Friday, August 20, 2010

Brian and Neil

August 15 my friend Brian and his brother came to visit me and Glacier Park for four days.  It had been three years since Brian last visited me and the Park.  This was the first time for Neil to visit the Park in over a decade.

We visited most all areas of the Park accessible by car.  We did some hiking but Neil has some health issues so our hikes were pretty minor.

We hiked to:
  • the stream near the Loop
  • the Hidden Lake overlook
  • St Mary Falls
  • Red Eagle (or Trick) Falls in the Two Medicine area
  • Fishercap Lake in the Many Glacier Area
  • around the end of Bowman Lake

Brian and I attempted to hike to the Cyclone Peak lookout tower near Polebridge, MT but it began to rain lightly just after we got out of Brian's car.  We put on rain coats and hats and started out in hopes the shower would be brief.  It wasn't.  It rained harder with each step so we turned around and quickly headed back to Brian's car.  We were wet by the time we got back inside the car.  The family picking huckleberries a short distance down the road were soaked when we drove past them again.  The man was in their pickup truck and looked wet while the woman and young child were just getting near the road and truck as they had been further up the steep mountainside picking berries.


We saw five bears in the Park keeping Brian's streak alive.  Our first bear was going through bushes above the stream near the Loop.  It looked to be a young grizzly.




While at Many Glacier Lodge people saw a mother grizzly and her two cubs on the mountain above the road.  The bears were a distance off so I sat and relaxed in the sun while others buzzed about excitedly.

The last bear we saw was at the inlet to Fishercap Lake.  I saw it first when the bear crossed into some willow bushes.  Later we all saw the bear, and definitely heard it, as it climbed through the trees above the lake.

Afterward I found some huckleberries when I went wandering off on a trail by myself.  The huckleberry bushes had signs that a bear had been through them earlier.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Swan Range black bear

Thursday with Joyce and Sue Ann I went hiking to Strawberry Lake in the Jewel Basin.  On the way back to the car we came across a back bear just off the trail.  We kept our respectful distance from one another and everything was fine once we went on our separate ways.