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...

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.

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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
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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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…

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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

 
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Nooney,Wurdeman, Howe, Rogers, Arrow, Trout and six other Canadian Lakes – I was busy

September 28, 2007 By 2 Comments

Good evening,
It’s been an amazing summer, for sure.
In the last five or six weeks since I wrote alot has happened. I nabbed seven more lakes in Glacier. That brings the totel to 86. Then came the decision that I was going to include Waterton National Park in the lake bid project. So there was a push that incorporated seven lakes up there which brought the totel to 13. 99 in all, need one more before I leave…..I’m running out of time.
So, let’s get started.
I went to a place called Trout Lake.

Some of you may know this as one of the sites of the famous “Night of the Grizzly”maulings. For those that don’t know, here is a quick over view.

The first Grizzly maulings in Glacier NP were in mid August of 1967. Two different girls were killed on the same evening by two different bears in two different spots at virtually the same time. It had never happened before and now it happened twice in the same night.
My friend Pat and I went back there two days after the 40th anniversary.
Much has happened in the last 40 years in the world of bear management. Things are ran entirely different than they were back in 1967. That did not stop the weird vibe we got while we were standing there. Eeehhh….


So, we busted out Trout Lake, Arrow Lake and Rogers Lake. Rogers was a nice annoying thick bushwhack but the other two were right on trail. Great trip Pat. Hope Michigan is going well.

By far the biggest endeavor since last I wrote was finally tackling two of the five northern boundary lakes. There is a valley in my district that runs east west and was randomly placed by the mountain gods…directly along the 49th Parallel which is the line that delineates the border between the United States and Canada.

My friend Matt and I hiked up to the border and then dove directly into a pretty serious bushwhack. I think it was about five hours off trail just schwackin’ around in the berry bushes. You can see Lake Nooney and Lake Wurdeman from a real common trail in Canada. They are amazing lakes. Huh? This picture was taken many years ago and have been excited to down there ever since.
Matt thanks for helping me get these two.. I was impressed with you, those were cold lakes on cold days but we nailed em, huh? Great trip my friend.

By the way there is a jack-o-lantern face in this rock, huh?


Then there were the “worst” two lakes I’ve ever done…Nice distinction, huh?

Upper and Lower Howe Lakes. Two marshes on the western border of the park.
The trip was a good time though. My friend Clay and I headed back there one afternoon. He laughed the whole time cause all I did was lay down in them. I’ll spare you the pictures.They had to get done, but boy it’s moments like that were I can’t believe I opened my big mouth and said this was my goal. Cold water does not bother me, but mucky, muddy, goo does.
…but suck it up Sally and get in the freakin’ lake, huh?

Other than the lakes I dangled my feet off of Angels Wing with my girlfriend.

 

I decided to add the 30 named lakes in Waterton National Park in Alberta to the lakes project. We are Waterton/Glacier International Peace Park. Why not include them.

So, I’ll spare you the details but I drove around Waterton National Park and dipped by body in six lakes in about three hours. They were all either right off the road or just a real short hike. One was right below the Prince of Wales Hotel.

Six is six though, huh?
Best story entailed in this day was that I went swimming in a lake with a moose in it. No one else, just me and the moose swimmin’ in Akamina Lake together.


Just for the record they were Crandel, Akamina, Middle Waterton, Lower Waterton, Linnet, and Maskinonge Lakes.

As I was driving around I had to give way to a little family crossing the street. Does that not look like the Abbey Road album cover?

I hope everyone’s summer went wonderfully. I feel like I was the most blessed guy on the planet. I kept telling visitors that I felt like I won the lottery.

I have a bad habit of bringing the bummer at the end. I would like to dedicate this entry to a guy named Mark. I don’t know his last name, but he was cool and from Oklahoma. He worked out here for a few summers and we hung out and played some great music. He was a good guitarist, and a great guy. He died about a week ago, driving to work in Oregon. Either he fell asleep or his car gave out or something, but he went off the road and died. This park will miss him and he will miss this park. He attacked it in large bites, which is always admirable.

