Leah's Super Adults presentation

Friday I attended a Super Adults (55+) luncheon and program at a local church.  Peter and Edwina used to run this program out of Joyce's church but this year moved to doing it at their church.

Leah, who runs one of the groups I hike with, showed a number of her photos from hiking trips in and around Glacier Park.

I arrived on time. Lots of people were there.  People were very friendly and it took me a while to find Joyce and Marilyn as many people wanted to chat.  One woman remembered me from the talk I did at one of these luncheon meetings this past Spring about bicycling.  One guy with only one arm got out his Sony digital camera and showed me how the camera's multiple face recognition worked.

Marilyn told me on Thursday they had found/suspected Bill had a dislocated shoulder.  They would be taking an x-ray today (Friday) to make sure.  If so, then the mystery is how it became dislocated while a patient in Brendan House?  This is the same nursing home I took my dad out of years ago to care for until he died.

The meal was very good.  The cheesecake desert was right out of a fancy restaurant.  Very good.

Leah's photos of course were very nice and she even included a few photos from hikes I had been on.  I included a couple of her photos at the end here.

The violinists were very good playing several classical music pieces. Being classical music they went on longer than the time of your standard pop song.  It was hard to get an idea about the two women.  They looked to be anywhere from their mid teens to 20 years of age.  Their appearance and dress was very conservative and they would fit in in how young women dressed and looked a century ago.

A woman at our table, and her husband sitting at another table, had a wedding anniversary in February.  When Peter asked the husband for the anniversary date to put him on the spot as to whether he could remember, he replied "Yesterday!" and people laughed.  The wife answered 43 years when Peter asked how long.  A minute later Peter quizzed the husband as to the year they were married and the husband replied "I don't know.  Ask my wife".

After the program was over I saw Arnie and his wife and chatted with them.  I also congratulated Leah on her talk and photos.

SUPER ADULTS (55+) at Easthaven

LUNCHEON AND PROGRAM

Friday, February 5, 2010

12 Noon to 1:40 PM

Super Adults is for people who enjoy friendships, good food and want to learn.

Come early for a great time of fellowship with friends in the Flathead Valley.

The event is held in the THEATER at Easthaven Baptist Church.

The SPECIAL FEATURE will be Leah Levitt’s photography of awesome peaks,

alpine meadows, and lakes not seen from the Going to the Sun Road.

Leah has a chapter in the new book about Glacier,

100 STORIES IN 100 YEARS.

Job Dittmer will be the INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER.

Violinists, Kristen and Amy Haymond, will bring both classical and Gospel SPECIAL MUSIC.

Those having birthdays and anniversaries in February will be recognized.

A good meal will be served at your table.  Guests are always welcome.

Photos by Leah Levitt.

Photo 1: Sperry Glacier seen from Mt Renyolds.

Photo 2: Lake Helen Wilson from Gunsight Pass.

Phillips Creek

Saturday June 21 I went on my second hike of the season. The group wasn't sure if Blacktail Mountain still had snow on it so I planned this hike instead.

I called the Swan forest service ranger to ask about a few trails with views in her district. She told me the Beardance and Phillips Creek trails were snow free.

She recommended Phillips Creek trail over Beardance. She said the Phillips Creek trail had more views of Flathead Lake as the Beardance trail was mainly in the trees while Phillips Creek passed through a meadow.

She said if we started on the Swan Lake side of the trail we'd only climb 150 ft instead of the 1200 ft coming up from Flathead Lake and Hwy 35.

Joyce, Bill, Arnie, Sue Ann, and I met at 8 am as the day was predicted to have temperatures in the upper 80s F and clear skies.

I drove my car as everyone fit inside it. Good thing that half the people are shorter than average.

To reach the trail head we had to go through the town of Ferndale to get to forest service road #498. We saw no signs for the road but Ferndale is very small and the side road I picked was the correct road to get us to forest service road 498.

