Many Glacier in Springtime glory; Shaw Butte's big toe

 

Some bighorn ewes we encountered

This will have to do for my 77th birthday photo on Lake Josephine

We were lucky to encounter a mother moose and yearling grazing near the roadway

Looking out across Swiftcurrent Lake toward Grinnell Point

During the height. of tourist season Glacier National Park has become a congested nightmare.

The worst nightmare is the Many Glacier valley.

Luckily for us, we were able to visit Many Glacier when the road opened this week, and there was no one around except the wild animals, the bighorn sheep, and moose particularly.

Many Glacier will offer only limited access this summer as the Swiftcurrent Inn parking area is being expanded to accommodate more visitors.  The restaurant won't open.  Even getting into the Many Glacier area to hike will be difficult.  Only visitors with passes or who are staying at the Many Glacier Hotel will be able to drive that far.  Others will be bused in, only as far as the hotel.

That means having to walk from the hotel to the key trailheads like Iceberg Lake/Ptarmigan Tunnel, the Swiftcurrent Valley, Grinnell Lake.  In some instances it will add miles to the hikes.

The congestion at the entrance gate promises to be monumental.

That's why we seized on a beautiful spring day to jump the line and drive into Many with no permit.

In spite of some substantial snow on the trails we were able to hike around Swiftcurrent Lake to Lake Josephine, where we got stunning views of Mount Gould. 

We bumped into maybe a dozen hikers during the time we were there.

The access will tighten down to buses without permits July 1.

Go now if you want to avoid chaos.

 

Shaw Butte:  walking up the big toe

Square Butte to the east offered an exceptional view

Walking the craggy ridge toward the Big Toe

The Big Toe in front of us

The view from below

A day before our Glacier trip we visited Shaw Butte outside Fort Shaw.

 

This is the low lying butte located between massive Square Butte and Crown Butte to the west.

 

It begins at a Hutterite colony at the foot of the butte where we found igneous outcroppings.

 

We walked to the top of the butte where there is communications towers and buildings but impressive 360 views of the mountain ranges and prairies.  The snow-covered Rocky Mountain Front was most impressive.

 

This was generally the same hike we took several years ago.

 

We descended to a long, craggy ridgeline that led us to a prominence I like to refer to as Shaw Butte's "big toe," and climbed it, looking down on the Hutterite gravel pit and many industrial-farm operations below.

 

There were scatterings to wildflowers:  yellow bells (fritilary), shooting stars, phlox, and violets.

To avoid the ridgeline's crags, I walked in a precarious game trail below them, while Mark Hertenstein and Gordon Whirry, worked their way through them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting the birthplace of democracy as ours is being dismantled

The night time view from our hotel

The Rio-Antirrio bridge, an engineering marvel connecting mainland Greece to the Peloponnese

Katie and I at a Hydra Island high point monastery site overlooking Greek isles

We were fortunate enough to enjoy lots of spring flowers in bloom

The Parthenon view from our hotel restaurant as the sun rose during breakfast

 We've just finished a three week trip to Greece (March 27-April 16), which included six days in Athens, the birthplace of democracy.

Despite the hordes of tourists, the ancient monuments  were a refresher course in history.

For two weeks we traveled with a group that included Australians, Canadians, Filipinos and Chinese.  They all expressed their horror at what's happening to democracy in the U.S. 

There were daily checks by all of their bank accounts being hammered by President Trump's tariffs.

All of the foreigners said that travel to the U.S. is now out of the question, a combination of the President's actions and fear of widespread the prevalence of gun ownership.

I put that aside to immerse myself in a primer on the development of Greek culture while visiting where the Mycenians, Minoans, and Cretans developed western civilization over 7,000 years ago.

We caught a glimpse of Mount Olympus on a gloomy, drizzly day.  We hiked to the Delphi Oracle site and, of course, the Acropolis in Athens.

Greece revealed itself not only as a historic place, but a scenic one as well.

Many of our friends have cruised the Greek isles.

We traveled inland on land, but hugged the scenic coast lines as well.  It is a ruggedly mountainous country.

The Oracle of Delphi

Five of our city stops were outstanding:  Athens, Thessalonika, Naphlia, and Hericleum and Chania on the Isle of Crete.  We also took a boat to the Isle of Hydra, where we climbed to within 300 feet of its highest mountain. 

