Marc Ankenbauer's 10+ year quest to jump in every named lake in Glacier and Waterton National Parks for charity.
168 lakes. Only 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ZERO LAKES LEFT!!!
-- Marc jumped into Fisher Cap Lake on Sunday September 8th, 2013 to complete his goal! --
Read about Marc and how this project started...

I got a new camera! Olympus OMD EM5

June 18, 2012 By 6 Comments

OMD EM5 pic 1

In attempts to document the Waterton Glacier Lake Jumping Project I have purchased the Olympus OMD EM5.

It is the most high tech Micro Four Thirds camera that Olympus makes.  It might very well be the lightest, most powerful and versatile camera ever made.  Or at least from my perspective.
 
OMD EM5 pic 7

I needed a camera that has

  • Multiple quality but compact interchangeable lenses,
  • A large sensor,
  • HD video
  • Super durable exterior and hopefully weather resistant
  • Small enough to take on a multiple day off trail mountaineering adventure.
  • I wanted the quality of a good DSLR but the size of a large point and shoot.

Enter the Olympus OMD EM5.

Until now to photograph extreme outdoor adventure either meant being bound to a sub par point and shoot camera or being burdened by the size and weight of a good DSLR.
 
OMD EM5 pic 5

When I tried to transition over to a DSLR, I realized that it would both hold me back with its unwieldy size and rob me of the opportunity to access it quickly and keep moving.

To be opportunistic when hiking, I like to keep my camera in a case that I strap to the shoulder strap of my backpack.  This allows me to take the camera out, capture the shot I want and not lose time.  Photographs or not, I’m often in a race with daylight.  I can’t afford to stop, remove my pack, get my DSLR out, etc…

This new super camera had to be powerful and it had to be small!!
OMD EM5 pic 2I got my new EM5 two days ago and I LOVE IT!  It’s amazing!  I believe it’s the exact camera that I was looking for.  Luckily I was looking now and not a few years ago.  Welcome to 2012.
So, the photos that you will be seeing in the blog/stories will be taken with the OMD EM5 if the post happens from this point on…June 3rd, 2012.

I have the luxury to test out one of the most technologically advanced cameras in history in one of the most amazing places on earth.
 
OMD EM5 pic 3Many photography bloggers are super excited about the technological powerhouse aspects of the EM5.  Most of these people would also celebrate the small stature of the camera, but they will still be using it in a studio or whatever setting they normally photograph.
OMD EM5 pic 6


I trust most EM5 users can’t truly take advantage of the small size of the camera as much as I can.  I will drag it up one mountain, down another and through the woods to Grandma’s house.  I am going to put it through its paces with stills and video.  Let’s find out what they baby can produce.


So keep stopping by here at www.glacierexplorer.com to see what this brand new tech marvel can do in wild Montana!
 
 OMD EM5 pic 4
 
                                                                                                         Wolf Tracks and Burts Bees
Filed Under: Photography - Olympus OMD EM5 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Goat Lake – The right around the corner adventure

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Some days during the Waterton Glacier Lake Jumping Project have been really, really tough.  More difficult physically than anything I’ve ever done in my entire life.  These endeavors normally end in a mind blowing paradise, though.
Some are aweful.  Bogs filled with stagnant, stinky water with leeches swimming around.  These tend to be pretty close though.  In life you pay one way or the other.
Sometimes, like in Goldie Locks…They are just right.
An off trail trip to a destination that you know is hardly ever visited.  It’s also a pleasant adventure.  A logical route that is neither the world’s worst bushwhack nor a simple on trail hike.
Enter, Goat Lake.
Goat Lake is a spectacular spot tucked into a pocket in Goat Mountain.  It has always been intriguing to me. Its so close to the main day use areas around St. Mary and Rising Sun, but no one ever goes there.
I got the chance to enjoy this trip with two good friends.
Pat who has been on more of the top end, ridiculous, off trail endeavors than anyone else.
Chelsea who has been a huge supporter of the Waterton Glacier Lake Project through the years. I was very proud to have her along.
She was really excited too, and in the end she did spectacular.  I was glad to be able to provide such an appropriate adventure to someone that cares so much.
This was one of the only day endeavors that I had left.
It was a perfect late August day.  Sun was high in the sky but not oppressively hot.  Late enough in the season that the heavy late season snows were gone and the waterfall chute was dry enough to be safe.
We branched off of the Otakomi Lake trail and headed up an avalanche slope towards Goat Mountain.
We had to cross Rose creek to get to the avalanche slope that started the off trail portion of the hike.
We followed the open slope and pushed up towards the mountains above.
I’m in there somewhere.  It was pretty thick but nothing we have not dealt with before.
Looking into the Goat Lake hanging basin
We had to side step for a while through loose scree, chunky talus and off angle bear grass clumps.
Talus slopes filled with wildflowers
We fed into the falls that drain the lake and found a nice game trail through a few shelves.  Once we gained the hanging valley with the lake in it the views were remarkable.
It’s a mountain that I’ve looked at a thousand times, but once you are up in the bowls of the mountain you never know what things will look like.  Everything was very windswept with nothing but very low lying sub alpine firs.
Luckily there was a route around the trees though, since sub alpine firs will tear your clothes to shreds.  I guess evolution of a three foot tree that lives in 80 mph winds is to become stiff as a rock.  Avoid them as much as possible.
So, we kept to the left of the stand and pushed further into the basin.  We gained a few rises and eventually dropped into a paradise like lake bowl.
Two thousand foot cliffs on all sides but one, the only way in or out.  We all dropped pack and hopped in.  Lake 148 for me, about 40 for Pat and one great first for Chelsea.  Great day.
Lunch was enjoyed and the sun kept us warm.
Often the most unfortunate part of these lake excursions is that we tend to be there for 15 minutes.  Hours and days to get places you will never be again and in the end you spend 10 minutes calculatedly hopping in an obscure body of water.  Often in very unpleasant weather conditions.
This day was for enjoying.  Joking, laughing and simply making the most of the gift we earned.
Eventually we meandered our way back out in reverse.
We took a bit more wooded exit instead of the original avalanche slope.
Chelsea and I waded across Rose Creek to get back on trail.
Pat chose a bit more adventurous route.  He chose to cross a huge downed tree, 15 feet above the creek.
Looking back up valley it all made sense.  The lake is up in that hanging valley on the left.  If you ever go, I hope you get as amazing a day as we did.
When we got back we enjoyed burritos from Bad Frog Cantina and played some bean bag tossing game(corn hole) back in St. Mary.
Great trip.  Thanks Pat, Chelsea and great weather.  Onward to the next lake.
And if you enjoyed this, there are plenty more stories.  Also if you are interested in what I’m doing, why I’m doing it and how to help out  Camp Mak A Dream, check out my website www.glacierexplorer.com
Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Pocket Lake…and thanks to National Geographic

