swiftcurrent mountain

yesterday was my last hike of the season - the highline trail, over swiftcurrent pass, up swiftcurrent mountain to the fire lookout, down into our valley, home to the swiftcurrent motor inn. i probably won't be back at swiftcurrent next summer, so climbing swiftcurrent mountain on my last day off was as symbolic as it was beautiful. and i needed some mountain time to clear my head.

we ran into two bears on the way home, and they were not afraid of 5 large humans like i had hoped. we booked it home, bear-calling furiously.

and afterward...went to the cattle baron and ate a buffalo steak. don't ask me why.

sisters in wonderland

sister was in glacier for the final days of summer-ish weather. we did some hiking, swimming, beach-lounging and soaked up some sun. now swiftcurrent is blustery. so it's almost time to go.
1) we hike up Shangri-La, 2) we explore Rising Sun, 3 & 4) we visit my secret beach

siyeh pass

sister came to swiftcurrent last week, and i had lots of days off to adventure with her. on day 1 we hiked Siyeh Pass, from Siyeh Bend to Sunrift Gorge. it's a beautiful pass, and sissy agreed to venture off the trail, up some intense little peak that i cannot find on the map. so wonderful to see MY FAVORITE PERSON IN MY FAVORITE PLACE!

oh canada

waterton lakes is the canadian side of glacier national park, on the border of Alberta, where the mountains meet the prairie. i drove up there this week with tim and the slovaks (for an "international peace park" they sure gave us a hard time at the border). we had drinks at the Prince of Wales hotel, and tim ate poutine - french fries mixed with cheese curds and covered in gravy. bought some beers and chilled by the shores of waterton lake, then drove back to AMERICA just in time for the 80s Prom Party (swiftcurrent is at the height of stir-crazy, and these things happen).

sleep on a glacier

TIM comes to Glacier Park at long last!
hiked to the Grinnell Glacier
ate some sandwiches
took some pictures
busted some moves
took a miraculous nap
(two hours on a rock slab at glacier's edge)
woke reluctantly
hiked down drowsy
skinny dipped in Josephine Lake
(a beautiful day in good company)

dawson/pitamakan

on tuesday i hiked Dawson and Pitamakan passes and finished my hiking wish list! after a decent amount of uphill, the trail takes you across the most spectacular ridge-walk. so many passes on this hike, so many valley views. dawson/pitamakan is a long trek, but i was fueled by my friend Anthony's delicious hummus sandwiches, this time with snap peas (it's nice to have friends that work in the restaurant!)

beautiful Babb

lately work is awful, life is beautiful. i've tried hard these last two weeks to have adventures away from Swiftcurrent. spent lots of time by the shores of St. Mary Lake. drank wine at Sun Point and skinny dipped in front of a boat tour full of tourists. went whitewater rafting on the Flathead River and camping in Apgar (it was on the way home from that journey that we caught this intense Babb sunset).

the days are fast fleeting. i don't know how long i can do this seasonal thing...because it breaks my heart.

Aurorafest

Polebridge, MT, in the North Fork Valley just next to the park, is the hippie oasis of my dreams. i spent the past weekend there for Aurorafest, off the grid, dancing in the rain. i absolutely recommend Polebridge to anyone (or, anyone willing to drive on the gnarliest road i have ever encountered). the location is beautiful, the people are friendly, and the Mercantile has the most delicious baked goods in North America.

the happy housekeepers

crypt lake

on monday i went to canada to hike Crypt Lake, number three on my list of Four Hikes that Katherine Must Do Before Leaving Glacier, the 2009 Edition. the trail to Crypt Lake is epic. it starts across the lake from Waterton Township , so you need to take a boat to the trailhead. you pass by some lovely waterfalls, a fantastic valley view, and then climb through a cave/tunnel before you reach the lake. the lake itself is beautiful, sunk into a hanging valley, the perfect place for some hummus and a nap.

