Yes, that's the trail, upper right-hand corner.... on top of Divide Mountain in Glacier Park, Montana, a few years ago.We'd spent half a day climbing to the top, starting in dense forest, across a moraine, up into the tundra, and finally up onto this windy slope.
Looks like a desert shot on the moon. This high ridge is battered with wind all summer, and is covered in 8 feet of snow in the winter. Nothing grows here.
It was so windy, it darn near blew us off the mountain. When we (Bubbie Dear, Oldeupher, Ruhiyyih, Taraz, George and I)got to the top with our packs, we drank water, ate lunch, and took a nap right there, on the rocks.
It was a rigorous climb - and I felt paddling a canoe was sure a lot easier. Hiking, especially with a vertical climb, means that most of the time you are looking at your feet, just huffing and puffing forward and up, up, up. Aside from the wind, all I remember about this hike was that I blew my whistle every 15 minutes to keep the grizzlies away. When we got down to the trailhead, it was all torn up. A bear had dug up about 8 inches of soil trying to dig up a few roots.
We'll be gone through the weekend.... going camping with the family up in the Olympic Mountains, and securing our campsite tomorrow. I'm busy baking pies, making macaroni salad and coleslaw, airing bedding, getting gear ready. I'm packing for unpredictable conditions. With snowmelt raging down local rivers, I'm not sure what we're going to survive up there....rain perhaps, and I've got a small shovel to dig trenches around the tents for drainage. But, I know we won't have the wind we had out there on top of Divide Mountain.
Have yourself a great Memorial Day Weekend.
