This is probably more for my own good than anyone else's, but I figured I would share.
Day 1
Our trip started out early Saturday morning with a trip to the airport. Wing generously dropped me off around 6am. I had expected the airport to be dead, but it more packed than I have ever seen it. Tamara and I were supposed to meet at 6:30, but I jumped in line right away. I got through fairly quickly and then anxiously waited for Tamara, knowing that the line was getting longer. The line had crossed over to the other side of the main walkway, before we were gone they were directing people to wait in line at the bottom of the escalators. I managed to escape the suck zone of the airport gift shop, despite many bright and shiny things. They were really pimping the new Harry Pothead book, but I had only gotten as far as the Goblet of Fire so I couldn't look at that one yet. Tamara arrived at 6:30 and we got her in line to check in. It was a slow wait and when she got to the counter it took them forever to check her bags. When she was done we only had 20 minutes to go through security and get on the plane. We made it on the plane successfully, but we were worried about whether her luggage made it on the plane. The flight to Minneapolis was uneventful and we switched planes to Spokane. We arrived in Spokane to find out that her luggage had made it. However, Greg and Julie (Greg, Julie, Eric, and Jason were on different flights that arrived just before us) had arrived in Spokane to find out that there was an emergency at home and they might have to go right back to Indy. They were going to have to wait to find out. Jason, Eric, Tamara, and I figured we couldn't do much there so we grabbed their rental car, got some food and went to REI. Greg and Julie were to call us to let us know if they were going home or they would meet us at REI. It's a good thing we don't have an REI in Indy, I'd be broke. It's a pretty cool store, though it doesn't have any whitewater kayaking gear. After we had been at REI for a while I got a call from Greg telling me that they didn't have to leave and they were on their way to meet us. Hooray! We picked up the gear we needed, Greg and Julie arrived, and we were ready for the drive to Montana. Jason and Eric decided that they wanted to go check out a local climbing gym. So Tamara and I jumped in the car with Greg and Julie, and we headed for Montana. The drive was pretty uneventful. When we got to Kalispell we began to look for a place to eat. We didn't want a chain place, we wanted something unique. This proved harder than expected. Someone saw a sign for BBQ, but we couldn't find the place. We eventually arrived at a rather unique (in a questionable way) place that was called something like "back porch moon owl" or something like that (checking the picture it's "Nite Owl Restaraunt" and underneath says "The Back Room"). The food there was decent, though the service was questionable. While there Greg came to the realization that the scratchy throat he had been wrestling with for the past few days was getting much worse. Plans were made for finding an urgent care. After dinner we went to the hotel. There wasn't an urgent care open so that would wait until morning. Eric and Jason were still on their way, so Tamara and I waited up for them to arrive. They came about midnight and had been on quite the back roads Montana adventure. Something about offroading in the Charger and an Indian tribe that hadn't signed a peace treaty with the US government yet. But they were safe and we went to bed.
Day 2
The day got started slowly, with everyone getting loaded up to head into the park. It was decided that Greg and Julie were going to hit an urgent care, then pick up Wing and Katy from the airport. Jason, Eric, Tamara, and I loaded into the car and headed for the park. We picked up our rental car and filled the tank with gas before going in. Once in the park we got a campsite at Avalanche. We were at Glacier! We had to meet the rest of the crew in the few hours, so we took a short day hike up to Avalanche Lake. It was spectacular. You have to check the pictures. We finished our hike and then drove to the Apgar visitor's center. Once there I headed for the backcountry permit office to try to get our backpacking permit. After discussing our options with Pete, the back country ranger, this was what it came to. We were able to get advance reservations for the Sperry and Lake Ellen Wilson campgrounds. However, we could not get an advance reservation for Gunsight Lake. To get that, we were going to have to come in 24 hours before we left for our trip and hope that the last 2 campsites were still available. So we figured that we would come in early the next morning to try to get those sites. If we didn't, we'd just have a long last day of hiking. While sorting this out Greg, Julie, Katy, and Wing arrived. So we all watched the "how not to get eaten by a bear" video. After this we went back to our campsite to set up. Wing, Julie, and Katy did the Avalanche Lake trail while Jason, Eric, Tamara, and I checked out the Trail of the Cedars and wandered down to where Avalanche Creek flows into McDonald Creek. Everyone got back to camp after their hikes and we went down by the Lake McDonald Lodge in search of food. We found a cool resteraunt themed with the Red Jammers. After eating we checked out the Lodge and wandered to the dock behind the lodge. The water was so clear that we could see the fish swimming under a boat, it just looked like they were hanging there. A ranger said that they could see stuff down to 80 ft when the water is calm. We hung out there for a while, then went back to camp for some sleep.
