You know you’re in for an adventure when your rental car comes with bear spray.

When we finished explaining our trip plans to the guy at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Kalispell, Montana, he smiled, went back to a file cabinet and returned with a canister of bear pepper spray in a holster.

“Return it unused and no charge.”

We were most pleased to hand it back to him intact, eight days later. After we told him a few of our tales, he laughed.

“Most folks don’t have any stories at all.”

Bear spray is considered a hazardous material and can’t be transported on commercial airlines, even in checked luggage, so, we had to get ours in Montana.

We bought our second canister right down the road from Enterprise at Snappys Sport Senter, “For all your hunting and fishing needs.”

After a most entertaining conversation between Sharon and the local guy behind the counter about the advantages of bear spray vs firearms in an endgame bear encounter, we told him about where the pepper extract comes from.

He was curiously surprised. “India?” Surprise proved to be the rule even for park rangers.

Always fun to have an entertaining factoid.

Counter Assault Bear Spray is the local brand of choice and produced in Kalispell. The product itself is described as a high emission “atomized” fire extinguisher style spray.

Spray distance 32 feet. Spray duration 9.2 seconds.

My guess is the 32 feet is in a dead calm, so we’re really talking 15 feet under good conditions, less with wind. OK for mosquitos, but a charging 500 pound Grizzly is another matter altogether.

That said, bears really detest the stuff. Nasty for bears. Nasty for us too.

From the Counter Assault instructions: “Use with extreme caution—if not used properly, it can disable the user, rather than the bear.” They’re not joking.

On our last day on our way out of the park, we stopped at the back country ranger station to donate our bear spray. The ranger said that once they dropped a can inside and it went off.

Even days later, after the clean-up, folks would come in for a back country permit and their eyes would start watering and then they’d start coughing like an asthma attack.

This kindly ranger had a training canister of inert bear spray, which she let me try outside. It did spray like insect repellant. If we do much more hiking in bear country, I’m going to to look into an online USGS-approved bear spray training course.

I was prepared for Glacier to be really big.

The park itself and its greater protected pristine ecosystem is something like 16,000 square miles- about the size of Switzerland. The park itself is 1560 square miles, includes a section of the Continental Divide, over 130 named lakes and 25 glaciers.

I wasn’t expecting it to feel so wild.

Glacier has hundreds of species of animals and more than 1,000 different species of plants. On our second long day of hiking- over Piegan Pass, we hiked for over 7 hours and saw only 5 other people. During that time we saw mountain goats, bighorn sheep, ptarmigans, marmots and picas. We also saw lots of recent grizzly and black bear sign.

See photo to left.

The bear who tore these trees up was a big guy. Sharon’s hiking pole coming in from the right is about 4 feet off the ground.

Those claw marks were fresh.

****

8 September: We flew from Boston (BOS) to Glacier Park International Airport (FCA) via Minneapolis. Not surprisingly there are no direct flights from Boston.

Our flight from Boston was delayed by a thunderstorm, which left a ten minute window in Minneapolis to get to our next gate across the airport. We made it and remarkably, our checked bag made it too.

Sharon says she was more exhausted from that dash than from any of the hiking.

I was exhilarated. My knee felt fine.

Four weeks before I had over-done pre-trip stair training and come up lame.

After picking up our rental car, and second can of bear pepper spray, we headed off to the park. By 4:00 PM we were at Lake McDonald Lodge- which as it turned out, was our favorite of the trip.

What’s not to like? Quaint, historic, intimate, and slightly goofy. Complete with a walk-in fireplace, stuffed animal heads, and original furniture.

Our guidebook aptly described the lobby as a “a taxidermist’s delight or an animal-rights activist’s nightmare.”

Indeed, some folks walked in and were appalled by the 24 or so beasts of fur and feather peering down.

Curiously we found that the animals had a remarkable presence, and not in a bad way.

Sort of like local spirits or guardians.

