Akakola, Winona and Mud Lakes

The ever forgotten Akakola Lake and two mud holes…..

One was even named Mud Lake.

Yeah!

It’s really not the cold lakes that are the short end of the stick in this whole gig. It’s the warm ones. Many people think instantly about how cold this idea is.

Jumping in glacial lakes…On purpose?

But they are the greatest refreshers in the world.

It is the Winona and Green Lakes of the project that are my arch nemesis.

I would hike three days, and up hill both ways to get to a nice, high alpine, cold, blue lake instead of the easiest walk up, warm, marshy lake.

Anyway, you take the good with that bad.

This year I started off with a few that are perfect for the early season.

What I mean is that the higher elevation is still full of snow. Most of the lakes I have left in this project are very remote, high alpine lakes at the end of long off trail valleys. So right now it was nice to hit a low elevation lake.

Also, the two marshy ones would only be a thousand times more nasty if I waited until August.

So, I made a concerted effort to hit Akakola Lake which is in the northwestern corner of the park.
The trail leads out of the Bowman Lake valley. It was a perfect day, warm, clear and free of snow. The weather this May and June so far has been amazing. It was certainly one of those choice days.

After I finished Akakola and enjoyed a nice dinner with a friend, I headed over to Winona Lake. It is on a remote road in the northwest corner of the park. Its name used to be Mud Lake and I suppose the “powers that be” thought that was a bit unflattering. So, a while back it became Winona Lake.

Number 112 and 113!

Then my brother came to visit me and along with many other wonderful hikes we undertook Green Lake. It is in the middle of the forest off of Highway 2 near Marias Pass.
The forest was wonderful. No one goes back in that area, and you can tell that the animals have made note of that.
There are rub trees and animal sign all over the place. That made the day worth while no matter what.
This was possibly the most ridiculous lake I have ever been in.

As it is a marsh. Not a lake. Not even a pond.

It is a clearing in the trees that holds water and grows lots of grass. I laid down in it.

Literally, I laid down.

I did not even get swimming trunks entirely wet. Pretty nasty, but its now off of the list and it brought me to a very prideful 114 lakes.


So, I expect to get to a few higher elevation or more remote lakes pretty soon. If this latest bout of snow and storms moves out and lets summer begin. I’ll keep you informed.

Until then, I wish you all well. Get out there and lay down in a marsh somewhere.
Or not…. It is up to you…What ever you do…

Shaheeya Lake

First of all this is a misleading photo, it is from this trip, but not of Shaheeya Lake. I just liked it and it ended up downloaded on my blog twice. So I wanted to find a place to put it. So at the top is where is landed.

I wanted to tell you about a lake endeavor called Shaheeya Lake. This trip actually happened last year, but since I am working on this website...and I wanted to get some stories up on this blog...well, here is a story.

I will hopefully be able to start adding to my numbers within the month. Lately, many of the lakes that I have left are really removed, high up, frozen right now....you know. Things like that. So, it will be a little further into the summer by the time I get one going. With that said, please stop back and I will be sure to get some blog entries up on as soon as the next lake falls.

Until then, here is the story and some pictures from Shaheeya Lake.
Be Well,
Marc


My friend Matt came to visit and the poor guy ended up on a quest for the lost Shaheeya Lake. It is not exactly that it was lost; we knew where it was…it was just crazy rough to get to it. There is a ridge that is just south of the Canadian border and smushed up in multiple pockets in this ridge are the “Boundary Lakes”. There are five of them and all of five are completely off trail. They have been looming over this project like a little mini lake project to them selves. There has been two separate endeavors and we have only gotten to three so far. There still stands Wahseeja and Carcajou Lakes, which are going to prove to be the roughest, most, removed pockets in the series of five. Ah, those are for another day… This is Wahseeja Lake, I'm looking down on it during the Shaheeya trip.

It is funny; I have heard that you only run another marathon after you have forgotten how much the first one hurt. When we left for this hike the idea was to hopefully get Wahseeja Lake also, but like I said,…for another day…A day in which I have forgotten the pain of the last marathon.

