North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

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Fairbanks142
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North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Fairbanks142 »

* Updated Jan 19, 2019*

After many years with broken links to the images in this trip report, I've finally added the photos back in. And I found a few more that I didn't include originally. Enjoy!

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Day 1 – 9/7/2013

Our group of 7 met up in Columbia Falls after flying in the night before. Most of us flew into Butte for the cheap airfare and made the 4 hour drive, which wasn’t bad at all. It was my third trip to Glacier, and the second trip for 2 others, but this was the first Glacier trip for 4 in our group. None of us would be disappointed!

From Columbia Falls, we headed up the North Fork Road to Polebridge.

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I had made arrangements to meet up with some locals on this board for some bear spray that I had shipped ahead. (I’ll keep them anonymous unless they want to make themselves known – but thanks again – you guys are great!) They were camped at West Glacier, and we tried to head up there from Columbia Falls, but Highway 2 was closed due to an accident. So thanks to cell phones, we still connected – they went out of their way to drive up to the intersection of Camas and North Fork roads to meet up with us. And not only did they take the time to do this, they also let our group borrow another couple of cans of bear spray for our trip. It was good peace of mind to have them, as we saw tons of scat throughout the trip, and one of our backcountry sites was closed due to bear frequenting. More on that to come.

We stopped at the Merc for some sandwiches – excellent!

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We were planning to camp for the night at the Kintla or Bowman Lake car campgrounds, but when we stopped in at the ranger station at Polebridge I asked if there was anyone at the Round Prairie backcountry site. (As suggested by Pitamakan on this board.) Nobody was there, and the ranger said it was extremely unlikely that anyone else would come after us, so it turned out to be a great walk-in for the night – our own private backcountry campground for our group of 7. We got there in the mid-afternoon, with plenty of time to set up camp and then try a little fishing in the North Fork.

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One of our group had some success with catching a few little ones in the North Fork, but after an hour or so, three of us decided to go check out Kintla Lake while we still had a few hours of daylight. We had some fun driving up the rest of the North Fork Road to Kintla Lake, getting there in time for about an hour of fishing.

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While at Kintla, we saw an amazing double rainbow while a storm rolled across the mountains beyond the head of the lake. The rainbow lasted at least 20-30 minutes, and most of the campers in the Kintla car campground came out to the beach to enjoy the show. (While we still fished, and enjoyed the show as well!) Not bad for Day 1 of our trip!

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Day 2 – 9/8/2013

We woke up to a beautiful sky, but rain was coming. Here’s the view from the food prep area at the Round Prairie site, as dawn broke.

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A couple of us saw a bald eagle flying up the river. Very cool. We packed up and headed out. By the time that we had driven back down to Polebridge, it was pouring. But we considered ourselves lucky, that we had been dry until we were back in our cars. After another stop at The Merc for coffee and breakfast, we headed down to the Camas Road and made our way to the Apgar ranger station to pick up our backcountry permits for the next couple nights.

Our permits were for Gunsight – Lake Ellen Wilson, but Lake Ellen Wilson was closed due to bear frequenting. So we rearranged our permits for two nights at Gunsight Lake. Not a bad place for a 2-day layover, as it turned out.

The drive up and over Going to the Sun Road was rainy, with clouds obscuring much of the views.

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We parked at the Jackson Glacier overlook, and headed down the Gunsight Pass trail. It was still raining a bit, but not too bad.

The views up the St. Mary River valley were impressive, but overcast, as the rain stopped and we continued up the trail.
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We had lunch at one of the creek crossings, where the stream comes down from Florence Falls....even had some sunshine.
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As we headed up the valley, getting out of the trees, the rain held off and the views improved.
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Not too far from Gunsight Lake, looking back down the St. Mary River valley....
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We arrived at Gunsight Lake campground in the early evening. The rain picked up again -- so we set up our tents, made some dinner, and called it an early night.

This turned out to be the only rainy day that we had on the trip, and the worst of the rain was when we were driving, so it wasn’t so bad.


Day 3 – 9/9/2013

Since we had two nights at Gunsight Lake, we spent the day fishing and caught a bunch of good-sized rainbows. It was windy (as Gunsight Lake is known to be), but beautiful.

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A few deer were grazing in the morning and evening in the campground...
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Here’s the view south from the Gunsight Lake campground:

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Here’s the view from my tent at the Gunsight Lake campground:

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Not a bad place to be stuck for two nights!


Day 4 – 9/10/2013

Our last day was the 14-mile trip from Gunsight Lake to the Lake MacDonald Lodge. We had perfect weather for this amazing hike.

We stopped for a break on our way up the trail above Gunsight Lake:

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And a couple more views as we headed farther up towards the pass:

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Looking up towards Gunsight Pass….almost there…

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And we had some company as we approached Gunsight Pass:

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Here’s the view from Gunsight Pass back down over Gunsight Lake:

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Gunsight Mountain and the shelter at the pass:

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And the view down over Lake Ellen Wilson from Gunsight Pass:

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We made our way down the switchbacks above Lake Ellen Wilson…

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Here’s the view of Lake Ellen Wilson from the trail at its lowest point above the lake. The backcountry site is on the near shore, in the center of this shot.

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We continued around the lake. Here’s the view back across Lake Ellen Wilson, with Gunsight Pass above, where we had just hiked down.

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And another shot of the same view, but from higher up the trail:

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We continued on towards Lincoln Pass….
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…and met up with more company on Lincoln Pass….
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….and enjoyed the view from Lincoln Pass down to our final destination, Lake MacDonald.
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We continued down past Sperry Chalet, across the creek, and had the last of our views above the treeline before we were down in the trees for the last 6 or so miles of the hike out.

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We got to Lake MacDonald at 5pm. Grabbed some local beers from the bar and soaked our feet in the creek where it runs into the lake. Later we headed back to Columbia Falls where we had rooms at the Super 8, and had dinner at the Back Room – a repeat of last year - perfect for the end of our trip.

The next morning we were up early, driving back down to Butte to catch our flights home. What a great trip!!!
Last edited by Fairbanks142 on Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:15 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by pitamakan »

Great photos, and it sounds like a really good trip! Glad you enjoyed Round Prairie.
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Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by isleroyaleguy »

Awesome report and pics.
Lake Ellen Wilson is fantastic fishing if you ever get a chance to stay there. Love that trail.
Thanks for sharing.
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Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Jen »

Thanks for waiting until now (slow season) to post this report! Loved it! :mrgreen:
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Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Seth »

Can't wait to hike the Gunsight Pass Trail this coming August! Thanks for the teaser :)
Jen

Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Jen »

Seth wrote:Can't wait to hike the Gunsight Pass Trail this coming August! Thanks for the teaser :)
September 2014 :arrow:
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Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Fairbanks142 »

Thanks for your comments guys. I just edited some additional pictures into the Day 2 and Day 3 sections in the trip report. Figured I hadn't done justice to those sections in the original post. Then again, I have hundreds more pictures, so this could get out of hand..... :D
Jen

Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Jen »

Fairbanks142 wrote: Then again, I have hundreds more pictures, so this could get out of hand..... :D
YES, PLEASE!
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Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Fairbanks142 »

* Deleted this post -- new pics are updated in the original post on this thread. *
Last edited by Fairbanks142 on Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: North Fork and Gunsight Pass Trail – Sept 7-10, 2013

Post by Fairbanks142 »

After many years with broken links to the images in this trip report, I've finally added the photos back in. And I found a few more that I didn't include originally. Enjoy!
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