You could reach over and pet them too, if you wanted- or dared to.

One boy of eight or so came in with his parents sightseeing, looked around wide-eyed, and nailed it with an enthusiastic, “You’d have to be rich to stay here!”

Translation- “This place is really, really, really, really great! If I had all the money in the world, I’d stay here.”

I’m inclined to agree. And besides, all-in-all it was quite reasonable. Reservations just had to be made 9+ months in advance.

Lake McDonald Lodge was built in 1913 and pre-dates the Park.

It is a National Historic Landmark on the southeast shore of Lake McDonald. The back door towards the lake was originally the front door.

Guests arrived by boat. The road around the lake hadn’t been built yet.

The lodge style itself is a curious combination of Swiss chalet and hunting lodge with native American decorative influences.

If you look for them, there are phrases in several Native American languages inscribed in the concrete floor. The Native American painted lamps in the lobby are remarkable. See the slideshow.

9 September: Although I had passed the level cross-airport sprint test, I was still worried about climbing. Time for a trail test.

We headed up the road to the Avalanche Lake trail. As we were crossing the bridge over the first stream, I looked up and there was the picture I had used in the Glacier preview. When I swiped it off the web I had no idea where in Glacier the photo had been taken.

Digital Deja Vu.

This was going to happen again in a big way, before the trip was over.

I passed the initial trail test- though with no style points. We actually passed one couple on the trail. Nice folks about our age.

He looked to be in great shape- thin and trim- with hiking poles too. Turns out he had had 3 knee surgeries: “The first scar is long. The second about half as long. The third hardly noticeable. Procedures are improving!”

Good news, I suppose.

To get across the park to Many Glaciers Lodge, we continued our drive up the historic Going-to-the-Sun road, a 52 mile, paved two-lane highway that bisects the park east to west. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center on the Continental Divide at 6,646-foot-high Logan Pass.

We had a logistical problem. The park shuttles were no longer running. We had been counting on the shuttle to get from the hotel to the trailheads for our two big point-to-point hikes.

The ranger at the Visitor’s Center seemed like a trustworthy soul. We explained our problem. He listened, then shrugged, “You could hitchhike. It’s legal in Montana. I do it all the time.”

I filed that thought under- to be addressed later.

I hobbled back to the car and we continued on to Many Glacier Hotel on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake.

Many Glacier Hotel has the same goofy Swiss theme as Lake McDonald Lodge. Bellmen here even wear lederhosen. From Germany as it turns out- Sharon asked.

The Hotel is historic too – from 1915. Also big with something like 200 rooms.

Big and falling apart. The hotel felt a bit like staying in a movie set. Grand, but curiously impermanent.

One late afternoon in the lounge, we were chatting with two most entertaining 80-somethings.

The night before, in the middle of the night, their door towards the lake had blown open. As the cold wind howled and swirled around their room, they made their way to the door only to find that it wouldn’t latch.

They piled furniture and whatever else they could find up against the door to try to keep it closed. No luck.

They’d get back in bed and another gust would  blow the door open again.

After a couple of hours of this, the feisty Mrs. said she’d had enough. She got up, put on her jacket, turned on all the lights and had a good look at the circa 1915 door latching mechanism. “It was all backwards! Once I knew that, I finally got the throw bolt to hold. And we could get some sleep.”

Just another night at Many Glacier.

As a side note, our new friends each had two replacement knees. But who’s counting?

10 September: At Many Glacier Hotel, we had four full days. Time to up the ante and see if the knee could handle more serious trails. Iceberg Lake looked about right, but it was closed because of bear activity.

The next best bet was the trail to Grinnell Glacier. Rated at moderately strenuous, the 11 mile round trip and 1600 foot climb would be a litmus test.

I passed, but again with no style points. I even got an on-trail lecture from a physical therapist on all I was doing wrong with my pole technique.

After she was done, her husband piped up, “Between us, we’ve got it covered. If its physical you can talk to the wife, if it’s psychological you can talk to me.

