Upcoming Glacier NP trip

Hi everyone,


I am setting out for Glacier NP with 3 buddies to do some backpacking in about 2 weeks, August 3 - August 11. I posted several months ago for some recommendations on backpacking routes, Ray and Ed's suggestions were very helpful.


Our first route starts at the Cheif Mountain Trailhead, over Gable Pass, and then along the Belly River, through the Ptarmigan tunnel, ending at the Many Glacier permit office. This route is 2 nights. We then have a night (Wednesday) off before starting the second route.


The second route starts at the foot of Bowman Lake and goes up to Hole in the Wall and then back again. We had requested a route that continued over Boulder Pass to Kintla Lake from Hole in the Wall, but were unfortunately unable to get it. However, if the Kintla campsites open up when we check in for our backcountry permit, we may be able to continue over Boulder Pass after all. This route is 3 nights.


This is our first trip to Glacier; anyone have any further advice on these two routes, or hiking the park in general? How cold should we expect it to be the first week in August (we'll be between 4000 and 7000 feet)? How about some good day hikes for our off days? Good places to eat on our off nights? Good drinking spots for our off nights? Other general recommendations?


Thanks very much,

Lance

even on day hikes i take gloves, hat, poly coat, full gortex rainsuit, gortex boots, and use them all many times every summer. take tevas for stream crossings and around camp. also take a hat that keeps the sun off you and a bandana to wet to keep cool. a water purifier is better than carrying gallons. only a few ssprings are guaranteed giardia free. your routes will see mosseys so be prepared. camping at bowman and kintla is scary at times with the mosseys. bring a spare gallon of blood.

if you can its great to go from bowman over into waterton park and take the shuttle back around to west glacier and leave a car there. its a little work but might be the trip of your life.

great food at polebridge and great pastries at the store there but watch for hours they are open.

good burritos at spruce park cafe past hungry horse. best food in the world at the knead cafe in kalispell. in st. mary, only eat at the park cafe. its superb.

go to Walmart and get a couple of the bandana 'sausages' the look liked a half rolled up bandana and the part that is rolled up has some kind of dry polymer in it, so after 10 mins of soaking it swells up like a....well you will know. They hold water for hours.


Best $3 ever spent on the hot days.


A9s

what the hell are mosseys? And I hope you're kidding about the spare gallon of blood.

mosseys = mosquitoes, right?


If it's a nickname for Grizzlies, I might re-think the trip. Deet doesn't work as well on them.

but do consider taking along a can of counter assalt in case you run into a griz. its not unusal to see them and you want to from a distance, but some times you end up closer than comfortable.

I think the water purifier is dead weight. I've never had a problem drinking stream water and I've never used a filter or any sort of Iodine pill. Those items won't filter out or kill the Giardia anyways. I think its a better idea to pick your spots where you're going drink. Obviously not downstream from a campsite. look for fast moving water. In Glacier there are many streams that were snow just a few hours ago. those are probably the best.

I have to disagree.

I also used to drink untreated mountain water (mostly in Colorado) and I never got sick, but Giardia cysts are present in a lot of water sources that you would think would be perfectly safe. Giardia is carried by most animal species as well as by people, so any water source that could have had traces human or animal fecal material washed into it by runoff could be infected. Also, Glacier is heavily used, so lots of people are taking dumps in the area and some aren't very careful about where they do it.

Giardia is a strange bug. Some people can carry it with no ill effects. Some people get very sick from it. Filtration and boiling are actually the best way to get rid of Giardia. It's fairly resistant to chemical treatment, but iodine works better than chlorine. Personally, I can't stand the taste of iodine, so I don't use it, I use a filter.


If you do drink untreated water, springs and small tributary streams are less likely to be contaminated than main streams (Less area feeding them)

I agree that Giardia is in most water sources you will find in the mountains. The concentrations of Giardia cysts are so low that it is highly unlikely you will get the unfortunate symptoms. Furthermore, the filtered water has the same concentration of Giardia cysts as the non-filtered water. It's really a great racket promoted by the outdoor equipment companies. They say here, use our filter and you won't get Giardia. So people buy the filter and low and behold they don't get sick. The filter must be doing its job right? The same goes for Iodine tablets. Iodine is notoriously ineffective for killing Giardia and tastes bad to boot.


If you are going on an extended hiking trip I thing the cost benefit analysis if going filtered v. unfiltered is clearly in favor of dumping the filter and carrying less water. In glacier you can easily get by with carrying one quart or even less. The reduced weight is really nice, especially when going uphill.

What is your source of information that the filters are ineffective? If tests have been done that show that the filters don't do anything useful, I'd like to see the results.

Filters are heavy, and if you are at altitude or doing long trips, they are unnecessary weight.


But to drink unpurified water in most places is risky. Glacier NP may be one exception, and there are others. But I iodine the hell out of most water now, and if possible warm it to about room temperature, as the iodine works faster and more effectively in warm water.


I feel strongly about this...once got very sick in the Himalaya and to have to defecate every 10 minutes, at altitude, for 2 days, and got a bug in Irian Jaya that made me want to just die.


So drop in the iodine.


A9s

I read this in a book called "Sierra Trout Guide" by Ralph Cutter. He cited the studies in this book.


I trusted the source for two reasons. The first was that the author gave very detailed and accurate information concerning the subject of fly fishing for trout in the Sierra back country and what you will need in the way of equipment. For this reason I also trusted his statement concerning filters and Iodine tablets.


The second reason is that I had never used any sort of water purification device before reading the above mentioned book and I've never been sick from drinking bad water, despite repeated trials. I've had to drink from some questionable water sources (mostly due to laziness and lack of planning). I'm still kicking.


Admittedly neither of these reasons are proof positive that water purification products are worthless. If they make you feel better then by all means use them. I also suspect that perhaps my long time addiction to Copenhagen chewing tobacco reduces the likelyhood of a bug gaining a foot hold in my intestines.

the new generation of filters are very lightweight and DO filter out giardia, and are not expensive.

a few years back i was drinking out of a high mountain stream in glacier national park and my companion gave me the spiel on giardia. i said look there are no beavers around here. low and behold a mile up the creek was a big beaver dam. but i got lucky.

One of my favorite camping/hiking spots in Colorado is the Lost Creek Wilderness. I used to drink out of Lost Creek, assuming that, because it's wilderness, it's safe. After I had been going there for several years, I found out about another road into the wilderness. After driving this route, I found out that one branch of Lost Creek has headwaters that are not in the wilderness, with lots of cows pastured along it it the summer, and a fairly large campground just outside the wilderness boundary. Cows can carry giardia. They also carry the pathogenic E. Coli strain that sometimes contaminates hamburger. I don't know for sure if that can be transmitted by water, but I don't really want to test it either. It pays to know what's upstream if you're drinking untreated water.