Made it to Glacier

August 11

After leaving Yellowstone, I spent the next week within 75 miles of the park. My first campground was outside of West Yellowstone. It was a little exciting, I had an electric hookup for the first time in three weeks (and one TV channel). I was camped on the Madison River, a well known trout hangout. It rained for three days, “good for fishing” you might say. Not so much.

My next move was about 50 miles up River towards Bozeman, MT. The River kind of meanders up here. It’s a little warm for the fish, but great for all the Bozemanites floating by me on anything that will float and hold a cooler (mostly inner tube chair things) . I had my lounge chair and binoculars watching the passerby’s.

Today was my first day in Glacier National Park. I am a little disappointed as it is hot and very hazy, limiting the panoramic views the park is known for.

So I went in search of Grizzly Bears. It didn’t start out that way. I found a simple four mile, relatively flat hike on the list of recommended day hikes. What I didn’t know, until I was fully committed was that the trailhead was six miles up a very narrow, winding, gravel road. Maybe I should have turned around when I saw no other cars on the road or at the trailhead?

Well I didn’t find any bears, but they were there. I could smell them as walked through the knee high huckleberry fields. At one point I was hiking with bear spray in hand chanting “here I am”.