Day One:
A familiar view. Leaving Chief Mountain border crossing a few hours after we entered the
park we could see the tiers where we came across on last years hike. This
year we would be going to the left of the mountains on the left of the
picture. |
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| Trevor and Adam going across the meadows of grass and
flowers. We would be following the valley in the background on the next
day. |
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| As we were entering Belly River this mountain towered to our
right. I think the mountain is Sentinel Mountain. |
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Day Two:
Cosley Ridge is to our right as we were entering the valley heading
towards Elizabeth Lake. |
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| A similar view of the same range of Mountains. |
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| Dawn Mist Falls about midway to our destination of the head
of Elizabeth Lake. |
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| Another view of Dawn Mist taken by Adam |
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| Elizabeth lake with Ptarmigan pass in the distance. The pass
is a 180 ft hole cut in the mountain. Its below the lowest point in the
range, to the right of a "sliver" of snow. |
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| Day 2 ended at the head of Elizabeth Lake. This is the view
looking towards the foot, and the valley we had hiked through that same
day. |
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| Another view of Ptarmigan Tunnel. Its hard to see it but
again its to the right of that little bit of snow. I think its about 2200
ft above the lake we were at. |
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Day Three:
Looking back at Adam on the trail going from the head
of Elizabeth Lake towards the foot of the lake. |
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| Looking back at the head of Elizabeth Lake and the Ptarmigan
wall in the back ground. |
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| Looking towards the head of Elizabeth Lake |
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| Red Gap Pass viewed from the foot of Elizabeth Lake. |
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| It was a short hike (45 min) from the head to the foot of
the lake, then Trevor and I made up small packs and headed up the trail to
Ptarmigan Tunnel on a day hike. This was the view looking down towards the
head of the lake where we had spent the previous night. |
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| Part way up was the junction where we either went over the
Red Gap Pass or went to the Ptarmigan Tunnel. We left about 1pm and got
back about 7pm covering almost 10 miles. Red Gap Pass Trail: Red Gap Pass
2.6 mi. Poia Lake CG. 8.2 mi. Many Glacier Road 14.6 mi. Ptarmigan Trail:
Elizabeth Lake CG.(foot) 1.9 mi. Belly River R.S. 6.3 mi. Cosley Lake CG.
6.2 mi. Ptarmigan Tunnel 2.9Mi. Many Glacier R.S. 7.9mi. |
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| Robert and Trevor on the trail |
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| My favourite picture from the hike. One of the many water
falls in Glacier National park. |
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| Getting close to the top this was the view looking over the
lake towards the other range of mountains. I think the large mountain in
the middle is Mount Merritt. with the Old Sun Glacier. |
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| Coming around the shale hillside along a narrow trail I was
about 30 minutes from the tunnel. You can clearly see the trail cut from
the rock face leading up to the bit of snow, then the tunnel. |
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| The trail cut from the rock face is amazing. The workers in
the 1920's even created a small wall along the edge. Its about a 600 ft drop
to the bottom of the valley. In the distance you can see the
"sliver" of snow along the trail. |
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| Finally at the summit. This is the view looking back towards
the foot (on the left) where we spent night 2 and the head of the lake(on
the right) where we were spending tonight at. Its 2.5 K from one end of
the lake to the other. |
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| Trevor on the trail standing by the "sliver" of snow which is
about 20 ft deep and about 60 ft long. |
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| The tunnel is cut from solid rock, through about 180ft.
Horses will also go through it from time to time. |
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| This is the view from the other side of the tunnel looking
towards Many Glacier. Ptarmigan lake is in the foreground with Mt Wilbur
in the background. This is 3 pictures stuck together to make the one. As
if you didn't notice... |
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| Trevor trying out the out door pit toilet at Elizabeth Lake(foot). We
didn't tell him about the other pit toilet that had a roof, walls AND a
door until the next day. |
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| The sun drops and the silouette of one mountain range creeps
up the other range. The shadow has just covered up the bit of snow on the
trail at the tunnel where we were earlier in the day. |
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Day Four:
We climbed the same trail to the junction and then headed up to Red Gap
Pass. This view shows Helen lake in the distance, further along the trail
from Elizabeth Lake. |
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| Here I am climbing a fairly steep section of the Red Gap Pass |
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| Robert getting very close to the summit of Red Gap Pass |
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| Adam and Trevor resting on the summit of the Red Gap Pass, 7640 feet
above sea level. About 2800 feet above the lake. |
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| Trevor, Adam and Robert on the Summit. We're ready to head
down the other side at this point. |
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| The view from Red Gap Pass looking towards Many Glacier. Not as
impressive as on the north side. |
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| As we descended on the south side of Red Gap Pass this was
the view off to our right. I think the lake is Kennedy Lake wth Mt. Henkel
in the background. |
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| The trail often had huge plums of bear grass. Adam and Trevor are
checking the map. Eight hours after leaving Elizabeth lake we arrived at Poia Lake. |
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| Robert with the setting sun glowing on the mountain range |
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Day Five:
This is the view from Poia Lake camp ground looking back towards Red Gap Pass.
From here we hiked about 6 miles to our vehicle at the trail head near
Many Glacier Camp Ground. With about 30 minutes left in the hike we heard
a crashing in the bushes to our right about 75 feet away and we just
caught site of what appeared to be a grizzly bear lumbering through the
bushes trying to get away from us. Its fur was a bright reddy orange. |
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| Trevor and our tents. The total of the hike turned out to be almost 40
miles. |
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