Coram, MT - Up That Mountain

On Sunday we arrived in Coram, MT. and parked right next to Tom, our brother-in-law, the husband of Big Gar’s sister, Cathy.

He’s out here in preparation for a great adventure; a 10-day, 450 mile bike ride over the Continental Divide from Banff, Canada to Whitefish, MT. He’s been practicing for this on all the trails he can find in Iowa but trail biking in Iowa is not really the best place to gear up for mountain biking along the Continental Divide. So, he’s traveling in his Winnebago View and has spent the last two weeks in Idaho and Montana riding the mountains as much as he can. He actually rode up the Going to the Sun Road in the park here, all the way to the highest point at Logan Pass, 17 miles and countless feet in elevation. Good job, Tom.

By the way, and here’s the disclosure, I’ve used some of Tom’s photos of Glacier here in my blog - since he biked up the Going to the Sun Road, he was able to get some places that we didn’t while we were in the shuttle.

Now, he’s going to do some hiking with us and relax from the biking for a bit. And, did we ever find a good hike to begin with. In fact, it’s one of the best hikes I’ve ever done and I’ll guess that the two guys would say the same thing.

Over dinner last night with Tom, we all decided to hike the Granite Chalet Hike, 8 miles, 2300’. Yeah, none of us has hiked for a while, let’s do 8 miles and 2300’. Great idea, But then Tom, who regularly gets up about 4:30, suggested that we meet at 6:30 so we could drive over to the Park and take the express shuttle at 7:00. Gary and I quickly make time calculations in our minds and realized that we’d have to get up at 5:15. Awww.

And, when the alarm rang at 5:15, we groaned, grumbled but dutifully got up, had breakfast and got to the car to meet Tom for the drive. Is anyone awake here?

We were the third group in line at the shuttle but the other groups were big and, by the time they got to, us they only had room for 2. So we 3 got on the 7:20 shuttle. These are free shuttles and run quite regularly through the park. They obviously keep cars out of the park and are extremely convenient, especially since this is an express shuttle and makes no other stops until ours.

We got off at the tail head and took the obligatory trail head pictures.

Do we look awake? Do we look ready for this hike? Note how warmly dressed we are But, the sun is up, and we started up the trail. We hit a neat bridge over this rushing stream.

Easy peasy for the first mile - and then it began inexorably to rise, and rise and rise some more. Long traverses that circled the mountain we were on - only to begin a large circle around the next mountain. But because the trees in this section had burned, the views were absolutely amazing as we climbed higher and higher. Back in 2003, the Trapper Fire ‘spread like wildfire’ and spread from the nearby mountainsides, across the Going to the Sun road and up this slope. It was finally put out but not after destroying many acres of lodgepole pine. Interestingly, lodgepole pine cones need fire to open and begin to grow. So, in the ashes of this fire was born the forest of the future. A few hours to change the landscape, a few decades for the forest to return. So sad to see magnificent trees dead but this is the way of the forest - renewal by fire. And, look at all the new greenery already growing.

Then we hit the tree line and the forest began. But so did the snow since, with the forest cover the snow never saw the sun. But, what is this? A passage way through the snow which looks as if it was made with a shovel. We heard from some other hikers that the snow used to be at least 7’ on either side. It’s melting fast but not fast enough that it doesn’t need to be shoveled.

Sure enough, here’s John who shovels the trails for hikers. You’ve got to be kidding? Shovel trails? For hikers? come on, hikers can take it as it comes. Well, not quite here. You see, they have reservations for the Granite Chalet and don’t want to lose them. John’s been out here shoveling for several days now.

And, look, he even shovels steps for us.

We saw this guy on the trail and he seemed so tame that he munched and munched pretty well ignoring us, although, he must think he’s hidden from in the bushes.

We finally got to a place where it was not so obvious where the trail went, until Tom turned around and saw a sign that said: ‘Chalet’ with a sign pointing up. And, sure enough, there it was, a large 2-story chalet with a maintenance shed, a 4-room motel and an outside pit toilet. WOW, at the top of the mountain. What a place to stay. (By the way, you can buy the food package and the linen package in addition to the base chalet price.) BUT, and here’s the catch: you have to hike up to the Chalet. On our way up we met about 6 people heading down after their night in the Chalet and a large group of 10 from youngsters of 8 or 9 to grandparents in their 60’s, who had spent 2 nights there.

At the top were several picnic tables spread out around the grounds and other day hikers were there. But, look at the view we had, 360 degrees of this. What could be more magnificent?

I think I’ll just show some pictures or our views as we all ate. Interestingly, we 3 had brought peanut butter and jelly, the three at the next table had also and the woman at the third table. I guess we all got the lunch memo.

Looks like this little guy has been fed by previous hikers since he’s so tame and poses so well. ‘Hey, look at me, aren’t I cute? Do you have any food for me?

Here’s the lodge. You have to hike up to it along the trail we took and take your own toiletries and changes of clothing but you can buy the linen package and the food package. If you want to take your own food and linens you can. The lodge even has rooms for families with bunk beds. One of the buildings is two stories while the other looks more like a motel. You can see the dirty linen on the window sills here. Usually they use mules to take the food and linens up and down the trail but there is too much snow now so they have several ‘sherpas’, people hired to schlep linens and food up the trail.

BTW, the pit toilet is just out side the second building, about 20’ across the ‘yard.’

We spent about an hour at the top and then began the descent which went down as inexorably as it went up. We met this little guy on the way down. These deer are so used to people that they don’t even move.

Definitely one of the best hikes we’ve ever taken: the hike itself was a good workout, the company was stupendous, of course, but the WOW factor throughout the hike and at the end was the best. Gary and I had to admit to Tom that taking the 7:00 shuttle was the best since the clouds had begun to roll in and a haze had developed by the time we began our descent.

While we were waiting for the shuttle, I caught this. I’ve tried over and over again to get a butterfly picture but they move too fast. I didn’t even think I had gotten this one but guess I did.

On the way down the road on the shuttle, I got this picture of one of the valleys carved by the glaciers.

Look at all those views - no wonder we all thought it one of our best hikes ever.

9.5 2345’