A Visit to the land of Glaciers :Two

After spending the night in the front country campground at Kintla Lake.  I woke early to find Gabe had already slipped out of the tent.  I grabbed a snack and headed out to the lake with my camera.  The world was quite still and the sun was still behind the mountains.  Its pinkish light lit the mirrored lake, Gabe was in the canoe fishing some distance from shore.  He spotted me and came and picked me up.  Till the sun rose above the mountains Gabe fished and I drank up the beautiful stillness.  Following that we ate breakfast and headed out in the canoes with Josh across the lake.  We had six miles to paddle to find the backcountry campsite.  In the early afternoon the wind picked up and urged us on towards our goal.  Gabe and Josh fished the entire way.  We ran into another guy in a canoe heading towards the front country, he let us know that the night before they had to chase a black bear from the campground with pots and pans.  We continued and finally came upon the campsite area.  We set up camp and soon Becky, who hiked in that day, met us.  In the afternoon, Josh, Becky, and I, hiked further back to find "glaciers".  On the way we discovered an amazing waterfall, and stopped and pondered flowers in the midst of a burn area.  We made it all the way to upper Kintla and paused on the shore for a break.  As we sat, Becky noticed a black bear meandering on the shore across the lake.  We watched till he disappeared, then we headed back to camp for dinner.  Thanks to Josh for the photos of Gabe and I!

 

Gabe fishing in the early morning light

The day before at Avalanche Creek

Heading to the backcountry

This little girl kept stopping to smell the flowers

The day before overlooking Lost Lake

The kitchen and bear bag area in the backcountry site

The waterfall

Becky and I at Upper Kintla Lake

Our view of the glaciers

The trail

Our cozy home

A Visit to the land of Glaciers :One

Following a very busy summer, we were given a week's reprieve from our work.  During that week Gabe and I headed out with two other friends to Glacier National Park for a few days.  On the first day, we made several stops at fly shops, so that Josh and Gabe would be prepared for fishing.  Then we stopped at the Ranger Station to pick up back country permits.  From there, we took the shuttle up Going-to-the-Sun Road.  I was in utter amazement...there were sharp peaks...and huge expanses.  We got off at Logan's Pass and hiked to the overlook of Lost Lake.  The short hike is on a boardwalk through alpine meadows full of small blooming flower.  Snow and ice water dotted the path as we hiked, and hoary marmots scurried around and sunbathed.

From Logan's Pass, we headed back down to the truck with the canoe trailer on it.  Oh, by the way, did I mention this was going to be a back country canoe trip?  We took the looooonnngg drive up to Kintla lake...most of the drive being on dirt roads in bad need of grading.  At sunset we reached the front country campground.  When we arrived, the sun was casting pink and purple tones on the hills and the fish were jumping.  Before setting anything up (or even talking with the campground host), we unloaded the canoes and paddled out onto the lake.

Gabe at Avalanche Creek

Avalanche Creek

Huge beetle on the boardwalk

Riding on the shuttle, you can see the road we drove up cutting down the hill of the right

Logan's Pass

Small marmot trying to steal food

Gabe and I at the overlook of Lost Lake

Josh and Gabe talking

The sunset over Kintla Lake front country campground

Lumberjacks (and Janes) for a Day

Early in August, the operations crew headed into the mountains to log trees for firewood here at camp.  We spent the majority of the day collecting and cutting wood.  At the end of the day we brought home about two cords of wood.

Gabe sharpening the chainsaw

James explaining the operation to to the crew

Gabe and James determining which trees to take

CJ and Kaylin

James cutting wood

Sarah and Kaylin

Crawdad Fishing

Several weeks back, when we still had summer staff here for camp, Gabe and I went crawdad fishing.  We had half of an afternoon off, so we went up river and collected crawdads that were hiding in the rocks.  The trick to crawdad fishing is to go where there are shallow rocky places in the creek or river, start down river and move rocks and 'feel' for the crawdads.  We caught over 80 crawdads in two hours from the spot we went fishing.  When we got back to camp, Gabe cooked them up and we shared them with the summer staffers on the lawn. 

Makalie and Taylor

Beth with her new friend, Mr. Crawdad

One excited CJ

Jemimah...not happy about eating crawdads

Sarah

That's all folks!

Julie with her new crawdad earrings