August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Pocket Lake. Well, well, well…It’s August, 2010 and somehow this is my first blog entry. Instead of recounting my reasons for being so busy, I will recount the lake that jarred loose the keyboard.

Pocket Lake.

Oh, but before I do that, I want to thank the people at National Geographic. In three days (August 30, 2010), there will be a documentary called Glacier National Park – Wild Spaces that will make its debut on the National Geographic Channel.

Any of you who love the park, have interest in the wild corners of the world, or just want to see me with a farmers tan jumping in cold water should tune in.

It is about the park in general, but for me it marks the first national exposure of the Waterton Glacier Lake Jumping Project. I’m obviously out of my mind excited!!!

So, where was I…?

Oh, Pocket Lake.

Jump Stats brought to you by The Jump Tracker 3000

Pocket Lake - Jump #132

Pocket Lake – Jump #132

  • Lake: Pocket Lake
  • Lake Jump: #132
  • Completion Date: August 20, 2010
  • Distance: 29 miles
  • Difficulty: Strenuous
  • Off Trail Distance: 3 miles
  • Elevation Change: 4500 feet
  • Length of Trip: 2 days
  • Lake Jumpers in attendance: Jessi Adams

 

So, for the first time in this busiest of summers, my now wife Jess and I went on a backpacking trip. You get three days off together around here and you jump on it.

The trip started off in the tiny outpost of Goat Haunt which is accessed by going to Waterton National Park in Alberta.

We caught a tour boat back down to the southern end of the lake. From there, we struck off to the west towards an amazing area called Boulder Pass.

On the way to our first night of camping, we cooled off in Thunderbird Pond. This lake is on the list, but I got to it many years ago. Still good for a nice dip.

The first evening we camped at Brown Pass Campground which is just above Bowman Lake.


It has been a little while since we had been up in these parts so both Jess and I were super excited.
There was a bountiful crop of Montana’s famous huckleberries. Its funny. Although they keep you going, they also seriously slow you down.

But, there is no better distraction. Bears have it figured out, folks.

So, the next morning we drug our tent a few miles up hill to a site called Hole in the Wall. From here we continued up hill, the trail meandering through the rock bands to Boulder Pass.

Would you believe that in the earlier parts of the 1900’s this whole picture would have been filled with Boulder Glacier and the trail had to lead up on the moraine in the right hand side of the picture.
Lots of things have changed around these parts since then.

Its amazingly open up on top of Boulder Pass. It is so newly melted out that there is no vegitation hardly at all. Just open views!!

Just over the pass we had to go off trail to the top of a ridge.At the bottom was the long awaited Pocket Lake.

We had to drop off of this ridge and work our way through some cliff bands, steep grass and flower filled slopes to get to the lake.
I don’t have any pictures of our way through the cliff bands. That is probably because I did not like it.

Funny thing about never being somewhere before. You almost always pick the less than perfect route.
Sometimes, you end up finding yourself with your heart racing as you hold onto a tree limb and try to scoot yourself down a wet rock band covered in moss. Just sayin’….Sometimes that happens…Jess kept her cool and pulled me through. You’re the best! We made our way along a huge bench above the lake and then down broken cliff bands and grassy slopes down to the lake.


The lake was amazing. Somehow we scored three spectacular days of sunshine and calm weather. This would have been impossible if the storms moved in on us. This is one of the highest elevation lakes in the whole park.

