Hiking to see an old friend. And remembering my younger self.

Original Post Date 7/12/2021

Today I revisited an old friend.  Or at least, an old hike that I last did this same month in 1986.  Snyder Lake is a relatively quick 4.4 mile one way trip that takes you up about 1900 feet from the trailhead along the shores of shimmering Lake McDonald.  I remember when I did it last it was cloudy, rainy, everything was damp and dark, the forest was thick and heavy, and the lake kind of just of sucked.   I made a mental note never to return.

Well, 35 years later, a lot has changed. Not the geography, but actually me in both mind and body.  I started with a sunny day and a cool early morning breeze.  The forest fires have really opened up the views.  You can see the back side of massive Mt Brown for the entire hike, along with the Mt Edwards/Mt Lincoln/Square Peak and the edge of the Sperry Glacier complex.  I was staying ahead of the sun, as it slowly climbed over the high cirque walls. The lake was an absolute mirror with (amazingly) no bugs. 

We must be getting close to August, although it has felt like that for the last five weeks at Glacier from what I’m hearing.  There is an upper off-trail lake in the Snyder basin, and the route looked inviting, and I had plenty of time given it only took 1.5 hours to hit the lakeshore.  However, without bear spray I wasn’t going into the brush, and I was in my soft-sided trail runners.   Made a mental note to return this summer with my off-trail boots and the right gear. There are great photos to be had of the upper and lower lakes if you want to push for the upper elevations.  An easy hike and descent payoff if I remember correctly, two things which are totally subjective.

Cars in the park are picking up now that we are past the 4^th of July, and the Going to the Sun Road just recently opened for thru traffic across Logan Pass.   I pass a car campground just inside the park’s west side when diving in to do hikes; cars line up waiting just outside the gate at 5-6am hoping to get a first-come camping spot.  Crazy.  Since I drive the shuttle in the PM hours (afternoon to midnight), I’m also always getting stuck in traffic jams the general public isn’t seeing.  Like sitting in a 200-300 vehicle string at the entrance gate coming in (before you can get to the employee lane). Or worse yet, the hundreds of cars backed up between 9-10pm LEAVING the park. Why so late? Because you can only get in before 5pm with the new ticketing system, so it’s like the Oklahoma Land Rush @ 5:01. In the morning many more are crossing the unmanned entrance booths before 6am for the same reason.

At most National Parks, this will be a year for the record books given so much pent-up demand.  Kind of sucks for the wildlife. Now the fauna has to deal with headlights and noise starting at 4am going until 10pm plus with some many people avoiding the ticket system. Yeah. I wonder if those off schedule visitors will end up in the final annual count? This math kind of reeks like Reagan-nomics.