Day 11: Hiking from Cosley Lake to Chief Mountain Trailhead

We chose to hike out from Cosley Lake, at a distance of 9.1 miles, rather than use our last night's reservation at Elizabeth Lake.  Our decision was based on a desire to use each of our remaining days to the fullest. The extra day would give us more options for side trips on the way home.  Since the kids were really looking forward to the "cable river crossing" en route to Elizabeth Lake, we took a detour to the fork in the Belly River to find said crossing.  The shallow water took away part of the challenge, but it was still fun to ford the river while using a "hand over hand maneuver."

We also made a rather long stop at Gros Ventre Falls where Greg, Nick, and I went for a brief & freezing swim while Ron did some fishing.  A half-dozen hippie daredevils showed up during our swim and told Greg, "Thanks for the inspiration, Man."  They proceeded to climb up and do some cliff diving into the deep pool beneath the falls.  This provided great entertainment for us, and just as you might suspect, Greg wore a wide grin of satisfaction as he egged them on.  He felt partially responsible for the show!  Changing out of our wet under clothes proved difficult with a growing audience, but we managed.  No one seemed too concerned with modesty since bathing suits are an unheard of luxury in the back country.

Trudging forward to our final destination of Chief Mountain Trailhead, we tried to take in each scenic view.  Surrounded by snowy peaks in August, there was a prevailing feeling of "we probably won't see this again in our lifetime(s)." We rested and ate lunch at another ess in the river, where Nick-the-Designated-Purifier  pumped yet another two Nalgen bottles of water.  At one point during the meal, Ron dropped a ziploc bag into the current and shouted, "Oh, no!"  Without hesitating for a nano-second, Greg did a Super Fly Snuka Swan Dive into the rocky waters to nab the errant baggie before it disappeared down river.  He was a little bit scratched up from the leap and angry to find the ziploc empty.  He later explained that he thought Ron's cell phone was in there.  We all proclaimed him the Family Hero, loyal and fearless to the core.  But just a little bit crazy.

The last couple miles uphill were draining, to say the least, but we finally emerged at the parking lot (our starting point) in the early evening.  We found a site at Johnson's R.V. Park with full hook-ups, so we could take unrestricted showers.  A steak dinner at the Cattle Supper Ranch, run by the Blackfeet Indians, capped off a spectacular day.  After devouring the hugest t-bones and ribeye ever seen, we slept like kings and queens in our bug-free, air-conditioned camper.

Day 10: Hiking from Mokowanis Lake to Cosley Lake

Another shorter hike of 5.6 miles brought us to Cosley Lake Campground, which we had passed two days earlier.  This beauty-of-a-camp is highly sought after (difficult to get a reservation), and we were surprised to find out that two out of four sites remained empty.  Our only company was a group of three college students from North Dakota.  Nick, Ron, and Greg all took a "bath" in the chilly lake water.  It's hard to express just how painfully frigid this water was, and, I'm sorry to say, we decided to keep the video footage of Ron screaming like a girl (when he submerged) as a family secret.  It could possibly be the next You Tube sensation, but some things are best kept private.

Our campsite sat directly on the rocky shore of Lake Cosley, and the fellows spent quite a bit of time fishing and skimming rocks.  Ground squirrels and rabbits were plentiful here, and Greg befriended a special squirrel he named Porker.  I enjoyed walking the beach and doing some soul searching.  With sights like these, it's hard not to.  Mostly, I was contemplating how these (almost) untouched places seem to stand still in time... how a bystander like myself could witness a similar scene a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now.  Of course the glaciers are melting (experts predict that all of GNP's glaciers will be gone by 2020), but the character of the landscape endures.  Once again, I was reminded of my status as a speck on the continuum of time.

Day 9: Hiking from Glenn's Lake to Mokowanis Lake

We were overjoyed to have only a 4.1 mile hike today since our bodies were a bit sore from yesterday.  We didn't have to rush, and it was a good thing because our lunch break locale turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in the backcountry!  The waterfall connecting Glenn's Lake to Mokowanis Lake was indescribably gorgeous!  The upper part of the falls was quite wide, spreading out over an enormous area.  The result was only inches deep water sort of cascading over a sparkling surface.  It was so sunny that everything seemed to reflect sparkles.  I dangled my aching ankles from a primitive wooden bridge, letting the wind and water restore my strength.  Nick and Ron made "just a few casts" into the lake, and Greg persisted in climbing higher up into the falls than my safety standards would allow.

