Sunday, September 18, 2011

Mt. James, Glacier National Park

Date: 08/22/2011
Description: Mt. James
Region: Cut Bank area; SE corner of Glacier National Park
Companions: None
Distance: 17.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 4,175 ft
High Point: 9,375 ft

I have had the extreme good fortune to spend over a month in Kalispell, MT this summer for work.  Every aspect of this project is amazing: it is extremely good experience for my career, it will give me enough hours to get a billability bonus, and Kalispell is only hours away from my favorite place on earth (so far): Glacier National Park.  I flew into Kalispell a day early in late August to get a full day for hiking before starting work.  I decided to start off big: it is a 2.5 hour drive from Kalispell to the Cut Bank access to Glacier.   I was on the road at 5:00 am like a crazy person...

This allowed me to view the sunrise over the the Two Medicine Valley.
 The tallest peak on the right is Rising Wolf Mountain, 9513'

 SE to the Great Plains

Impala for the win!

The hike has a decently long approach to Triple Divide Pass; a little over 7 miles.  It was cloudy and windy on the way up. Triple Divide Peak, near the pass, is an impressive landmark.  It's the only peak in MT whose 3 drainages go to three different oceans: the Pacific, Hudson Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico.  Very cool for a geonerd such as myself.

On the way up...
 Medicine Grizzly Lake and Razoredge Mountain, 8569'. Grinnell Argillite is the red rock along the trail. It is about 1.6 billion years old......

Almost to the pass!  Triple Divide Peak, 8020' is in the center of the shot.

The view NW from Triple Divide Pass, 7400'. Left to right: Norris Mountain (8882') and Split Mountain (8792').

The view from NW to N from Triple Divide Pass.  Mt. James is on the right.


Up I go! The summit is still VERY far away...

The view West from ~8700' on Mt James. Sweet.

 Almost there! The view SW from ~9000' on Mt James.  The ridge in the middle of the shot is the continental divide.

 Summit! 9375'. Multiple glaciers can be seen in the far distance.

It was extremely windy on the summit so I didn't stay long, I did add my name to the summit register, though.  I only counted 5 or 6 other names dating back to 2005.

 The view to the SW from the summit.  Medicine Grizzly lake is in the bottom right corner of the shot. Morningstar Lake is in the center.

 The view to the N from the summit, St Mary lake in the distance.

Almost aerial view of Morningstar Lake 3100' below.

 Mt Jackson (10052') rises behind the Pumpelly Glacier.

 The Pumpelly Glacier on Blackfoot Mountain (9597').

The ~2000' cliff of the NW face of Mt. James.

 Back down just below Triple Divide Pass after an epic descent; the weather was much better down here. And there were marmots.

I see you in there....


Mt James on the trail back to Cut Bank.  The summit isn't visible from this angle.

Classic GNP view.

 Awesome outcrop of Grinnell Argillite.

View of Mt. James from about 2 miles from the Cut Bank trailhead.

Big day! I completed the hike in 7 hours 45 minutes. I was a little sluggish the next day....













































Saturday, June 18, 2011

Sawtooth Wilderness, Day Three

Date: 09/23/2010
Description: Fourth of July Lake
Region: Off of Highway 75, ~ 20 miles SE of Stanley, ID.
Companions: Jasper
Distance: 4.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,400 ft
High Point: 10,200 ft

After traveling 30 miles and gaining 5,400 feet of elevation over two days, I was ready for a really.....really easy hike.  I hadn't quite obtained 10,000 ft up to this point and felt the need to do so as such elevations are extremely rare in the Cascades unless you find yourself on the glaciers of a volcano.  So, the hike to Fourth of July Lake and up to a ridge topping out over 10K was very appealing.  This hike is actually in the White Cloud Range, the next range to the East from the Sawtooths.  We got a really early start and more than half the hike was still under a hard freeze from the previous night.

Fourth of July Lake, 9,365 feet.  The peak behind, (10,700') is unnamed.

We had all the time in the world to hang out in this beautiful meadow so we spent a couple hours wondering around.  I focused on getting different views of the lake and this peak while Jasper explored all the scents of a truly wild place.  We found a very low energy inlet to the lake that Jasper loved jumping over.




Jasper jumping the inlet stream.

From here we started the ~800 foot climb to a high point on a ridge North of the lake, passing a putrid green puddle of a lake with no outlet.  No photos necessary.


Fourth of July Lake and unnamed 10,700 foot peak from about 9,900 feet on a ridge East of Blackman Peak.


