Getting back in the saddle. Mother Nature packs a punch.

Originally Posted 8/07/21

I’m sure I could have word-smithed that better. But we are past the candy-coated phase as we move into the last half of the Summer of Dave. And up front these are some horrible fuzzy photos of a really pretty place. Guess you’ll just have to go there yourself if you don’t believe me.

I had been wanting to climb Piegan Mtn from the saddle at Piegan Pass because I liked that approach with all of those great views, and it just seemed to make more sense logistically. But there wasn’t time to squeeze it in before my working shift, and it’s kinda a lesser peak so not worth burning a full day off.

I found out what most people do is climb both Piegan AND Pollock on the same hike, from the common saddle between them which is reached by ascending the Lunch Creek drainage. This is the first parking area off the Going to the Sun Road just east of Logan Pass. I’ve driven by this place literally hundreds of times and never bothered to pull over, nor knew even what was there. But per the guide, it’s is 1 mile and 3000’ vertical to that saddle. Ouch. Very direct. Clearly a poor man’s Stairmaster machine. Might need to stretch a little at the car first for this one.

I was suppose to be a day ahead of a cold front moving in with some weather, but it was getting blustery pretty fast and pretty early in the morning. Hmmmm. I was the only car at the Lunch Creek parking area. Booted up and off I went. All I can say is: Wow. I was amazed. Clearly this area is a hidden gem in the park. A unmarked unnamed well established trail (not on any NPS map, which just means those don’t maintain it) takes you to the falls you can see from the road. Continue on, and you find a second falls in the upper basin. Great flowing mountain stream, fauna, and flora too wonderful to miss. The upper bowl is rugged and raw and is truly an experience not to be missed, even on a marginal weather day..

This approach not only takes you along the base of Piegan and Pollock, but a large hunk of this is the Garden Wall. Love the Wall. It carries all the rock colors and swirls and formations that GNP is famous for. You get to feel it up and personal, in your face. I would find later that even when the road-side parking for Lunch Creek if full (holds a good 50+ cars), this Lunch Creek trail is almost deserted. That’s because people park here when the lot is full at Logan Pass, then walk up the road (with no shoulder) a mile back to the pass. Crazy. Ignore and shun one beautiful area for another that is overcrowded and overrun.

There is a great boot beaten climbing trail that clearly continues to the upper cliffs. The route is so visible it is almost embarrassing. It has to be the fasted and easiest 2000’ I have ever gained. No scary cliffs, overhangs, or blind corners. Just one giant chute you can walk up, with ton of of nice little chimneys and cliffs you can climb on each side when you tire of fighting the scree.

My photos pretty much tell the weather story. I crossed two younger guys coming down that said the wind was too bad at the saddle (from which point you are only an easy 700’ to the top of either Piegan or Pollock). Of course they were in plaid shirts and hoodies.

Yeah, I’d be just fine. I’ve got fleece layers and Gortex. I’m ready for this stuff. Little did I know that all those layers would do nothing more that cushion from the weather. My pack straps began mercilessly whipping me into submission the farther up the mountain I went.

I’ve been in high wind before. Probably the worse was once many years ago on Mt Hood, where it blew so hard we could barely stand up. We looked at the readings from a weather monitoring station and it showed gusts hitting 72 mph. Explained why the wind-driven ice crystals were making our faces bleed.

Suddenly there I was. When I hit the open saddle, cloud vapor was whisking over pretty quick. I did the superhero pose on one knee and it wasn’t too bad. The next thing I know I was laying on my side wondering where that donkey that had just kicked me had vanished to. It really was windy. The low point of the saddle will always have the highest wind speeds.

I figured if I could make it over to the base of Mt Piegan; it only looked like fifty of gain to the summit after I traversed the saddle. I could still climb to the top and get in a peak. My day pack was catching too much air, so I stashed it and got ready to make a race to gain the elevation.

After I got kicked to the ground three times in the next fifty yards, I came to a couple of conclusions. The first, this is really a bad idea and hurts more than it should. The second, what did I think I would see on top of Mt Piegan, other than my untimely death? Somehow, the wind flipped me over and I was face up, at which point my nostrils became air intake ducts which served to supercharge my brain with enough oxygen to have the epiphany that I really needed to be someplace else. Namely, anyplace.

I must say you have not lived until you have had cloud vapor forced into your lungs, because only at that precise moment can you truly appreciate this gift we call life. I worked my way across No Mans Land below the saddle lip on the lee side. And all was good.

The cloud ceiling was showing no improvement, and there was nothing to wait out. The cold front was coming in early and that is clearly why there are so few people up here. At the end of the day, this was great reconn for future hikes. I know now that in good weather I can make this saddle in 1.5 hours, which will give me plenty of time for both Piegan and Pollock peaks in the AM hours before work. Would love to target a good day with no haze (if any are to be had summer). Otherwise, will definitely keep this area in my favorite places in Glacier to visit.

I love how I keep finding great little pockets in a place that I thought I knew all to well. It’s hard to think I have put on 300 miles and haven’t even touched the Many Glacier area. Makes me appreciate how large this park is, especially at a time when I was thinking I had done ‘everything’ worth doing. I guess that is what happens when you try to cram all that the park has to offer in one vacation week every two or three years.

But doing the same hikes/climbs over and over may make you remember the glory years, but there are so many new experiences to craft if you just look for them. Sure, always that fear something ‘new’ may not pan out. Making you feel robbed for squandering a precious days in the park. So cheated. This has been a great summer for getting out of ruts.

So I consider myself fortunate to have these opportunities to explore. To stumble across and find what I’m not looking for. To be surprised. Like opening up an old favorite book and finding two pages have been stuck together the entire time you have owned it.

If the cost of admission to this forbidden city is burning 250 miles worth gas a day in an empty shuttle and a string of nights with four hours of sleep, I can confidently say it’s worth it.