Saturday, July 11 - Our Lake and Headquarters Pass

This was my scariest day on a mountain ever...

I met my friend Melody, her sister Shonie, and Shonie's boyfriend Dave at the trailhead at 8.  We planned to hike the easy trail up to Our Lake and then Shonie and Dave were going to do the "ridge walk" over to Headquarters Pass and Melody and I were going to see how that looked.   So we meandered up to Our Lake, which is just a beautiful, pleasant little bowl in the mountains. It was a nice, easy hike up.  This is one of the "bumper crop" years for Beargrass...it happens about once every 7 years that there is a TON of it and this is the year (and we were in MT 7 summers ago and I remember how much there was that year too).

Dave brought his dog, Brit (the lab) and he was dogsitting Hobbes while the family was in Glacier (yes, there is a little boy who is 7  :)    ).  I was thrilled to hike with dogs!  Here they are enjoying one of the snowfields:

Here is the lake's outlet:

A pretty lake, pretty valley, wildflowers, beautiful mountains in every direction.

Melody, Hobbes and me:

Shonie and Dave wanted to fish so Melody and Hobbes and I walked westward from the lake to explore.  I had fallen in love with Hobbes by then...he is one cool dog, very smart, very sweet.   I climbed up on this boulder (the only good way up is at the highest end) and took this picture looking back east:

and I heard something behind me.  Hobbes had clawed his way up onto the boulder!  He seemed quite pleased with himself.

We wandered up a little farther toward the saddle and thought about going up there but because of the scree/talus decided not to as we thought Shonie and Dave were going to want to head out.

This is a different talus slope to the north.  This would take a LONG time to climb:

We started back toward the lake and then a black bear appeared up on the saddle ridge...seemed like something had spooked him from that side but then he must have seen or heard us and he seemed uncertain where to go. He finally went back over to the other side.  We were glad Hobbes didn't see him.  Cute little bear...probably only 2 or 3 years old.
Tired out dog...he was running way up and behind and around us on the trail the entire day.

Brit quickly learned I was always good for a tummy rub...she's a sweet dog and it's amazing she's a great hiker/climber at age 10!

Scenery near Our Lake:

We saw a "sun dog"...my first. I took a picture by holding up my sunglasses and putting the camera lens up to the sungasses lens:

The group having lunch.

We left the lake and met a law enforcement ranger lunching up off trail...they have to wear bullet-proof vests even up there!   We then bushwhacked up a mountain above the lake. I was literally using trees to pull myself up.  It was a little scary but I was ok, I just took it one step at a time.  I was very happy with myself once I got up to the top.  I thought the hard part was behind us.  I had no idea the worst was yet to come. I had initially thought Dave had done this off trail climb before but he hadn't.  We saw about 10 mountain goats up there including some "kids"...very cute and nice to see them wilder than they are at Logan Pass (Glacier).  I found this interesting rock and Melody suggested I tell Jack it is a fossilized track of a "square toed behemoth".

Going up:

Looking down on Our Lake from above:

You can see some of the southernmost peaks of Glacier from up there!

It's a beautiful, high mountain saddle...

After leaving the saddle, Dave and Shonie went up to see the view from the ridge and Melody and I took off across a huge talus slope.  Talus is chunks of rock.  The problem was, this stuff seemed very, very unstable and I would have times where every rock I touched moved. This makes you feel (if you're me anyway) that the whole mountainside is going to slide down and take you with it.  It is very slow going and it was terrifying at times.  You can't do anything except keep going, yet you don't want to move because you're so scared.  I couldn't even enjoy the views. It took us hours and I bet we only went a half to 3/4 of a mile.  We thought we were close a few times and then had to keep going down more slopes that were even steeper.  Plus, the mosquitos were pretty bad.  We can't figure out what they are doing up so high.  Once when I was having a bad moment after we'd met up with Dave and Shonie and the dogs again, Hobbes came down to say "hi" and licked my face.  I gave him a HUGE hug...I needed that at that point!

Fossil High on a Mountainside

We finally reached the pass hours and many bruises and scrapes later (the rock is a very coarse, gritty limestone - full of fossilized coral and shells and things) and it really takes a toll on your skin and your boots.  This pass is the boundary/entrance to the immense Bob Marshall Wilderness.  For those who are familiar with it, you can see the Chinese Wall in the distance:

One of the steep ridges we had to descend.

We made our way down from the pass and along a pretty trail back to the cars.  We saw about 10 more goats along the way. Hobbes kept scaring us because he'd disappear and then you'd see something brown running and think "bear!" but it would just be him.  I've never seen Indian Paintbrush this red before:

We saw some very pretty waterfalls on the way out.

On the  drive back to Choteau I saw what appeared to be a very confused young bull elk...he was way out on the prairie. I saw him and stopped a ways back and he jumped a fence, stood in the road a while, then jumped another one and then went loping off across the prairie, away from the mountains.

It was a great, scary, challenging, exhausting day.  Last night I felt like I'd lost all the confidence I'd gained in my abilities as a mountaineer.  Today I'm not sure...I guess I'll find out soon though!
© 2009 Tara Morrison