to backcountry camp that night as Avalanche Lake.  That meant cross country skiing on the Sun road almost 7 miles to the Avalanche Lake trail head, then ski and snowshoe the two or so miles back to the lake.

The men were loading plastic sleds with the tents, sleeping bags, and supplies, to pull behind them. The men had their work cut out for them as they had a lot of stuff.  I asked how many nights they planned to stay?  Just one.  One woman said that extra nights just mean a little more food, that's all. 


The first part of the trail, the part that also goes to Sperry Chalet and is steep, was under a thick tree canopy; and with this year's lower than normal snow amount, was packed to a hard icy sheen.  In some spots it had melted a little and was icy.

I was able to get up the steep trail but walking on the side of the trail where there still was some snow to get traction on.  Patti put on her YakTrax and then was able to get up the trail.

Once the trail split off to Snyder Lake it wasn't quite as steep, but higher up and not under as thick of a tree canopy, had more snow.  This photo was taken shortly after we started on the Snyder Lake section of the trail.  Later the track got sunk so deep in the snow we felt like we were walking in a bobsled or luge run.

I was able to make it all the way to Snyder Lake just using my shoes, but I had to take care not to step on the sides of the narrow trail as then I would sink down into the snow.

One time one off balance step led to another and soon I was in snow up to my hips. I was glad I had worn my gaiters.  On the last mile of this trail Patti put on her snowshoes as with her little feet she began to sink into the snow even when on the trail.  With my bigger feet, as long as I stepped lightly, I didn't sink.

The only people Patti and I saw on the trails were one young couple as we came back down the Sperry Chalet part of the trail after visiting Snyder Lake.  This couple had hiked up only as far as to see the view of Lake McDonald in the photo below.

Lots of snow, and with little no no wind, it fell straight down as seen in the photos.

Finally in the last mile of the 4.4 hike to the lake we could see the mountains ringing the cirque.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

As we neared the lake we could see the blue ice from a number of frozen waterfalls. Here are photos of a few of them.

 

At the lake I crossed the stream leading from the lake and checked out the campsite and the outhouse. The previous week a couple camped here. They had to shovel out the outhouse in order to use it.

 

No... that is not an outhouse for midgets.

  

The campers also had shoveled snow from an area to make a place to sit and enjoy the mountain views. It was so quiet and beautiful up there.  Here is where my snowshoes came in handy... as something to sit on so as not to get a wet butt from the snow.