On this road we were to drive until we saw mile marker 3. We never saw it nor any other road sign. After a half dozen miles we saw a side forest service road and checked its number. Uh, oh. Wrong number. We gone too far.

We drove back down the road and mountain side and watched closer for signs.

We didn't see any signs but we did see a place where one could park on the east side of the road, which is what the trail description also mentioned. I got out and then found a small wooden sign indicating trail 373 to the north, which is the Phillips Creek trail.

After everyone got out of the car and prepared to hike Joyce found a sign that said "Phillips Creek" and a trail to the south.


The trail was nice. We went through a forest which kept the temperature cooler. Phillips Creek was pretty.

Some blow down crossed the trail but it wasn't too bad.

Lots of beargrass...

Phillips Creek trail is supposed to be 3 miles long and after almost 2 miles we found a side trail that led to a small clearing where we could see Flathead Lake down below. We had a nice view of Blacktail Mountain on the north (right) to Big Arm and Elmo to the south.



Far off to the west we could see snow covered mountains. The Cabinet Mountains?



We stopped and had lunch before continuing on. After lunch the trail headed down the mountain. On my map it would join with the Crane Mountain trail and the Beardance trail. How far down before the trails joined was the question.

We came to where our trail joined with another that went up (left) and down (right) the mountain. I checked the trail out and found it went back up to where we initially split off the trail to see the view of Flathead Lake. We decided to go back to the car as the "down" part of the trail was definitely down.

In the sun my black car was hot inside. As we aired my car to cool it down I saw on the map that trail 96 left from this trail head in the NW direction to Estes Lake. The sign saying 373 instead of 96 did not match, but what the heck, let's explore.

We went through more forests. We wandered around for a few miles. On trails, old roads, routes that were half trails and half roads. We passed signs of bonfires and beer cans and even passed a SUV parked at the end of a road. (We never did come across the SUV's occupants.)

After passing a lake that was more like a swamp the trail went up. Again I scouted ahead while the others waited and rested. The trail/road split and I took the trail westward. After a while I stopped and turned around as enough distance and time passed where I needed to return to the others.

On my way back I noticed ATV tracks off the trail and upwards. I followed and climbed on top of the large rock that was on the west side of the lake/swamp where I left the others. On top of the rock I had views out over the forest to the Swan Mountain Range to the east, and through the trees a glimpse of Flathead Lake off to the west.

I rejoined the others and we decided to return to the car and look for the other trails.

Off we drove. We found forest service roads that were on the map, forest service roads that were not on the map, and from the map we never found some of the other forest service roads. My map is dated 2007 so it is not an out-of-date map.

I drove down a few side forest service roads to dead ends and nothing else. No trails to be seen. No signs. Sue Ann began to tell us about the time she and a friend drove these roads many years ago when she lived in Bigfork and how they got stuck in snow. I was careful and didn't get my car high centered on the side roads. I missed most of the potholes but a few got me.

I was determined to go to the end of forest service road 498 even though the map had it ending in the middle of the forest. We also were curious as to what Mission Well was. This was labeled on the map closer to the end. Joyce said her husband had hauled logs out of Mission Well years ago but she didn't know what it was. What it is... is a lake. The lake is brown. I imagine from all the decaying trees that fell into it.


On we drove. We began to have snow off and on along the road, and a few times I had to drive across snow. The road was a little more than a vehicle width wide and at times I had to squeeze around a tree that fell across part of the road. One time I got out and moved a smallish tree off the road so I could drive by. I was determined to get to the end.

Near the end we came to a large tree across the road. Someone had cut the end off so a vehicle the width of an ATV could get by, but not a car. The tree was between two trees so we couldn't slide it sideways off the road. We couldn't push it down the mountainside as it was too large. I checked the end of the tree trunk and saw someone had cut the tree down. It was not a blow down. Hmmmm...


