Six days on the east side.

[paul]

I'm finally getting around to posting some photos of this year's trip.

Our itinerary was for the first week of August with ELH-HEL-COS-GLH-GLH-COS in and out at Chief Mountain Customs. My hiking partners were Tim and Andy. I've backpacked with Tim many times before including doing the northern traverse twice with him. Andy was Tim's buddy from Indiana he had plenty of outdoor experience as well including climbing Denali (Mt McKinley). His thing was climbing the highest peaks on each continent. I think he got 4 completed. The good thing was all of us were about the same age. Tim and Andy were a year older than me.

Tim now lives in Montana so he picked us up at Airport in Kalispell. We managed to get flights arriving within a few minutes of each other. We spent the first night at Two medicine campground and planned to pick up our permit there.

Two medicine campground was a pretty nice place to camp. People were mellow, there were a lots of families with kids and everyone seemed to be enjoying the outdoors, It seemed like a throw back to earlier times. We also saw a few animals including a beaver and a herd of Big Horns who were hanging out in the camp.

The next morning we went over to the BC office just before it was opening. There were two people waiting in front of us. As the rangers opened the doors the guy waiting in his car got out and asked if he could go ahead of us. I didn't really understand why we was asking that since he was there before us. I also noticed that he smelled like marijuana and had bloodshot eyes

Anyway, we all went into the permit office and two guys ahead of us started working on getting there permits. (There were two rangers there). As this was happening two other rangers walked in. Anyway, one the rangers who had just come in, says to everyone in the room. "Hey, I smell marijuana in here and it maybe legal in the state but it's illegal on Federal land and if you use it here and I catch you I will enforce the law."

I started laughing to myself because it was obvious who he was talking about. But he didn't single him out.

So we got our permit and headed to Many Glacier to do a short day hike before getting a campsite at Johnson's for the night.

[paul]

So we get to Many Glacier and we only had a half a day to do some day hiking. I suggested Snow Moon Basin since it wouldn't be too strenuous and it's a pretty short hike.

We headed down the trail to Cracker lake and about half mile in I wondered if anybody brought bear spray. None of us had, so Tim ran back to to the car and got a can. Funny we had three cans of bear spray and none of us remembered to take it.

When we got to the general area where you head up to stream bed, I had a hard time locating the actual place to start up. I could see generally where we needed to go but remembered it was very different from when I did it 10 years before. It seemed really over grown. We started up anyway and struggled up through the brush and steep slope. I found some familiar looking rocks and a stream bed up it still seemed different. So rather than continue on we headed back toward the Many Glacier hotel.

Once back near the trailhead, Andy suggested we go to the lake shore. When we got there, I noticed something moving about 20 feet from us. I said to the other guys, "is that a bear"? Sure enough a small grizzly bear (probably a two year old cub) comes out of the brush and to the waters edge. We were a little nervous since there might be a mama bear near by. Anyway it wandered on the shore for a minute and then headed back into the woods. The hotel was about 200-300 yards away and you could hear people getting excited about the bear and it looked like they started coming over toward us and the bear.

After the bear excitement we went back to St. Mary and went to Johnson's campground to get a campsite and setup out tents. I grabbed a shower and got ready for dinner. My brother and nephew were staying at the Lodge in St. Mary which was kind of coincidence. So I arranged beforehand to meet them at the lodge for dinner.

That night I think I had one of the worst night's camping in my life. As it got dark we headed into our tents and just as I was starting to relax, I heard music playing. At first I thought it was somebody in the campground playing a stereo. But later it was clearly a band playing somewhere nearby. The volume of the music seemed to change now and then and I think it was because sometimes the doors of bar were open and sometimes they were closed. Any it went on for hours and I kept thinking well they can't play beyond this time. But they did.

The next morning we got up and all went down to the lodge for breakfast with my brother and nephew. The huckleberry pancakes were great.

My brother and nephew were looking to do a hike and I suggested that they follow us to the Chief Mountain Customs and then we could show them the Lee Ridge trail. So they ended up following us up there. When we first looked for the trailhead we couldn't find it since there sued to be an orange tag near the trail entrance. It was no longer there. I felt bad since they had spend the better part of an hour following us up to Chief.

Apparently, my brother found it trailhead (I found this out later) and they hiked it for several miles. But they met a ranger who told them they don't want people on that trail and that they shouldn't be there. Huh, that's the first time I heard that. If I was there I would have asked the ranger why and told him that many people still use the trail to get to Gable pass and beyond. Not to mention that it's one of most unique and spectacular trails in the park.