The city of Thessalonika, Greece's second largest, impressed me the most for its location near where Albania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia meet.  It is a modern, seacoast city with great museums and scenery.

Athens is full of antiquities everywhere you turn, but it is a city overrun with vehicles that present a constant hazard.  Houses are built on top of each other, even atop and into ancient walls.  There's no such thing as a yard and boulevard trees are scarce.

We found very affordable lodging at the Acropolis View Hotel, a 10-minute walk from the Acropolis and Parthenon.  It served a wonderful breakfast included in the cost of the room, and stunning views of the nearby Acropolis.  The staff was friendly and beyond helpful.  I highly recommend this hotel. 

My wife, Katie, did a daily blog of the trip which I offer here:  whereiskatie.weebly.com

I found that my knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet was somewhat helpful in reading Greek signage as it shares some of the letters of the Greek alphabet.

It's all Greek to me

Katie climbing the 1,000 stairs to fortress atop Naphlia

The Naphlia fortress/prison

Greece felt like a country heavily influenced by its proximity to Turkey.  The Islamic, Roman and Byzantine architecture revealed its dominance by those cultures.

I was fascinated with the numerous Greek Orthodox monasteries, some built off the grid on high mountain or precipitous locations.  We reached one on a trek on the island of Hydra.

The orthodox churches were resplendent with colorful icons that reminded me that Greece is not entirely a western country, although it belongs to the European Union.

The country is rightly proud of its olive production, only second to Spain, and the trees were everywhere.  We toured an olive oil factory as well as a winery and a honey farm.

One of our most interesting stops was to a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Vergina where Macedonian King Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, is buried in a museum built under an earthen mound.

I was unaware that Athens was not the original selection for the capital of modern Greece.  We spent two nights in Naphlia, a coastal city with an island fortress and a massive prison towering over this ancient city. We hiked up to this castle, covering more than 1,000 marble steps for lofty views.

We flew from Athens to the large island of Crete, the southern-most part of Europe, where we spent four nights, two each in Heraklion and Chania.  Chania was the most beautiful city on our trip.  When I was told the mountains there were in the 8,000 feet range, I didn't think much of it.  That is an average elevation mountain on the Rocky Mountain Front.  But when I finally saw these snow-draped peaks, called the White Mountains towering over the sea, I realized that they were 8,000 feet above that nearby sea.  Our Front mountains rise a mere 2,000-4,000 feet above the Great Plains.

Greece is a cat-tolerant nation.  I've never seen so many feral cats wandering around on the islands as well as the mainland.

Each European trip deepens my distaste for the tourist model that has been developed:  getting the tourists into areas to buy stuff and eat expensive meals. It's particularly bad for cruises, where tourists coming off immense ships hit land and immediately are swamped by a wall of trinket sellers.

Give me the small towns and their markets for an authentic experience. 

Food?  A bit of a disappointment.  A Greek salad is a thing with tomatoes we'll never see in the U.S.  However, so much of the diet is meat, fish and cheese, that I hungered for a vegetable stir fry or tofu.  We found good pizza and in Athens a top notch Indian eatery.  The street food was passable, with the falafel gyros the best. Baklava ---- top notch. 

We saw and experienced so much on this trip that it will take some time before I've digested it all.

Greece is a great destination.  

We found antiquities everywhere, raising the questions for me as to where did they find so many artisans, and who and how were the massive temples constructed.

Some impressive sculptures from a museum in Athens:

 

 

Stunning Spring scenery in Wagner Basin

A day of breath taking, including scenery (Katie Kotynski photo)

It was an uphill battle of nearly 2,000 feet

The pink Douglasia with the yellow Yellowstone Draba alpine flowers

Sawtooth Mountain across the valley

A nice bighorn ram

 An annual early Spring hike in the Wagner Basin of the Rocky Mountain Front has become a satisfying tradition.

By the middle of April the first of the alpine flowers are out, things are starting to green up and the bighorn sheep invariably show themselves.

And, oh yes, the ticks are out.

The hike starts off Hannan Gulch off the Sun River below Gibson Dam on the southern flank of Castle Reef Mountain

It's strictly social trails, out and back.  

There are the usual sights:  the pictographs, the skull tree, beaver dams in the swamp.

