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Day 100, So long, farewell
09/August/2009
Finished up the journey with a classic hike — the Highline Trail to Granite Park. The hope was to get photos of one last high country critter — the hoary marmot. They obliged. I was eating a snack on a rock and this one nearly got on my back to get a better look at me. Unfortunately, no sweeping views. The past few days have been fairly dark and dreary, sort of like the beginning of this project. The entire hike was in the clouds. Never even saw the chalet it was so dense. Still, a pleasant way to end the journey. And what now? Well, in the next eight months or so we'll put it all together in a special edition of the magazine. A traveling show is planned. There are many, many photos that didn't make this blog. Stay tuned to this magazine's regular blog for details.
As for me, I'll take a day or two off and then it's back to Glacier. More adventures lurk in the woods, sweep across the prairies, course through the trails, shine across the peaks.
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Day 99, Attack of the Cooper's Hawk
09/August/2009
I had hoped to camp at Morning Star Lake and spend the last two days of this journey in the Cut Bank area, but a grizzly bear took up residence in the campground and it was closed. So I day hiked to the lake and on the way back, I was sitting in the trail on my pack overlooking the valley when (and I am not making this up) a wolverine walked within 15 feet of me. I grabbed the camera but it saw me and shot off down the trail and into the brush. Dejected, I began walking to the truck when I heard a racket above me. It was an irate Cooper's Hawk. The hawk dive-bombed me several times and called at me. The reason? It had a fledgling in a nearby tree. The bird continued to dive-bomb me as I walked down the trail until I was no longer what it considered a threat. Cooper's Hawks aren't very big, but look at those talons. Now imagine them stuck in your neck.
Day 98, The hedgerow
09/August/2009
Today I spent most of my time in the Lake McDonald Lodge Auditorium listening to scientists and researchers speak about projects they're working on in Waterton or Glacier. But during lunch I noticed a hedgerow between the cabins and the lake was teeming with birds. The warblers were feeding on bugs and the robins and waxwings on serviceberries. I photographed them well into the evening, long after the mics were put away and the researchers went home. It's an interesting place to take photos with a big lens. People stop and chat and one lady even asked me to fix her camera. I obliged. Here, a fledgling robin eats serviceberries.
Day 97, The Roosevelt Ride
06/August/2009
Kate Roosevelt, great granddaughter of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, enjoys a ride in a 1927 Cadillac Touring Car on a tour of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. FDR visited the Park in 1934 and rode across the Sun Road, later giving an address to the nation from the Two Medicine chalets. This event marked the 75th anniversary of FDR's ride in three of the remaining touring cars and a 1925 White bus that carried journalists. More on the ride will be in the next issue of GPM. Subscribe here.
Day 96, The griz
05/August/2009
A sow grizzly walks along the Garden Wall well above the Highline Trail. You might ask, well why didn't you get closer? Well, she had two cubs (out of the frame) and a photographer named Gibbs several years ago had the bright idea that he would climb up to a sow with cubs to get better pictures on Elk Mountain. That grizzly killed and ate him. I give grizzlies wide berths. This provided a fun opportunity to watch the bear at a safe distance feed on the slope. What was most impressive was just how quickly she moved — the slope is easily 45 degrees and she went up and down it like it was a sidewalk. I just hope she stays away from people. The Highline is a very busy trail — one of the most hiked in the Park.
Day 93, The wolf
02/August/2009
Did a 10-mile hike in the North Fork and on the way out just before dark I was watching a woodpecker when I heard some breathing (that's right breathing, like heavy breath) in the woods below me and some twigs breaking. Then I saw a wolf and then another wolf began barking at me. Just like the neighbor's dog. It was pretty cool. And yes, the mosquitos are still awful. Support this effort. Subscribe here.
Day 92, Pikas
01/August/2009
I spent the evening in a talus slope photographing pikas. They are not a rodent — they're related to rabbits and they do not hibernate. They survive in Glacier's harsh environment by making "haypiles" under big rocks which they feed on during the winter. Pikas need deep snow for insulation in the winter months and they need the big rocks to keep cool in the summer months. They're considered a bellwether for climate change. The good news is the Park's pika population is robust. Other populations in the Great Basin have gone extinct. This one was maybe four-five weeks old. It's the smallest pika I've ever photographed. When I first saw it, I thought it was a mouse. Here, it feeds on Penstemon. It reached out as far as it could to feed. It didn't want to fall into the bush (it did once and leapt out, very upset.)