Dawson-Pitamakin Pass is last on my hiking wish list, and then i can go home happy.

girls' weekend in two medicine

i had a beautiful weekend camping in Two Medicine with some girlfriends from Swiftcurrent. we had veg food and delicious lattes in East Glacier, then a lovely campfire and lots of wine at our campsite. slept all morning (i love to wake up in the woods), hiked the cobalt lake trail, picnicked and skinny dipped at a spectacular swimming hole somewhere off the beaten path, took a nap in the forest.

i feel better now having used my tent somewhere besides Babbfest.

Babbfest

i wonder what the tourists think when they drive through Babb, MT during Babbfest, unsuspecting, looking a place to eat lunch or for the road to Many Glacier. there are maybe 500 people living in Babb in the summer, but during music festival weekend the one road through town is lined with tents and trailers and various oddities. you can distinguish a "fester" from a tourist based on any of the following characteristics: homemade quilted pants, blonde dreadlocks, jaunty hippie dance, PBR in one or both hands, hand-rolled cigarettes, larger-than-normal pupils.

Babbfest '09 was extremely hot, and i spent the greater part of the weekend wading in the lake or playing banjo in the shade of my tent. clear sunny skies, however, were perfect for playing with my NEW CAMERA, and the evenings eventually cooled off enough for hours of ridiculous dancing.

tip your housekeeper

it is my observation that guests who tip are also those who leave their rooms the cleanest. guests in the stained, the hairy, the beer-soaked rooms leave nothing for your trouble, no solace for your discomfort. sometimes, kneeling in front of those particularly gnarly toilets, I wonder, “What brought me here, to this crusty toilet bowl? I have a goddamn degree.”

but I am here because I love the mountains, and I love the people who choose to live in them. and because cleaning rooms is honest work. and right now it feels good to be doing this kind of work.

my fellow housekeepers are teachers and engineers and linguists in their home countries. they came to montana to work on their English and have learned such important words as washcloth, bath mat, disinfectant, ice bucket liner, maid service requested…

please friends, throw them a dollar.

the mountain that conquered me

on monday marc and i attempted to summit Mt. Gould, which is a badass peak at the back of our valley. we climbed it from the back side, cutting up off the highline trail, where the mountain looks a little tamer. it's a gnarly mountain though, and we kept getting cliffed-out...until we gave up.

we did achieve some sort of vista (from Gem Glaicer on the Garden Wall), and i ate my lunch on a cliff at the top of the world.

on the way down i tossed my pack down a cliff to make my descent easier. it landed wrong, rolled of the lower cliff, and rolled down the mountain. marc and i found it alright, but my camera did not survive the plummet, which is why i have no photos of yesterday's climb to Snowmoon Lake/Falling Leaf Lake.

new on my to-do list: buy new camera. and try Mt. Gould again.

when swiftcurrent gets bored

1) i made some mean sangria with fruit smuggled out from the restaurant. 2) canoeing or swimming or fishing in swiftcurrent lake every day of the week keeps us cool and clean and happy. 3) bluegrass band/costume party at the local watering hole. 4) Brian is a whore and i am a LiteBrite. 5) this is Rosemary. i found her in a motel room, added some embellishments, and now she circulates around camp.

shangri-la

this weekend i finally hiked over Shangri-La, the far superior bushwacking way to get to Iceberg Lake. my friends and i climbed a runoff up the shoulder of Mt. Wilbur, to alpine meadows and Shangri-la Lake (and also a massive grizzly bear). after one more section of uphill, there is a goattrail across the scree field over Iceberg Lake and the most beautiful view of the Ptarmigan wall imaginable. skied down the scree field, slid down a snowfield on my ass, drank some whiskey, jumped in the lake, hiked home on the trail. i love having a backyard full of trailheads.

cracker lake

the hike to Cracker Lake is mostly awful, but the payoff is out of this world. i will never swim in bluer water. i wish i could live on these shores.

fish story

very glad i brought a fishing pole this summer. my czech friend Ondrej and i have been trout fishing in Swiftcurrent Lake. i have yet to catch a fish, but the scenery doesn't suck.