So we started entirely too late,…mid morning out of Goat Haunt. Shaheeya lives about 3000 feet above Lake Janet and over on the other side of Shaheeya Peak. So there really is no special way to get there, it just just “UP!!!” Unfortunately “up” does not mean an easy scramble up a drainage or up a nice gradual ridge line.

The Waterton Valley is known for it’s dominating ground cover. Tree’s too, but where there are not many trees on this route, but there is alder and sub alpine fir and every other burly northern rocky mountain short angry ground cover known to foot travel. This is exactly what we dealt with for three thousand straight vertical feet. We started climbing up an avalanche chute that runs directly north of Lake Janet. With in minutes, we were already in tree/bushes/crud that was over our head and we had really just begun. It got so rough at points that I literally got on my belly and crawled under some bushes because they were so tightly woven that it was the path of least resistance.

After about 2000ft we popped out into shelves of rock and this at least afforded us some nice spots to stop, eat and admire the northern expanses of Glacier Park. The going kept getting steeper and steeper until we eventually hit one last thick strand of sub alpine firs and popped out right below Shaheeya Peak. Not exactly our intention, but it handed us one of the best mountain top views of my life.

Often on these endeavors; I begin, I toil all day and still never really leave a thick valley bottom in search of these bodies of water. It is tough to complain when indirectly you get to climb a really remote and amazing peak in search of a swimming hole. That is exactly what happened today. This is Matt on top of Shaheeya Peak.

So we enjoyed the summit for a while and then found our lake, which we had to drop a thousand feet back down on the other side of the ridge to get to. The bugs were rough, we had to keep moving which is tough to do when you are dead tired and have to switch into some swimming trunks. Funny that no matter how hard you try, there really is no where without mosquitos. NOWHERE!!

So we thought that the hard part was over and we made our way to a different drainage to descend. You never know what you are going to get. Although, do I know of a couple people that have gone up and down this way. Seems that maybe it would work better if you came up and then you would in turn know how to go back down. But, down we went none the less.

Much of the day had already been spent by this point and the surrounding mountains were starting to get that amazing late day glow. Down we went. It was actually going quite well, we had solid rock chutes to climb on and the going was a bit easier than in the avalanche slope. Down we went……

Till about half way between the ridge top and the main trail in the valley bottom we hit a cliff band. There is a term in the world of mountains called “cliffed out”…no matter what your experience with mountains, I would imagine that you can guess what that means. It happens to everyone, once in a while. Lucky, many times you can climb back up and try another route. Although when it is already 7pm to 8pm at night and you spent ten hours getting to where you are currently, that is less of an option.

This is were Matt flys in with a cape and mask combo pack and saves the day. He commited to climbing down a few cliffs that would be virtually impossible to climb back up. The day grew on and the sun dropped further. Eventually, at the exact last minute he found what he thought “might work”….”might work”….?

There are moments in life where you simply have no choice but the follow what “might work”. What other option do you have? That there my friend is life. When there is no nice bow tied on the top and you don’t have a catered lunch sitting there for you,…sometimes…you go with what “might work”…And we did.

What “might work”,…worked! We now had about a half hour of day light. We thrashed out way down through alder and all the wonderful other vegetation that the hillside supported so well. Eventually hitting the trail at exactly dark.

This is why one does not endeavor into the wilds without a head lamp. Always bring that head lamp. All those times when you are annoyed that you are carrying around these “emergency supplies” and your back hurts and you think that you “got this one”….BRING THE HEADLAMP!

We hiked the last four miles out in the dark. Funny how giving a yell to warn bears of your presence increases frequency by a lot when it is pitch dark out and you are the only two knuckleheads roaming around in the dark night.

This honestly was one of the most intense, physical and emotional outputs in the form of a hike in my entire life. I have to dedicate this one to Matt. When the going got ugly and we just wanted to get back to the burritos that were waiting for us at the end of the trail…

Matt found what “might work” and nailed it. So to you my friend and faithful hiking partner. I appreciate you watching my back and bring us down the mountain. Sleeping under the stars down not sound like as much fun when you are on a 45 degree slope and 1500ft above the valley floor…Esecially when those burritos were getting cold.

To Life,
Marc

The end of the season-2007

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