Twenty-one TrailBlazers once again headed to Montana for Glacier Caper #3 and lodged at Mountain Cleft, the same place as Glacier #2, but this time the center of the park was not blocked with snow!  There were many more visitors than the previous times, possibly because this is the 100^th, Anniversary of the National Parks.  Parking was a big headache, so we realized after day one that we would have to leave the house at 7:00 am to go anywhere!  Cruising around looking for a parking place gets really old!  We only had 2 cans of bear spray but there were so many hikers that there were only a couple of bear encounters while hiking and our camera buffs loved them.  In addition to black bears and grizzlies, others saw mountain goats, bighorn sheep, moose, mountain lion, deer, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, free range cattle, and bison.

On Sunday 9 people took the scenic Red Bus tour with a colorful jammer while the rest of us hunted for parking at Logan Pass so we could take the beautiful hike to Hidden Lake Overlook.  En route we spotted a scruffy-looking mountain goat that was still worthy of a photo op as well as some wildflowers still in bloom!  Next we went down to the Avalanche Lake area to hunt for parking and were unable to rendezvous with the other cars.  All of us did manage to hike up to the lake while seeing the gorgeous falls en route. Yours Truly managed to fall and scratch her face for no apparent reason, so Arash had to drag her out of the bushes where she was embedded!  We met up with the rest of the group at the lake and took our de rigueur group pic!

Monday the plan was to go to Two Medicine Lake to take the boat to hike on the other side.  We arrived to find 40 mph winds, waves on the lake, and predicted 60 mph winds on the trail.  Ditching that plan, we did the short hike to Running Eagle Falls, named after Brown Weasel, a remarkable female Blackfeet warrior who earned her new name.  After that, one group of us went back to the St. Mary area, found a place to park (where Marilyn broke her camera), and checked out Sunrift Gorge before hiking to St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls, without bear spray, but protected by lots of visitors!  Others did these hikes the next day and also checked out Wild Goose Island, Haystack Falls, and Birdwoman Falls because there was no place for them to park!

On Tuesday some of us drove to Canada to see Waterton Lakes National Park (the Canadian part of Glacier), visit the historic Prince of Wales Hotel, walk around Red Rocks Gorge, check out Waterton Village and Cameron Falls, and drive through the Bison Paddock.  The border crossings were uneventful and we did not have to deal with the Canadian Bride of Godzilla border guard from Glacier #2!  (Johnny would have missed her).  Free range cattle were wandering in and near the road on both sides of the border.

On Wednesday perfect weather arrived for the Two Medicine boat ride to the trail to Twin Falls where lots of pics were taken.  Continuing on, we ate lunch at beautiful Upper Medicine Lake where someone happened to turn around and spotted a big bull moose in the bushes.  On the way down we saw a cow moose in a pond; she might have been the same female that ran away up at the lunch spot.  On the way back some of us checked out Glacier Park Lodge (1913) and the interesting old Isaak Walton Inn that has old train cars for some of their accommodations!

Ruth Ann reports that the Siyeh to Piegan Glacier Hike had a pretty meadow with lots of flowers. Much of the hike was in the woods, and along the creek, which was protected from the weather.  When they got above the tree line, it was cold and windy.  There was a lot of bear fur on the trail, but they only saw one bear and it was off in the distance. They quit before reaching the pass, probably about 1/4 mile short of reaching the summit.  There was 2,240 feet of elevation gain in 4.5 miles.  Fortunately it was all downhill returning to the car! 

Thursday several of us went to Many Glacier where we saw Wild Goose Island from the road and glaciers in the distant mountains. From Swiftcurrent Lodge we took the Swiftcurrent Trail to Fishercap Lake where we saw a bull moose camped out in the water eating whatever he could find underwater.  He hung around so lots of people saw him throughout the day.  At Red Rock Lake we were also thrilled to see a cow moose and her calf before we continued on to Red Rock Falls where we ate lunch with a view.  Another group of our hikers on this same trail had a harrowing experience coming back down.  Becky reports that a black bear was coming toward them on the trail, so they stepped off the the trail and yelled "bear!"  This is a good idea because making noise or waving your arms, especially in a group, tends to ward them off;  their primary food source is not hikers but they do not like to be surprised by someone sneaking up on them!  Their bear took a detour through the woods and then crossed the trail behind them.  Wow!

Later that day some of us hiked part of the Swiftcurrent Lake Trail from the lodge, did a little side trip to Lake Josephine, and saw a deer en route to Many Glacier Hotel.  Other ambitious hikers did the steep up and down trail to Apikuni Falls.

Friday most of the group finally had the opportunity to hike Highline Trail that had been closed for several days due to a large animal carcass, probably a feast in progress for a hungry bear.  This is a gorgeous, but strenuous trail near Logan Pass.  Most of them did the shorter version but a handful of diehards did the long version, getting back to the house about 12 hours after they had left in the morning!  Of course, part of the time they were driving back and forth plus dealing with the parking issue!  Two of us instead hiked on the Trail of the Cedars to take pics, checked out McDonald Lodge and had a picnic there, and then went to the east end of the lake to hike up to McDonald Falls.

Glacier is a great park so neither the text nor the pics will do justice to what we saw and did!  Click on any picture  below to start a slideshow with the arrows.  More pictures are also available for those who are members of our FB page.

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