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Published: September 23rd 2007
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View at dawn
From our camp at St. Marys Obfuscator writes: We woke up pretty dry and pleased with ourselves. Since all our gear was dry, we didn't have to waste any time in moving out of our camp. We filled our water jugs, and went back to the Ranger office where we obtained our backcountry permit, and signed up for a campsite at Gunsight Lake, which we had been told on both sides of the park was a worthwhile hike. It's also interesting to note that unlike at Yellowstone and TR National Parks, backcountry camping permits at Glacier cost 5 dollars per person. That's really not a bad price or anything, but it was a bit surprising that the park I have come to think of as incredibly expensive was in fact, cheaper than Glacier in almost every way. Glacier just had fewer people mucking things up. The Ranger also warned us that at Gunsight there had been problems with aggressively friendly deer that really want anything salty that they can find. He therefore warned us that all our salty items should be safely stored up high (also to keep bears away), and that we should keep all of our eliminations far from our camp. When we asked about
going directly from the Gunsight trailhead, the Ranger helpfully warned us that there was a particularly steep grade to it, and that a different trailhead (St. Mary's Falls) would make the trip a bit longer, but save us a lot of verticality.
We began our drive to our trailhead, and found ourselves stopping nearly every chance we had to take more pictures. The drive just as far as the trailhead was incredible. We also stopped and took a short hike at Sunrift Gorge, which had a name we couldn't resist. We weren't disappointed there at all. Eventually we got to our trailhead near St. Mary's Falls, and started our hike in earnest. We detoured .6 miles to see St. Mary's Falls, and again, we weren't disappointed. The falls were not really big or anything, but they were pretty enough to justify the time spent.
After that, the hike got less pleasant for a while. The views were still good, but a lot of the foliage crowded the path pretty closely, and since most of it was wet, we got pretty well drenched from our feet to our thighs. The views just kept just getting better as we climbed,
Mountain range
At the entrance to the park though. We crossed a suspension type bridge and followed along a river for a while. We came to a wooden bridge and found that there was a trail that went to Florence Falls, another .6 mile detour. We again decided that we could afford the time, and started off on that trail. It was a bit of a climb, but these falls were absolutely spectacular. They cascade down from a few parts above and come to some higher, more conventional falls. We climbed around them for a while, took quite a few pictures, and then headed back down to our trail.
After more climbing and some deer, we got to Gunsight Lake and our camp. We had been told that the night before there had been four groups there, but it seemed we would be alone tonight. We strung our food up, ditched our packs, and started the climb up to our third detour, the Jackson Glacier trail. We had to cross another suspension type bridge, and climb very vertically to get there. It was probably close to two miles to get there and the climb was tough. It got a lot harder when we hit the snow line,
and things got a lot more slick. The glacier was nifty though, if not as large as we may have imagined it. We climbed back down after getting close enough to the glacier for our tastes, getting back as things were getting pretty dark. The wind was high, and it was pretty chilly. We cooked our food and washed up, and Onaxthiel again got some more sewing done.
As evening set in, we started seeing a stag. He really was as aggressive as the Ranger had warned. We took a lot of blurry pictures and chased him around for some time, but he never really went away. Eventually we got cold and tired enough that we went to sleep.
Onaxthiel's leasons learned: The deer seemed to be most attracted to the spot that we were using as a latrine. It was actually to the point that we had to chase him away -repeatedly- from camp. If we were trying to bait deer for food, this might be an important fact to remember. It's much cheaper and more field expedient than a salt lick. The boots I wore on this outing were a spare pare, since my normal set
Wild goose Island
And the surrounding lake and mountains was still drying out in the car. They worked, but toaday my feet and knees are far more sore than usual. That's what happens when you use an inferior set and it hasn't been broken in properly. I will be switching back to my regular boots for the next hike, as my feet miss them already. When we tried to put the food up prior to heading to the glacier, we attempted to raise both packs on the same line. Together, they were too heavy. I think I will try to design a small pulley system that can be used on the ground so that these lifts will be easier in the future.
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