This is an approach used by Castle Reef  mountain climbers.

Katie put together a group of 12 hikers and everyone made it to the top of the high ridge to the east of the basin, covering nearly 5 miles and 2,000 feet of elevation gain.

We saw several bands of bighorn ewes, a little one, and a full curl ram.

The alpine flowers were a delight, particularly fields of magenta Douglasia.  It was the day before Easter and we were treated to the white Easter flowers, saw a couple patches of purple Pasque flowers, several yellow bells (fritilary), shooting stars, Yellowstone draba, white phlox, prairie smoke, Oregon grape.

The high mountains, like Sawtooth were snow capped, but the south face of Castle Reef was snow free.

This is a lightly used area, but we saw at least three other hiking parties.  I think one of them was headed up to climb Castle Reef. 

Winter ends with ski to Mizpah and hike to Cochrane

A tough way up

At the Mizpah bowls

 Winter ended with a ski to the Mizpah Bowls in the Little Belts to enjoy some fresh snow and brilliant sun a day before the Solstice.

Earlier in the week I hiked to Cochrane Dam along the River's Edge Trail connecting the Chaos, Mayhem, and Rocky Road side trails, also on a gorgeous late winter day.

What a contrast!

Skiable snow and trail within a couple of days of each other.

How would I describe this winter?

Positively, because there was good snow, although there were long stretches of brutal cold that made getting out difficult.  It was a better winter than last year by a long stretch.  The snow we got laid down a good base.  Last year the base was horrible all winter.

My biggest regret this year was not doing old favorites like Nugget Creek, Stemple to Flesher, Rogers Pass, Marias Pass and Looking Glass Pass.  I'm not sure I'm even up to Nugget or Stemple/Flesher any more.

My back country trips were definitely less lengthy --- in the 6-8 mile range, where I had been doing 10-12 mile runs in past years.

Age is taking its toll.

While the Little Belts and other Island Ranges got great snow, the Front was a disappointment.  Too darned much wind, in addition to the brutal cold.

Although we've normally skied into early May, I see open South-facing slopes inviting early Spring hiking trips.

The Cochrane hike reminded me of how fantastic our River trail in town is.

The MIzpah trip reminded me of the tremendous snow at the Great Falls doorstep.

Chaos side trail on way to Cochrane

On the Rocky Road side trail

Ski, hike, snowshoe in late winter

 

 

The North Fork Teton Country near the West Fork needs a blast of snow

 

 

 

 

The ice encrusted lower Falls Creek Falls

 

 

Our snowshoe group at the oddly featureless Kings Hill Mountain summit

Things lined up just right in the past week so that I could backcountry ski, hike, and snowshoe all in one week.

Some of this is thanks in part to retreating snow, particularly on south and west mountain exposures.

I skied a Waldron Creek loop near Teton Pass Ski Area in the Front one day, hiked the Falls Creek Trail in the Rocky Mountain Front's Dearborn Country another, and snow shoed Hill Mountain in the Little Belts.

The wind and warm weather has really carved up and hardened the Front country.  The Mount Wright summit, one of the highest in the Front, looked as though it had been sandblasted and accessible for climbing.  The snow up Waldron Creek was hard and horrible, particularly on the side trail back to the ski area.  It wasn't so bad skiing the West Fork Road, however.

The Falls Creek Trail was relatively open for hiking.  Skiing it is out of the question.  Some of the ground cover is starting to green up.  The big waterfall was particularly impressive because of ice formations.  Bear Den and Monitor peaks looked climbable from their east faces.  There is still good snow toward the Continental Divide Trail in the high country.

 The snow off Kings Hill Pass exceeded my expectations.  Yes, it was icy down low, but the near one got to the ridgeline, the better the snow.  I wished I had brought my skis rather than snowshoes. 

Annual winter trip to Waterton Park

We used St. Mary Lake in Glacier Park as a warmup for Waterton

The Carway border crossing dominated by Chief Mountain

Kilmorey Lodge at foot of Mount Crandell

Katie and Josie on Cameron Lake, the highlight of our outdoors adventures

If it's February it means Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada's sister park to our Glacier National Park.

We go for the back country skiing and snow shoeing and relaxation to get away from our winter doldrums.

Our go-to spot is the Kilmorey Lodge on the shores of the lake immediately beneath striped Mount Crandell.

