I Due North

This day started out cold at 4:30 AM! We hit the road at 5:30 AM to pick up our friends and start our long drive up to Logan Pass (elevation 6,646 feet) by entering Glacier National Park through the West entrance via Going-To-The-Sun Road. You will have to buy a pass through https://www.recreation.gov to drive on this road because between May and September the roads can get congested with cars. On the way up to Logan Pass we deposited our other vehicle at the end of our combination trail hitting the Highline trail at 7:50 AM. Highline was 7.6 miles with approximately 600 feet of elevation gain. This hike was a very easy hike physically if you are not afraid of heights. The entire duration of this hike was bordered with the most breathtaking views of mountains, valleys, greenery, lakes, and even some animal encounters. Which brings me to my preparedness for encountering a grizzly bear. Montana is known for its bear encounters and if you stay around me long enough you will learn that I am a planner. I had the bear spray attached to my bag so I could grab it quickly and I watched ALL the videos I could find on what to do if you encounter a bear and what to do to survive a bear attack. I was ready….and we never saw a single bear our whole week in Montana. Although we didn’t get to see any bears, the trails did provide us with plenty of wildlife. On the Highline trail we saw a huge deer and two large rams that were adamant they were not going to let us pass. We had quite the line forming behind us while the rams continued to try and ram each other off the ledge. Then this sweet older lady passed us all and said, “They won’t bother you”. We all fell in line behind her and continued our hike. We arrived at Granite Park Chalet where we stood in a very long line to use the bathroom, rested, and refueled for the second part of our journey. I must give a shout out to Renee-and-Tim (@thruhikers) Official | TikTok for these delicious unstuffed peppers recipe that I tried. I dehydrated everything I needed before the trip and packed it all in my suitcase. While I know this wasn’t necessary, I really just wanted to try something different than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It was actually so good, and I enjoyed having a hot meal. Where I messed up is we had not even started the hard part of this hike and I was going to regret eating something so heavy in the middle of the day. Lesson learned! I was already hesitant about the addition of the second hike. Although it was only going to be two miles up, the elevation gain within those two miles was roughly 1,500 feet! Our destination was the fire watch on top of Swiftcurrent Peak which stands at 8,436 feet! The start of the trail wasn’t too bad, but the last mile was STRAIGHT up the mountain and FULL of switchbacks! There were several times I told my wife; I don’t want to do this anymore! I felt like each time I looked up at the fire watch it was still so far away. My wife encouraged me the whole way reminding me that I would be so mad at myself if I quit. Her and our fellow hikers that were ahead of me on the trail were singing to me through our walkie-talkie which I have to laugh at now. Well, I pushed through and made it to the top and WOW, we had a 360 degree view! These pictures will never do it justice! The fire watch on top was being manned by this sweet lady that came out to talk to us. She mentioned that they don’t get many visitors willing to make the hike to the top. She told us that this fire watch is the highest manned fire watch in Glacier, and they have to make the same hike when they come to work staying up there for ten to twelve days at a time. After resting and taking tons of pictures we began our journey down. I just thought UP was bad…down was even worse. Everything was hurting by this point. I finally made it down the two miles to the chalet, but we still had another four miles down to where we deposited the other car. Those last four miles were BRUTAL! We were all exhausted and hot. All of or tracking apps were a little different, but we hiked roughly 18.7 miles that day.