A Week with Dad

Well, tell us how your trip went. We all want to hear about your special experience.

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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by Jay w »

I feel for your Dad. As you get tired, you fatigue your small muscles and start relying on the large muscle groups, so you become less coordinated. Of course you lose strength as you age and then adding a backpack amplifies the problem.

I've watched age group winners (at races) wipe out going up stairs to the stage or climbing on the podium because (as Lowell says) their mind made a promise their body couldn't keep. And these guys are the strong ones. :D

Hopefully everything worked out and he didn't suffer much. A great report usually has some difficulties, right?

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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDjason »

teapot57 wrote:I'm really enjoying your trip report. Injuries can happen so quickly and unexpectedly! Was your dad able to pop some Vitamin I? Hopefully the bruising and soreness doesn't cause trouble for him later in the trip.
Thanks! Yes, it can happen quickly to anyone. In Dad's case, it was just a rock hidden by tall grass sticking out over the trail - I'm sure dozens of people stumble over it every year. Luckily a little Ibuprofen and some sleep cured all that ailed.
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDjason »

Jay w wrote:I feel for your Dad. As you get tired, you fatigue your small muscles and start relying on the large muscle groups, so you become less coordinated. Of course you lose strength as you age and then adding a backpack amplifies the problem.

I've watched age group winners (at races) wipe out going up stairs to the stage or climbing on the podium because (as Lowell says) their mind made a promise their body couldn't keep. And these guys are the strong ones. :D

Hopefully everything worked out and he didn't suffer much. A great report usually has some difficulties, right?

Jay
Yep, I've definitely felt it before. I entered a few boxing tournaments back in college and after just a few rounds, it was hard to even crawl out of the ring. Dad is in excellent shape - as a NCAA soccer referee he's doing miles of running every week. It just happens to be at sea level on a manicured flat pitch. The altitude, the uneven terrain, and the climbing/descending took a bit to adjust too. Luckily this was the worst day of the trip with respect to injury!
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDjason »

Day 7: Saturday, August 19th

We woke the next morning feeling way better than any of the previous days. Dad had taken some ibuprofen the night before and woke up feeling great. Just a few bruises, but no worse for the wear. When we got out of the tent in the morning, we were both surprised by the incredibly thick fog/low clouds. We decided to try our luck fishing again down at the lake and walked down to the shore. It was a pretty cool sight with the waterfall literally coming out of the clouds. I wish my photos would have turned out a little better. Please excuse all of my photos from today. After yesterdays dunk in the lake, my camera started acting up today and had some trouble focusing properly. It would only get worse throughout the day.

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It was still pretty cold, but we had some quick luck and immediately hooked a couple more trout. Unfortunately, one of the ones I caught took the hook pretty deep. I actually got it out fairly easily, but he was bleeding bad and just floated in the water for a while. I was hoping he'd recover, but I decided if not, I'd clean it and have some trout with my morning eggs. But luckily, after 10 minutes or so, he seemed to liven up and swam away.

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After packing up, we had some breakfast and hit the trail again. The trail was really overgrown along Olson creek, so there wasn't a lot of scenery. However, we were noticing a ridiculous amount of berries. Some of which I recognized, but others I had no idea about. Eventually, I started taking some pictures of the different types as we hiked. Perhaps a few of you can help identify?

Berry 1: (Mountain Ash)
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Berry 2: (Mountain Ash)
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Berry 4: (Blue Bead Lily)
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Berry 5:
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Berry 6: (Red Baneberry)
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Berry 7: (Thimbleberry)
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Berry 8:
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Berry 9: (Service Berry/Saskatoon Berry/June Berry)
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Eventually we made it to Lake Janet. We took a quick break to try some fishing on the eastern side of the lake where it looked a little deeper, but didn't have any luck. While hanging around, we did get startled by a pretty large deer that came walking down the trail. We both came eye to eye before it panicked and bolted - being that close, it was a surprise when he took off. While we didn't get any fish, at least the clouds had cleared and we had some good views back up the valley.

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Heading on, the terrain begins to change more and more. Somewhere in this area we ran into one of the first groves of birch trees we had seen. It really seemed out of place in the forest. I love birch trees, so of course I snapped a quick picture.