So, I’d like to give a little shot out to the weather….
Lets give it up for the weather!!Thanks everyone.We still had to get out of this enormous “pocket” though. So since we were losing daylight we had to head out and climb back up to the pass.
Thankfully, there was a much more pleasant way back through the cliffs. Its always upon return that you figure this stuff out. We had to make our way back along the shelf to the grassy ramp in the top middle of the picture.

We knew it was “the way in” when we saw that there was a nice animal path up the ramp. Steep and slippery, but well more straight forward.

Once back up top, we bid Pocket Lake farewell and headed on. We still had miles to make.

The view from atop Boulder Pass looking back towards Goat Haunt is about as good as it gets in the park. Wow!!

And with the last hour or so of sunlight for the day, we dropped back down to camp. The light softening the colors on the peaks we were surrounded by.

To finish the story, we made a late morning of it the next day. Felt like we earned a bit of sleeping in.

Good bye Boulder Pass. Good bye, Bowman Lake. Good bye, Goat Haunt.

I would like to point out to anyone reading this blog for the first time, that I have many past adventures to read about. So, continue sifting through the blog. Check out all of the other parts of the website too. www.firstgiving.com/glacierlakejumps

Anyone that has searched out the Waterton Glacier Lake Jumping Projects website, Welcome!!

I’ve been trying to harness this project to raise awareness for childhood cancer and to raise money for Camp Mak A Dream. I have been working on the project for seven years now.So, thanks for popping by.


If you donate,….well your awesome.

If you check out the site and enjoy yourself enough to tell others then, you are Awesome too.

I have 34 lakes left after the six I’ve done this summer so far. I’ll keep plugging if you keep reading and following along.

Till then, I bid you farewell.

To Life,
Marc Ankenbauer
Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Upper Rowe and Linham Lakes – Where’s that goat trail? – CAN

October 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

This is a story about last summer. I never got a chance to create a blog for this until now. So, hope you enjoy a backlogged lake blog (say that ten times)…..until I get something new for the year. Hope to a new lake before the end of May. Stay Tuned

So the story goes……………

Tradition has it that once, and it seems to be only once a year my friend Kieth and I go for a hike. He works for the boat company in Waterton and we tend to have contrasting schedules all summer. We were able to keep tradition going once again with an awesome day in late August.We completed a feat that I have only had success with once before. We got five lakes in one day. It takes putting a large effort in, but more so it takes a cluster of lakes to be able to pull that off.
This project is about the lakes and the park, well more than my or anyone else’s efforts. If they want to allow things to progress. then I progress.If not, then we kindly say thanks and slowly plod along to one lake at a time…. If you’re lucky.So luckily the upper Rowe Lakes and the Linham Lakes are in general vicinity of each other in the middle of Waterton National Park.We headed off pretty late in the day. I bet we did not hit trail till about 11:30 or noon. We had lots to do in a short amount of time. Up the Rowe valley till the Upper Rowe Lakes trail took a big, uphill left turn. I had done the single lower Rowe Lake last year, so to acquire the top two was a great hit for me.We found a little bay behind a rock to take a dip because the wind was kickin hard. After it we walked the outlet creek to the middle lake. What a lovely day for a bunch of dips. This would have been a brutal one if it were nasty weather. Five lakes would get terribly chilly going at it in the rain.There is a nice goat trail that connects the Upper Rowe lakes trail with the upper reaches of the Rowe valley trail. It was nice because we did not have to drop that whole way back into the valley bottom.

We had to push up to Linham ridge and find a spot to hop over the other side of it. We envisioned that we just had to get to the prominent saddle and head down from there.

When we finished the huge uphill slog we got up to that saddle and there was a 2000 foot cliff on the other side.

Alright…Keep looking.

I had always been told that there was a perfect goat trail heading down to these lakes.

Gotta try and find it.

So, folks…

“Go find the off trail lake insight #73”

Sometimes you find the ideal way to the lake. But more often, you find the ideal way back from the lake. Often, you just find “A” way to the lake”….

This was one of those days.
On top of the ridge we saw a goat trail. Why not try it…Time is of the essence. Just go!!!

“Go find the off trail lake insight #74”

Albeit I owe this entire project to the goat trail leaving goats. There are lots of goat trails. Not all of them are going the direction you want to be going. There is always paths going in the general direction of any body of water. But there are also paths going down a shelfy, rotten rock infested chute also..

Goats are much better at this than you or I.

I promise.

Well, we had to follow through with it though. There was no more time to fiddle and fuss about a better route, we did not leave the excess time for that kind of thing on this day.

So, we just dropped off a crumbling, steep ridge.

Eeehh……

I’ve since seen where we should have gone. This was not it. But this was the ridge we dropped down. From upper left to lower right.
It did work though..

Once down we started just busting through these lakes. There are three of them.

We did not have time to dilly dally…

Enter that whole, we started at noon thing. It is becoming an important part of our trip

So, we hit the first lake which was pretty obvious. We were looking at it all the way down.

After him though, we started moving pretty frantically around this hanging basin trying to find the other two and waste as little time as we could.

There is an efficient and optimal way of doing anything in life. Finding and jumping in remote mountain lakes while working with serious time constraints is no different.

The second lake was over a wooded ridge.

The sun kept falling and creating that soft colorful light on all the rock walls around us. It is lovely, but when you know you have a long way to travel before you are back at the trailhead and in your car. It only creates a bit of anxiety.