Day 91, Women in trees
31/July/2009
Rebecca Lawrence, of Glacier National Park's revegetation crew, peers from the top of a whitebark pine. I went out with the crew as they "caged" the cones of healthy whitebark pines. The idea is to use screens to keep the squirrels and birds off the cones. The cones are then harvested in the fall, the seeds raised in a nursery and then the seedlings are replanted a few years later. Read more about the effort and why it's important in the next issue of GPM. Subscribe here.
Day 90, Looking much better...
30/July/2009
On Day 84, we showed these guys in their nest. Today, they looked a lot more like birds and are on the cusp of leaving the nest for good. The cedar waxwing was actually perched on a limb just outside the nest, the one in the lower left was in it. All told, four survived.
Day 89, Forest primeval
29/July/2009
I went back into the big cedars of Glacier. It was a dark and gloomy evening with rain threatening. As I was about to leave and it was close to dark I heard songbirds having fits in the trees. The reason? A brood of barred owls. Barred owls have a wide ranging diet that includes songbirds. All told, I saw three owls. Despite the dark, I was able to jam the monopod into the Earth and stabilize the camera next to a tree. Shooting a 400mm at 1/30th of a second without blur is not easy. An owl's main defense is to sit still. If the songbirds weren't chattering at it, I would have never seen it.
Day 88, Gloom
28/July/2009
The mosquitos have been relentless. The days hot and muggy. And every evening, without fail, just as the light is ripening to a perfect hue, a big black cloud rolls over and things go black. I think I'll gnaw my wrists now.
Day 87, Cooling off
27/July/2009
Today was hot and muggy and then a big thunderstorm came in and it became too dark to shoot. Such are the hazards of waiting for evening light. Sometimes it works out fabulously. Sometimes it does not.
Day 86, Ponderosas at dusk
26/July/2009
Ponderosa pine groves aren't very common in Glacier, which is maybe why they're one of my favorite places. Spending an evening among 150-year-old plus trees towering 150 feet-plus above you has an undeniable charm. This is a digital conversion print. The original, in color, is pretty cool, too. I just feel simple today.
Day 85, Mmmm, berries
24/July/2009
The other big fan of the Park's serviceberries is the red-tailed chipmunk. They usually eat them before they're ripe, however. Sigh. The serviceberry crop is very good this year. We had a timely thunderstorm today, which gave us a nice shot of rain. Looks like it will probably rain again.
Day 84, A late nester
24/July/2009
The cedar waxwing is a beautiful and gracious bird, but their young 'uns sure is ugly. Cedars waxwings in Glacier nest later than almost all the other bird species. Their nesting coincides with the ripening of berries — mostly serviceberries.
Day 83, Moose caffeine
23/July/2009
On the trail all of 10 minutes I get a surprise — a big moose. This guy was the largest moose I've seen since I started this project. He was just feeding not far from the trail. Probably weighed 1,400 pounds or more. That will wake you up. I never saw a human on this trip.
Day 82, Mountains I'll never climb
23/July/2009
Swinging around into the Coal Creek drainage, I'm heading back closer to home. I spent the better part of the day walking past this mountain — Mount St. Nicholas, an impressive spire coveted by mountaineers. I have no desire to climb it, but the basin below the spire looks interesting. Oh yeah, the mosquitos and flies have reduced dramatically. I think it's the landscape. The Nyack side was brushy, the Coal Creek side was burned by the Rampage Fire of 2003. There's less puddles and pools to breed in. Whatever the case, the lack of bugs is noticeable.
Day 81, Well that's not a bird
23/July/2009
I was heading into Martha's Basin, an idyllic spot thick with towering brush, mountains, lakes and swarms of mosquitos, when I heard a ruckus in a tree. When hiking alone in this terrain I'm constantly yelling "Hey Bear!" just to let them know I'm around. This sow sent herself and her cub up a tree to get a better look at me. She'd been digging in the creek bank, that's why she's all wet and dirty. I took a few frames and then passed. She wasn't exactly in a good mood. At first I thought she was a large bird. Yeah, a 250-pound one.
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