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Almost immediately after we got our first view of Waterton Lake and Goat Haunt, we ran into a hiker coming up the trail. We said hello as we walked towards each other and I though he looked pretty familiar? I yelled out, "Paul, is that you?" And yes, we finally found Paul! We had talked a few weeks ago, and even messaged just before we started our hikes, in case either of us had permit trouble and wanted to join up on our trips. But fortunately we both got our permits and we ended up crossing paths half way in. We chatted for a bit and got some good information on where to find the best water at the lake before heading on.

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When we got to Goat Haunt, we checked in with the customs agents, quickly stashed our packs in the bear box by the customs station and then headed over to enjoy actual plumbing. After cleaning up, we headed back over to the customs station just as two boats were arriving. We grabbed our food and set up for some lunch in the large covered picnic area. I believe it was here that I found my new favorite backcountry lunch. I had packed in a package of flour tortillas, some tuna packets, some small miracle whip packets, some hot sauce, and red pepper flakes. It made for a great spicy tuna wrap! And since we had an opportunity to drop our trash before leaving, we snacked on some extra granola bars, beef jerky, and gatorade. As I was carrying all of the trash for the previous 5 days, I think I lost about 2 pounds from my pack!

While we were eating, we watched the boats take turns dropping people off and the flood of tourists making their way around the lake sure. Pretty soon, people started venturing out on the pier and getting into the customs boat. The agents working there started yelling like crazy to get off the boat, but either the people on the dock couldn't hear, or didn't speak english. So group after group kept climbing on board to get their picture taken while these armed men were getting pissed. Eventually one ran down there and yelled at them to get out and people finally figured out it's probably not a great idea to just climb aboard a government vessel.

When the boats were pulling out, another was coming in. I wanted to get some photos of all of the boats at once, but when I tried my camera, I found that it had completely stopped working. The focus had been getting worse and worse, and now I just got a "Focus Error" and the camera would shut down. Unfortunate, but it was a really old camera (thus the crappy photos, sorry guys). In truth, I'm a bit of an amateur photographer and had brought along a 5Dii with a 14mm f/2.8 lens and tripod to do some milky way photography. I was really looking forward to getting a shot from Hole in the Wall. However, I was having some trouble fitting it all into my path and it was going to add an extra 8 pounds of gear - so I decided to leave it in the car and just drag along the point and shoot.

So no more pictures from me.

But we ended up making good time getting to KOO. When we arrived, there were already a few solo hikers that had arrived a few minutes earlier. One of which told us we had just missed a large moose that walked right through camp (coming out of the woods) and startled her at close range. We set up our chairs and talked with everyone for a bit and found that most of them were on crazy itineraries. The one young woman with the moose tale had just hiked in from Slide Lake and, if I remember right, was headed to Flattop! Someone else had come from Mokiwanis Junction (which I think was his first night in from Chief Mountain) and was headed to Waterton River before heading back to Fifty Mountain the next day.

As it was a beautiful day, we tried some more fishing and managed to catch about 8 small brook trout around the mouth of the river. Most were in the 7-8" range, so nothing special, but fun nonetheless. Dinner was good that night - lots of good conversation. And in the middle of it, some more moose showed up in the lake. About this time, I remembered I had a cell phone, so I decided to try taking a photo with it.

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I found out that I think my cell phone takes better pictures than my camera! Anyways, we watched the moose for a while before calling it a night and hitting the tent. The last time I had stayed at Kootenai, I heard wolves all night long. I was hoping we'd hear them again, but I never heard anything... other than owls! I don't know how many owls there were out there, but there were a lot. And they kept getting closer. For those of you that know me, it was even scarier than hearing bears walking around our camp! But actually, it was kind of cool hearing their hoots on and off throughout the night.
Last edited by NDjason on Sun Sep 24, 2017 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~ jason
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDjason »

Day 8: Sunday, August 20th

Today we were heading from KOO to Fifty Mountain. After the UPK to HOL hike, this would be our second biggest elevation gain for the trip. I woke up pretty early after a flock (is that the right word?) of ducks did some crazy synchronized swimming right next to the shoreline by our camp. They would all be swimming around quietly and then all of the sudden, ALL of them would start beating their wings against the water and high tail it 20-30 yards across the surface. It was incredibly loud and quite a surprise around 6am. Once I'm up, I'm generally up. So I got out of the tent and walked down by the water just in time to catch two moose in the lake eating breakfast. After a while, they headed across the lake to the other side.