Now, since I’m sure Mark would prefer us happy…

I bring you a picture of a man hurding cattle with a 4 weeler on the side of the road in Babb, MT. Toto, I’m not in Cincinnati any more…

To Mark from Oklahoma…

and…

To Life

Marc

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Sky Lake Bid – A whole lot of straight up

August 23, 2007 By 2 Comments

Speaker:
Good Morning everyone,
Can I see a show of hands…Who here has been to the Two Medicine valley of Glacier National Park? It’s in the southeastern corner…Huh…..
Great, that’s actually a good amount of you.

Speaker:
Yes, Maam? You in the back with the blue shirt on…Do you have a question?

Lady:
Dmoiunamdklsdfjlkoiwekdfasdklfj (enter Charlie Browns teacher sound.)

Speaker:
I’m going to repeat your question, I’m not sure everyone understood, uh…..heard it…

She asked: What is the highest mountain in the Two Medicine area? Also, is it true that the highest elevation named lake in the park is in a hanging basin on that mountain?

Speaker:
Well, you are very correct. The mountain is called Rising Wolf and the highest elevation lake in the park is nestled in a hole on the east side of it…

I know I’ve got a picture around here somewhere of that mountain…Gimme a second… While I look for it, allow me to recount the day my friend Laura and I scrambled up to it…

*(enter dream sequence sounds from movies like Wayne’s World..)

It was a slow start to a hot and sunny day, as the residents of the St. Mary trailer park awoke. There was the normal scramble at the end of the night before attempting to figure out what to do for the next day. Laura and I had the day off and we were staring at the Glacier map that is tacked on the living room wall. This thing is tattoed into our subconscious but it’s still nice to have map. We could, blah, blah..or maybe blah, blah….

As the morning drug on I was enjoying too much coffee and lazy conversation…Laura was being patient, but forced me to decide… we decided that the only day hike left on the east side of the park that ends in a lake and could be started at noon is Sky Lake in Two Med.

Off we go, zooming down the east side border of the park in Laura’s trusty steed TT. As we approach Two Med we peer down into the valley at our day’s project.

The mountain on the far right is Rising Wolf. The red scree slope in the center is directly above Sky Lake in a small hanging valley. During the early season there is a spectacular waterfall that jets right out of the hanging valley and runs a couple thousand feet to the main valley below.

This is a very short yet angular route. I looked at it every day while I worked down here in 2005. From the Two Medicine Ranger Station you can see that you simply walk straight up the side of Rising Wolf for 2500’ to the top of that ridge to the right of the summit. Easy as that…huh?

It can’t be more than a mile but you raise 2500’. From the second you walk off trail and head through the brush you are headed up hill.

We picked our way through the cliffs and loose rock.

If there is a positive, it’s so steep that every time you take a step you are about a foot higher on the mountain than you were before. You gain some serious elevation quick.

Here we are looking back down on Two Medicine developed area. The campground is to the left next to Pray Lake and then the ranger station, picnic area, camp store and boat docks are to the right on Middle Two Medicine Lake.

Nearing the top you can see that this was an amazingly steep incline.

We are happy to gain the top of the ridge.

We could not drop down the other side at this point, so we had to climb around on the top of the ridge to a better spot for decent on the lake.

We got further down the ridge and we found a spot that was “acceptable” to try and climb down.

Laura led the way through the cliffs, this girl is a goat.

She quickly was down bottom waiting for her slow hiking partner.

So, a quick interjection. I lost my sunglasses right before this hike. You don’t go hiking around in the windy/sunny mountains with out sunglasses. Well, what do you do then?
You take sunglasses from anyone that can offer them, and that includes your female friends. That is how this picture came about. Thanks for the glasses Anna.

While we were climbing back up to the ridge top, I snapped a picture of where the waterfall normally comes out of the lake. So, remembering back to the first picture, this just reinforces how much this basin is just perched on the side of a mountain.

