Beaver Pond Loop

After a pleasant night in our wooded campsite at Rising Sun, it was time for a first hike. As we are sea-level folks in an alpine environment, we want to acclimatize slowly and get some hiking legs (especially Steve). Last year one of our first hikes was a 10 mile round-trip hike up to Piegan Pass with about 2000 feet of altitude gain from our campsite. It nearly killed me (Steve). We decided to start a little smaller this time, the 3.5 mile Beaver Pond Loop, with only 600 feet of climbing.

The Beaver Pond Loop is not far from the St. Mary Visitor Center at the bottom of St. Mary Lake, starting at the 1913 Historic Ranger Station, which we stopped to visit before our hike. This cabin and its barn (rangers had horses then) have been restored to their original state. The cabin has three rooms and a giant upper level loft. The cabin is a log building and the interior is clad in bead board. There is a main room, bedroom and kitchen. The main room and kitchen have working period wood stoves (not in the summer, of course).

It isn't used as a ranger station any longer, but is currently open as an art project center. The primary project at the moment is the creation of an annual mural, painted by visitors to the cabin. It is mostly completed, but at the volunteer's urging, Ellen and I added our half-dozen brush strokes each. There have been nearly 700 contributors to the painting, some, real artists, have done much more than us.

Visit over, it was off to the trail. We did it in a counter-clockwise direction. The first half of the hike was along the Red Eagle trail which start off by paralleling the lake before heading away from the shore and uphill into a dying spruce forest. Spruce budworm and pine bark beetles are devastating many of the trees in the park. They are both native pests, but in the past the cold winters have killed enough to keep them in check. With the current climate changes, not only are the glaciers disappearing from the park, but many of the trees as well.

The trail opened into series of wildflower meadows with much in bloom and an abundance of birdlife. Ellen had her new binoculars and there was much to try and identify as we slowly proceeded. At about 2 miles along, the Beaver Pond Trail branched off at an acute angle and we headed back along it. It was a much narrower and less used trail that went through woods and meadows on the other side of the hill. It passed close to a classic beaver pond, complete with beaver dam and lodge. We walked down to the pond, but were unable to find any beaver, although we were assured that they were in residence. There were a few common goldeneye swimming and diving on the pond and also some red-winged blackbirds.

We then noticed that we were standing in a huckleberry patch, a few were ripe for the sampling. They are tasty, but, at least in my opinion, not as tasty as wild blueberries. Fortunately for us, the patch was a week or two from ripe, else we might have been sharing them with bears, one of their favorite foods.

We then descended through a wood to return to historic ranger station and Speedy, just in time for lunch. It was a pleasant location, with a cool breeze, so we lunched in Speedy. As it was relatively close to St. Mary, it had reasonable wireless access, so we took the time to upload photos, edit the Speedy Journal and collect email.

With the technology chores done, we returned to Rising Sun for real showers and a afternoon of rest and relaxation.

After dinner, it was off to the evening ranger talk on alpine beauty, given by a loquacious and humorous ex-teacher (not the first we've encountered) who, after several anecdotes (and bad puns) began the presentation by passing around a cookie tray of old bear scat.

Photos: Beaver Pond Walk - Glacier National Park