But if you’re out here and still depressed, I’m not sure there is anything I can do!”

On the way back down, Sharon and I came up on a group of hikers 30 feet ahead holding their ground with bear spray in hand. They were facing us.

Not a good sign.

What wasn’t I seeing?

According to the group, a very large black bear standing next to a tree, too close for comfort. We never saw him or her, probably for the best.

In the home stretch, we came up on two women frozen on the trail at the intersection with the trail around the lake. They told us wide eyed, “A bear just walked by.” The 2-minute-old tracks in the mud, confirmed their story.

11 September: Now-or-never-day dawned red. If we were going to try our most ambitious hike- this was the day to go for it. Hitch hiking and all.

Our plan was to hike 7.6 miles along the Highline Trail from Logan Pass to the historic Granite Park Chalet (1915).

Elevation gain 830 feet.

Then up and over the Continental Divide, 1 mile via Swiftcurrent Pass, elevation gain 500 feet.

Next we would descend 2300 feet over another 7.6 miles or so to our hotel at Many Glacier.

This point-to-point hike is considered a classic, but challenging.

First we had to hitch hike 40 or so miles from Many Glacier to Logan Pass.

It had been 38 years since I’d stuck out my thumb. Sharon had never hitch hiked.

Never too late to try something new!

By 7:30 AM we were on the road. Our first ride was in one of the bright red vintage (1936) glacier motor coaches.

The driver was a young guy on his way to pick up a tour group.

Sharon sat in the front seat and chatted happily. I huddled down on the next seat back as we rolled towards the town of Saint Mary.

The Blackfeet Indian reservation was on one side and a long lake on the other.

The canvas top was down and the wind was whistling.

I looked over sidewise and there was a bald eagle not far off, keeping pace with us out over the lake.

I took it to be a good omen for the day.

Our second ride dropped us off at Logan Pass around 10:00 AM. It was cold- 35 º F or so. And we were off.

The HighLine Trail was pretty level, though the trail itself was cut into the side of a steep slope. We walked along right below a ridge of rock (the Continental Divide) flocked with snow the night before. The slope dropped away on our left- a couple of thousand feet to the valley floor below.

We passed big horn sheep and mountain goats.

There were just enough people on the trail so that we weren’t too worried about bears.

We hiked the last couple of miles to the Granite Park Chalet with a local, hiking solo.

At one point he piped up, “That PBS show, ‘Night of the Grizzlies’ was filmed here.” He was happy to be hiking in a group.

When we arrived, the Chalet was closed up for winter. The shutters had three inch spikes- point out. My guess – to slow down big guys with sensitive paws.

After a short lunch we headed up towards Swiftcurrent Pass (7000+ ft). And just like that, we were very alone in the heart of bear country. We didn’t see anyone else for a couple of hours.

As we were descending the cliffs above Bullhead Lake we noticed a hiker far below coming up.

He had a full pack and appeared to be moving unnaturally fast.

He headed into a switchback and disappeared.

About 40 minutes or so later he reappeared, descending from above.

When he caught up, he paused just long enough for us to get a good look.

He was younger than us, but not by much. Probably mid 50s. Not only did he have a full pack on his back, but he also had cases strapped to his chest.

He had just ascended and then descended the lion’s share of the 2300 foot climb- weighed down- and wasn’t even breathing hard.

After exchanging the minimum or pleasantries, he smiled, “Gotta go. Can’t get in dutch with the wife!”

Sharon and I watched stunned, as he headed down the trail. He had two hiking poles and was running, in a bounding motion like a four-legged creature. It wasn’t a gallop, more like a creature on the moon with an extra set of joints in his legs.

I’ve never seen anything like it. Doubt I ever will.

Talking with others who had encountered him, we learned that this guy had been a back-country ranger for 10+ years, which explains a lot- or nothing at all.

Down by the lakes we came up on a young couple with their backs to us, stone still with bear spray out. A patch on their pack said something about Yellowstone Park Employees.