Then, off in the completely opposite direction of our exit out of this valley to find the last one. It was right above the cliffs that drain the hanging basin. They drop off into Linham Falls.

There once was a trail up the face of the headwall that holds the lakes in place. It must have had a few cables and chains to hold on to along the sketchy route. At least one person fell to their death through the years, though. Needless to say, no one goes that way any longer.

Not being able to go that way, forced the “random, over the ridge and drop in” route to get to these lakes that we had to take. No matter how difficult it was to get here, at least we did not have to scale a crazy cliff to make our way…

Sorry, that was a tangent….
We found the last lake..

One of the truly ironic things about the project is the amount of work and time that it takes to get to these places… Most often I have to get there….take a dip,…and head directly back out again.

This place would have been a nice place to hang for a bit.

Oh, well…Maybe some day. Right now I just want to make sure that we get out of this hanging basin and back on trail before dark.

It is getting late and we have a big, ridiculous ridge to climb up and six more “on trail” miles to bust out.

So, out we head.

It is situations like this that I am very happy that I use trekking poles. Somewhere through the evolutionary process of most animals,. they found out that “four legs good, two legs bad” is a valuable thing to keep in mind.

Well, atop the ridge we took a few awesome pictures and dropped back into the valley on trail and headed back to the car. We got out about 30 minutes after dark. Never great, but it is so much better when it’s dark and your on trail. Dark when your off trail is “No Bueno”!!!

So,..thats that. Upper Rowe Lakes and the three Linham Lakes.

Check!

All went well. Keith and I got our annual hike in. I got to 126 lakes and busted out a great day with the help of a good friend and some crazy goats.

Hope your crazy goats are well!!!

To Life,

Marc

Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Carcajou and Wahseeja Lakes- The really burly way through…

August 20, 2009 By 1 Comment

Good Evening,


Ever since I have started this project there have been lakes or groupings of lakes that people are always intrigued by.

When I tell them about what I’m doing, they get wild eyed and come up with the most remote, ridiculously hard, off trail lakes in the park and ask “Have you done this or that”?

One of the most commented on is a group of lakes near the Canadian border called the Northern Boundary Lakes. There are five of them and the last two fell on Tuesday.

So, I raise my glass to those five, because they have put up a heck of a fight.

On Tuesday, my friends Pat and Brian and I went to Carcajou Lake and Wahseeja Lake.

Jump Stats brought to you by The Jump Tracker 3000

 

  • Waseeja Lake - Jump #120

    Waseeja Lake - Jump #120

    Lake: Carcajou and Wahseeja Lakes
  • Lake Jump: #119 & #120
  • Completion Date: August 18, 2009
  • Distance: 13 miles
  • Difficulty: RIDICULOUS 
  • Off Trail Distance: 6 miles
  • Elevation Change: 4000 feet
  • Length of Trip: 1 day
  • Lake Jumpers in attendance: Brian Roys & Pat Catalino

 

But, before that we had large plates of Cincinnati Chili.

For anyone who knows about this delicacy, you understand how happy I was to have a communal chili feed in the middle of nowhere.

The next morning with a chili bomb in our stomachs we headed north to the northern boundary trail which is about four miles north of Goat Haunt. We said hello to the obelisk that marks the border and we headed west three and a half miles till we saw an entrance to a heavily wooded side valley that no one I have ever met has gone up. I’m sure its happened, but boy oh boy… would it be few and far between.

We had to cross Boundary Creek which luckily we had a few good logs to work across. Then into the guts we go.

It started off quite nice with some lovely meadow filled stretches.

That always ends and gives way to a thick tree filled mess.

This year has been one of the wettest on record. With rain come mushrooms. They were everywhere.

Huge ones.


Weird ones.

Also, that means that it was just wet. It had not rained in days, but the whole area was just moist.

Great moss.
After many hours working up a steep wooded valley we eventually dropped down to the creek that drains Carcajou Lake. Shortly after crossing it, we finally came to the first of our objectives.

Carcajou Lake.

We frolicked in the lake for a good while to get rid of the pine needles, grit and grime.

It was quite pleasant.


We took a nice little while here; even long enough for Pat to take a cat nap on the lake shore.

But, we had to keep going. There is no stopping and we had a long way to go. We were essentially going from one main valley to the next, but over, under and through the middle of nowhere.

We headed back out with the need to climb over a ridge to the lake on the other side.

It was thick and steep.

And hot! I had to wring out my bandana….Wanna see?

Along the way Brian made a friend.

We eventually just grabbed hand fulls of vegetation and pulled ourselves up a thousand feet of steep mess.

Luckily when we got towards the top, the blessed animals of Glacier National Park started to hook us up a bit. There was a perfect game trail over the top of the ridge that went on for a good while in the exact direction that we were headed.

It was amazing on the other side.

Lots of flower choked meadows.

If nothing else, just easier going since it was much more open. With that came huge views of the surrounding mountains.

In a past endeavor with a friend Matt I looked down on Wahseeja Lake.

I have been waiting for a long time to get back to it.

