In late July I spent five great days at Two Medicine – one of my happy places! On Saturday, I hiked up to Pitamakin Pass then over to Cut Bank Pass for a quick off trail climb up McClintock Peak. The wildflowers were amazing and I was thankful for the afternoon clouds and rain shower that kept it a little less hot. Sunday was a rest day, so that I could restore my energy for a big climb on Monday, Rising Wolf Mountain with GMS. I attempted Rising Wolf several years ago and got within 1,500 feet (distance) of the summit before having to turn around due to snow blocking the route and not having crampons. This time we made it to within about 700 feet of the summit before we saw three grizzly bears hanging out in the snow just below our route. We watched for a few minutes but they weren’t interested in leaving their cool hangout near the summit, so sadly we turned around, but not before watching them on the move (video). We also had a mountain goat wander by as we were eating lunch (video). Sue came up Monday evening and we enjoyed a relaxing day on Tuesday, picking some huckleberries and splashing around in Pray Lake.

The Jasper portion of our Canada trip got cancelled due to wildfire, so we came home early and decided to do an easy backpack in Glacier instead. We chose to explore Goat Haunt, as we hadn’t visited that area of the park before. So we drove up and spent the night in Waterton before catching the boat to Goat Haunt. Our first night was at Kootenai Lake and I made it part way to Porcupine Lookout before turning around due to weather. Our second night was at Waterton River, with side hikes to Rainbow Falls and the Goat Haunt Overlook.

My seven night backpack into the North Fork in late August turned into a bit more of an adventure than expected. When I left, the weather forecast looked great – getting colder for a day during the middle of my trip, but only a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms on a couple of days. And for the first three days, the weather was indeed great. The eleven mile trek into Upper Kintla was a grind with my heavy pack, but I made good time and I was happy to snag the only campsite with a decent wind block for my tent, as it was quite windy (there were whitecaps on the lake). It was nice to have three nights at Upper Kintla, as it gave me one day to relax by the lake and a second to do a hike up to Boulder Peak. The views from Boulder Peak are amazing in all directions!

On the morning of my fourth day, I broke camp and headed up to Boulder Pass with my slightly lighter pack. The trail gossip had been that the weather was changing, so I got an early start and was glad I did. When I got to Boulder Pass, the wind was gusting and the clouds were starting to roll in, so I used my Garmin inReach to pull a weather forecast and learned that afternoon storms were coming soon and, more importantly, it was likely to start snowing by early the next morning. I hurried to get my camp chores done – tent set up and guyed out, water filtered, containers filled, and gear stashed in the tent. I also had the good fortune to be sharing the camp with a Glacier Guides group and they were carrying a big tarp that we set up over the food prep area. I hunkered down in my tent as the storms started, and exchanged a few messages with Sue to confirm that there was a winter weather advisory for the next day, with the possibility of 3 to 6 inches of snow over 5,000 feet. Now it was clear that the next 36 hours were going to be an adventure, as Boulder Pass campsite is at 7,200 feet and Hole in the Wall is at 6,300 feet!

The snow was predicted to start around 6 AM on Wednesday, so I set my alarm for then with the hope of getting packed up before it got too bad. And I was in luck, as there was just a bit of graupel on my tent and it wasn’t snowing when I broke camp. It started snowing in earnest during breakfast and it continued snowing as I hiked from Boulder Pass to Hole in the Wall. But fortunately the snow wasn’t that deep yet, so it was pretty easy to follow the trail. I picked a campsite at Hole in the Wall that had lots of trees around it, so that I could set up my magic white tarp first, then pitch my tent underneath the tarp. It took a couple of hours to get everything set up, but I succeeded in keeping my tent and my sleep kit dry. I’m so thankful that I brought the tarp, as I don’t think my ultralight tent would have done very well with the wet heavy snow. By 1 PM, I was tucked into my sleeping bag to try and get warm, but I had to poke my head out every 30 minutes or so to knock snow off the tarp, so it wasn’t a restful afternoon. The Glacier Guides group had moved to Hole in the Wall too, so dinner was happily under their tarp again. After dinner, I measured about 8 inches of snow, and it wasn’t done yet – I’m guessing we got about 12 inches before it turned to heavy rain later in the evening and finally stopped around midnight.

My fantasy of waking up to bright blue skies the next morning was just that, a fantasy. It was cloudy and foggy, which made for a cold and wet pack up. I hiked over to Brown Pass with the Glacier Guides group before they headed east to Lake Frances while I dropped down to the Brown Pass campsite. The fog didn’t break until mid afternoon, but I still got my tent and tarp mostly dry. Then I did an afternoon hike over to Lake Frances, and seeing that beautiful valley and the lake bathed in sunshine really saved the day. The rest of my trip was uneventful – a nice hike down to Bowman Lake with great views back up to Boulder Pass and the Hole in the Wall cirque, a lazy afternoon and evening hanging out at the head of Bowman Lake, and a mellow hike out the last day to meet Sue on the Bowman Lake trail.

So now I’ve been to Hole in the Wall and had an incredibly unique experience too!