Let the games begin. Glacier 2022 (Part 2)

I guess someone would say staying up too late and then driving a couple of hours and then sitting through a bunch of corporate-mandated common-sense training and then figuring out who you’ll be working with and then getting signed into your temporary housing would be a pretty full day. But I also think everyone has come to know that’s just not how Dave rolls.

Well, let’s see. I got all that stuff done by 1 PM, which is pretty late afternoon to hike. The sun has been a little cat in mouse all day, and it’s threatening to rain at any minute. I know I know. The Apgar Fire Lookout is just at the end of the lake. Only around 1700 gain and maybe 8ish miles round trip. If I play it right I can still get a hike in, shower, and get something to eat at the employee cafeteria. Go time.

By the time I get to the trailhead and find all of my gear, it is pushing 2 o’clock. Too late in the day to see animals. But that’s OK I don’t have anything else to do. Kind of surprised to see dozen-plus cars in the lot. This trailhead doesn’t get a lot of use. But the Going to the Sun is not open and I guess hikes are a little limited around the lake this time of the season.

So up I go. The legs did pretty well, but the lungs need some conditioning. Not quite like sucking air through a straw. More like a garden nose, but it still hurts more than I’d like to admit.

The interesting part was the foot traffic. I had just over 30 people pass me going down, which would account for all of the cars. Then I passed another 28 going UP (at 4 pm). So the lot was full again when I got down in my 1hr and 5min.

Even worse, as I was leaving on the mostly 1.9-mile single-lane dirt access road, I had four narrow misses of people driving too fast to the trailhead to start the hike. Nothing like going 40 mph around blind corners on gravel. Most were out-of-state tourists that don’t know how to drive dirt roads. The rest on Montana locals that think they own the park. Regardless, people are out in force regardless of the snow line. Good thing I’m a careful driver.

Apgar is nothing glorious, but an easy workout hike with a normally quiet trailhead when the season picks up and tourists are drawn to the crowded glories of Logan Pass. But it is a very fun view this early in the season. Looks like something out of Alaska.

Here is a little video I shot. Too tired to think of witty comments on the spot. And it’s a horrible place for a 360 because of the trees/brush/radio tower behind me. So I did just kind of a side-to-side pan. Just look at all of that SNOW. It’s amazing how this place changes so radically over just a few months.