The Dipper is elusive no more.
It rained heavily overnight and everything outside was quite wet this morning. We had been good about putting most stuff away at night. There are bears in Glacier, you know. The only thing we left out was our doormat and it was dripping wet. The water just poured off when we hung it up to dry. It was so wet that the bottom few inches were still soaking wet by 3 pm.
It was a day for a hike. After Ellen and Sally did their morning bird walk around the campground, we got ready to leave...daypacks and bear spray for all. It was Speedy's turn to be the ferry vehicle. Everyone except Nina (dogs aren't allowed on the trails...bears, you know!), piled into Speedy for a drive up to the far end of Lake McDonald. We were taking a lesser used trail up along McDonald Creek, past McDonald Falls and the Sacred Dancing Cascades to a marshy ox-bow in the creek where Moose might be present. It is about 5 miles roundtrip.
It didn't take long to get to the trailhead. As it was still early, we were able to park Speedy with no hassles. The trail runs right along the creek although it is usually well above it. This was probably a good thing since the creek was in full flow from the spring snow melt. Both the falls and the cascades were really churning. This was no place to fall in. About a mile up the trail there is a bridge across the creek. We walked out onto the bridge to get a good view of the churning creek as it crashed under the bridge.
As we looked upstream, we noticed a rock sticking out of the water. It had a bird on it. It was the elusive American Dipper. A new life bird and one we had been looking for since our first trip out west when it was supposed to be found in Zion NP. It isn't much of a bird, small, pudgy and all gray, but it is unique in that it lives where there is rushing water and feeds by diving into strong currents water and feeding underwater. Sure enough, it jumped right in, popped up a ways downstream, then flew upstream to try again. We saw several more as we continued our hike upstream.
We finally reached the quiet part of the creek, actually an ox-bow bend where a marshy area splits off from the main flow. It was a lot quieter there, compared to the roaring waters of the cascades and the falls. It was perfect moose habitat, but we saw no moose. There was a beaver dam and lodge, but the beavers were not to be seen either. Time for the trek back to Speedy.
The trailhead parking was full by the time we got to the end of the trail and we passed several groups coming up as we went down.
The next stop was Apgar village. Sally and Ellen wanted to try to find the Red-necked Grebes and Spotted sandpipers I'd seen yesterday while fishing. We had to find a place to park Speedy first and that wasn't to be found. A sunny Sunday in June makes for a crowded Apgar Village. It was back to camp to clean up, sit back and shower.
Another nice outdoor dinner was to be had and we just about finished up with dinner when it started to rain. The prediction is for rain overnight, but it should be another nice day tomorrow. I wonder what that will bring.
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