But, the highlight of our recent trips has been a ski on Cameron  Lake, where Waterton meets Glacier and Montana, Alberta and British Columbia come together.

It is more than a mile to the end of the lake's giant headwall at the base of Glacier's Mount Custer.

You don't want to get too close.  There might be an avalanche waiting for you if you do.  We went to a point on the lake just shy of a mile.

We skied right up the middle of the frozen lake in a strong wind, but enjoyed ourselves the entire way.

We started our ski trip on Akamina Highway that's plowed and groomed for skiing and snow shoeing to the lake, almost two miles away.   There are groomers for skate and classic skiing and snow shoeing. 

Both sides of the highway are lined with high, snow-covered peaks, with the Cameron Lake headwall within view.

It's a tad scary to ski the lake, but we've seen Parks Canada snowmobiles on it, so we figured it was relatively safe.

Gong back there's a groomed back country trail below the highway that hugs the creek and passes Akamina Lake, offering a wilder experience than the road.

Despite high winds and cold temperatures, there were many other recreationists out  for the views and some exercise. 

The town of Waterton, a lively tourist hub during the summer, was a boarded up ghost town except for three hotels and two restaurants.  The Kilmorey has been rebuilt after a fire in the past 10 years and has a restaurant and bar and a warm atmosphere.

The trip seemed tentative because of the weather.

It was 29 degrees below zero in Great Falls when we woke up and until we hit the Cut Bank area in Glacier, temperatures were as cold as 25 below.  There, they miraculously jumped to plus 25!!!

We did make a stop at St. Mary's in Glacier for a walk along the lake before heading to Waterton.

I find it hard to grasp how Glacier has no services as does Waterton in a similar setting and environment.

It was fun to be in Canada as President Trump was blustering about making that country the 51st state, and then watching the Canadian hockey team beat USA in Four Nations Finals.  I love Canada and hate to see it bullied. 

Because of ground blizzards we chose to follow a secondary highway all the way from Cardston to Milk River a few miles north of the U.S. border.  Usually we travel view Highway 89, but were warned away as ground blizzards, particularly along the east front of the Rockies, were predicted. 

Kings Hill to Silvercrest

We topped off the week by skiing from Kings Hill Pass to the Silvercrest cross country ski area, a distance of 4 miles via the downhill ski area, O'Brien Creek, Divide Road and back country trails.

Despite high winds, the sun broke out and we had a delightful, if short and quick trip.

 

 

 

Trouble on the Deadman Gully

 

Me, post-holing in the Deadman drift

Gordon completing his run through the trees

Excellent snow conditions as we near a high point above Deadman bowls

Jasmine got this photo of me struggling in the icy-hard drift

We always knew there could be trouble with the Deadman gully, but didn't experience it first hand until this past week.

The gully is about three-quarters of a mile up the road behind the Kings Hill cabin, and is generally carved up in such a way that one must proceed cautiously so as not to slip down a steep draw into the trees about 75 feet below.

It usually means negotiating a narrow ridge of snow about 50 feet in length, sometimes skiing behind a drift or just getting up on the ridge and balancing across it.  

In the 40-plus years I've skied this, I've never had much trouble with it.  We know it can avalanche, but have never experienced it.

Gordon, Jasmine and I did Deadman Friday, and for the most part the snow was excellent (even through the trees) and the temperatures 20 degrees warmer than in town.

As we approached the drift we all noticed our skis weren't holding an edge....slipping on the downhill side, making skiing rough.

 

When we came to the gully, the drift was reduced to a narrow, almost pointed ridge, hard as rock.

 

Jasmine's skis seemed to hold it.  I don't know why Gordon and I couldn't set ours.  Maybe age.

 

Gordon, ahead of me, couldn't negotiate it and took off his left ski and post-holed with his right above the treacherous icy downhill slide.  He was really stuck until Jasmine skied above him and took his pack and his arm, slowly pulling him up above the drift.

 

I thought I could work my way behind the drift, but was mistaken, and took off my skis, planting them in front of me, and post-holing, until Jasmine came and took my skis.

 

It was some of the most difficult post-holding I've ever done.  First, I used my knees to break through  crust and I crawled, planting my skis a few inches ahead of me as I was able.  Eventually, I was able to get upright and post-hole.  