Day 3
Our third day started very early as Jason, Eric, and I got up at 5:30 to go get in line for our backpacking permit by 6. We arrived at 6 to find we were the first people. By 6:30 there were 3 more people behind us waiting for permits. This was our first time meeting Kelly, who was in line behind us. She was a teacher from Boston who was driving across the US for a month. We'll run into her again later. Right before the permit office was to open a ranger came out to hand out the list of available campsites. We eagerly checked to see if our Gunsight Lake campsites were available, and to our utter disappointment they weren't. We were heartbroken. They opened the door and we went inside. I looked at Pete, he hit a button on his keyboard, and said "done." I said "huh?" He said "you got them." Oh the happiness! Pete rocks! So we got our permits and walked out of the office totally pumped for the trip of a lifetime. We got something to drink and Eric got a huckleberry muffin (everywhere we went they were all about the huckleberries, they seem to be in everything), and went down by Lake McDonald to bask in the beauty. After we had enjoyed the view for a while we drove back to camp. We did our best to play it off like we hadn't got it, but we couldn't hold it long (at least i couldn't). After we had celebrated, we loaded up for some day hiking. Greg was still not feeling so hot so he was just going to rest around camp. The rest of us loaded up on the free shuttle and headed up to Logan Pass. Going-to-the-Sun Road is supposed to be the most spectacular drive in the US, and it's pretty incredible. However, I can say that I'm not a big fan of riding in a shuttle on that road, I have a pretty strong fear of heights. We rode up to Logan Pass and decided to take the Hidden Lake trail first. It was really crowded, but it was a cool trail. We saw some snow, nice waterfalls, lots of mountain goats, a couple of big horn sheep, and the views were great. After we came back down from the Hidden Lake trail we took some photos at the sign for the Continental Divide, and then hit the Highline Trail. This was a really cool trail. For about a hundred yards on part of the trail it was only about 4' wide, with a steel cable on one side anchored to the rock wall and the other side was a good couple of hundred feet drop onto the road. The trail was about as level as anything can be in the mountains, it made for amazing views. However, after a while we found the downside to this trail. We had started about 1pm, and the sun was cooking us. There was no tree cover, just hiking in the sun at a high elevation. By the time we reached the Grinnell Glacier overlook trail half of us were pretty cooked. Jason, Eric, and Julie decided to try to go see the glacier, the rest of us made for the Granite Park Chalet. The Chalet was great, they had overpriced, kinda coolish, drinks. But it was liquid that we needed. Eric showed up soon after we got there, he decided the glacier trail wasn't worth it. We found out that Jason had given up also, but he was waiting on Julie. Julie was hard core, going all the way up. When she returned she said it wasn't really worth it. While recovering at the chalet someone told us that they thought that the shuttles ended at 7:45. We paniced at this, because that's how we were getting back to camp. So we started hiking down the mountain to the road. The sun was also starting to go down. We sent Jason, Eric, and Wing running ahead to catch a shuttle to get cars for the rest of us, since we weren't moving that fast. All the way down the mountain they ran yelling "hey bear!" to try to warn bears they were coming, so they didn't surprise a bear. The rest of us followed as quick as we could. We eventually got to the road to find Eric and Wing waiting. Jason had caught a shuttle. Another shuttle pulled up and offered to take us down. There was some debate about what to do, since Jason was coming back up with cars. We decided to leave Eric behind to meet Jason and we were going to take the shuttle down. However, the shuttle was supposed to be going up to Logan Pass. The driver tried to get them to let him to take us down, but they wouldn't let him. So he dropped us off again and we waited. It wasn't too long before Jason and Greg got up to pick us up. We jumped in the cars and headed down in search of food. I was feeling pretty crappy this whole time. On the trail when we got cooked I had gotten heat exhaustion. We went to the Red Jammer restaraunt again for dinner. Afterwards we figured out that we needed some food to take with us backpacking. So Jason, Eric, Tamara, and I went into Columbia Falls to the grocery store. We got back to camp 2 hours later and went to bed. That night we had the mother of all thunderstorms.