They told us a Grizzly sow and two cubs had been seen – the classic cause for concern- and they had just heard suspicious noises in the brush. Their bear moves seemed second nature.

I pulled my pepper spray out and looked around. When the pros are worried, best to take the hint.

We all hiked out together, high brush on either side of the trail, prime bear habitat- chatting – with the volume up to 11.

The baseline is that no bear attacks have been reported for hiking groups of three or more. Both couples knew this reassuring statistic.

That said, Sharon and I graciously let the two kids lead.

We were hiking fast, and curiously my knee wasn’t bothering me.

When Sharon and I, reached the trailhead, I realized that we weren’t done. There was still a mile or two to go to our hotel.

Sharon was most forgiving.

Then I made a wrong turn and almost went around Swiftcurrent Lake the long way, Sharon noted that anyone could make such a mistake.

It’s appreciated.

We walked into the lobby of Many Glacier Hotel at 6:30 PM- 11 hours after our departure that morning.

A full day.

12 September: Designated day off. A successful new wrinkle for us.

Mid morning, I decide to pull out my printed copy of our Glacier preview- as much for entertainment as anything else.

After a quick skim, I decided, remarkably, we were right on schedule- knee and all. With that happy thought, I stretched back on our bed and looked out the window.

Digital Deja Vu all over again- times 10.

I was staring at the preview feature photo (to left)- perfectly framed.

When I swiped the photo off the web, little did I realize that the photographer had been kicking back on the bed in Room MG-50.

In the afternoon, I stopped by the boat office down by the dock, to inquire about rates and schedules. Two young hardcore types were holding down the fort. We got to talking about bears.

After I ran through a few stories and concerns, the second guy noted cynically:

“One out of four of us is going to die of heart disease. It’s far more dangerous not to go out and hike.”

He added with a smirk, “and as far as ‘Night of the Grizzlies’ goes, they left food out. The show never tells you that!”

13 September: Our last full day of hiking and Sharon’s 63rd birthday.

The choice came down to  Ptarmigan Lake/ Ptarmigan Tunnel or Piegan Pass. Ptarmigan had 550 feet more climbing, which was a minus. Piegan Pass is considered the equal to the Highline/Swiftcurrent Trail, which was a plus.

We decided on Piegan, the more adventurous alternative.

Once again, we’d have to hitch back along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This time we’d get off at Siyeh Bend, 3 miles east of Logan Pass.

Just after dawn, when we arrived at the prime hitch hiking corner, we found it already occupied- by a young woman from Poland- heading home.

She had been working at the hotel for the season, which was now just about over.

After a brief and friendly conversation, Sharon and I started to walk down the road to the next open spot.

The young woman picked up her pack to follow with,

“But where’s your car?”

Maybe something had been lost in translation, but to my mind the far more likely explanation is that we really really didn’t look like hitch hikers. Easier to imagine a nonexistent car.

Our young friend was using two facing pages of her diary as her sign- on which she had written “Kalispell” in large letters- top to bottom. Clever.

We still have our twice-used “Logan Pass” sign as a memento, and she no doubt still has her’s- in sequence- in her diary.

She was picked up by a Native American in a working pickup truck. I have no doubt that the dream catcher hanging from his rear view mirror was the real deal.

We saw her again, 20 miles or so down the road- thumb out. We rolled by at 65 mph in a full car. Our ride, a young couple from Maryland, took us all the way to our trail head- straight shot.

Luck of the draw.

We were on the trail before 9:00 AM. Weather was looking good, my knee was feeling OK.

Our spirits were up.

Quiet trail though.

Once past the trailhead, we only saw 5 other people in the 10 miles and 7+ hours, before hitting Josephine Lake- 2 miles from Many Glacier Hotel.

We had a 4.5 mile 1720’ climb to Piegan Pass. See photo to the left for the last stretch.