 

I glanced down only once to assess what might happen if I slipped.  It wouldn't have been pretty.  By the time I reached Gordon and Jasmine I was out of breath and thoroughly exhausted.  I'll bet it took us 45 minutes to cross the gully. 

 

I told them it seemed as though I had used as much energy crossing that small distance as I would normally expend on the full trip.

 

I'd never seen conditions quite like this, and hope never to see such again.

 

Thank goodness the rest of the trip was relatively easy, encountering some of the nicest snow we've had through the trees with sharp turns on the downhill, which is often icy and treacherous.

 

My friend Mark Hertenstein asked when it was the last time I had sharpened my edges.  Never.  Why Jasmine's edges held and mine and Gordon's didn't is puzzling.

 

Wayne Phillips questioned if we had worn transceivers, as we had often done in the past. No.

 

He suggested we abandon the route across the gully and instead use a direct route from the cabin to the top of Kings Hill Mountain instead.  Good idea. 

 

The trip was a reminder of how quickly things can go wrong.

Defying the deep freeze on Waldron snow shoe

Daren Kittleson is a big guy breaking trail, with snow above his knees

In the deep forest

Group shot at our lunch break

I had a hard choice Saturday,  whether to risk the long drive, high winds, deep snow and frigid temperatures to ski with the Badger Two Med Alliance at Marias Pass, or to join my wife's snow shoe group at the Rocky Mountain Front to do the Waldron Creek loop that begins at the Teton Pass ski area.

Anyone who has skied or show-shoed with me knows how much more I prefer skiing to snow-shoeing.

However, the dangers of the 145 mile drive to Marias, with the promise of 40-50 mph winds and the potential driving home in the dark drive, was enough to tilt the scales toward Waldron and snow shoes.

It turned out to be a really good decision.  

The roads were surprisingly good all the way to the ski area, and there were virtually no winds most of the day.

The bonus was incredibly good snow, if perhaps a tad a bit deep for comfortable trail breaking.

This trip involves starting at the ski area and proceeding some 300 feet up hill on a ski run to a cutoff trail through the forest, that is sort of difficult to find.  It is marked with a blue diamond, but hidden by trees.

Luckily, with seven of us on the trail taking turns, we were able to break trail handily.

The snow and forest were picture perfect, and the temperature even rose into the teens, although it was minus 13 when we left Great Falls.

I consider this area the heart of the Rocky Mountain Front adjacent to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area and the scenery is super-spectacular with towering mountain peaks in all directions.

We have been enduring a particularly long and harsh cold snap, so it was great we could get out. 

O'Brien Creek on a bluebird winter day

A stop in some perfect snow

The O'Brien Creek bottom

A photo and lunch break in the sun

Neihart Baldy at the end of the trip

 When we skied the 747 loop Monday we noticed that someone had broken the O'Brien Creek Trail that runs from Kings Hill Pass to the town of Neihart, some seven miles away.

We knew the forecast was for continued sunny weather and that it would warm up.

It was a perfect combination to do O'Brien.

We weren't disappointed.

This is the premier Little Belts backcountry trail.  I've been doing it for some 45 years, not long after it was established in a new clearcut.  It has been interesting to watch the trees grow back.  There was a time when we could look over the top of the new growth.  Now those trees tower over us.

We're benefiting from La Nina and there's beautiful snow.

The snow in the O'Brien Creek bottom looked like giant, fluffy pillows of white.  It is so welcome considering how little we've had in recent years. 

While wind was moving in ahead of a cold front elsewhere, we had little to deal with on this run.  We could leisurely stop, bask in sun and enjoy snack and water breaks.

About the only negative was the trail damage done by snowmobiles in the last mile or so of the trip.  The machines dug deep divots in the trail's tight spots, some going down to the dirt, making skiing nearly impossible. 

The final section of the trail is shared between back country skiers and snowmobilers, so I was appalled by the rudeness of the snowmobilers who hogged and trashed the trail, even doing environmental damage to the stream bed.

There was no courtesy shown to other users.

The way the machines tear things up seems so senseless and damaging.

I'm just glad that we had the trail to ourselves for six miles before encountering this brainlessness. 

Senseless snowmobile trashing the trail

Snow machines dug right to the dirt on the creek bottom