(I would also like to note that Matt just informed me today his wife Allison is pregnant!! Lets all raise a glass to their lovely, healthy, very tiny baby to be!!! )

Anyway it was very rewarding to get to this absolutely amazing lake. This was easily one of the most lovely that I have been to in all my time in the park.
We enjoyed it to the fullest. Seldom is there a perfect, large rock to jump off of. Well there is in Wahseeja Lake.

As to not carry around a bunch of wet clothes we all went naked.

So, fortunatly you get to just see a picture of me in the lake instead…No jumping pics.

But, like everything else in life, this too had to end.

There was a saddle about 300 feet above the lake that we had to get to and over.

On the other side was our destiny.

A 2000 foot steep grade going straight down towards Lake Francis and Lake Janet.

There was still many miles to go, onward and upward.

Only time for one last group picture of the lake.

Man that thing is nice.

The saddle proved to be big and wide.

It also had huge views of Mount Cleveland which is the highest peak in the park.

This hike just kept getting better.

But, down we went into the abyss. Not too bad, in relative terms. I guess the schwack up the Carcajou side of the trip was so nasty that this seemed quite tame.

2000 feet of extremely steep tame, but tame none the less.

Happily we gained the valley floor and headed our five more miles of trail back towards Goat Haunt.

A lovely sunset on the peaks above escorted us back to where we started.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to Pat and Brian. This was a very large endeavor and probably two of the ten hardest lakes that I have left in the park.

Without them I would not have just checked off lakes number 120 and 121.

All the best to everyone reading and to all a good night.

Ho Ho Ho

To Life,

Marc

Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Whitecrow Lake – 40 degees and raining.. Care for a dip?

August 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Good Evening,I am going to tell you a tale. A tale of cold, wet water. A tale of a portly bald man with a farmers tan. A tale…..Of Whitecrow Lake!

Jump Stats brought to you by The Jump Tracker 3000

  • Whitecrow Lakes - Jump #118

    Whitecrow Lakes – Jump #118

    Lake: Whitecrow Lake
  • Lake Jump: #118
  • Completion Date: August 4, 2009
  • Distance: 27 miles
  • Difficulty: Strenuous
  • Off Trail Distance: 2.5 miles
  • Elevation Change: 2200 feet
  • Length of Trip: 3 days
  • Lake Jumpers in attendance: Brian Roys & Pat Cattelin

 

Whitecrow Lake sits at the base of the largest mountain in the park, Mount Cleveland. It also sits at the base of one of the most charismatic mountains in Glacier, Stoney Indian Peaks.

This Whitecrow Lake I speak of could have been anywhere on Tuesday, as it was shrouded in clouds.


The first day we hiked six miles into the Belly River region of the park.  The views were amazing!


As we sat there waiting on the rest of our party, the rain and clouds rolled in. By nightfall it was as if there were no mountains. Only rolling forested hills could still be seen though the white misty haze.

A perfect way to start a large day with the intent of swimming.

On Tuesday morning my friends Pat and Brian and I headed off for Whitecrow Lake. This was going to be a long day.
To even get to the point that we could start moving off trail and up towards the bowl that holds Whitecrow we had to walk seven miles.

So, bushwhack aside, we had a 14 mile day plus what ever else we would find.

It passed rather quickly and we started working our way through brambles of vegetation.

UP and UP and UP we went. It was strange because although it was not raining at the time, we eventually walked up the slope far enough to have reached the cloud cover.


If you have ever stood in a cloud, you know that while it is not exactly raining, it certainly is not dry.
There is moisture suspended in air and it coats everything around you. Hard to explain, but you get wet. That is the main point.

The lake was still lovely as is, but it would have been much more spectacular on a nice day. To have the largest mountain in the park looming large above it and assisted by the gnarly spires of the Stoney Indian Peaks.

I can only imagine.

Imagine, I must.

For, there were no mountains. Only lake. And mist..

Thanks to the “Hairy Beans” going for a swim was not a lonely endeavor.

I would like to propose a toast to those knuckleheads that go swimming with me on a 50 degree day in a frigid lake that is suspended in clouds. Yeah!!

I would like to give a shout out to “The Babb Press” for one of the greatest sandwiches that I have ever eaten on trail in my life.

Look at this thing, I can hardly force it in my mouth….Thanks guys!!

Back to the story,…Oh, and the “Hairy Beans” is our band name.

We officially lost our mind on the trip and adopted that as our band name. Our main song was a Muppets tune. Most have never heard it, but it goes……”Mahna Mahna”…..Over and over again. Luckily there is a cool whistling part in it too. But the phrase for the day was “Mahna Mahna”. Look it up, it’s a killer tune. A crazy nonlingual muppet monster sings it. Good stuff…

This is your musical act for the evening. Lets give it up for the “Hairy Beans”!!!

Anyway…


We sang over and over again as we made our way back down through the alders and crud.
Alders make for great rappelling. They don’t get out of your way easily, but they don’t rip out either.

So you can rappel down the slope one alder after another…

For a few moments it cleared up enough to see Mokawanis Lake and Margaret and Ipasha Lakes. I still need the latter two.

Someday… I’m coming for you two…

Wet as it gets. On the way out had turned to absolute muddy muck. It has been a bizarrely wet season. We have had over three times the normal amount of precipitation.

