9/13/2014
Apgar Lookout Point is our destination today. According to the books and hiking guide that we obtained from the visitor center, it will be a 7.2 mile round trip hike, with an 1850 feet elevation gain over 2.5 miles or so. From the Lookout, we are promised to see quite impressive vistas toward the east of the park. Yesterday, we have already identified the turn from the west entrance toward the trailhead, we are in good shape.
Apgar Lookout trailhead turn is just before heading toward McDonald Creek Valley
We stop at Night Owl and Backroom restaurant for breakfast in Columbia Falls. Our server is a woman in her 60s, quite a no-nonsense woman. She towers over us with little grace and asks me "Wha d'ya want honey?" Honey is like a sharp whip, I tell her and ask whether my bacon and English muffin can be really crisp. She looks at me and utters "As crisp as this bacon gets" without much affection. She looks at Greg with another "Wha d'ya want?" No honey this time. Greg gives her his order with no additional requests and doesn't get at least the scolding I received. As she leaves, we chuckle labeling her "the first no-nonsense woman of Montana".
Mushrooms and a fallen tree in a symbiotic love story on the way to the Apgar Lookout
As I observe her with locals, whom she clearly knows, I notice that she is very friendly with them. Hmmm, perhaps there is a way to get to her. In the meantime, Greg and I wonder whether we can order a sandwich to take along for lunch on the trail. I go to the register to ask. Our waitress, who happens to be standing behind the cashier with her back toward us turns around with her "Wha d'ya want?" face and I end up posing my question to her instead of the lady I was aiming at since she seems to be a bit more friendly. It is certainly possible to order a "sack lunch". She will bring the menu to the table.
Crystal clear water finding its way down from the glaciers..
Before I order our sandwich I ask her her name. It is Carol. My goodness, how can this short and simple a question change a person's demeanor this much? The no-nonsense Carol disappears and the Carol with a motherly, somewhat domineering but with some sweetness a Carol that I observed her to be with the locals emerges. What power lies in our names. We all want to be recognized with our names, to be addressed with our names, correctly in that. I know what it feels like. I want non-Turkish speaking friends, colleagues alike to learn to pronounce my name the way it identifies me. And our waitress perhaps simply needed to be recognized as a person first and foremost, that is as Carol, nobody else.
An old Montana menu at Night Owl
As we leave the Night Owl, we have a big turkey sandwich to share for lunch and leave behind a happy Carol promising her to return. Along with my trail snack, figs and walnuts, and a portion of the Flathead Valley cherries we bought yesterday from a Native American, we should be all set. We are ready for the hike. We find the parking lot and head toward the trail: The subconscious thoughts that go through my mind, which will rise to mindfulness in half an hour are "hmm, that's quite a trail, it probably will become narrower soon; I wonder why they didn't put up a trailhead sign at the trailhead; I wonder why the road is blocked". I am so excited about the hike, I push all of them aside and we push on. The walk is pleasant until we come across a drainage point for the waters of the higher country head down without being destructive. The trail dissapears abruptly! We search the ledges, any hint ends in the thick woods. We are asking ourselves, whether we might have missed a turn on the way up, can't think of anything.
Right around that time a father and a son join us. What a relief! Finding comraderie in misery is great, at least we are not alone in being lost on our first day of hiking. The young and electronics savvy son of John, Brendon is working on his cell phone. First, I wonder if he is texting his girlfriend or not when we are trying to find a solution to our conundrum. However, I soon smile with compassion, at this age, of course that is what he would do, especially he has come to this hike just to please his dad. I am totally wrong, it turns out he in fact was working for the good of the team! He discovers that we all had taken the wrong trail according to "Holy Saint Google" as Turks call Google nowadays. We turn around and come back to the parking lot to discover, the correct trailhead with the right size, with a marker at the entrance and with no blockage is just 10 yards to the west of the blocked entrance to the lumber road that we had taken earlier. We profusely praise Brendon.