 
We left my car and walked down the road and found it split a few hundred yards beyond the tree. Each split had a mound of dirt and a deep trench on the other side dug across the road. The forest service went through a lot of effort to block the road. We continued walking on the west split. After a half mile we turned around as the scenery wasn't all that great and the road dull to walk on.



I had to drive in reverse a ways before I could turn my car around. This made Sue Ann nervous.

On the way back at Joyce's request I stopped on a section of snow so she could get out, dig down to white snow, and fill her water bottle to get water once it melted. This led to a snowball fight and everyone was lightly tossing snow at each other. Arnie misjudged and I got a face full of snow.

I kept track and found that forest service road 498 is 17 miles in length.

It was after 3 pm when we got back to Kalispell. We had wasted away the day, but had fun doing so. All told we probably hiked 7 miles total.

Numa Ridge Lookout

Wednesday, October 31, Joyce, Sue Ann, Arnie, and I hiked to the Numa Ridge Lookout.

Trail distance: 11.2 roundtrip.
I also hiked over where Bowman Creek leaves Bowman Lake and that added another .2 mile or so to my total.

Elevation gain: 2930 ft

Highest Point: 6960 ft

The Numa Ridge Lookout trail head is at the foot of Bowman Lake, which is in the NW part of Glacier Park. To reach Bowman Lake drive 34 miles on the North Fork road from Columbia Falls to Polebridge, then enter the Park there.

Once we entered the Park, in my pickup it took me almost 45 minutes to drive the 6+ miles to Bowman Lake.  The road to Bowman Lake is a one lane barely gravel road with bumps and dips. I have driven this road in my car which is low to the ground and it took longer to do as I had to be careful I didn't scrape the bottom of my car.

We saw no one on our drive in to Bowman Lake. On our drive out the others cautioned me that we may meet another vehicle around one of the many twists and turns in the narrow road.

"The odds are against anyone driving in to the lake at 4:30 pm."

Wouldn't you know it we met another vehicle coming in to the lake this late in the day. Must be a tourist. We slowly squeezed by one another on the road.

As mentioned, I drove this time. That was because we had many miles of gravel road to drive on the North Fork road, which is very rough. I drove my pickup due to its high clearance, but it was a tight squeeze for the four of us. "Like sardines" as Arnie said. It helped that Sue Ann, Joyce and Arnie are all small and thin.

The North Fork road had been bladed a few weeks earlier and we were able to make good time driving it. A good part of the distance along the road had black dead trees from the 2002 and 2003 Moose and Roberts fires.

The Polebridge Mercantile was open but we did not stop. The entrance into Glacier Park had no one staffing it. Who would come to the Park this early in the morning this late in the season on a weekday?!

We arrived at Bowman Lake at 9 am.  We were the only people there. No one was in the campground, not even the campground host who stopped us from using our boat on Bowman Lake this past July.



Numa Ridge Lookout is at the top of the darker part of the mountain in front of Numa Peak.

Notice how large mountains can be easily hidden. All one has to do is move a short distance down a trail and "voila!" another mountain.



It was chilly when we started our hike. In the 30s. The sun was still behind the eastern mountains. As we hiked we warmed up, especially after we turned off the Bowman Lake trail and onto the Numa Lookout trail. The first .7 mile was along the lake and relatively flat. The Numa Lookout trail immediately began to climb. It wasn't long until the sun made an appearance. And no, we did not see any bears.

After we reached the top of a ridge the trail was relatively level a short distance as it headed north towards the mountain with the lookout on it. 

A southern route up the mountain with the lookout on it was a good thing as that meant no snow on the trail. I had called the Park office yesterday and was told that the previous week the trail was mostly snow free with a small amount of snow in a few spots. We didn't encounter any snow on the trail though we did see the last crystals in one spot where the snow was 99.9% melted. At the top we did see snow on the northern side of the mountain in shady areas.

The trail continued past the lookout and it appeared to go down, perhaps to Akokala Lake below. No maps show the trail going beyond the lookout, though it makes sense a trail would go between the lookout and the lake. This trail was snow covered with hard snow and the tracks in the snow appeared to be deer or elk tracks.