From the top of the ridge you can see out into the plains that start rolling east as you get out of the park.


After a good boot picture we started climbing back down.

There was a band at Charlie’s which is the best bar on the planet. We got things to do..


So, down, down, down it is…

When we got back down to Laura’s car I ran in to a good friend.

Mr. Pat Hagen who is a naturalist in the Two Medicine Valley and has been since before Rising Wolf dated Sinopah. Sorry, a little Two Med humor.

Pat wrote a book a few years ago called Seasonal Disorder, well worth the read. It’s about the mental and emotional affliction that is seasonal work addiction, but using well more funny words. Check it out on Amazon.com.

So, anyway, he read my blog and knows of my deranged lake idea, and he is under the impression that I should take my stories and write a book. He has gotten in my head since then, I have been thinking about it a lot since. Any opinions? I’m open to them..

So, to all of you… I miss you much and wish you well. Summer smells of fall and cooler temperatures. We got our first light dusting of snow in the highest of the peaks the other day. It went virtually unnoticed and burnt off within hours.

Go enjoy that summer weather while it’s still there..it’s fleeting in some peoples backyards.

Other than that,
Thanks for taking care of us, Rising Wolf..
You have always been a good mountain to me….

To Life,
Marc

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Kennedy Lake – Up and over the mountain, twice

July 30, 2007 By 4 Comments

Good evening, all

Yes that’s right, it’s night time again and I’m trying to make sure I get this thing updated. I have actually done much since I wrote last. So, here goes….

.

Back to the lake bids. My girlfriend and I went on a trek last week. In the Many Glacier valley there is Kennedy Lake. It’s quite remote. It is the head waters of Kennedy Creek which is really long.  Poia Lake is fed by this water down the creek a ways. 

Since its so long just heading  straight up the valley would be a horrible bushwack. So, what you do is climb over Appikuni Mountain…..twice…

It’s not the most difficult mountain in the world to climb, but it’s still 3000 feet of elevation gain to the summit. There is an interesting cliffy section near the beginning.

For the most part though, it’s just a super long slope of scree and small cliffs.

These are the moments that make me ask you this question. Now, this is providing that all random actions and systems of the body are for a reason. What, is the purpose, I ask you? In these moments when your in a zen like cloud, putting one foot in front of the other. A thousand feet of loose scree above you, a thousand below. Why at those exact moments, does the theme to Three’s Company get stuck in your head? Anyone????

Sorry for that tanget…I just always get something odd stuck in my head, but I’m sure I’m not the only one….

Well, we got to the top of a saddle that is right below the actual peak, and there was Kennedy Lake. Big, blue and 1500 feet of scree and small cliffs below us. We dropped in on it which took a while. I love it, plenty of people have seen this lake from surrounding mountain peaks, but virtually nobody ever goes down to it. It’s an amazing lake, so much color. Great spot for a short lunch….. and a dip

Short is the word, because now comes the disheartening part. You can’t homestead there, so it’s time to just climb right back up to the same saddle that you were standing on a couple hours ago.
Beleive it or not, there is a person in the middle of that slope in the picture above…Where in the world is Waldo,huh?

All good though, we decided that we would actually summit the mountain this time. Amazing views from up there.

So, we climbed back down into the same basin that we hiked up to, just luckily from a different side. Those cliffs in front there were the beginning of the climb All the way down there at the end of the valley is where our car is parked.

I love long days in this park. You tend to get a great sunset as you’re hiking out.

There is nothing like being absolutely physically tired as you go into auto pilot to get back to that car. You know you did a good long hike when you come back out to the same parking lot, that was busy 10 hours earlier…. but now your dusty car is the only thing left in the parking lot. Everyone else is done with their days task and already eating dinner. Makes you proud. Take advantage of those arms and legs while they work well. Put them to a test,huh? It makes you appreciate having a capable body. Get out there and use it while you have it folks.To Life,Marc
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