More Acclimatization

Today's plan was for another short hike, but after changing campsites. Our initial site was in a heavily wooded section of Rising Sun Campground under a group of large trees. It was cool and shady, but had no view. Last year, we were at the south end of the campground in an open site looking out at the lake and up at the mountains. Even at National Parks, the campground tends to turn over a bit on Sundays and most of the south end sites were expected to be vacated this morning.

However, the campground usually fills, at this time of year, by 10 AM. People start arriving around 7:30 AM, circling like vultures, looking for an open site (we've been guilty, too). This required a bit of guile to get the site we wanted. There were actually two candidates, the site we had last year, occupied by a Class C motorhome, and the on next to it, a family in tents. At about 7, coffee in hand, I took a casual stroll around the loop.

The motorhome still had its shades drawn and it was unclear if they would be leaving. The family was having breakfast and packing up. A quick discussion back in Speedy and we decided to go with the bird in hand. I walked back down to the family, site fee tag in hand and asked if I could take their site. It was no problem and they would be leaving by 9. Mission accomplished. At 9, we moved Speedy down to our new site... just as the motorhome was leaving the other one. We now have a view of the mountains and a peek at the lake.

Off to today's hike. We had planned to take the shuttle bus up to Logan Pass and do the hike to the Hidden Lake overlook, about three miles round trip, but at a much higher altitude. The additional mile down to the lake and back was closed due to bears. We'd never even seen this hike before, except on a map.

The shuttle connection went smoothly and as we arrived at the nearly full Logan Pass parking lot, we saw a couple on BMWs pull in. We had to stop to talk as they had the same bikes as ours, hers an F650GS single and his an F800GS. They were from Saskatchewan and out motorcycle camping in Montana.

Then it was off to the trail, where we realized that it was a paved walk filled with people, obviously popular with day visitors to Logan Pass. This was not what we expected. Time for Plan B. Fortunately, the Highline Trail starts right across the road from the parking lot. We decided to take that one, a good decision. The trail runs for about 10 miles traversing the south side of the Garden Wall up to Swiftcurrent Pass and provides an expansive view to the southern range of mountains and their valleys. We only walked out 2.75 miles for a 5.5 mile hike, but it was relatively uncrowded, we had lunch along the trail, saw Bighorn sheep and many ground squirrels and I got to cool my feet in a mountain cascade that crossed the trail—a good second day hike.

Photos: The Highline Trail