Day 4
We got up and started loading up for our backpacking trip. Greg was still not feeling well, so he and Julie decided to stay behind. If things changed in the next 24 hours they were going to try to catch up with us. We all drove down to the Lake McDonald Lodge and hit the trail. Pete had told us that the first 1.5 miles were the toughest, and they were tough. We had to climb 3,500 feet that day. After the first 1.8 miles we came to a stream with a bridge and took an extended break. Kelly showed up as we were resting, it turns out that she was going on the same trail as us for a couple of days. After our rest we resumed our climb. I think it was about 3 miles out I really started struggling. I was losing all my energy and started getting nausious. I was hurting. After a while I suggested that I might need to turn back. I thought maybe it might be the altitude, someone had suggested that the day before when I was struggling. If it was the altitude, I needed to go down. If it was something else, I needed to go up. It was hard, every time I went to take a drink I felt like I would throw up. I kept going as best I could. Eric, Jason, and Katy went ahead while Tamara and Wing helped me. After a while I remembered that Wing had said he had some Gatorade mix. I fixed up some Gatorade and that made a world of difference. I continued the climb, still slowly but feeling better. I got to the Sperry Chalet just as a ranger was getting ready to go looking for me. Jason, Eric, and Katy had sent help. He was glad to see he didn't have to rescue me. He had to fill out an incident report, but all was well. We went up to our campsite, which we were sharing with Kelly, and enjoyed the evening. Dinner was great and we had some amazing views of the valley below as the sun went down.
Day 5
The girls woke up to find a mountain goat in their campsite. The ranger had warned us about the critters that like salt. He said it's like crack to them, they try to eat the salt off of things that backpackers have gotten sweaty. Stuff like backpacks, boots, clothes, etc. He said one time he battled with a marmot for a couple of hours before getting fed up and hosing it down with bear spray. It still came back an hour later. Our morning visitor wasn't so aggresive, he behaved himself. We got packed up and then took everything back to the chalet. The plan was for the group to take a side trail to the Sperry Glacier. Because of my troubles the day before, I decided it would be best just to rest at the chalet all day. So I stayed while they hiked up to the Glacier. After a while Jason came back. Jason was having a hard time because he doesn't have any fat on his body (as opposed to me) and couldn't eat enough to maintain his energy. So we chilled at the chalet. I explored some, checking out the hotel. At $165 a person per night, I thought it was kinda steep. But I can see how it would be cool. I got a kick out of the handicap stall at the restrooms, it would be very difficult for a handicapped person to even get to the restroom. There were some fun mountain goats hanging out. The chalet kitchen serves lunch to hikers, it was wonderful. It made for a nice day, I just wish I had brought my hammock. Everyone returned about 4, somewhat worn out. They had already hiked 7 miles in pretty steep terrain. They rested for a while and then we prepared to hike the 2 miles to our next campsite. Jason, Eric, and I were ready to go so we hiked our packs up to the restroom to wait up there. While hanging out there I heard what sounded like Julie's voice, then I heard Greg's. I went running back down to the kitchen to find out that they actually had caught up with us. It was great. Greg and Julie had actually been the ones to propose this whole trip, so I was glad they weren't missing out on the whole thing. Jason, Eric, Tamara, and I went ahead towards camp while the rest recovered some. Kelly had also gone on the Glacier hike and went with us to the next campsite. The 2 miles to the next camp weren't too bad, it was really pretty. We got to camp and set up. Everyone had raved about the campsite, but I didn't care for it so much. The pit toilet was just a throne out in the open, no sides or roof. It was 200 yards from the rest of camp, too long of a hike to take a leak. It was ok for a night, but I wasn't as thrilled as everyone else.
Day 6
This was our big day to hike over the Continental Divide. We got moving at a decent time and started our climb. It wasn't too bad, a lot of up but the trail wasn't too steep. We crossed over a big waterfall and a number of other streams. We saw a number of marmots along the way. We *thought* they were cute. Boy did they sucker us. We got up to Gunsight Pass and it was amazing. This was what I had dreamed about seeing at Glacier. Snow fields, huge vistas, waterfalls, deep valleys, turquoise lakes. Heaven has to look something like this. And then the battle of the marmots began..... They were persistent little buggers, trying to get at our packs for the salt on them. As Eric would sit still they would come up right to him unafraid until he moved towards them yelling. At one point one of the lured away 7 of us from the packs, then 2 other marmots came from 2 other directions to try to get past the last person guarding the packs. We enjoyed our time up there and then moved on. The trail going down was amazing also. Check out the pictures, though they don't do it justice. It was incredible. We hiked down from Gunsight Pass to Gunsight Lake and the campground there. We hung up our stuff, set up camp, and then we all went for a swim. It was a cold shock at first, but then it felt great. It washed away some of the grossness. There were a lot of people at this campsite, including some people that weren't supposed to be there. Someone passed on news that there was a bear attack in the direction we were going (we found out later it hadn't attacked, but used a tent as a jungle gym). While working on dinner some deer started to come around. Jason went to his tent and discovered that a deer had been munching on one of his shirts he had put out to dry. Thus the battle of the deer began, as we tried to scare them away. After a while things settled down. We wandered down by the lake after dark and found that Greg had been talking with a couple of native American guys. It was a really interesting conversation and we listened in and asked questions. One of the guy's name was Dave and he taught the Ojibe (sp?) language at a college in Minnesota. The other guy was his cousin from Fort Wayne. It was really cool. After talking for a while we turned in. In the middle of the night a rain storm came.