The lookout is staffed in the summer though it was boarded up now. Solar panels glistened in the sun on the southern side. The panels looked new and out of place on the old lookout.

The lookout was two stories with the first story being the storage area and the top part the living quarters. The living quarters had windows all the way around the lookout for a 360 view. All the windows were boarded up.


I flipped the clips on one board and took it off temporarily to look inside the lookout. Inside were:

• a small single bed
• desk and chair
• cupboards
  
• propane stove
• a covered object in the center of the room, which most likely was an Osbourne Fire finder.

It would be a simple austere life, but it would be so cool to work in a lookout over the summer.

Like at the Loneman Lookout there was a small outhouse below and south of the lookout. Again one had a great view from the outhouse if they wished to keep the door open.

The views in every direction were great. To the north/NE Numa Peak rose blocking the view northwards. While no trail went to the top, it looked doable to climb to the top. Next time.



To the north were Reuter Peak with Kintla Peak in the background. Both had snow on their southern side our level and lower.

To the east was the massive Mt Carter with Rainbow Peak and Square Peak (the pointy peak - go figure) to the right of it.

To the left of Mt Carter is Thunderbird Mountain with Chapman Peak beyond it. When we hiked from Bowman Lake to Waterton Lake we passed over Brown Pass which is between Thunderbird Mountain and Chapman Peak.



While the following photo isn't stitched together very well, it does give you an idea of the view from the NW (Reuter Peak) to the east (Square Peak).



To our south stretched out Bowman Lake. According to the map we were only half way along the lake. In person it looked as if we were closer to the northern end of the lake.


Beyond Bowman Lake, and past the Cerulean Ridge, stretched the North Fork valley. To our west/SW lay more of the the large North Fork valley. Beyond lay the mountains of the Whitefish Range.

Beautiful views all around. While the sky was clear the day was surprisingly hazy. Unusual for the Fall. I must say that after hiking to Loneman Lookout a week earlier, this hike - while very good - didn't feel quite as nice. Perhaps too much of a good thing with the second hike being unfairly compared. Or perhaps it was not quite the adventure this time as we didn't have any cold streams to ford.

At the lookout the wind blew cold from the west. As we ate our lunch we sat on the east side of the lookout trying to both stay in the sun and out of the wind. Arnie shared some of the cookies his wife had made. They were very delicious!!

During the hike up to the lookout Arnie and Sue Ann hiked together as I stayed back with Joyce who is a slower hiker up mountains. During the hike down Joyce and Arnie took off. I lingered behind to take photos until the trees obstructed the views. Then I caught up to Sue Ann and hiked with her back to the pickup. One thing to say about hiking with Sue Ann, there is no fear of surprising a bear. She talks non-stop. My brain was numb by the time we got back to the trail head.

The others waited by the lake while I hiked the short distance to the bridge that went over Bowman Creek as it left Bowman Lake. There is a nice view of the lake from the bridge.


It was only 4:30 pm when we left. It felt early. I offered to drive the North Fork road the 22 miles to the Canadian border but Joyce and Arnie wanted to head back home.

We arrived in Columbia Falls at 5:15 pm. It wasn't even dark yet. That's a change!

Elk Mountain in the Fall

Tuesday October 16 I hiked to Elk Mountain.

The weather forecast had a cold front arriving Tuesday and rain starting in the afternoon or evening. This weather would be with the rest of the week. Joyce wanted to hike Tuesday before the front and rain prevented us from hiking.

After much deliberation we bypassed hiking in Glacier Park and I suggested we hike to Elk Mountain again. Bill, Arnie, and Sue Ann had never hiked there. So it was agreed.

On the highway map to the right, Elk Mountain is right of center, below the "C K" in "ROCKY". Look for the blue arrow.


The "Tally Lake" map below is the forest service map.

