I liked it instantly. A hikers (or fell runners) paradise. One problem. Bears. Grizzley ones. Yellowstone had them, but Glacier. Glacier has one of the worlds highest concentrations of them. Hiking along was discouraged. Pepper spray encouraged. Amid a lot of bear joke tent stone throwing we were all nervous camping out for the first night. Warning signs all over the camp site enforcing the NO FOOD rule, it all had to be locked in metal containers, and all rubbish disposed of in bear proof bins. We were told bears do trundle through the site at night, and any food they get hold of in the site just makes them want to come back for more.
The next morning we heard that some plonkers at the site had intentionally left food out for a bear to come. And it did. Although we didn't hear anything more about it, they were likely fined, and we know that the Rangers had to hunt out the bear and shoot it. Bears that eat human food, even just once, will continue to come back to the camp site and therefore pose a risk to us and everyone else down there. The hiking was therefore like nothing I'd done before. We had to talk constantly, clap hands, make lots of noise to let the bears know that we were coming. So off into the hills me and Zoe (my photograph buddy) trundled, a 12 mile hile up to Grinnel Glacier. Like Antartica it was. Here's some of the photos we got:
One of the numerous bear warning signs. It's unlucky if you do get attacked, if you do come across one, it's most likely that any attack will be a bluff. But we were fully briefed on how to survive a one if we were approached! I've got to say. I was a bit scared! Especially as one whole mountain's trails had been closed due to numerous sightings of grizzleys!
Grinnel Lake. B-E-A-utiful.
Our camp site down at Many Glacier. Possibly the best place camp site in the world. Sleeping under the milky way and along side grizzley bears. Spectacular!
Perched on the edge. That was a long way down!!!
A massive rock we scrambled up close to the glacier.
Zoe and the glacier itself. Not bad for 65 millions years work!
The lake near where we camped, had to take a quick dip after a 6 miler up towards Iceberg Lake. Don't tell Mum, but kinda did that one on my own making a hell of a lot of noise! But don't worry there were lots of hikers about the bears are rarely sighted on that trail....I just couldn't resist it.... What a place. Pure. Wilderness.
No comments:
Post a Comment