Glacier National Park- Many Glacier Loop- Day 1&2

Day 1&2 - The travel, arriving and change of plans

Our band of three had been planning this adventure for months now. It was originally the brain child of Cory (Disco) to hike this 65 mile loop, but it didn't start out to be so easy. We planned this hike well before permits were available for our particular week, so Cory was prepared to send in our loop itinerary the moment online registration became available. To the minute the itinerary was sent only to learn in a few days that 10,000 other applications had been received and we did not get anything close to what we had requested, in fact we only got three days and now had to figure out how to shuttle ourselves to Chief Mountain on the Canadian border in order to begin and end out hike. We were disappointed but still felt it would be a great hike.


The Many Glacier Loop or the Northern Loop is listed as one of the top 10 hikes in the world. (besthike.com)

My food for 5 days around Glacier. I repacked all my meals into smaller, lighter bags. my meals came to about 2000 calories a day. I estimated I would burn around 4500 calories per day. A deficit of  about a pound of body weight per day. My food weighed 4.5 pounds and my total pack weight with food and one liter of water was 16 pounds. 

 Leaving St.Louis on our first leg to Denver I was standing next to out pilot taking this photo and I remarked that our plane looked a bit rough on the outside. He said "Yes, but as long as it flies...!"
You need confidence in your pilot....

The inside was just as old and dirty but we are glad to be on our way.

An uneventful change of planes in Denver for 50 minutes and we are on our way to Kalispell, MT., the closest airport to Glacier National Park.

As we closed in on the airport we got our first look at some of the active fire areas. Great plumes of fire smoke were coming off the mountains. It also made for a bit of a bumpy ride into landing.

Landing at the Glacier International (?) airport, haircare and tire center (a joke as the airport only has 6 gates and deplanes on the tarmac.) It was actually a very nice facility

We each had our parts to play for this trip. Cory was in charge of the logistics, I was responsible for the rental car and Joe (Gideon) was in charge of hotels and campsites before and after the trip. So after leaving the airport we got into Kalispell and had a nice evening in the Hampton Inn. 

 The first order of business was to find a great place to eat with local beers and do some carb loading for the next few days. Hop's on Main St was perfect and they even had a tree of Hoptomism out in front where people had tied hopeful expressions to it. 

 The crew with much anticipation for the adventure ahead

 Lovely beers for the evening (top and bottom)

It was back to the hotel after an excellent dinner for more sorting of the packs one more time (actually I just watched Cory and Joe do theirs)

We left by 4 am the next morning to head to Glacier (90 minutes away) for we had a plan. We had been given an official three day itinerary that didn't start until Wednesday. It was only now only Sunday so we needed at least 3 days to add to our hike somewhere in the park and we still had hopes that we could change our entire itinerary back to the original idea of the Many Glacier Loop hike.

We were told that you needed to be at the Backcountry Ranger office in Apgar when it opened at 8 am and that most people start lining up at 4 or earlier as it is first come first serve for walk in permits.

We arrived 5:30 am and found that only two others were already in line. As some time past I went in search of coffee for the group, so in the pitch black I wondered down toward the shores of Lake McDonald looking for any of the tourist shops or cafe's that might open early. At the shores of Lake McDonald, I couldn't believe my eyes, I could actually see the active burning fire on the mountain across the lake. I don't think any of us really realized to what extent the fires were effecting the park, but we would certainly learn soon.

As the sun rose I got another photo from the same place I had observed the fire, this time a good look at how beautiful Lake McDonald actually is with morning light. In the meantime I found a lovely girl working at the Apgar Lodge gift shop. She wasn't open yet, but I knocked on the window, explained the situation and she made me 5 cups of coffee (for the guys in line as well) before her official opening time. She was delightful. 

We got in on time and Cory lays out our plan to the Ranger for review. 

Success!! we were able to change our entire itinerary around and got all the campsites we needed for the entire Many Glacier loop. After watching the mandatory backcountry etiquette and bear video we got a fire briefing our stamp of approval and we were off.

 It is about a 2.5 hour drive from Apgar Village to Many Glacier. the prefered method is using the Going to the Sun road. This is a twisty turny road that cuts through the heart of the park with spectacular views. We could already see the effects of the fire smoke on the view (below) as we climbed up the passes. 

In clearer times you might expect this view from roughly the same spot (below)

internet photo

We arrived at Many Glacier on a very pretty mid morning with mostly blue skies

Our first views of the really big hills we will be walking in the backcountry this week

There is a very famous and gorgeous hotel here; Many Glacier hotel that sits directly on Swiftcurrent Lake 

Internet photo

 But, Joe had reserved us a campsite at the park, near Swiftcurrent lodge for our first night. This also turned to work better for us than ever before as now we would be starting and ending our loop right here at Swift Current trailhead

Swiftcurrent Motor Inn had a dinning room and a store with gifts, food, coffee and most importantly for us Bear Spray as each of us picked up a can of bear spray, which is required, to take into the back country

 Setting up tents for the first night

After getting set up and going over our plans for the next week there was not much to do till dinner but relax. All the logistics had worked out, now all that remained was to think about what was to come.

(Cory relaxing) 

Beer helps with that. The local berry in GNP is Huckleberry and they make everything out of it, Jam, Jelly and yes even beer.

The evening was perfect. The smoke made for a great sunset. 

As an added note for today. We learned at dinner time from the lodge that the Park had closed the Going to the Sun road earlier in the day. The time that was given was just about exactly when we had finished that portion of the trip. This means if the road was not to reopen we would have to travel another hour longer at the end of our trip to go south around the park back to Kalispell. The fire became a little bit more real for us and we all thought more about the warnings that we had received this morning from the rangers concerning fire safety and our bail out options for the next couple of days.