Day 7
It was time for our hike out. The rain was gone by morning and things weren't too wet. We loaded up and headed out. We made pretty good time getting out. We passed by the Reynolds Creek campsite, which had been closed due to a pesky bear. We got up to the road and all was well with the world. Greg, Julie, Jason, and Eric caught shuttles back to the cars. Tamara, Wing, Katy, and I caught a shuttle to Rising Sun. It was so packed we ended up sitting on the floor of the shuttle. Some people were excited for us, asking questions and sharing about their experiences. Some people we could tell weren't thrilled about the stinky hikers. We arrived at Rising Sun, I made for the general store while the others went to find a campsite. I just wanted something to drink. We set up camp and waiting for Greg and Julie to come. Jason and Eric had gone into town to urgent care. Eric had a cut that was starting to get infected. While we waited for Eric and Jason some of us went for a little bit of dayhiking. We drove up to Sunrift Gorge, which was pretty cool. Tamara, Wing, and Julie went hiking to some waterfalls. Katy was going to take the shuttle back to camp (though that didn't work out as planned, Jason and Eric rescued her from a creepy old guy). Greg and I drove up to Logan Pass and then came back down to check out Sun Point. After that, we made for the showers. It was wonderful to get clean again. After the shower we went to the resteraunt there and had a wonderful post trip dinner. That night I barely slept. A combination of things conspired against me. The restroom light was too bright, my lips were painfully chapped, and my knees were swelling a lot. I ended up sleeping outside of the tent on the other side of the car from the restroom, hooked up with some Tylanol and chap stik. I got a little sleep, but not much.
Day 8
I woke up around 5am from a really disturbing dream, so I went for a long walk. I walked east on Going-to-the-Sun Road for a while. At one point I thought I saw a bear on the side of the road, though with more light it turned out to be some brush. I had some really good time with God then. I got back to camp, got some breakfast, and we packed up. We drove out to Many Glacier to explore that a little. We had a nice hike around the lake and explored the hotel some. I'd really like to go back to that area. After that we drove down to Two Medicine. That was where our original hike was going to be, we all agreed that we were glad we did what we did. There wasn't much there besides back country. After that we went south. Jason, Eric, Tamara, and Katy had gone ahead and we tried to catch up. We stopped by the Glacier Park Hotel real quick to see if they were there, because Jason was obsessed with finding this place. They weren't there, but it was interesting. While there we found out that they were going to be closing Marias Pass at 6pm due to a forest fire. It was about 5 when we found this out. So we high tailed it down US 2 to try to make it through the pass. It was really neat to see the forest fire was we drove by, we could see the flames. There was a lot of smoke and we saw where the firefighters were camping. Mad respect to those guys. We made it through the pass ok. We got to the place where we rented the stove right after Jason's crew left, so we figured we could catch up with them at the hotel. We started heading back to Spokane. Just before we got off the interstate we stopped at a truck stop/resteraunt/casino/travel center place for some food. It was funny that we all bought salty foods, we were all needing some salt. The drive back to Spokane was uneventful. Jason, Eric, Tamara, and Katy rolled in a bit later, they had taken the scenic route. A good shower and a good nights sleep was had by all.
Day 9
We packed up to go home. Tamara, Katy, Wing, and I were dropped off at the airport earlier since our flight was earlier. The flight to Minneapolis was uneventful, with the exception of a screaming child. Poor kid wasn't happy, I felt sorry for mom. He fell asleep as we were landing. I ended up with a row to myself, though a lady moved to the aisle seat after takeoff. Turns out she was a whitewater kayaker from DC, so we talked for a while. At the airport in Minneapolis we grabbed some food and played Phase 10 while waiting for our next flight. The flight back to Indy was pretty uneventful. Aimee picked up Wing, Katy, and I at the airport and we went home.
Random notes:
I didn't see any bears. Julie saw a black bear while walking in town when she and Greg had stayed at a hotel our first night on the trail. Then Julie, Wing, and Tamara ran across a black bear cub while day hiking to the waterfalls the day we got off the backpacking trail. Then when we were at Many Glacier Julie took a side trail and saw a grizzly bear. The grizzly bear is the only one someone got a picture of. I'm bummed I didn't get to see a bear.
Kelly camped at Sperry with us and hiked to the Glacier with our crew. She hiked to Lake Ellen Wilson with us and camped there, then headed back the way she came the next morning. Yet another example of cool people you meet on the trail