July 10: Two Old goats

July 10, 2013: Two Old Goats

 

I must show my new mom how much I appreciate being adopted.  She is sleeping so I must jump on the bed and rub my nose against hers really hard.  She is sleeping, so I must purr really loud, especially if I want to outdo Daddy's purring.  I must purr louder.  I must move her head so I can wedge myself so that I can look out the window.

Today, we are going to hike to Hidden Lake.  Apparently, this is one of the most popular hikes in the park, so we decided to get there early.  Our neighbor didn't get there till about 9:30 am and had to wait for somebody to leave to get parking.  We were entering the park at 7 am.  It is roughly 30 miles to the Logan Pass Visitor center where the trail begins.  But there is little traffic so driving the Going-To-The-Sun road is easy.  Bicyclists are not allowed to ride this road between 11am and 4pm, and we see a few of them trekking it up the hill.  The Logan Pass area is, by far, the prettiest part of the park.

We arrive at the visitor center and there is only a couple of cars parked.  It is hard to imagine that this parking lot will fill up.  It is sunny and 49 degrees.  But it is expected to warm up today, and we all have long pants to start. The trail is 1.5 miles to the overlook, then another 1.5 miles to the lake. 

The first part of the journey is up a boardwalk walking trail.  The trail crosses incredibly scenic meadows with the glacial rocky peaks towering above.  There is snow over much of the trail and the trail is pretty steep.  The snow is slippery (duh) but the trail so far has been easy to follow.  When the snow field gets large, we see some workers that help us with the direction.  There is one part of the trail where you are on a dirt slope with little footing for about 30 feet.  But beyond that, the footing is visible.  The largest snow field is about a half mile wide, so the going is slow.  We are the only ones out here and we are loving it.  We finally get past the snowfields onto the trail.

The first stop is at the Hidden Lake overlook.  Words cannot adequately describe the beauty of the landscape.  With the snow just now melting, it is essentially the beginning of spring.  Wildflowers are starting to sprout and you can see all the new growth coming out.   Mountain goats started watching over us.  A nanny with her one month old kid came very close to us.  I wanted to kiss and hug that baby bad!  Outside of a biologist that was studying the herd, and a photographer that was following some marmots, we were the only ones there.

We left the overlook and started for the lake.  A marmot ran up to Crew and started licking his boot!  He licked the sides then started on the tongue.  Then he came to my shoes and started.  Could this be the next fad in footwear!  Marmotwear?  When we started to leave, the marmot followed to a rock and then stared at us as we made our way along the trail.

At this point, the trail goes alongside a mountain littered with beautiful shards of red and green shale.  Unfortunately, the rocks I wanted were too big to fit in our backpack, and I am sure the park service would have nailed my behind had I taken them!  Eventually, the trail gets very steep as we descend to the lake.

Oddly enough, the lake does not have the glacial aqua color.  It is obvious that the peaks around us were once glacial, but the water is a clear blue.  We can see the fish swimming.  We eat our lunch gazing at this amazing display of nature.  The water was colder than the other lakes that are glacier fed.  Crew took off his shoes and waded in and got the ice cream headache type freeze in his legs.

After our repast, we started the grueling trip back up.  Then we started to see people.  The climb was slow, but we were seeing people.  Slowly we climbed.  Slowly we climbed.  The first mile is very steep.  Then it is only mildly steep.  And we are seeing people!  As we near the overlook, we are seeing lots of people.  We also see a herd of bighorn sheep.  Think about this... on this trail, we see mountain goats and bighorn sheep...  That should kind of define the trail!  And then the nanny and the kid made another appearance!  The crowd certainly approved...   We then have to head back on the snowfields.

 There were people that brought their skis to ski down the snowfields.  One girl said 'This isn't powder!'.    The hike up was steep in itself, but carrying skis?  Really?  We kind of skated down the snow.  And yes, I fell a couple of times.  Seems the edges on my hiking boots are not as sharp as they should be...  And with all the people now coming at us the trails were more worn, more slippery and less room to maneuver.

 We ultimately made it down to the visitor center and the parking lot was full!  Coming early was the right thing to do.  Overall, it was a 6 mile hike in some of the most beautiful land on the planet.  Think 'Sound of Music' like!

On our way back, we have to go by the weeping wall, which is a series of waterfalls that run alongside the road. We are hoping it will clean the truck, but alas, not enough!  Thus we came back to Hannah, tried a piece of Huckleberry pie at the RV park, and did things that you need to do (wash the truck, laundry, give Rudy more attention).

Tomorrow, we head north towards Banff.  No phones while in Canada, and we don't know about WIFI.  Hopefully, we will be in touch, but no guarantees.