Posted on by Ema Barnes

Canada: Calgary

Calgary consisted of a perfect three nights spent with one of my favourite people. We didn’t really do a lot, but ate a lot of food and drunk some Canadian beer.

The highlight of the trip for me was buying ingredients for sandwiches and sitting in the sun at Prince Island Park. I was highly amused to see the abundance of Pokemon Go players–this was the first time I had been in so much as a town since May–but enjoyed seeing people living their lives.

Another standout was the Calgary luge. I’d been luging in New Zealand when I was eleven and it was a lot of fun to relive the experience of letting gravity pull my go-kart-like vehicle all the way down the track.

But by far my favourite part was the company.

Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Mount Wilbur

Looking back on these pictures I find myself thinking “Wow, that view was incredible; I should totally do Wilbur again.” No. While I was going up–and while I was going down–I thought to myself multiple times that I was never going to let myself do this again so I’d better enjoy the views while I could. However, being able to see all over the region–to see all the way up Ptarmigan Tunnel and over to Lake Elizabeth; to see the Chain Lakes; to look out at the distance to Swiftcurrent Pass and the far off Grinnell Glacier Overlook–I’ve got to say it was a fabulous culminating hike to see where I’d been going all season.

For someone with rock climbing experience, Wilbur might be an easy climb; however, I hadn’t climbed so much as Mt. Altyn, the easiest off-trail climb in the park. I was diving straight in, and it was a horrible idea–with such sheer cliffs and exposure, I definitely could have fallen to my death at many points.

Huge shout out to Josh who took me with him for firstly coercing me into coming, but for being incredibly patient with me, helping when I couldn’t for the life of me find hand grips, laughing at my quivering legs, and most of all for never asking me if I wanted to turn back.

Photo courtesy of Josh Coon.
Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Sunrise at Sun Point

After a night of stargazing at Logan Pass, I came back to Many in time to wake up a few friends at 4:30am. We drove out to Sunrift Gorge and hiked the mile to Sun Point in time to watch the sky changing colour as the sun rose. The entire area was absolutely stunning, and gives the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone a run for its money. This was one of the most magical nights of my life, even though I was delirious at work the next day due to lack of sleep.

Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Gunsight Pass and Florence Falls

Gunsight Lake is my favourite lake, and Lake Ellen Wilson gives him a run for his money.

Florence Falls is my favourite waterfall. And the 1.2 miles there/back took me 40 minutes because I stopped and filled a ziploc bag with huckleberries!

Gunsight Pass is perfection. Other than my falling and opening up the knee I’d injured on Otakomi Lake a few weeks prior, this was an absolutely perfect hike. (Excluding the 1.6 miles from the Mt. Brown junction, which I had done about 9 times in the span of two weeks!)

Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Sperry Glacier and Fish Lake

After Highline, I didn’t think any trail was going to blow me away, but Sperry Glacier–words can’t. Pictures don’t even come close. Though it’s twenty miles round trip (22 if you tack on Fish Lake) and 4,900 feet of elevation from Lake MacDonald, it’s worth every step, and would be a lovely trip done after Gunsight Pass and camping or staying at Sperry Chalet.

The day started off perfectly when I hitched from my friend’s place in West Glacier to Lake MacDonald on a motorcycle! I was concerned when my bum knee started hurting on the flat section of road to the trailhead, but as soon as I hit trail around 8:30, it stopped completely. The day was perfectly clear and I was dripping with sweat as I climbed the first seven miles to the junction for Sperry Chalet.

I paused halfway up to the glacier, ate a sandwich, and giggled as I replied to texts–cell phone service is a rarity in Glacier. Once I climbed the final staircase to the actual glacier, fog rolled in and I threw all of my layers back on. The trail wasn’t clear, but there was always a pile of rocks in sight and I couldn’t help but grin as I jumped from cairn to cairn.

Goats are abundant near the top, and I have over 100 photos of them practically posing for me as they blocked the trail and almost brushed by me.

I do try to not post a million photos, but Sperry is just perfect.

Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Lake MacDonald Creek

Warning to all: there is no good place to ford Lake MacDonald Creek. This is a there and back trail, but there are human markers after the official trail ends, and one can see Going-to-the-Sun road across the river. Buuuuut there’s no way to get across.

I set off for the weekend by myself, having borrowed a proper backpack and a tent. I had a little trepidation about going entirely by myself, but I was excited to get away and didn’t want to waste a time because other people didn’t want to come with me! I figured that this would be a nice easy trail to start off with despite my heavy backpack, and hiked part of the way along John’s Lake trail to get to the trailhead. However, I’d fallen and bruised my knee pretty badly on Redgap Pass the day prior and though it hadn’t been terribly bad, it begun hurting like hell just before the end of the Lake MacDonald Creek trail.