Eventually, we continued hiking to Mokowanis Lake Campground.  This pristine lake was like something out of a wilderness postcard collection with log pole pines and twisty white aspens bordering blue-green waters.  A muskrat's path left the only ripples in the smooth surface.  The food prep area was the perfect viewing spot for the splendor, so we sat there for awhile, soaking it all in.  We were soon joined by a group of 5 rowdy Canadians, who appeared to have their backpacking act together (except for a lack of toilet paper which forced them to use leaves instead).  They showed us a video made the day before where they were recklessly body-surfing down a deadly ice formation.  Greg thought this group was super cool, eh, so he followed them into the icy waters of Lake Mokowanis on a dare.  Nick caught the only sizable fish of the trip later in the evening, one bull trout and one brown trout.  At one point, we attempted to take a side hike to a set of waterfalls about a mile down the trail, but aborted the mission when the weeds and berry patches were taller than our heads.  With the sun setting soon, it was not the safest place to be in Bear Country.

One of the more noteworthy aspects of this campground had to be the pit toilet, which we dubbed "the throne."  You see, this wooden box sat upon a high hill overlooking the camp.  It had no walls or cover except for what Mother Nature provided, so a patron was literally left exposed while conducting business!  Later that night, 1:00a.m. to be precise, I begged Ron to accompany me to the throne, and honest to God, it was the scariest experience of the trip.  Probably worse than last year's rattlesnake scare in the Grand Canyon.  In the PITCH darkness, I was certain that we would be mauled by a bear near the pit toilet.  Then the kids would be orphans, raised by the crazy Canadians next door.  Well, we survived to see an incredible lightning display about an hour later.  We stayed dried, though, and packed up camp the next morning without any fanfare.

Day 8: Hiking Glacier National Park's Back Country- Chief Mountain Trailhead to the Foot of Glenn's Lake

We parked Minnie Winnie in a small lot only a hundred yards or so from the Canadian Border in the extreme northeastern corner of GNP.  Descending about 700 feet in the early part of the trail, the remainder of the day's 10.3 mile hike would be relatively flat, albeit muddy, rocky, and uneven ground.  We ate a lunch of tuna wraps at the edge of the Belly River, which snaked around our trail for about 4 miles.  Next we crossed a wobbly suspension bridge [max capacity= one hiker] before traveling through a wooded area leading to Cosley Lake.


Several hikers warned us that they had spotted two Grizzly Cubs and a Black Bear in separate incidents on this stretch, so we were extra careful to make lots of noise.  No problem for Greg.  At one point, with Nick in the lead, we ran right into a deer.  This scared the living daylights out of us when we saw movement in the brush only feet away.

The views became even more breathtaking as we continued deeper into the wilderness. We entered a valley between Cosley Ridge and Mts. Kaina & Cleveland containing a chain of lakes.  There we enjoyed our first glacier sightings in the distance: White Crow Glacier and Miche Wabun Glacier.

We arrived at the Foot of Glenn's Lake Campground in the mid afternoon to find two other hiking groups.  One middle-aged couple was from Minnesota, and a younger couple hailed from Washington.  This four-site campground had its own food prep area, hanging pole (to protect the food from bears), and a rather disgusting pit toilet.  A pack of resident nuisance deer were very aggressive and would steal any salty/sweaty items left unguarded.  The Man from Minnesota had his shirt, pants, and hat stolen by the deer and proceeded to chase the hoofed scoundrels around camp.

We set up our tent, being careful not to leave anything out for the deer.  We ate some re-hydrated beef stew for dinner and played a quick game of Crazy Eights before going to bed.

Day 7: Great Falls, MT to Glacier National Park

The three-hour drive northwestward through Montana seemed like a hop, skip, and a jump.  It's all relative, I suppose.  We had some serious business to take care of- namely, to renegotiate our backcountry itinerary with a Park Ranger and to secure lodging for the night.  We couldn't make advanced reservations at an r.v. park in Glacier because the in-park campgrounds are all "first come, first served."  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Visitor's Center... A Riley Tour Bus drove into the parking lot at the same time as we did.  At first we laughed at the coincidence, thinking that this vehicle couldn't possibly be Bus #304.  After all, we were 900 miles away from the site of our previous encounter with that particular tour bus.  In synchronicity, Ron and the boys did a double take.  YES, this was the same bus that nearly side-swiped us on the Scenic Drive of Teddy Roosevelt National Park!  What are the odds?

Anyhow, we were successful in adjusting our 4-night backcountry permit to include better glacial views and less double-tracking.  We listened attentively as the ranger cautioned us to "use ONLY the pit toilets for our bathroom needs while at the backcountry camps because the nuisance animals are attracted to the salt." Yuck.  She also warned us about the possibility of hypothermia and attacks by bears and mountain lions.  All things that have already been carefully contemplated by yours truly.  $60 later (what a bargain!) we were on our way to find a home for the night.  We needed to put some finishing touches on our packs and get a good night's sleep.