This was the first and only time on the trip we found ourselves (just) above treeline.  From this pass we climbed East on the ridge to a ~10,200 foot highpoint. 

Top of the world.

The Ants Basin from 10,200' ridgetop; the highpoint in the upper right is Lee Peak, 11,342'

Folded limestone on unnamed peak on the North ridge of Blackman Mountain.  COOL.

The trail dropped down into this basin of high lakes...at this point I didn't entertain the idea for long as it would add about 1,000 feet of elevation gain to my hike.  My feet were screaming. I was satisfied with the view from above.

This is my favorite shot from day three.  This is Blackman Peak (10,300') with the Sawtooth Range in the distance to the West.  You can see the trail losing all that elevation going down to Ants Basin. From here we retraced our steps back towards the parking lot.

We took a another long break once we got back into the trees; shortly after this shot Jasper took a big old nap.  From here we pretty much walked straight back to the car, along the way I took a shot of the ridge we had been on only an hour past:



From the trailhead we drove back through Stanley and down to the West on Highway 25 to Highway 55.  We went North on Highway 55 which follows the roaring Payette River.  Awesome.  We hit some roadwork and had to stop North of McCall, Idaho at "Last Chance" campground in the Payette National Forest.  The next day we drove back to Seattle, 475 miles.  The next morning dawned with one of the best Magnolia sunrises I have seen so far.  Welcome home.

What a trip!  This year's Jasper/Matt roadtrip is going to be every bit as epic and three days longer!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Sawtooth Wilderness Day Two

Date: 09/22/2010
Description: Sawtooth Lake
Region: Off of Highway 21, ~ 4 miles SW of Stanley, ID.
Companions: Jasper
Distance: 13.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2920 ft
High Point: 8980 ft

We woke up at Pettit Lake Campground and wondered over to the NE shore where I took some frigid sunrise shots.

 Foggy sunrise on Pettit Lake.

From Pettit Lake we drove to Highway 75 and headed north and then west through Stanley to the Iron Creek Trailhead, another major trailhead into the Wilderness.  Destination: Sawtooth Lake, the largest alpine lake in the area (almost a mile long)

The trail kept confined to a pine forest for the first two miles then began to climb above Iron Creek on the north side of the valley, arcing underneath a really impressive ridge of unnamed granite spires.

~8700' ridge of granite spires, viewed from the south.

The trail passes by a smaller alpine lake at about 4 miles and arrives at a small pond just NE of Sawtooth Lake.

Reflections of unnamed peaks on the Mt Regan ridge.


Just around the corner was Sawtooth Lake.  The following view was what inspired me to visit the Sawtooth Range; I remember seeing it on Google Earth when I was stationed at the Theodore Decontamination Station in Alabama for the BP MC252 oil spill response last summer.  I planned this whole trip on my breaks in the ERM temporary office.

Classic view of Sawtooth Lake from the NE shore, elevation 8430.  Mt Regan (10,190') in the distance.

When dropping down to the lake, the trail went through a narrow rocky section:

Jasper with an unnamed 9424' peak in the background, taken from the NE shore of Sawtooth Lake.

We spent a long time hanging out on the shore and I set up my camera for a delay shot:

Matt and Jasper at Sawtooth Lake. 

From here we followed the trail on the east side of the lake on the way to a large gradual saddle at the top of the Iron Creek valley.

The trail beckons....Mt Regan towers 1800 feet over Sawtooth Lake.

Upvalley from Sawtooth Lake.  Hey, look at that perfect saddle in the middle of the shot....


The drainage divide between Iron Creek and North Fork Baron Creek. 8515 feet.

We headed for the saddle above Sawtooth Lake to the NW.


Mountain Dog with Mt Regan.


Jasper keeping an eye out on the SW shore of Sawtooth Lake.


Sawtooth Lake and Mt Regan from 9000 foot saddle.


This saddle marked the edge of a large burn that occurred fairly recently; everything to the west of here is burnt out.

View to the west from saddle above Sawtooth Lake.

Burnt snags and Sawtooth Lake.

Taken from just below the fire zone; the flames must have rushed up but not over the saddle.

This was our lunch spot; from here we began the long decent back to the trailhead.  On the way I picked up a perfect chunk of Sawtooth Granite that currently sits next to my liquor cabinet.

Pettit Lake sunset. 

Another perfect day in the Sawtooth Wilderness.  The next day we ventured into the White Cloud Range across the Salmon River Valley; a higher but less rugged range.