FLORAL PARK ROUTE

I started in the North end of Glacier at Swiftcurrent and hiked a short day about 8 miles up to Granite Park Campground. My old knees started bothering me immediately, the wind was blowing hard and bursts of corn snow were stinging my face. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my bother would shoot at me with his BB gun. Even though I was an expert rifleman in the Marines, I am not known as “Deadeye Dick” because of my accuracy with a rifle. I am known as “Deadeye Dick” because of my brother’s accuracy with his Daisy BB gun (Just kidding). Through the pelting I watched a Ram sheep with a full curl standing right in the trail staring at me. Beautiful animal. 

All this hiking in the snow sounds miserable but it was great. Glacier National Park is the most beautiful place on the planet in any weather. 

I spent the first night at Granite Park CG camped near an organic farmer from Maine who had been hiking the CDT from Yellowstone for a couple months, and three people from eastern Oregon doing a week loop through the park. The evening cleared off nicely and we sat around the food prep area getting acquainted. When we all decided to call it a night I could still hear voices in the next tent. I thought the fellow from Maine must have started up another conversation with the Oregon folks. I couldn’t quite make out the conversation but I heard him end it with “Love you too!” I know we were all friendly, but not that friendly. It finally hit me, he was on the phone with his wife back in Maine. It must have been a Canadian tower he was picking up. You don’t get cell service in most of the front country campgrounds in Glacier. 

The next morning I started down the Highline Trail for Logan Pass. I ran into a large Grizzly on the trail almost immediately. He didn’t even give me a glance, just moved off the trail as slow as a sloth and started grazing up the side of the mountain. I gave him plenty of time and space before continuing past. It was a clear morning and I made it to Logan Pass by noon. From there I dropped to Hidden Lake, circled it, and located the very hard to find slot that leads to the pass into Floral Park.  This is not part of the trail system, only a route that goes up past Sperry Glacier. It is more like rock climbing than hiking. From Hidden Lake you climb a scree field straight up to a ridge overlooking Avalanche Lake then straight down the other side. This is probably why my knees are still talking to me. Again the wind and snow were slowing me up. I made it down into Floral Park by late afternoon and thought about staying there for the night. I would be camping illegally but I thought it was the safest thing to do. After resting a few minutes, and studying the rock benches I would use to climb to Sperry Glacier, I decided I should keep moving until dark. Fog was moving in and once that shrouded the route I would be in trouble. By early evening I was at the base of the Glacier and it was tough hiking in the rock moraines. Even though the wind blown snow was gusting with bursts that could almost knock you over, the fog was still blocking the view of my route out over Comeau Pass. I couldn’t figure out the route up and off the Glacier. A seminary student has been missing here for over a year. I was careful not to join him. I refused to jump any crevasses. I worked my way around each one. There was no place to camp even if I wanted. I had to find my way out before dark. My attitude changed near dark. I started looking at the long fingers of rock and loose scree with different eyes. I just wanted a little break from the wind, I would have to deal with an uncomfortable night sleeping on a softball sized rock bed. 

It was too windy to cook. It was almost too windy to erect the tent. I put it together then anchored it down, one corner at a time with large, heavy rocks. I threw everything in, including myself and spent the night in a tent flapping like a flag in a hurricane. I inflated my sleeping pad, as tight as possible, and eliminated 80% of the rocks jabbing me in the back. For dinner I had a Power Bar.

By morning I hoped for clear sky but the fog was thicker than the day before. I knew I had to get off this glacier by the end of the day or my wife would be calling out the helicopters. I explored for a couple hours in the fog soup, then found another rock to block the wind enough to cook breakfast.  I was not sure I was getting off the glacier if the fog persisted so instead of a breakfast meal I had a two person freeze-dried beef stroganoff dinner. After eating I decided to start up a scree field. I could only see 50 ft. or so in the fog but I was hoping to run into some rock cairns near the top of the pass. Around 10 a.m. I finally spotted a large cairn. I was so happy to see that thing. I circled it until I found another and the third one happened to be marking the steep stair slot off the pass and finally onto a trail system that would lead to Sperry Chalet and eventually to McDonald Lodge. 

As I started down the slot I was careful to hang on to the snow encrusted cable as the rock chiseled stairs were snow covered and icy. I could hear voices. As I reached the bottom there were several women heading up. We were yelling to one another in the wind. The slot acted like a chimney draft, making the wind even stronger. I told them the visibility was poor and the wind would blow their hats off. They went up, peeked out and decided to come right back down.

A half hour down the switchbacks I entered a different world. The sun was shining, it was a warm comfortable morning and the only evidence of nasty weather was behind me in the fog shrouded peaks up high. 

Within two hours I began running into hikers heading up to Sperry Chalet, huffing and puffing, asking “How much further?” “Have you seen any bears?”

The several miles of hiking down the mountain trail bothered my knees more than the off trail day. I finally reached McDonald Lodge, grabbed a sandwich and a quart of chocolate milk and started to hitchhike to West Glacier.  After a few days on the trail I feel good, but I look and smell real bad. I was only sticking my thumb out for pickup trucks. I hated to expose tourists in sedans to my stink. No one was picking me up. I stood near a scenic pullout and didn’t even have my thumb out when, Earphant, a young man from Turkey, who had been working in the park all summer, stopped to help me out. Great kid. Gave me water and a banana, dropped me off right in the campground and could not have been friendlier.

If I ever do the Floral Park route again I will wait for nicer weather. It will also be easier now that I know the exact route and what to expect. Backpacker Magazine made this sound like a straight forward, simple day hike. I think that is a disservice to their readers, and possibly fatal for the guy that has not been found yet. The backcountry rangers say they found no sign of him, “He could be at the bottom of the glacier or in Cancun.”

I would bet on the glacier. He didn’t have to be up on Sperry Glacier proper. The base of the glacier stretches like long fingers for hundreds of yards down the valley. Following this route puts hikers in danger of slipping into any number of crevasses that could be fatal. If you are looking for a challenging route in Glacier National Park, this is it. If you are looking for enjoyable hiking along the 750 miles of excellent trail offered throughout GNP this is definitely not it.  --Keep Smilin’, Dick E. Bird