John and Brendon's second service to us is the good news that the Sun Road is open to traffic! We are not only back to business of hiking, but also have a plan for tomorrow, we will go to Many Glacier region on the east crossing the park in its entirety on the Going-to-the-sun Road. We first travel through meadows with the evidence of the 2003 Robert fire comes to view. Entire mountainside that we will soon start climbing with switchbacks is dead forest. Soon we are at the first switchback. We stop often; I'd like to look back or up to take in all the vistas, take photographs of what we see both in the distance and at the skyline and also in our immediate environment. I notice a small almost dwarf bush with leathery leaves that has dark blue discoid fruits that look very much like huckleberry. Since bears are supposed to be bulking up on huckleberries at this time of the year for the winter before they go into hibernation, I wonder if we will come across any bears.
And.... Huckleberries, we can't wait till we try a huckleberry pie
Climbing up the 2.5 mile set of switchbacks takes about 2 hours. Finally, we are on the deck of the lookout. The vistas indeed are breathtaking. To our left is the west end of Lake Mc Donald stretching all the way to the east surrounded with Mount Oberlin, Mount Cannon and Clements Peak. To our left, are multiple peaks all the way to Canada (as I learned from our book on the way to Missoula). We enjoy our lunch on the deck and later down below taking in as much of this visual magical feast as possible.
Greg is leading our party of two
We meet a couple on the deck, originally from Kentucky, who are now living in Kalispell. It is interesting that Greg and the gentleman had done their PhD during the same time frame, one in chemical engineering, the other in psychology. Our psychologist friend now has a private practice in Kalispell now. After his wife took care of her ailing father for 7 years, who recently passed away, they are now enjoying all the outdoors activities the area has to offer. They tell us they found social connection opportunities through their church activities and they are happy. Both Greg and I decide, we probably would need more to be content than just outdoors and church activities, it is good that this couple, who at least for the last 7 years went through a difficult period of providing care to an aging parent, found content. In half an hour, we start our way down.
The descent is much shorter of course although it is hard on toes. By the time we are down at the parking lot, we feel like we haven't eaten anything all day. It is very appropriate to have the huckleberry pie at the "Huckleberry Patch" that we saw on Highway 2 on the way to the west entrance. We are both very excited with the idea and in 15 minutes, we are there. This place is clearly a local's favorite, people young and old are enjoying not only the pie anything and everything made with huckleberries, pies, ice cream, milk shakes, jam, cookies, muffins, you name it.
And Lake McDonald from the Lookout
A lovely couple that we will meet on the trail to Iceberg Lake the next day will tell us that growing huckleberries commercially failed miserably and all huckleberry related production depends on picking wild berries. What a competition with bears! With that, one would think, it would be very expensive, quite on the contrary: A huge slice of pie and "one" scoop of ice cream (worth four scoops in Iowa) cost only $5.95! Unbelievable, but true, we are just starting to learn that portions in Montana are extremely generous, wherever we go, whatever we order. Since we have learned our lesson from the McDonald Lodge Restaurant and now from Huckleberry Patch, we decide to order only an appetizer and an entree at the Three Forks Grill where we have our dinner in Columbia Falls.
Wrong turn to Apgar Lookout!
All in all, our first day hike went very well especially for Greg, who has not done this kind of hike for couple of decades, except for large blisters that formed on his right heel. Good thing, we have band aids and ointments. He is great sport and is looking forward to our expedition for tomorrow. We are decided on going to Many Glacier area over the Sun Road. We are torn between Grinnell Glacier hike and Iceberg Lake hike. We will decide tomorrow when we talk to more people on the east side of the park. A good night's sleep after a hot shower is the best reward following an all-day hike in a national park...
All in all, our first day hike went very well especially for Greg, who has not done this kind of hike for couple of decades, except for large blisters that formed on his right heel. Good thing, we have band aids and ointments. He is great sport and is looking forward to our expedition for tomorrow. We are decided on going to Many Glacier area over the Sun Road. We are torn between Grinnell Glacier hike and Iceberg Lake hike. We will decide tomorrow when we talk to more people on the east side of the park. A good night's sleep after a hot shower is the best reward following an all-day hike in a national park...
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| This is the sign you have to find to take the right trail to Apgar Lookout! |
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| Huckleberry Patch where we had delicious huckleberry pie |
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