Good evening,
It’s been an amazing summer, for sure.
In the last five or six weeks since I wrote alot has happened. I nabbed seven more lakes in Glacier. That brings the totel to 86. Then came the decision that I was going to include Waterton National Park in the lake bid project. So there was a push that incorporated seven lakes up there which brought the totel to 13. 99 in all, need one more before I leave.....I'm running out of time.
So, let’s get started.
I went to a place called Trout Lake.
Some of you may know this as one of the sites of the famous “Night of the Grizzly”maulings. For those that don’t know, here is a quick over view. The first Grizzly maulings in Glacier NP were in mid August of 1967. Two different girls were killed on the same evening by two different bears in two different spots at virtually the same time. It had never happened before and now it happened twice in the same night.
My friend Pat and I went back there two days after the 40th anniversary.
Much has happened in the last 40 years in the world of bear management. Things are ran entirely different than they were back in 1967. That did not stop the weird vibe we got while we were standing there. Eeehhh….
So, we busted out Trout Lake, Arrow Lake and Rogers Lake. Rogers was a nice annoying thick bushwhack but the other two were right on trail. Great trip Pat. Hope Michigan is going well.
By far the biggest endeavor since last I wrote was finally tackling two of the five northern boundary lakes. There is a valley in my district that runs east west and was randomly placed by the mountain gods…directly along the 49th Parallel which is the line that delineates the border between the United States and Canada.
My friend Matt and I hiked up to the border and then dove directly into a pretty serious bushwhack. I think it was about five hours off trail just schwackin’ around in the berry bushes.
You can see Lake Nooney and Lake Wurdeman from a real common trail in Canada. They are amazing lakes. Huh? This picture was taken many years ago and have been excited to down there ever since. 
Matt thanks for helping me get these two.. I was impressed with you, those were cold lakes on cold days but we nailed em, huh? Great trip my friend.
By the way there is a jack-o-lantern face in this rock, huh?
Then there were the “worst” two lakes I’ve ever done…Nice distinction, huh?
Upper and Lower Howe Lakes. Two marshes on the western border of the park.
The trip was a good time though. My friend Clay and I headed back there one afternoon. He laughed the whole time cause all I did was lay down in them. 
I'll spare you the pictures.They had to get done, but boy it’s moments like that were I can’t believe I opened my big mouth and said this was my goal. Cold water does not bother me, but mucky, muddy, goo does.…but suck it up Sally and get in the freakin’ lake, huh?
I had a really foggy drive over Going to the Sun road the next morning. This was my last time driving it for the year.Just so you know, that is about a 2000’ drop to the left of the tunnel. If you can see it or not…
So, there were a couple great afternoons that Jess and I were both off work at the same time. Thankfully we took advantage of them.
One day we headed up to Bertha Lake.
It’s a side valley that drains into Waterton Lake. We took our smaller outboard boat and docked at the trail head.
There were also cool new views of Waterton Lake and Goat Haunt during the hike up.
A couple weeks ago Jess and I were able to head up to a place called Angels Wing near Many Glacier Hotel. This was actually the site of our first date in July of 2001. Nice to get back there..
First you hike up to Grinnell Glacier and then head off trail up to the top of a huge sloping wing that comes off from the side of Mt. Gould.
We were on top of this thing. It's easier than it looks, almost always is...
We had to cross the outlet to Upper Grinnell Lake which is the melt pond for the glacier.
From there we got to walk right up to Grinnell Glacier.
It’s melting so fast, that it’s already well smaller than it was when I started working here in 2001. Beautiful though.
At the top, Jess walked out to the top of a big pillar that was about 2000’ above the valley floor.
I don’t know if you can see it but she is one the top of the big rock.A great second date to Angels Wing and what a place to dangle your feet..
Let’s see….
From there I did a two night trip up to a place called 50 Mountain campground. I met up with my friend Josh, for a few days.
On the way up I got a great view of the entire area that was included in the Nahsukin, Gyrfalcon and Redhorn endeavor. If you have any interest the posting should still be up from July.
Super cool to be able to trace the entire trip from beginning to end, and I could see it all from one overlook.
He met me in the middle coming from the west.
I actually wanted to apply for a “Cincinnati Bengals Fan of the Week” award. I woke up the day of the Baltimore Ravens/ Bengals opening week Monday Night Football game at 50 Mountain campground.
Woke up at dawn, hiked 11 miles out to Goat Haunt, took a one hour boat ride, drove an hour and crossed two international borders to see my boys win it in the 4th. Don’t know where that went to in the last couple weeks, but that’s aside from the point. Great day.I decided to add the 30 named lakes in Waterton National Park in Alberta to the lakes project. We are Waterton/Glacier International Peace Park. Why not include them.
So, I’ll spare you the details but I drove around Waterton National Park and dipped by body in six lakes in about three hours. They were all either right off the road or just a real short hike. One was right below the Prince of Wales Hotel.
Six is six though, huh?
Best story entailed in this day was that I went swimming in a lake with a moose in it. No one else, just me and the moose swimmin’ in Akamina Lake together.
Just for the record they were Crandel, Akamina, Middle Waterton, Lower Waterton, Linnet, and Maskinonge Lakes.
As I was driving around I had to give way to a little family crossing the street. Does that not look like the Abbey Road album cover?
Other than that we have finally lost summer. At best it’s fall. There has been many days that Winter was fighting a pretty good fight. I woke up in St. Mary lake week with 2-3” of snow on my car.
I then drove to Waterton over Chief Mountain customs road in which you have to drive over a pass to get into Canada. There was snow everywhere. I luckily got to follow the plow truck up the U.S. side.
On the Canadian side I just had to down shift and ride it out. Wild morning. Welcome to Canada.
We have had some serious snow fall in the peaks already.
The "International" is the name of the boat that runs between Waterton and Goat Haunt. 
It actually celebrated it's 80th year on the lake this summer.
See you next summer International, sleep well.
So, I know that was all crammed into one blog entry, and it should have been about eight of them. I kept procrastinating and now it was either write it out today or risk it being December before I get this up here.
I am headed to Washington State to travel with my buddy Wub (yes that is his given name. He was named after his great, great Aunt from Borneo) and also to see my brothers.
Other than that I’m getting excited about ski season, moving to Missoula and setting up camp there. Enjoy town life for a bit.
I hope everyone’s summer went wonderfully. I feel like I was the most blessed guy on the planet. I kept telling visitors that I felt like I won the lottery.
Currently I am the “Lone Ranger” here in Goat Haunt. Only the second time in the entire summer that there is literally nobody else here. There are not even any campers since the weather has turned and the boat is no longer running.
So in thirty miles to the east, west and south and to the north ten miles, I am the only living soul. That is probably a stretch as I’m sure there is a backpacker somewhere out there. It certainly feels like it though.
I have a bad habit of bringing the bummer at the end.
I would like to dedicate this entry to a guy named Mark. I don't know his last name, but he was cool and from Oklahoma. He worked out here for a few summers and we hung out and played some great music. He was a good guitarist, and a great guy. He died about a week ago, driving to work in Oregon. Either he fell asleep or his car gave out or something, but he went off the road and died. This park will miss him and he will miss this park. He attacked it in large bites, which is always admirable.Now, since I'm sure Mark would prefer us happy...
I bring you a picture of a man hurding cattle with a 4 weeler on the side of the road in Babb, MT. Toto, I'm not in Cincinnati any more...
To Mark from Oklahoma...
and...
To Life
Marc
