Glacier National Park - to CDA, Idaho

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

I think you all realize that needless to say, my sleep last night was wanting. A Toyota Corolla is not made for anything longer than six feet, and so to try and maximize my sleeping potential by staying up late. But still, I got up early. Looking at the plan for the day, it seemed natural to drive back through the park and find Hidden Lake, since I had plenty of time. So that’s what I did.

Up top, I parked, now it was 8:00 am.  (Took 1.75 hours to get here from the campground - 45 miles.) Not too many people around, which was nice - because I am trying to experience the great outdoors, and that just helps if there’s not thousands of people trying to do the same thing right next to you. But the longer I hiked, the fewer the people. All in all I hiked down to the lake, crossing the continential divide twice (once on the way back.) The hike to the bottom and back was 5.6 miles, and took me 4 hours. Granted I wasn’t just trying to run it as fast as I could. Had to take pictures from time to time. It’s a 482’ vertical climb, then down 820’ to the lake, which of course gets reversed on the way back.
Parking was at a premium, and probably could have sold my parking spot. One fellow (on behalf of his family) asked if he could follow me to my car and take my spot. Easy for him, I was #2 down the row. Even then I had to ward off one other trying to get my (now his) spot. But in the wilderness, we are all friends, and there was no hard feelings.
Eating my last 2 hot dogs on the way down (noon by now) to St. Mary, I didn’t stop for anything else this day. My goal was to drive around the south side and head home before the fireworks.
Drive was good, but long. 385 miles to get home, at about 7:00 hours. I did take the long way, could have been around 4, but I figured I would take advantage of the time and high mileage and see something extra.
Made it home by 5:30 PST, and Derek called. Good thing too, because I would have forgotten to pick he and Chantal up at the airport. But I had time for a shower, supper, nap, some TV, fireworks, before arriving at the airport at 12:30 AM.
Good to see them again, but it was getting late!