Last hike of the Season. In search of glaciers in Glacier Park.

It seems a little surreal that I would end the 2022 Glacier season with the SAME hike I ended the 2021 season with. In almost the same weather as well. But this hike was special for a couple of reasons. Other than crappy weather.

Here we are in late summer and the weather is already starting to feel like fall. Heavy clouds, cold wind, and there’s gonna be a dusting of snow up on the peaks. Of course in my book this is a perfect day to hike. Might cut down on some of the tourists clogging up the trail.  Or the parking lot.

My first major mistake was thinking this was like last summer when I had to get up at 4:30 AM to find a spot to park at Logan Pass. Working on the east side, I find I’m only 35 minutes from my cabin door to the parking lot. Wow. A lot closer in both time and mileage.

Also because of the construction road closures on the West side of the park, those people can’t even start driving to the pass until 6:00 AM.

So I find myself spending about an hour sitting in the cab of the truck, getting my gear sorted and my boots on tight, and waiting for there to be enough light to start the day. I didn’t feel like starting on a headlamp. When you see the actual trail exposure, you understand why.

This is one of those rare times when I make an error in judgment. The Pass is blowing pretty well up around 25 mph. So I put on a couple of layers and my wind gear. I never start out this warm but knew that kind of wind will really suck out the heat.

Then lo and behold, once I get a mile down the trail what do I find? No wind. The only wind I would get for the entire 16-mile trip was right at Logan Pass and a little bit more up at the saddle between Haystack Butte and the Garden Wall. And it was about 50 degrees. Which is pretty balmy for me when I’m doing longer hikes like this. Been a long time since I had to shed clothing right at the start. Such a rookie move. I’m better than that. Or at least I once was.

I passed two people at the trailhead, and then another group of four that looked like they weren’t going very far. All within the first five minutes. What I’m going to say next is incredibly rare. I did not see another single person on the trail until I was at the overlook. And those two couples looked fresh and smelled nice, so I knew they had just come up after an overnight stay at the really expensive (and really primitive) Granite Park Chalet.

No people. On the most popular trail in the entire Park. As the old saying goes, this trail gets more *** than a public toilet seat. And I’m traveling like a ghost thru it all.

No people. All to myself. All of these wonderful stormy beautiful Glacier moments that I did not have to share with a sea of morons. This is a true gift. This is one of those times that Life rewards you, and you are smart enough NOT to ask why. Just take it and accept it. And today I accepted everything that I was given with humbleness and gratitude.

For once I could enjoy this hike. I’ve done this trail many times, in all types of weather. But today was special. I could look at the winding road below. I could watch the clouds swirl around and over the mountains. I could get lost in the storm. I could watch the flowers (that should have been gone last month) defiantly hanging on thru late summer and giving color to such a beautiful world.

It is really hard to express how wonderful a hike can be when you can just focus on everything that is around you. When you know it’s all yours, if even for just a few hours. And you don’t have to share. Selfishness is not always the bad thing people make it out to be.

Sometimes I think being selfish can be great. It allows you to be completely consumed and to appreciate every minute detail of your surroundings without any distractions. Today captured one of those great single-focused and single-minded and single-self extended moments. And it went on for glorious hour after glorious hour.

You have to remember that this is an actual hike. Double-digit miles with several thousand feet of gain/loss and lots and lots of trail exposure.

I didn’t bother to go the extra half mile or so to the Granite Park Chalet. It would just be full of people. Trendy people who could afford the high cost of a hiker-only shelter that offered no real amenities. And you still had the privilege of bringing everything on your back that you needed. No thanks. I’d rather sleep in comfort without hearing the person farting in the room next door. Just as easy to walk the trail for a couple more hours with only half the stuff I need packed on my shoulders. But of course, that’s just me.

The final push to the glacier overlook is steeper than I remembered. It was nice doing it without a fresh layer of snow to slip and slide across. I can see how that one hiker died up here last year, right around the same time I was finishing up the same hike.

Although I was climbing directly into the clouds I was hoping the wind would keep the overview clear. I was right. It was a glorious thing. Like looking through a window in Time. Down below lies Salamander Glacier, Grinnell Glacier, and all of the wonderful melt ponds in that geological complex. All tucked up tight against the backside of the Garden Wall. Worth every ounce of effort, every stubbed toe, every chapped lip.

I only had it to myself for a little while. Then a group of three young people that pretty much had the attitude and appearance of park employees came in and destroyed my peace. One of them was pretending to be a rock climber on an area of some pretty brittle rock. A foolish profession in Glacier National Park, which has some of the worst rocks in the known world to attempt technical climbing. I snapped a photo of him to better help the Rangers during what I could see as a future body recovery effort.

But for the time I did have the Grinnell Overlook all to myself, I made the most of the solitude.

Suddenly lots and lots of people started to pour onto the trail. My early start had kept the hoards at bay, but I started passing them as I returned to Logan pass. Naturally, I started to count. Kind of a fun pastime. So from the part where I started down from the glacier overlook to the car I passed over 500 hikers.

All of them started quite a bit later than I did. But at least I got the morning to myself and some of the most beautiful country in the world. Well worth dealing with the trail monkeys and their silly antics. Complete with bear bells and cans of bear spray with the safeties off.

Some say life is about compromises. I would say life is more about checks and balances. Keeping the tally sheet even. If at the end of the day, my successes and failures are 50/50, I consider it a win. After all, I’ve found I always learn much more from my failures than my successes.

This was a good hike to end the season on. It was just the perfect way to close a personal chapter of my life.

I know that I will never be able to take this path again and enjoy the Highline Trail on my own terms. Regardless of how many lifetimes I was given. So much to savor, contemplate, and absorb. So much to just quietly life. One breath at a time.

In case anybody was wondering about my stats this summer, here they are. Pretty impressive that I was able to tally off just over half of what I did last year. Considering this summer I had to work about twice as much and ten times harder.

Driving 6000 miles in a Red Jammer Bus and talking thru most of it on a pretty narrow and dangerous road was actually more exhausting than any of the big hiking days I had all season!  🙂