After breakfast, we packed up camp and hit the trail around 9am. The trail is level for a while until after passing the junction for Stoney Indian. After that, there is a pretty relentless climb until you reach the remains of the stone cabin up above the Fifty Mountain camp. We stopped a few times along the way for breaks/snacks, but made much better time today. As we started getting close, we started noticing more and more signs of bear. Scat was frequently on the trail and in large amounts. It was clear the bears had been enjoying the berries very recently. I think I felt more bear-aware here than anywhere else on the entire trip. But again, we never saw any bears.

When we reached the old stone cabin remains, we stopped for an extended lunch. It was pretty cold all day today, so stopping even for a few minutes meant breaking out another layer. Another hiker was already taking a nap here after a good lunch (on a solo walk up trip from California). He was also headed to Fifty Mountain that night, so we talked for a while while eating our tortillas tuna wraps before deciding to continue on our way. The whole alpine vista around Fifty is gorgeous and is one of my favorite areas. It's usually lush and green and covered in blankets of colorful wildflowers, but it was really dry this summer. There were still some flowers, but things were much more brown than I had seen before.

We got into camp before anyone else and had our choice of sites. We stopped by the volunteers tent (they had a large, heavy canvas tent) and spoke for a few minutes. We had run out of water on our way in and the stream looked like it had dried out, but they told us up past the last campsite there were still a few small pools that can be pumped from. So we chose the site closest to the water and filled up our water bottles. While the majority of camp was really dry, there were still some great flowers right by the last of the pools. We had previously heard that the water had almost completely dried up a week prior, but the recent rain had started it up a bit again.

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After rehydrating, we walked back down to the volunteers tent. They volunteers were a former park ranger (actually, he was the former park fire ecologist) and his wide. They were there for a could of days and were hiking out the next morning. They said there had been rotating volunteers there all summer to catalog bear sightings and signs of bears, but there hadn't been a single bear sighting all summer... until the evening before when they had seen a bear and a cub come down from the Sue Lake overlook area and cross the trail right in front of them while they watched the sunset. As they were upwind and fairly close, they made some noise to let the bears know they were there and the bears took off across the meadow and headed down into the valley. They were interested to hear of the bear scat we had passed, but weren't surprised we hadn't seen anything.

As the afternoon passed, camp filled up with some characters. One group of two hikers were in the US from Germany. They had gone to Banff, but due to the fires, had decided to drive down to Glacier. They got a permit (GOA, FIF, FLT, GRN, FIF) and decided to go backpacking. Without any equipment, they stopped by a supermarket and bought everything they would need. So needless to say, they had some interesting items. They had definitely over packed on the food. They had a plastic sack the size of a large garbage bag filled with more food than you could imagine. It was kind of like a cartoon! They just kept pulling it out! At dinner, they brought out a big camp stove and pot and a large back of pasta. Then they pulled out a full size jar of spaghetti sauce! And then a half gallon of soy milk! All in all, they had about 50 pounds of food for 2 people for 5 days. They were hilarious and good sports about it. We also got to talk more with the volunteers. He told us about the history of the fires in the area (he had been the ecologist during both of the major fires in that area). He also updated us on the status of the Sprague fire, which was up to almost 900 acres and had reached the trail . He seemed rather confident that it wasn't going to endanger the chalet and that the protections being put in place would be more than adequate to protect it (or at least that's how I interpreted his thoughts). So of course now, looking back on it, I'm not surprised on how it was being defended - right or wrong. It seemed to be the general consensus that the fire wasn't a huge danger to the chalet.

After dinner, the volunteers hiked up to the base of the switchbacks on the highline trail to watch for bears. Dad and I decided to head up that way too. We watched for a while, but didn't see any bears anywhere. Fortunately, it was a beautiful sunset.

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Looking out to the west and over the camp.

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Looking down the highline trail towards Granite Park.

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Looking back towards Goat Haunt.

As it was getting dark, we headed back down to camp to get ready for bed. I took one last trip down to the pit toilet and was treated to an excellent open door view. I think this one can compete with just about any site I've been in - including Hole in the Wall.

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It was already cold, so in anticipation of a really cold night, I wore a few extra layers. And was glad I did. With a long day tomorrow, we were both hoping for a good nights sleep and an early start.
~ jason
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by tibber »

But again, we never saw any bears.
that's because Heff got to see them all. Hoarder :mrgreen:
We had previously heard that the water had almost completely dried up a week prior, but the recent rain had started it up a bit again.
whew. that and the wildflowers in the pool areas too.
Without any equipment, they stopped by a supermarket and bought everything they would need.
oh my!