Speaking of. As I write this it is raining and snowing out. Tonight the mountains around here are getting a nice dusting. August 14th…Eeeehhhh It’s going to make for an even shorter summer.
So, get out there and enjoy it. Its fleeting, that is for sure.

I wish all well this fine evening. Safe travels to where you may be going. Like a friend of mines dad used to say. “Keep it between the ditches”.

A great rule…Stick to it…

To Life,
Marc

Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Deer Lake – International Lake of Mystery – CAN #118

August 7, 2009 By

The International Lake of Mystery….Duh, duh. Duh….

That last part was supposed to be pronounced like it just happened in a mystery movie and some important fact was just uncovered.

Try it again,

The International Lake of Mystery….Duh, duh, Duh…..

How’d it go?

One of the main things about humor that I have found out in my life is that it is not real great if you have to explain it. You certainly dropped the ball, if you are at that point.

Anyhoo….

In comes the saga of “Deer Lake” in Waterton National Park.

So, Saturday was a first for me. I had to access a lake and it was about a quarter mile into Alberta, but it was about two and a half miles from a road and was directly west of the customs station.

So, this meant that the path of least resistance was hiking the boundary swath.

What is that you ask?

If you knew it or not, there is delineation that visually and physically separates the U.S. from Canada. In some places it might just be markers like this one.

In the plains they may just mow a separation.

When there are forests, there is a 40 foot wide swath or clearing that runs east/west along the 49th parallel. So, since Glacier and Waterton are on the border, there is a boundary swath running east/west and separating the park the whole way.

I swear!!!

Why, I’m not entirely sure…But there is.

So on this particular day the route to the lake was an animal path that runs willy nilly up the boundary swath. I was happy to see that there was even a path, but I suppose the animals think it’s pretty cool that we keep this big clearing for them in the middle of the forest.

My friend’s cousin, Curtis and I drove through Canadian Customs. Had a really nice conversation with the nice men at the port and headed down the hill.

At the bottom of the ridge, we had to ford the Belly River. The water is low enough now that it is safe. Earlier in the summer it would have been terrifying.

The deal with this whole hike was that we had to stay in the swath. If we left it, it had to be to the north. We had entered into Canada, so we would be illegally entering into the country if we walked out of the swath to the south and back into the U.S.

All of this sound odd and a bit silly? I agree, but that is international law. I’m lucky that they extended this option to me to begin with.

After the river we found a nice mucky swamp and because of this tiny little rule, instead of walking around the swamp to the south, we had to walk straight on through. There was no end to it if you walked north…

Straight on through it was. The muck on the bottom of the swamp almost sucked my sandals off of my feet. I then lost my balance and basically fell face first into the swamp. I dunked my boots and half my stuff. I came out smelling awful. Note* This was not the swamp, it was the swamp after it that we could walk around. I have no pic of the awful boundary swamp. I am sorry.*

But we were in compliance with the law!!! I want to continue to make that very clear!

So, finally we headed back up the other ridge after the dreaded boundary swamp. It was really a pleasant walk. The animals cleared a great path the whole way until we had to deal with that “1/4 mile into Canada” part.

It is funny to be walking through a perfectly clear and very wide path with thick, impenetrable forest on both sides. Odd feeling, for sure.

So, we schwacked our way over, under and around the forest for a good while until we found a pretty pleasant lake. I was surprised because many of the small, forested lakes are really not too pleasant.

I spoke with a few guys who work for Waterton National Park and they said that they had both flown over it through the years. One said it was almost dried up at the end of a hot, fire filled season. The other said that he saw a moose swimming in it.

Now I have.

Lake #118

On our return we even found an amazing moose skull hidden in the willows.

Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Old Man Lake – With a National Geographic Film Crew – #117

July 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Big News !!So, in the future when you hear about some knucklehead roaming around in the middle of the mountains trying to jump in every named lake in Waterton and Glacier National Parks……..It very well may be while watching a documentary about Glacier on the National Geographic Channel.
 
What?Yeah!!!No…Really…What?
 
A very nice guy I know that holds a pretty high position in Glacier was contacted by National Geographic because they were doing a documentary entitled “Wild Spaces – Glacier National Park”. It is an installment of a series about the wildest National Parks in the country.
They were hoping to find a good human interest story about the park and he passed my story on to them.

They then contacted me and we worked out the specifics.

Actually it was funny, I checked my email one day and this was the subject title.

FW: National Geographic – Man who jumps in lakes.

I stopped for a moment and thought…Wait, that’s me…..

I was absolutely floored when I read the email. As you can obviously imagine.

They wanted to make sure they were doing a lake that I had never done before and capture the whole process on film.

That is not that easy to accomplish these days, as most of the lakes that I have not been to are getting to be extremely removed and inaccessible.

Luckily, for the last few years while I was making major strides in the project there has been a lot of grizzly activity at a lake called Old Man Lake. The campground at the lake has been closed for the last couple years, so I have been essentially ignoring it.

We really lucked out. There is nothing as beautiful and simultaneously still on a trail as Old Man Lake.

So, I drove to East Glacier on Wednesday and met Brian and Chad at the Two Medicine Grill for breakfast. Brian was the producer and Chad was his assistant.
We got to know each other a bit and off we went.

Perfect day for a swim. It was warm, blue skies, and not too much wind. Just enough to keep the bugs from being real bad.