Just above Sharon’s head, you can see the trail as a faint line sloping up to the pass.

It was in this stretch that we met 4 bighorn sheep coming down the trail- the rams in the header photo at the top of this page above.

At first I thought they were descending hikers, but when we got closer I realized they were animals.

When they were a couple of hundred feet away, I could get a sense of how big these beasts really were. At fifty feet, I started wondering who had the right of way.

At thirty feet, I decided we should move out of the way. As Sharon tried to climb the loose talus rock, I looked at the lead ram. He was watching closely.

Sharon was slipping and having a hard time.

With a twitch of his head, he led the other three up and around us.

We heard later from other hikers, that after passing us, this group of rams had a face-off with a Grizzly Sow and cubs lower on the trail. The Grizzly backed down.

At the pass, large boulders had been flipped over.

This Grizzley work looked  like the work of a small bulldozer.

The photo to the right was taken on the other side of Piegan Pass, looking back up.

Just as much bear sign down here- maybe more: Freshly clawed trees; fresh bear scat; grass pressed down, where bears had bedded down.

All-in-all a bit unnerving.

It’s interesting how the world works. On this trip, on this stretch, I discovered that my wife of over 30 years, knows lots of songs in both Spanish and German, and can recite the whole prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English.

“Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour”

Curiously, perfect material for bear country.

We met one couple heading up, on our descent. They were young, fit and had great gear.

Somewhat self-consciously, the young woman remarked, “You can probably guess where we work.” It was then that I noticed all the Patagonia labels. We laughed.

She looked at Sharon and said, “Nano puff- full zip, volcanic blue 601.”  We all laughed again.

Another half hour down the trail, we heard this eerie yelling wafting across the canyon. I was concerned some folks were in trouble.

Sharon threw her head back and let out a howl. All was quiet.

“Coyotes. I did wolf. Coyotes don’t want wolves to know where they are.”

We arrived at Many Glacier before 4:00 PM. Plenty of time for a shower and a beer before dinner.

Relaxing in prime seats looking out over Swiftcurrent Lake, we placed our order and got to talking about the Piegan Pass Trail with our young waiter.

“I’m not going back there for a long, long time.”

Turned out he recently had had a most unnerving encounter with a Grizzly.

“When we came off Cataract Mountain, she was waiting for us. I emptied a full canister of bear spray in her face.”

I asked him if it was a bluff charge.

“Nah, I’ve been bluff-charged twice. This was the real deal. She was foaming at the mouth, ears back.”

I asked him where exactly this took place?

“Right above the waterfall, just above the trail, where you guys just came down.”

“Did you report the incident?”

“Yeah. But can you believe it? They didn’t even close the trail. Enjoy your beer.”

I did.

On my second round, I asked him what he had been doing up at Piegan.

“That day we did four peaks: 10- 12,000 feet total vertical, off trail.”

Pointing out the window, he added, “See those peaks (photo to the left), if weather is just right, there’s a route I think I can do, in a day, before I leave (in two weeks).

It will be a lot harder.”

Ah, youth.

Bears be damned.

14 September: After saying goodbye to Many Glacier Hotel, Sharon and I retraced our steps to Lake McDonald Lodge.

We hiked the short trail to Virginia Falls and St Mary Falls and the boardwalk trail along the Continental Divide to Hidden Lake Overlook.

On the boardwalk, we met another couple coming down. He asked, straight-faced, if I was from Hawaii, adding that he was- obvious given his facial structure/body-type.

I answered, “Nah, I’m wearing a Hawaiian shirt up here, because I’m on vacation. No one seems to get it.”

He answered, “I get it.”  We all laughed.

Sharon and I both left our hiking shoes in our waste basket at Lake McDonald Lodge. They had served well, but had reached the end of the line. Sharon’s shoes had split along the sides. My right heel had delaminated.

When we left our room for the last time, I made a mental salute.

Our shoes had served well.

1000+ miles in a year deserves some respect.