The next morning when we got up there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. We packed up quickly, ate our breakfast, and headed back to the car. It was a long hike, overall it was 12.2 miles with elevation changes of 1445 ft up 3585 ft down. As we left fifty mountain, the snow steadily became rain and eventually the rain was just a light mist that was off and on. Interestingly we found a lot of bear scat on the trail on the way out. We had hiked this same trail a few days earlier and didn’t remember seeing this. I guess the hikers weren’t the only ones headed away from the snow.
There was a great deal more emphasis on bears at Glacier than any other place I had visited. Glacier seems to be a very healthy habitat for grizzlies. Rangers recommended backpackers make noise to prevent startling the bears. Wendy and I did a great deal of talking while we were hiking to make noise. We also took a canister of bear spray with us on the trail. Rangers did not recommend the bear bells. One of my favorite jokes, what is the difference between grizzly bear poop and black bear poop? Grizzly bear poop has bells in it and smells like pepper spray.
Once we got back to our car later that afternoon, the battery was dead. I can’t figure out why. Nothing was left on and the battery was only about 2 years old. Thankfully, someone else let us use their car to jump ours. We drove on the Going to the Sun Road towards the East side of the park. We hoped to find a hotel room and get a good meal.
We headed to Many Glacier Hotel. It is a historic hotel built by the railroads back when the park first opened. Early on, the only way people came to visit Glacier was by railroad. The railroad built hotels near the train depots for visitors to have a place to stay. It was a cool hotel, but the rooms were dated. The shower felt great though. Other people we had talked to had mentioned this area of the park. We had always heard it pronounced Manny, like the boy’s name. After looking around we discovered it was Many, as in several. There is no Many Glacier, but it is called that because you can see many glaciers from the hotel.