Your pictures are wonderful in general but I really liked that first sunset picture! and the pit toilet view pic was pretty cool too.
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by paul »

I love those photos near fifty mountain camp. Someday I'll make it there!
We are in the mountains and the mountains are in us. - John Muir
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDjason »

Your pictures are wonderful in general but I really liked that first sunset picture! and the pit toilet view pic was pretty cool too.
Thanks! Heff has joked of making a coffee table book of 'views from national Park pit toilets," so maybe he would take it!
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Re: A Week with Dad

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paul wrote:I love those photos near fifty mountain camp. Someday I'll make it there!
The camp itself isn't great, but you can't beat the views around it!
~ jason
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDdad »

So, I guess it's time for "dad" to chime in. The trip was a great time. It was my first time in Glacier, but not my first time in the Rockies/Northwest as I grew up in central Washington state. But that said the scenery and views were repeatedly incredible beyond expectation. For the first time out in the back-country and the first time with a pack on my back I actually did pretty well except for our second day out. By the end of that day's hike I was so sore across my lower back I had a hard time standing or sitting after I got to the campground. Thankfully it went away quickly and the next morning we took a few minutes to make several adjustments to the pack and I had no more problems with that. My son, however, exaggerated my 'klutz day" incidents a bit. It really was more of a hit to my pride to slip down than to my body, though I did sport a few scrapes on my hand and lower leg for the next few days. I did, I'm sure, slow us down a bit. We started out with Jason leading and very quickly that got changed. I think he got tired of having to slow and wait for me periodically with his slightly longer and much younger legs! So I led most of the rest of the trip. More later and hopefully add some additional pictures to the narrative.
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDdad »

I kept reminding him that at my age I was only concerned with making it there, not how fast I made it!
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by davidwayne »

Thank you for the continuing great reports!! ND Dad, I am really envious of your trip. I will turn 60 next spring, and your adventure gives me hope and inspiration that someday soon my sons and I can do a similar backcountry trip in Glacier. :D
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by missguinness »

NDdad wrote:So, I guess it's time for "dad" to chime in. The trip was a great time. It was my first time in Glacier, but not my first time in the Rockies/Northwest as I grew up in central Washington state. But that said the scenery and views were repeatedly incredible beyond expectation. For the first time out in the back-country and the first time with a pack on my back I actually did pretty well except for our second day out. By the end of that day's hike I was so sore across my lower back I had a hard time standing or sitting after I got to the campground. Thankfully it went away quickly and the next morning we took a few minutes to make several adjustments to the pack and I had no more problems with that. My son, however, exaggerated my 'klutz day" incidents a bit. It really was more of a hit to my pride to slip down than to my body, though I did sport a few scrapes on my hand and lower leg for the next few days. I did, I'm sure, slow us down a bit. We started out with Jason leading and very quickly that got changed. I think he got tired of having to slow and wait for me periodically with his slightly longer and much younger legs! So I led most of the rest of the trip. More later and hopefully add some additional pictures to the narrative.
Yeah, so glad you are chiming in! It was really great to send you off on your first backpacking trip and see you at the end.
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by NDjason »

NDdad wrote:My son, however, exaggerated my 'klutz day" incidents a bit.
Ha, maybe. I think I'd have been worse off than you ended up if I had been the unlucky one to catch the rock in the trail or hit the slippery rock in the lake. I don't think I'd have recovered so quickly after those. Glad they turned out to be such minor events that didn't affect our trip!

And while we were maybe a tad slower than maybe I'd have done on my own, it was great taking our time and enjoying more of the views around us then just staring at the ground in front of my feet!
~ jason
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Re: A Week with Dad

Post by MarxMN »

Great trip report.

Since you posted the berry pictures I can help with some.

Berry 1 and 2 are mountain ash. The berries start out green and eventually turn red.

Berry 4 is blue bead lily. These start with a white flower in early summer.

I don't know about berry 5 yet.

Berry 6 is red baneberry.

Berry 7 is thimbleberry. I think boisenberry is something different.

I do not know about berry 8.

Berry 9 is service berry. According to a couple books I have they are also called Saskatoon berry or June berry.


Bill
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