Iceberg in the Mountains
21 June 2018
Up we go!
For the first time in a while, I didn’t have to pack anything when I crawled out of my sleeping bag this morning. And, everything was dry. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? I dragged myself out of the tent, enjoyed the lovely mountain air, made a cup of coffee, ate some fig newtons, and swatted a batallion of mosquitos. After spending some time composing a blog post and sipping the coffee, I picked up the campsite, put all the smellables in the bear box, packed my camelbak, and hopped on the bike. Today’s riding destination: The Many Glaciers Hotel parking lot, because its an easy place to find a parking spot. Upon arrival, I stopped at the hotel concierge desk and chatted them up about day hikes as I had heard some of the trails were closed.
As it turns out the last couple miles of trail to the Grinnell Glacier, which I had planned to hike, are blocked off by the rangers because you can’t tell whether you’re walking on snow, or on a lake. Fair enough. But, according to everyone I’ve talked to, you really can’t go wrong with any day hike from the Many Glaciers area. This in mind, I decided to head toward Ptarmigen Lake, since it looked like that trail had lots of options and I didn’t really have to commit to any of them until I reached a juntion. Since the trailhead was over by the Swiftcurrent end of the Many Glaciers area, I hiked on over there and headed up the trail. It was a pretty easy trail and was well maintained. The route takes you up from base camp and winds along the side of a hill, crossing many small creeks created by melting snow high above. There are a bunch of great views of the valley below along the way, but the first feature along the trail that people stop at is Ptarmigan Falls. Its another one of the snowmelt creeks that crosses the trail, except it flows enough water that they built a bridge over it. Just dwownstream of the bridge is a large waterfall, probably 40 feet high, where the water goes crashing down. There weren’t a whole lot of great views of the falls from a distance due to all the trees, but the top of the falls is a pretty nice place to sit. You do have to watch bag, the squirrells (mini-bears) have zero fear of humans and are always looking for an easy snack. After that, the trail keeps going upwad, not particularly steeply (The numbers: It was about 10 miles round trip, total elevation gained: about 1400 ft). Eventually you reach a point - turn right and go to Ptarmigan Lake or keep going straight and go to Iceberg Lake. Just at the moment I was approaching the sign, a guy came down from the Iceberg Lake side, and was very pleased he had made the trip up there. He said the lake itself was partially melted, and the whole surrounding area was pretty neat. But he hadn’t been to Ptarmigan Lake, and so he couldn’t compare. I didn’t have a strong feeling one way or the other, so his testimony steered me to Iceberg Lake.
The rest of the hike to the lake was relatively flat as the trail makes its way around the valley. Eventually, I reached a little bit of snow that was laying across the trail, and thought, “oh neat, some snow!” Little did I know, that right around the next corner, the trail disappears under a field of snow. Due to the constraints of motorcycle travel, I didn’t have my usual waterproof hiking boots. Instead, I had my pair of compact and easy to pack trail running shoes where are basically offroad sneakers. They aren’t waterproof. I was pretty carful about not kicking snow into my shoes which worked pretty good, at least until I wasn’t paying attention and dunked my left foot in a stream later. Oh well.
The snow field was densely packed snow so I never really sank in, but the top layer was pretty melty and tended to make for a slippy slidey walking experience. The first lake I came across didn’t have a name as far as I know, I was just told by other hikers that the real iceberg lake was up and past the first lake. So I trudged on up and soon found myself on the shore of iceberg lake. The part of the lake closest to me was still frozen and covered in snow. One of the Xanterra cashiers I talked to later said she had been up there a couple weeks ago and had been able to walk out on the ice on the lake, but nobody seemed to dare it this time. Looking up from the lake, I was surrounded for a full 180 degrees by tall cliffs, probably a couple thousand feet high, arranged in a big circle. It was as if someone took a giant ice cream scoop and scooped out the side of a mountain. Its really hard to describe the size of this place. At one point a couple of people continued past the lake and up the other side of the valley. Before long, they were far enough away that I really had to study the field of scree they were climbing to pick them out. Someone also pointed out a group of mountain goats, way up along the side of the cliff. They aren’t that small of an animal, but I had to zoom waaay in with my camera to even get a blurry shot of them.
I stuck around there for probably an hour. Maybe longer. It was a wonderful place to sit, relax, and think. There’s lots of pictures to take, although I’m not sure any of them really did it justice. The thing that finally got me to leave was a dark and rumbly cloud that formed behind a nearby peak. It and its friends didn’t take long to turn a clear blue day into a rainy one. I scooted on down the path and about halfway back to camp the rain started. I hadn’t brought a raincoat in favor of bringining a first aid kit, which is fine with me as long as I’m moving. But, I also had my camera and phone, which aren’t particularly waterproof, so I didn’t want to stay in the rain any longer than I had to. What took 3 hours and 22 minutes to climb (with stops) only took 1 hour 50 minutes to hike back down, pretty much without stopping.
Back at base camp, I decided to double down on cold and had a bowl of soft serve huckleberry ice cream while sitting on the porch of the general store next to the Many Glaciers campground while I waited for the rain to quit. Once the rain quit, I kept on hiking over to the Many Glaciers hotel where I picked up a lovely chicken salad and bacon sandwich and a nice hot cup of coffee to enjoy while I charged my laptop and did some writing.
Eventually it was time to go, so I hopped back on the bike, rode over to my Rising Sun campground, lit a nice campfire, and relaxed until dark. Then I slept like a brick.
PS. Eventually, once I reach internet that isn’t super slow, I’ll upload full size photos. And glorious high def video!