As such, I thought it would be a good idea to skip the back part of the trail and just hitchhike, especially since I was planning to do climb almost 10,000 feet–and back down–in the coming two days. I spent about half an hour clambering around the off trail path looking for a safe place to forge, but found none. Grumpily, I limped back. Big shout out to the people who picked me up; hithchiking was much nicer than hiking the three miles to camp, and I ended up arriving just as dark fell.

Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Redgap Pass

I’d put in my three weeks notice and realised that I was running out of time to do all the hikes I wanted to do. As such, it made perfectly logical sense to me to witch my shifts in order to work an opening shift and then a closing shift and to attempt to do 34 miles and camp in the 23 hours in between. I coerced my lovely friend into coming with me, got myself a permit from the ranger station (“Make sure you leave early in the morning and give yourself plenty of time!”), and made a bunch of sandwiches.

We scraped off almost two miles by starting from the Many Glacier Entrance instead of the Poia Lake trailhead, but we paid by climbing the steepest section of trail in Glacier (in my opinion) that had me literally on my hands. We were making extremely good time though, even when we encountered a black bear that we practically had to chase down the trail. (I grabbed my phone with one hand and my bear spray with the other–I was proud of myself for not going just for the phone.) However, the half mile leading up to the pass and the mile coming down were the most windy I’d ever experienced. I’d thought Dawson Pass had been bad, but the wind had me sitting every few minutes and waiting for it to pass, and it literally blew my friend’s glasses off and away. Rest in rocks, glasses.

We made it to the head of Elizabeth Lake at about 10:30 PM, two miles away from Lake Helen, where we were supposed to camp. There was a free campsite there and we decided that no one else would be dumb enough to arrive so late, so we took it, arriving the latest and leaving before almost everyone was up the next morning. The one man we saw I later ran into at work and chatted with; later that day, a lady mentioned having just been backcountry camping and it turned out that she and her friends had planned to camp at the head of Lake Elizabeth but had been so tired that when they got to the earlier campsite at the foot, they had asked to share a campsite. I thanked her profusely for saving my friend and I four miles!

Photo courtesy of Nathan Sierra.
Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Firebrand Pass

This after work hike was one that could only be described as perfect. My friend and I took a nap straight after our opening shift and then headed out for the hour and a half drive to the Southeast side of the park, the first and only time I went through Browning. My refrain of the day became “Montdamna” because I just couldn’t handle how gorgeous all the land was.

Before we got to the top of the pass, just as we hit the switchbacks designed to make our legs ache, it started pouring, but the thunder clouds were magical to watch as they travelled around the valley. As we made our way back, the sky gave us a sunset show and the full moon rose.

It was dark by the time we drove back, but the stars were twinkling through the windows next to the moon. Then, lightning began striking off in the distance, flashes of light every minute or so lighting up the sky.

Though it was definitely partially due to the company, Firebrand Pass was a truly outstanding hike and marked one of the most perfect days of the summer.

 

Posted on by Ema Barnes

Glacier National Park: Highline Trail to Swiftcurrent Pass

I took 332 photos this day.
I daresay I adored this hike.

Beginning at Logan Pass, I took the Highline Trail through to Granite Park Chalet, taking a small off trail to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook. Though steep, that 0.6 miles leads to the most incredible view of the Chain Lakes and is well worth the time–and especially worth the extra clambering around at the top. I coincided with two former employees I’d briefly met before at Granite Park and hiked with them to the junction for Swiftcurrent Lookout. There, I went up and they went down. As I reached the top of the mountain, it began to pour. The fire warden up there left me strict instructions to tell everyone that he is very grumpy, but I was very appreciative of staying dry. Though the view was marred by the fog, I knew I only had downhill ahead of me.

Once I hit Bullhead Lake, I got grumpy at having to walk the four miles I’ve done so many times–sleep deprivation was kicking in and the high from the overlooks was wearing off. Because I’d spent an hour and a half at the top of Swiftcurrent, I knew there was no way I was making it back by dinner, so I just wanted them to be over. At Redrock Falls, I stopped singing to myself because I knew I was entering the most crowded part of the trail. And then–grizzly bear. Dead smack in front of me on the trail. Ugh. If it had been earlier in the day, I would have been excited, but I didn’t want to be held up just then. Thankfully, my yelling at him moved him off the trail quickly enough.

After Sperry Glacier, this was my favourite hike in the park. The fog all over the park that day only added to the mystique of the trail, which offers fabulous views of Going-to-the-Sun road and the entire valley.