They would stop me at a section and set up their video camera. Then they would have me walk across a foot bridge and then pan out to all of the mountains as I walked into the far distance.

The hardest part was a bit when we hit flat trail and the producer wanted to ask me some questions while we walked backwards. He was walked slowly backwards and would ask me interview questions with the camera in my face.
He would like what I had to say, but I would say “um” or walk off screen in the wrong direction, or look at the camera instead of him.

He would then have me say it again.

But the problem is that I don’t know what I said. I would then start to preface what I said earlier.
I realized that restating something with the same enthusiasm and as genuinely, over and over again is very tough. I give credit to actors.
I can’t recreate and plan spontaneity. It goes against the main tenants of the word spontaneity. Odd.

We got it though. When it comes out on video, hopefully you won’t even notice a difference. I did though.

We got to the lake and shot an interview and the actual swimming portion after lunch.

Actually, I did not eat lunch till after the shoot. I felt like if there was ever a moment in time that Marc Ankenbauer did not need to have a big lunch it was right before he took his shirt off for a documentary for National Geographic.

I was all fine with all of this. I mean it was a great honor and a once in a lifetime experience.
But, come on. Any of you out there that would like to be the big, bald, kinda frumpy bald guy with a farmers tan that was filmed for an hour with no shirt getting in and out of a mountain lake in broad day light.
I imagine if everything goes right and I make the editing process; you may very well be watching the sun bounce off of my white Montana farmers tan chest for many years to come in syndication while sitting around on a lazy Sunday afternoon watching TV on the couch.

Eeehhh..

It is what it is and I am very lucky to have gotten this much exposure. (Literally and figuratively) Ha-ha..

I was able to explain that I was raising money and awareness for childrens cancer. I’ll do most anything for that kind of help.

Anyway, back to the scene. All went wonderfully!!. They really went all out. They even submerged themselves with an underwater camera and had me swim over them and swim at them. Crazy. I still can’t believe that this happened. Know?

I mean they had me in a 40 something degree lake for about an hour off and on. Getting out, getting back in. Getting back out again. Swimming back and forth and back again.

Camera’s are funny things I’ll tell you..

I was told that this will not even air on National Geographic Television until about November of next year. We have plenty of time to wait.

Anyway, that is my story. Old Man Lake was number 117 in all. I have 51 left and it is high season for busting out some more.

I hope the summer is treating everyone very well.
Get out there and enjoy it. You will have your winter coat on before you know it.

To Life,
Marc

Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Akakola, Green and Winona (Mud) Lakes – Goin’ it alone – #112, #113

June 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The ever forgotten Akakola Lake and two mud holes…..

One was even named Mud Lake.

 
 
Yeah!
 
It’s really not the cold lakes that are the short end of the stick in this whole gig. It’s the warm ones. Many people think instantly about how cold this idea is.
Jumping in glacial lakes…On purpose?But they are the greatest refreshers in the world.

It is the Winona and Green Lakes of the project that are my arch nemesis.

I would hike three days, and up hill both ways to get to a nice, high alpine, cold, blue lake instead of the easiest walk up, warm, marshy lake.

Anyway, you take the good with that bad.

This year I started off with a few that are perfect for the early season.

What I mean is that the higher elevation is still full of snow. Most of the lakes I have left in this project are very remote, high alpine lakes at the end of long off trail valleys. So right now it was nice to hit a low elevation lake.

Also, the two marshy ones would only be a thousand times more nasty if I waited until August.

So, I made a concerted effort to hit Akakola Lake which is in the northwestern corner of the park.
The trail leads out of the Bowman Lake valley. It was a perfect day, warm, clear and free of snow. The weather this May and June so far has been amazing. It was certainly one of those choice days.

After I finished Akakola and enjoyed a nice dinner with a friend, I headed over to Winona Lake. It is on a remote road in the northwest corner of the park. Its name used to be Mud Lake and I suppose the “powers that be” thought that was a bit unflattering. So, a while back it became Winona Lake.

Number 112 and 113!

Then my brother came to visit me and along with many other wonderful hikes we undertook Green Lake. It is in the middle of the forest off of Highway 2 near Marias Pass.
The forest was wonderful. No one goes back in that area, and you can tell that the animals have made note of that.
There are rub trees and animal sign all over the place. That made the day worth while no matter what.
This was possibly the most ridiculous lake I have ever been in.

As it is a marsh. Not a lake. Not even a pond.

It is a clearing in the trees that holds water and grows lots of grass. I laid down in it.

Literally, I laid down.

I did not even get swimming trunks entirely wet. Pretty nasty, but its now off of the list and it brought me to a very prideful 114 lakes.

So, I expect to get to a few higher elevation or more remote lakes pretty soon. If this latest bout of snow and storms moves out and lets summer begin. I’ll keep you informed.

Until then, I wish you all well. Get out there and lay down in a marsh somewhere.
Or not…. It is up to you…What ever you do…

Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Shaheeya Lake – A REALLY Late Night

April 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Wahseeja Lake from Shaheeya Peak

First of all this is a misleading photo, it is from this trip, but not of Shaheeya Lake. I just liked it and it ended up downloaded on my blog twice. So I wanted to find a place to put it. So at the top is where is landed.