When Gary, Joyce, and I hiked to Elk Mountain in the Spring, we hiked trail 258 to get to trail 252 that went to Elk Mountain. It was 6.5 miles one way to get to Elk Mountain. On that trip we saw a sign saying it was only 1/2 mile from trail 252 to Forest Service road 9528 and 2 and 1/4 miles to Elk Mountain. A shorter way to hike to Elk Mountain next time. Or so we thought.


After hiking to Elk Mountain Tuesday several of the group has a suspicion the distance was greater than 2 and 1/4 miles. They timed our journey back. We compared our time to hike the half mile from the Elk Mountain trail to the 9528 road, and also the part of the road that was marked at 1 mile. In each case our time put us hiking at 3 mph. Taking our speed and the time we hiked, we estimate the 2 and 1/4 mile section is closer to 3 miles as it took us an hour to hike that distance.

Because forest service road 9528 was gated and closed, instead of hiking a little under 2 and 3/4 miles one way (2 and 1/4 plus 1/2), we hiked 6 miles one way (3 plus .5 plus 2.5). So much for taking a much shorter route than last time.

Total mileage: 12 miles.

Because of the forecast of rain we decided to meet at 8 am. This is an early start for this time of year, but an earlier start meant we would have a better chance of missing the rain.

Bill's house was closest to the trail and we all met there. All except Sue Ann who that morning decided not to join us. This is the second time she changed her mind about joining us for a hike to Elk Mountain.

During my drive to Bill's house I saw the sunrise over the Swan Mountain Range.


South of Elk Mountain was this summer's Brush Creek fire. On the above map the area burnt would be the lower left corner. In the lower left look for the word "National". The area burnt was below that word and right to the middle of the map - and below what the map shows.

Some roads were still closed though I don't know why. The fire is all out as no smoke could be seen. The piece of paper on the 'road closed' sign said the road was closed July 31, 2007 due to the fire. I wonder if the forest service is just slow in taking the closed signs down? As you can see from the photo the sign is off to the side of the road and there are indications traffic uses the road. From what we could see on other roads and mountain sides the fire really took out all the trees where it burned. None of the trees were burnt on the trails we hiked, nor from these trails could we see any trees burnt in the distance.

I had hopes of using road 9528 to get close to the Elk Mountain trail. Nope. 9528 is another one of the forest service roads now gated and closed. The road is in very good shape so I don't know why they closed it. Hiking on the road we could see newer replaced water culverts under the road with the older culverts sitting nearby.

Hiking on the 9528 road we could see a few white mushrooms pushing their way up through the gravel. Small brown mushrooms populated an old pile of bear scat on the road. We also saw elk scat on the road.

We saw that some hunters took aim at the hiking sign.

We wandered the forest service roads based on my sense of direction and what I remembered the route as being. I had left my map back in the car.

After one mile - marked with a mile marker sign - the road split. We went to the left as the road to the right was FS 9581, a road we did not want to go on.

The road to the left seemed to curve around more to the left and SE. My gut instinct told me our destination was to the NW, not the SE. Where are we going?! Are we on the right road?! I started to doubt our route.

Later when we returned from Elk Mountain I noticed at the split we could see Elk Mountain lookout straight (ahead as we hiked in) to the west. In the photo the lookout is on top of the "bump" just left of center.

I was concentrating so much on trying to "understand" the mountains and trying to recognize any mountains from our Spring hike that I walked right by the trail that went from the road to the Elk Mountain trail. Fortunately Joyce and Bill noticed the trail.

This half mile trail mainly climbed up the mountain side to the Elk Mountain trail. It was not too steep, but it was steady. I saw lots of deer and elk hoof tracks, some slipping on the trail when it was wet.

As I mentioned earlier the sign said it was 2 and 1/4 miles to Elk Mountain. After we regrouped, we headed out. It wasn't long before we crossed what I called "Boulder Valley".