Well, Tim, Andy and I set out for ELH from our trailhead. It was a pretty hot day and we had 12 miles to go. This was going to be toughest day of the hike. Not only was it the longest day, but our packs had all the food for the week.

We hiked with a few breaks until we reached ELF and Tim suggested we take a longer break to cool off in the lake. I dropped my pack and then kindof made me way in to the lake and thought I didn't want to get my shorts wet. So I told the guys that I would head over and our campsite at ELH since it was only about 2 miles away.


Finally arrived at ELH camp. These are the horse corrals.

When I got to camp there was no one there so I had my pick of any of the campsites. The problem was none of them were very good. All the sites were pretty uneven and in the woods. There were private except for the one closest to the trail to Helen lake and that one was the smallest site.

I waited for Tim and Andy to show up before setting up camp I wasn't sure which camp would be best but it was down to site 2 or 3.
After setting up camp I went down to the lake to get some water and take a few pictures.






This was actually taken later in the evening after dinner.

[Ipasha Jen]

When we passed through ELH on our way to and from HEL I made a mental note to never camp there on purpose:)

[orin]

I agree the campsites at ELH aren't the best. But I usually want to stay 2 nights on Elizabeth Lake so that I can dayhike the tunnel or Redgap Pass or Helen Lake. Because ELF is one night only I seem to end up at ELH a lot. I've probably stayed there 5 or 6 times over the years.

[teapot57]

I really like that walk along Elizabeth Lake from the Foot to the Head. I’ve stayed at ELH in the site closest to the pit toilet. It was fine with 2 small tents. But I didn’t realize there was access to the lake from the campground! Tibber and I walked a good quarter mile back toward ELF to sit on a beach on the lake.

That’s really surprising to hear that the flagging is down and the rangers don’t want hikers to use the Lee Ridge Trail. I don’t recall seeing anything about that on the trail status page. Did your brother and nephew find another hike?

[paul]

I really like that walk along Elizabeth Lake from the Foot to the Head. I’ve stayed at ELH in the site closest to the pit toilet. It was fine with 2 small tents. But I didn’t realize there was access to the lake from the campground! Tibber and I walked a good quarter mile back toward ELF to sit on a beach on the lake.

That’s really surprising to hear that the flagging is down and the rangers don’t want hikers to use the Lee Ridge Trail. I don’t recall seeing anything about that on the trail status page. Did your brother and nephew find another hike?

There's a small trail through the woods to the lake shore just opposite where the campsite trail is. The beach is not bad if you walk a ways and wade the small stream flowing into the lake.

The campsites had a lot of mosquitoes as I recall.

I think the ranger who talked to my brother didn't know what he was talking about. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of the new rangers in the park sort of have the same problem. My brother and nephew turned around which is too bad because they were just getting to the good part of the trail where you get out of the woods and get the views. I don't think they did anymore hiking that day.

[paul]

I agree the campsites at ELH aren't the best. But I usually want to stay 2 nights on Elizabeth Lake so that I can dayhike the tunnel or Redgap Pass or Helen Lake. Because ELF is one night only I seem to end up at ELH a lot. I've probably stayed there 5 or 6 times over the years.

Yeah, the location of the camp is good, it's just that the campsites are kind of cruddy there.

[paul]

When we passed through ELH on our way to and from HEL I made a mental note to never camp there on purpose:)

Probably a good idea. Although, ELF has nice sites and great views, it has 6 sites and it always feels like I'm not in the back country.

[tibber]

I really like that walk along Elizabeth Lake from the Foot to the Head. I’ve stayed at ELH in the site closest to the pit toilet. It was fine with 2 small tents. But I didn’t realize there was access to the lake from the campground! Tibber and I walked a good quarter mile back toward ELF to sit on a beach on the lake.

I love that walk between ELF and ELH too . I was perfectly fine with our site at ELH. I remember we had trouble finding the hanging bar; I think because it was so high.

I had no idea there was lake access either and even though we had to walk a bit to find our wonderFULL view from lakeside; it was quite nice.

[Jay w]

Usually I'm a "no insect repellent" kind of guy, but the mosquitos at Liz Head bothered me enough that I kept moving rather than dig through the pack.

Can't believe that ranger....

Jay