BELLY BELLY NICE
I
got off to a leisurely start on Saturday.
I was tired and sore from the challenging hike over Lee Ridge the
previous day. Fortunately day 2 would
feature an easy hike along the Belly River to Helen Lake. I eventually rolled out of camp and hiked
back up to the meadow surrounding the Belly River Ranger Station. I enjoyed great views of the surrounding
peaks there before heading back into the woods.
A fairly easy climb followed, before I arrived at the junction with the
spur trail to Dawn Mist Falls.
I
took a quick side trip down to the falls.
Dawn Mist Falls is spectacular!
The light wasn’t ideal for photography – I really should’ve gotten up
earlier – but it was manageable. A
couple of my campmates from the previous night were there fly fishing. I watched them for a bit before returning to
the main trail.
I
followed it upstream to a suspension bridge over the river. I crossed, and joined a trail coming up from Cosley Lake. I
continued upstream from there, along a particularly scenic stretch of
river. I reached Elizabeth Lake in time
for lunch. I joined Sylvie and James on
the gravel beach at the foot of the lake.
They had dayhiked up from Gable Creek. Later they planned to return to Gable Creek,
break camp, and move to another campsite on Glenns
Lake.
I
enjoyed a leisurely lunch before resuming the hike around Elizabeth Lake. This part of the hike featured spectacular
views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. I passed the campsites at the Head of
Elizabeth Lake, which looked nice, if a notch less spectacular than the ones at
the foot of the lake. Beyond Elizabeth
Lake the trail stayed in the woods, though occasional openings offered views of
the river and the surrounding peaks. It
looked like ideal moose habitat, but I didn’t see any wildlife. Closer to Helen Lake, I was treated to views
of the Old Sun Glacier, which is one of the largest remaining glaciers in the
park.
I
crossed a footbridge over the river just below the outlet of Helen Lake. From there, a short stroll through subalpine
forest brought me to the lakeshore.
Helen
Lake is breathtaking. It’s a large body
of water, backed by a wall of massive peaks.
The Ahern Glacier is high above, and a series
of waterfalls cascade down into the lake.
I could see the narrow notch of Ahern Pass above the far end of the
lake. I hoped to take the side trip up
to Ahern Pass on the final day of my trip.
I
arrived by mid-afternoon. It was still
warm and sunny enough that I took a quick dip in the icy water. A bit later the couple from Bozeman that I’d
met the previous evening arrived. They
were camped at the Head of Elizabeth Lake, but had dayhiked
up to Helen to check it out. We hung out
together for a while before they headed back to camp.
Helen
Lake only has room for two groups. The
other group was a local couple. One
worked as a volunteer Park Ranger, leading hikes in the Many Glacier area. They offered pleasant company through the
rest of the afternoon and evening. They
had been at Helen the previous night, too, and had a black bear wander through
camp. They’d also seen a grizzly and a
moose on their way in. They ate trout
freshly caught from Helen Lake for dinner.
I hate to admit it, but I was a little jealous.
TRAMPLED UNDERFOOT
I
was up before first light on Sunday morning.
It was a chilly, windy morning, but the alpenglow at sunrise made the
discomfort worth it. During breakfast, I
spotted an elk on the hillside above camp.
A bit later a mountain goat made an appearance on the same
hillside.
I
broke camp and hiked back to Elizabeth Lake.
I reached the foot of the lake around noon, and stopped there for
lunch. From there, I headed back
downstream along the Belly River. At the
junction with the turn to the suspension bridge, I continued ahead into new
territory. A rather dull hike brought me
to the outlet of Cosley Lake. The trail crosses the Mokowanis
River here, and the ford is somewhat daunting.
There is a cable spanning the channel, which offers a bit of extra
security.
In
an effort to save weight, I’d brought flip flops as my extra set of footware. Flip flops
are great for hanging out at camp, and are even adequate for crossing small
streams. However, they don’t provide
enough support or traction for a major river ford. I decided to cross in my boots, as going
barefoot seemed risky. My boots would be
soaked the rest of the day, but I figured they would dry quickly in the dry
Rocky Mountain air. I removed my socks
and the insoles before crossing though.
The
ford wasn’t as bad as it looked. I made
it across without incident, though the water was frigid! I took a break on the far side before
resuming the hike. I was headed up the Mokonwanis Valley, to my next campsite at the foot of Glenns Lake. However,
I decided to take a quick side trip downstream to check out Gros
Ventre Falls.