The trail was cleared of dead fall though there were a few trees across the trail here and there. I'm not sure why all the trees were not cleared as they were across the trail back when we hiked in the Spring. Since mountain bicycles are allowed on these trails, and the Back Country Horsemen clear the trails, I wonder if they leave a few low lying trees their horses can step over, but cause a bicyclist to dismount, and therefore are a disincentive for bicyclists to use the trails.

While we steadily climbed upwards, it didn't seem like we were climbing steeply. I think it was an illusion as all of us were stopping for breaks more and more.

When we started our hike the heavy clouds were to the south and SW. We had intermittent sun. This changed as we climbed higher. The clouds were slipping up and over the mountain tops occasionally putting us in fog. We could see down the steep mountain sides to the valleys below. It looked sunny down there.

The clouds obscured the Elk Mountain lookout so we couldn't see it until we were close to it.

Photo 1 was taken when I left the mountain as I could not see this view when we hiked up to the mountain.

The lookout had collapsed some time ago. Years ago Arnie and his son hiked to Elk Mountain on trail 109 that comes out of the west valley that has the train tracks. That would be a steep hike! Back when they hiked to the lookout it was still standing upright, though in poor shape.

In the third photo notice the tree branches. Gee, I wonder from which direction the winter wind blows?

Large clouds came up from the valley and over the mountain around us. At times we had somewhat of a view, other times not much of one. It was dramatic to see.

I had wandered around the mountain top taking photos and looking at the view. We saw two large birds soar on the wind over the west valley but once they opened their mouths we discovered they were only ravens.


We could hear and see the trains in the valley below. As Colleen and I had earlier driven the road paralleling the railroads tracks and seen where the tunnel was, I could now tell where the tunnel was looking down from the mountain top.

When the clouds had lifted somewhat and were no longer skimming the mountain top, it was still cold. We had the sun for only about a minute before the blue sky moved to the NE.

The wind blew and it was cold. We sat near the fallen lookout using it as shelter to get out of the wind. There we ate out lunch and watched the clouds and the views change. Because I did more wandering - and looking for and finding the rock I had left behind on my earlier trip - the others finished their lunch before I did. They started down the mountain as I remained to eat the rest of my lunch.

As I headed down the mountain I watched for the stick I had left beside the trail. At the first meadow I double checked but did not see it. Perhaps the others took it? At the second meadow I checked. No stick. Neither at the third meadow. They must have taken it as I'm sure I wouldn't miss seeing it. I caught up to the others at the sign where the trail branches over to the road. They were sitting and snacking.

I looked, and not seeing my stick, said "Where's my stick?" Bill then produced it from where he had hidden it behind him and we had a good laugh.

Later as we walked along the road I told Bill if the stick got too heavy for him I would trade him the rock I was carrying for the stick.

"Ya, right. Maybe when we get to a downhill section", he joked.

After carrying the rock for 5 miles it was feeling much heavier and I was slowing down. I've since weighed the rock and it weighs 38 lbs. Joyce did her typical faster hiking the closer we got to the end of the trail. She and Bill took off ahead while I stopped to take photos. When we got to the car I joked that Bill took off when we got to the downhill section so he wouldn't have to carry the rock. Of course I never intended anyone else carry my rock. My rock, my burden.

We drove out through the Good Creek area. This area has some private land mixed with the national forest. The private lands are the gray areas on the map. The road was very good. While not wide enough for two cars to pass without slowing down and being careful, the road was very smooth with no potholes. Along this road we saw our third, fourth, and fifth vehicles of the day before we reached Hwy 93 and saw more.

The scenery was gorgeous! Lots and lots of yellow tamarack and birch trees. As we haven't had a really hard freeze yet the colors have remained longer and are brighter than usual. There are areas that are mainly bright yellow. Absolutely gorgeous! Well worth a drive in the country.

It was after 4 pm when we returned to Bill's house. A longer day than expected, but one in which it didn't rain. Another successful hike.