Today it was off to the woods for the first time, a short hike to Virginia Falls via Baring Falls and St. Mary Falls. It was only five miles, but took us over three hours. We wanted a relatively easy start since we are sea-level folks at almost a mile elevation--and we've been sitting in a van for a week.
We took the park shuttle bus up to the Sunrift Gorge stop. From there it was only about a quarter mile down to the falls and then onward to the trail along St. Mary Lake. Of the three falls we saw today, this was probably the smallest, but it had plenty of crystal clear water running over it. The walk from there along the lake to the St. Mary Falls trail, was pretty quiet with some great vistas over the lake.
We stopped along the way at a boat dock used by the tour boat from Rising Sun to drop off passengers who can then walk to St. Mary Falls. We could see the boat cruising along the lake, which, at this time, was as smooth as glass. The boat and the mountains above were mirrored by the lake. As we walked on, the boat turned at the head of the lake and passed by on the way to that dock.
Once we got to the intersection with the St. Mary Falls trail, it became significantly less peaceful. It was obviously one of the more popular short walks from the roadside parking lot to the falls. The falls itself was quite spectacular, with a log bridge running over the gorge below the falls to a pool in the river below, then onward into the west end of St. Mary Lake. There were lots of people there, including some swimming in the pool below the bridge. It looked pretty cold to me.
The trail from there up to Virginia Falls was a bit less crowded, but there were still a fair number of people who passed us on the trail. I'm a pretty slow hiker, much to Ellen's dismay, and lots of other hikers passed us. I think of it as meandering. I even had my Christmas bear bells attached to my hiking pole, but with all the traffic, we definitely were not going to run into any bears today.
Once you get to Virginia Falls, the tallest of the three, the trail splits. One way goes over a bridge where you can look up to the falls and the other goes up to an overlook right at the base, where you are close enough to feel the spray mist from the falls. We went up to the overlook first and were surprised to see the Winder family reunion, about 50 strong, all wearing blue tee-shirts filling the overlook. We knew it was the Winder family, because that's what it said on their tee shirts. Needless to say, we didn't stay long and retreated to the lower trail, where we crossed the bridge, found a spot with a great view, up into the falls and the mist, took a seat and had lunch.
After lunch we headed back down the trail, past St. Mary Falls and its crowds and came out at the St. Mary Falls Shuttle Stop for a total hike of exactly five miles. We took the bus back to the campground and missed the lodge's espresso cart by two minutes. It closes at 2 PM, the bus dropped us off at 2:02. No permanent harm done--I just made myself one when we got back to Speedy.
After showers, a short thunderstorm and a good dinner--penne with fresh tomatoes, chicken sausage and fresh basil from our garden--we went off to tonight's campfire circle talk (with no campfire, however). Tonight's talk was really good. It was not the scheduled talk, but was, instead, about bears and how they think--maybe.
The presenter was the head interpretive ranger for this end of the park and had about 30 years of experience. He is one of the few permanent staff at the park, normally an administrator, but seemed really glad to be able to step in and give a talk. He spent 12 years in Alaska working with bears, so knew his subject and was good at presenting it. It was one of the best ranger talks, we've attended.
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