Day 72: Chasing Waterfalls

Colin and I hiked to three waterfalls today: Baring Falls, St Mary Falls, and Virginia Falls. Each falls was successively taller and grander than the last.

I’m on a Boat

After a good night sleep this morning, I woke up, had some breakfast, and worked on the Sunday crossword some more. Colin and I walked over to the general store to get coffee before heading down to the boat dock to snag tickets for the first boat tour of the day. Colin went back up to the campground while I found a secluded spot on the lake to sip my coffee and continue the crossword while waiting for the tour.

The boat tour took us on a historic wooden boat around St Mary Lake. It was a nice way to explore the park while still resting the legs a bit in preparation for Logan Pass tomorrow. The captain also told us about the geology and history of the areas we passed. The boat stopped off a short way from Baring Falls and we all got off to hike up. Because a whole boat tour dumped off at once, it was pretty crowded, though still very beautiful.

After getting back from the tour, I headed back to the general store and got a sandwich and chocolate milk for lunch. There is this great Adirondack chairs/side table thing on the porch outside the store where I sat and enjoyed my lunch and watched the mountains and the world go by.

I wandered back to the campground then Colin and I headed down to the shuttle stop by the boat dock to catch a ride to the St Mary Falls trailhead. A shuttle was leaving just as we were arriving, so we figured it would be a while, but lucky enough a second shuttle pulled up within a minute (the timing of the shuttles in the park is a bit erratic for better or worse). The trail to the falls was quite busy, definitely didn’t need to worry about bears with all the people and noise. At St Mary Falls lots of people were killing around and some jumping off the footbridge or adjacent rocks into the river below.

We continued on from St Mary Falls to Virginia Falls. The trail was quieter than the earlier section. It followed a river with lots of little falls along the way. It culminated at a large waterfall surrounded by verdant cliff face. It’s amazing how trees can grow in practically nothing on the rock faces.

A bit after we returned, Mike and Wayne, two more touring cyclists, also returned from their hike. We all sat around charting about the road ahead and the road behind. I had made vague plans to meet up with Heidi for dinner and assumed she’d come find me at the campground. At about 6:30 she hadn’t come so I wandered over to the hotel to find her. She was sitting on the bench out front where I steal the wifi looking just exhausted. Her 12 mile hike turned into a 19 mile hike and she’s gotten back way later than expected. We grabbed some dinner and then got a snickers ice cream bars at the general store and sat in the Adirondack chairs enjoying the evening.

I got back to camp where we’re all nervous and excited for Logan pass tomorrow. Colin, Mike, and Wayne are all nearing the end of their tours. Colin takes the train out from West Glacier in a few days and Mike and Wayne fly out from Kalispell a day later. Mike and Wayne already came over Logan Pass the other day headed east and are now heading back to finish their journey. Colin has never been up there, same as me. It’s an iconic road and bike ride - I hope it goes well tomorrow. Though either way it’s nice to know I’ll have friendly faces at the campground on the other side.