I wanted to tell you about a lake endeavor called Shaheeya Lake.   My friend Matt came to visit and the poor guy ended up on a quest for the lost Shaheeya Lake. It is not exactly that it was lost; we knew where it was…it was just crazy rough to get to it.

 There is a ridge that is just south of the Canadian border and smushed up in multiple pockets in this ridge are the “Boundary Lakes”. There are five of them and all of five are completely off trail. They have been looming over this project like a little mini lake project to them selves. There has been two separate endeavors and we have only gotten to three so far.

There still stands Wahseeja and Carcajou Lakes, which are going to prove to be the roughest, most, removed pockets in the series of five. Ah, those are for another day… This is Wahseeja Lake, I’m looking down on it during the Shaheeya trip.

It is funny; I have heard that you only run another marathon after you have forgotten how much the first one hurt. When we left for this hike the idea was to hopefully get Wahseeja Lake also, but like I said,…for another day…A day in which I have forgotten the pain of the last marathon.

So we started entirely too late,…mid morning out of Goat Haunt. Shaheeya lives about 3000 feet above Lake Janet and over on the other side of Shaheeya Peak. So there really is no special way to get there, it just just “UP!!!” Unfortunately “up” does not mean an easy scramble up a drainage or up a nice gradual ridge line.

The Waterton Valley is known for it’s dominating ground cover. Tree’s too, but where there are not many trees on this route, but there is alder and sub alpine fir and every other burly northern rocky mountain short angry ground cover known to foot travel. This is exactly what we dealt with for three thousand straight vertical feet. We started climbing up an avalanche chute that runs directly north of Lake Janet. With in minutes, we were already in tree/bushes/crud that was over our head and we had really just begun. It got so rough at points that I literally got on my belly and crawled under some bushes because they were so tightly woven that it was the path of least resistance.

After about 2000ft we popped out into shelves of rock and this at least afforded us some nice spots to stop, eat and admire the northern expanses of Glacier Park. The going kept getting steeper and steeper until we eventually hit one last thick strand of sub alpine firs and popped out right below Shaheeya Peak. Not exactly our intention, but it handed us one of the best mountain top views of my life.

Matt on Shaheeya Peak

Often on these endeavors; I toil all day and still never really leave a thick valley bottom in search of these bodies of water. It is tough to complain when indirectly you get to climb a really remote and amazing peak in search of a swimming hole. That is exactly what happened today.  So we enjoyed the summit for a while and then found our lake, which we had to drop a thousand feet back down on the other side of the ridge to get to. The bugs were rough, we had to keep moving which is tough to do when you are dead tired and have to switch into some swimming trunks. Funny that no matter how hard you try, there really is no where without mosquitos. NOWHERE!!

So we thought that the hard part was over and we made our way to a different drainage to descend. You never know what you are going to get. Although, do I know of a couple people that have gone up and down this way. Seems that maybe it would work better if you came up and then you would in turn know how to go back down. But, down we went none the less.

Much of the day had already been spent by this point and the surrounding mountains were starting to get that amazing late day glow. Down we went. It was actually going quite well, we had solid rock chutes to climb on and the going was a bit easier than in the avalanche slope. Down we went……

Till about half way between the ridge top and the main trail in the valley bottom we hit a cliff band. There is a term in the world of mountains called “cliffed out”…no matter what your experience with mountains, I would imagine that you can guess what that means. It happens to everyone, once in a while. Lucky, many times you can climb back up and try another route. Although when it is already 7pm to 8pm at night and you spent ten hours getting to where you are currently, that is less of an option.

This is were Matt flys in with a cape and mask combo pack and saves the day. He commited to climbing down a few cliffs that would be virtually impossible to climb back up. The day grew on and the sun dropped further. Eventually, at the exact last minute he found what he thought “might work”….”might work”….?

There are moments in life where you simply have no choice but the follow what “might work”. What other option do you have? That there my friend is life. When there is no nice bow tied on the top and you don’t have a catered lunch sitting there for you,…sometimes…you go with what “might work”…And we did.

What “might work”,…worked! We now had about a half hour of day light. We thrashed out way down through alder and all the wonderful other vegetation that the hillside supported so well. Eventually hitting the trail at exactly dark.

This is why one does not endeavor into the wilds without a head lamp. Always bring that head lamp. All those times when you are annoyed that you are carrying around these “emergency supplies” and your back hurts and you think that you “got this one”….BRING THE HEADLAMP!

We hiked the last four miles out in the dark. Funny how giving a yell to warn bears of your presence increases frequency by a lot when it is pitch dark out and you are the only two knuckleheads roaming around in the dark night.

This honestly was one of the most intense, physical and emotional outputs in the form of a hike in my entire life. I have to dedicate this one to Matt. When the going got ugly and we just wanted to get back to the burritos that were waiting for us at the end of the trail…

Matt found what “might work” and nailed it. So to you my friend and faithful hiking partner. I appreciate you watching my back and bring us down the mountain. Sleeping under the stars down not sound like as much fun when you are on a 45 degree slope and 1500ft above the valley floor…Esecially when those burritos were getting cold.

To Life,
Marc

 
Filed Under: Lake Jumps Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,