The side trip featured a couple of substantial ups and downs, and the
spur trail down to the falls was quite rocky.
The good news was that I was treated to some nice views of Chief
Mountain along the way. The falls was
worth a look, but it wasn’t as spectacular as Dawn Mist Falls. Because it was a sunny afternoon, the light
was poor for photography.
From
there I headed back to Cosley Lake, which is a
beautiful blue from the glaciers upstream.
I passed Cosley by, and hiked through the
woods to the campsites at the foot of Glenns
Lake. The campsite is fairly scenic,
with nice views across the lake to some impressive peaks.
I
met my camp mates while cooking dinner.
Helmut and his son Jeff were in the next tent site, and Helmut warned me
that a hostile bull moose had given the campers at our site a serious scare the
previous evening. Apparently the moose
had been grazing in the campsite when one of the campers had shined a bright
light in his face. It turns out that
moose don’t like this. Allegedly the
moose had given him a bluff charge. That
night he stomped around the campsite for hours, keeping everyone awake.
I
had run into Keith and Cara earlier on the trail. They were from Seattle, and like most folks
in this part of the park, they were on an extended backpacking trip. Helmut and Jeff were, too, but Jeff was
having problems with one of his knees.
The next morning they decided to bail on their trip, which must’ve been
depressing. Their route featured all of
the most coveted campsites, including Stoney Indian Lake, Fifty Mountain, and a
night at the Granite Park chalet. Helmut
and Jeff ended up swapping permits with Keith and Cara. Keith and Cara were excited about the
opportunity to include Fifty Mountain and the Granite Park Chalet in their
trip. Meanwhile, Helmut and Jeff planned
to bail out, but they didn’t want to go out the easy way at the Chief Mountain
Trailhead. Instead, they were determined
to hike back to Many Glacier, where they had left their vehicle. That meant a serious climb and descent, and
it was more than they could tackle in one day.
They planned to camp at Elizabeth Lake that night. They didn’t have an actual permit for that
campsite though, and Elizabeth is one of the most popular campsites in the
park. I don’t know how that worked out.
That
evening the conversation turned to my homemade dehydrated meal, which drew
interest from numerous people throughout the trip. Everybody else was eating freeze dried
meals. Keith had a
Mountain House lasagna, and I mentioned that it was actually my favorite
of the commercial freeze dried dinners.
I went on to say that most of them were ok, except for the beef stew,
which was nasty crap.
At
that point Keith said, “Hey Helmut, what’re you eating there”?
Unbeknownst
to me, Helmut had just heated up a package of beef stew. The rest of us erupted in peals of
laughter. We had nearly calmed down when
Helmut said, “Actually, I think it’s pretty good. In fact, it might just be one of my
favorites. What do you think Jeff?”
This,
of course, led to another round of hysterical laughter.
Our
amusement was interrupted when a herd of deer passed through camp. A few minutes later, the infamous bull moose made his first appearance. We all watched him and took photos for a
while. Eventually he wandered off, and
it was getting too dark for photography, anyway.
I
went to bed shortly after dark, but I didn’t sleep long. I woke to the sound of a loud snort nearby. At first I thought it was just Helmut’s
digestive system disagreeing with his beef stew. But that was followed by heavy stomping just
outside the tent. That couldn’t be
Helmut, even if he was carrying Jeff around on his back. I shined my light out the tent door, and
spotted the bull moose munching on vegetation just a
few feet away. At that moment Keith
hollered at me, reminding me that he didn’t like being spotlighted. I turned off the light immediately.
He
wandered closer, and I started to get nervous.
He was a thousand pounds of clumsy, and I was lying on the ground
defenseless just a few feet away. What
if he stepped on me? This was the
biggest moose I’d ever seen. Pickup
truck sized, and I’m not talking Ford Ranger.
More like Dodge Ram. It would be
an ugly way to go.
Things
took a turn for the worse when I heard another snort off to my left. I peered out again, and spotted another bull
moose working on the vegetation next to my tent. There was a small tree there, and he was
actually ripping limbs off of it. This
was fantastic – I had one giant moose directly in front of my tent, and another
right next to me.
This
went on for some time. Sleeping was not
an option. Thankfully, they eventually
wandered off in the direction of the lake.
Even then, it was a long time before I was able to go back to sleep.
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