Finding a place to stay proved difficult as the in-park campgrounds were all full.  We drove around the St. Mary's area, part of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, looking for a private campground.  You might expect a tourist mecca of shops, motels, & restaurants outside of the park's biggest eastern entrance.  Surprise, surprise... no luck.  We did find a few scary-looking, uninhabited r.v. parks with cobwebbed OPEN signs at the gates.  No, thank you.  That's footage for the next horror movie.  Eventually, we settled for the overflow lot at the nearby KOA.  We chowed down on a lame meal of pasta & sauce.  After showering for the last time before leaving civilization, I confess to throwing a minor fit when Ron told me I couldn't blow dry my hair due to our lack of an electrical hook-up.  It was too late to run the generator.  Hmph.  Well, I compromised and trudged a ways down to the KOA bathroom hut, which was surprisingly clean and modern.  Three other campers knocked on my single-room stall to ask, "Are you almost done?" prompting me to go even slower with the most satisfying blow-dry of my life.

Back at the camper, the fellows were nearly done preparing the packs, poles, boots, etc.  I saw them sneaking a few extra fishing lures into the case and told them that I was NOT, under any circumstances, going to skimp on underwear (to save weight) if they were going to load up on fishing gear!  We were off to bed after the obligatory ice cream, dreaming of our upcoming days in the backcountry.

Day 6: North Dakota to Great Falls, MT

Teddy Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin

Feral Horses at Teddy Roosevelt National Park

A Lone Bison at TRNP

We awoke early in order to enjoy the 36-mile Scenic Drive Loop in Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) before setting out for Montana.  Way less crowded than the other National Parks we have visited, TRNP boasts a huge bison population of 300 in the southern unit, along with 900 elk and 85 feral horses.  Oddly, we saw zero elk, but boy did we strike gold with the bison.  These beasts were everywhere, and we saw no less than 80 or 90 of them.  Not only did we get close enough to hear them grunting at us roadside (maybe 15 feet away from the camper!), but we also saw them in their natural grandeur.  My favorite scene was a small herd of about 8 bison charging full speed down a high slope in the distance.  It gave me a "flash from the past" feeling of how the Great Plains must have looked when these animals numbered in the millions before almost becoming extinct by the 1880's.  Another of my favorite sites was a lone buffalo sitting atop a high ridge... a true King of the Mountain.  Life on the road does have its challenges, though, and shortly after reveling in the bison encounters, we were nearly side-swiped by a large bus of tourists trying to pass us in a no-pass zone on the narrow Scenic Drive!  Ron just couldn't let it go and later confronted the bus driver when we met by chance at the Medora Visitor's Center later in the morning.  We debated on whether to report him to the Riley Bus Company, but ultimately decided that he wasn't worth any more of our time.  Suffice to say that this curmudgeon added a heavy pull to the dark side of our human nature experiment.

Onward we traveled through Montana.  We gambled on the smaller Rte. 12 instead of the Interstate to take us to Great Falls, MT.  Never, and I mean NEVER, have we experienced such a remote No Man's Land.  During a 100-mile stretch, driving a constant 60 m.p.h., we crossed only 8 cars and saw no signs of human beings until the last couple of miles.  No houses existed there, except for a few abandoned ones.  No power lines or side roads.  Nothing but grass and sky.  It was a little disconcerting to think about the camper breaking down in such a location, with the absence of cell service and all.  To pass the time, the kids watched Forest Gump (again) while Ron and I completed two crossword puzzles.  We arrived at Great Falls, Montana at about 7:15p.m., hungry and tired.  The kids were happy to find a mini water park at the KOA.  The evening ended with S'mores cooked on a fire built by Greg & Nick.

Day 5: Minnesota to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, ND

Driving through North Dakota

[Pardon the lack of posts lately... We've been without Internet access for several days.  We'll try to catch up soon!]

Painted Canyon

Cottonwood Campground, TRNP

An easy 9-hour drive westbound on I-94 through North Dakota brought us to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, a prelude to Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TRNP).  There we were treated to a gorgeous panorama of bluffs with multi-colored striations. The landscape resembled the Badlands of South Dakota, only with a much more "lush" feel.  There were lots of green areas- including sagebrush- dispersed between the rock formations.  Being 4:00p.m., we swiftly moved on to the gates of TRNP in order to secure a spot at the park's first come, first served Cottonwood Campground.  We shared this area with about thirty other camping families.  A short-but-thorny jaunt through some weeds brought campers to the Little Missouri River... the perfect swimming hole!  The water had a strong current, but was extremely shallow.  So a swimmer could lay on his/her back and be pulled along a la a "lazy river" attraction. Nick and Greg caught several frogs and kept them in a make-shift pen.  Of course they under-estimated the leaping power of these amphibians, so these critters were escaping quicker than they could be caught!  The frog population surely breathed a sigh of relief when we returned to our site for a meal of steaks, twice-baked potatoes, and asparagus on the grill.  In the absence of hook-ups, we had to limit our power/water consumption, so quick showers to rinse off the river scum were all we had time for.  The boys insisted upon sleeping in a tent instead of the r.v., and we all enjoyed the comfortable sleeping temperatures (perhaps 60 degrees) that the night offered.