July 24 - Glacier N.P. Walk along Highline Trail, Montana

We had purchased tickets for a new "Ride and Stride" program in Glacier National Park, in which we would be ferried from Apgar Village up to Logan Pass in one of those big old open roof cherry red touring cars from the 1930s. Then we would hike Highline Trail along the crest of the Continental Divide. Although the price was $30 apiece, the combination of being chauffeured up the Going to the Sun highway in an antique, open top touring car and then having a four hour Ranger led hike was so attractive that we took the plunge. So we had a quick breakfast of cold cereal and made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to take with for lunch before we jumped into the truck for the short hop over to Apgar Village.

Our tour group consisted of 9 persons: 2 newlyweds on their honeymoon, a woman our age with 6 kids and 12 grandchildren, a man our age having a birthday jaunt, and an older couple with the husband's sister in tow, and us, The Mad Virginians. We boarded this huge old White touring car that was about 9' wide by 23' long, sitting 3 abreast on four long bench seats that could easily take 4 and probably 5 in a pinch. Ordinarily, vehicles over 8' wide and 21' long are prohibited on the Going to the Sun highway, but these antiques had special permission to make the run. I was relieved that Ford Motor Company had rebuilt them all in 1999 and even converted the fleet to running on propane rather than gasoline. It is possible, of course, that it was just cheaper to do that than rebuild the 70-year-old carburetors. But in any case the conversion reduced the emissions to near zero; I couldn't smell a thing even when three other touring cars were stopped ahead of us at a light.

We chugged up the road toward Logan Pass with our top rolled down as it was a perfectly clear, sunny day, and I enjoyed panoramic vistas of the mountains through the window and through the roof! The driver was, as I expected, an expert at maneuvering a car near right at the width limit of the road around obstructions both natural (think rock walls hanging over us and huge boulders reaching out to touch us) and vehicular (think rock heads driving with their wheels over the double line). We had scene after scene of awe inspiring vistas of snow dappled mountain peaks above us and verdant forests and valleys below us as we switched back and forth up the side of the mountain ridge to arrive at the parking lot at the Visitor Center at Logan Pass. Great fun!

The Columbian Ground Squirrels at the Visitor Center and along the trail acted for all the world like prairie dogs; they stood up at the mouth of their burrows and yipped at us as we walked by. The only big difference was a slightly different color of fur and these rodents had a piping squeak rather than a barking yap like the prairie dogs we had seen earlier in the trip in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Then it was time for us to saddle up and walk northbound on the Highline Trail. Our full time Ranger was Melissa and our summer intern Ranger was Cathy, both very nice. Melissa knew the plants and Cathy knew the names of every peak in sight, so between them we had any information we could desire except "Did Lance Armstrong win his sixth Tour De France?" Melissa led the parade along the trail while Cathy rode sweep on our outbound leg, and what a trail it was! After an initial descent of about 200 feet we leveled out and just walked straight out along a rock ledge cut into the ridge of Continental Divide mountains called the "Garden Wall". We had a quarter mile or so of a trail about 18 inches to two feet wide beside a sheer drop off of well over a thousand feet on our left and cliffs rising equally sheer upwards on our right. Our only comfort was a steel lifeline covered in garden hose that we could grab onto if we felt faint or started to slide. It wasn't much, but it was certainly better than nothing! We quickly found out that this trail is definitely NOT, repeat NOT for those with agoraphobia, a fear of heights, or a disturbed sense of balance. However, it certainly did not disturb a marmot who climbed around the rocks.

We passed across the cliff and continued on through a landscape of subalpine tundra. I was surprised that so many flowers were in bloom. I think they were literally in a hurry to bloom because their growing season in the sub-alpine zone was quite short. I had a lot of fun photographing bear grass (I think), forget-me-nots, and Columbine, among others, and hassling Ranger Melissa about their proper names. It was a brilliant if evanescent display of fragile but colorful blossoms that contrasted strikingly with the rather stark and severe mountain landscape.

Although climactically severe for the residents, several of whom had to hibernate the winters away, the landscape was absolutely fantastic for us visiting humans. As we walked along the air was so clear and the mountains so big that you felt like you could reach out and touch them. The vistas were panoramic and difficult to capture correctly on an average camera, but they certainly were glorious. The ridge of the Continental Divide loomed above us about as vertical and steep as the walls of an ancient castle, while across from us a forest of peaks sprinkled with snowfields and glaciers reared their heads into the cloudless azure sky. If we hadn't been already breathless from hiking along at 6000 feet, it would have been enough to take our breath away!

I had joked at the beginning of the walk about meeting a bear, and that was not to be, but I was absolutely stunned at the wildlife that we did get to see. Part of that was due to the fact that this trail is the only good route through that part of the mountains, and it turned out the big horn sheep and mountain goats had to use it as well. We were asked by Ranger Melissa to stand to the side of the trail and let the animals pass as it was, after all, their park and home, and we had to do that at least four times during the walk. We were passed on the trail by the male bighorn sheep, which is the guy with the fluffy white pelt and big, curly horns, and I also caught a glimpse of a female bighorn with much shorter and stubbier horns near Logan Pass.

I saw an example of what I would call reasoning in the behavior of the male bighorn sheep that was just fascinating. He saw a pack of us on the trail, so many that we were really not able to vacate the trail very well. With an almost audible sniff and shake of his head, he trotted around us about 5 feet below the trail until he reached the waterfall area at the next bend in the trail. Then he started up toward a tree-lined section of the trail, saw another pair of humans walking down it, and reversed course, taking to the high ground above the waterfall. As soon as that pair was safely past he bounded back down to the path and walked through the forested section out of our sight. I am convinced that he saw the pair coming, realized they could not get far enough off the path to let him pass, extrapolated the fact that they would continue walking past him if he just got far enough off the path, and immediately put that plan into effect. I know I will be accused of anthropomorphizing, but I feel certain that these wild cousins of our domestic sheep have a whole lot more intelligence. Ranger Melissa said that when they were in rut in the fall and went into their head butting routine to establish dominance of the herd, you could hear that banging for miles down the valleys.

We also were passed by at least three separate pairs of female mountain goats with tiny little kids in tow. The kids were so cute! The nanny goats were, however, understandably nervous to be around a cluster of people with their offspring, so we all tried to avoid making loud noises or sudden movements when we vacated the trail for them. One sniffed at me a bit while I was taking her picture, but she didn't seem too disturbed by it all.

Our lunch was an al fresco snack of PBJ sandwiches while sitting on some boulders lining the trail. You certainly could not improve the dining area view! After lunch we climbed to the top of the next saddle point for a view to the south. A surprising number of people were up there enjoying the mountain vistas and the great scene of jumbled snow-capped peaks laid out in front of us.

But then we had to hustle back down the trail to rejoin the touring car for the ride back down to Apgar. The gentleman right behind me falling heavily on the trail gave me a bit of a start; I had been watching Monika just ahead in case she had difficulties but instead it was the guy behind! Fortunately he didn't roll off the side of the trail and fall into the valley, so I helped him up and then kept an eye on him for the rest of the walk as well as Monika. But in the event we all arrived safely and had another wonderful ride down the mountainside in the grand old White/Ford touring car.

I can certainly recommend this Ride and Stride program to any Volksmarchers, but you must be in decent shape, wear real hiking boots (the rocks were sharp), bring water and food, and expect a difficulty level between 3 (Monika's estimate) and 4 (my estimate). One thing is sure, we were totally exhausted when we returned to camp and fell into bed for a nap, aroused ourselves with difficulty for dinner, and fell back into bed that evening to finished "Campion's Quarry" and then sack out.