The Glacier Recap

I love Glacier National Park. It's soaring peaks with waterfalls around every bend are beyond breathtaking. I love the hiking trails and the relative uncrowdedness of the park. But if you are an angler making a bucket list of "must fish" places, don't waste your time adding Glacier to your list. My anglers were pretty disappointed with their fishing experience.

In an effort to find some good fishing we ventured to an area of the park I have never visited before. We went to the Many Glacier area. This is on the northeast side of the park...the plains side and it was interesting just how different it felt compared to the very familiar west side of the park.  In Many Glacier we saw 3 grizzly bears and one of the biggest black bears I have ever seen. I was so surprised to see the bears since in all of my years in visiting Glacier I have never seen a bear in the park. I've seen lots in Yellowstone, but never in Glacier until now.

So the fishing...well the boys decided that Red Rock Lake would be their best bet for finding some fish. We hiked in about 2 miles to the lake. It was a nice easy hike with a well-maintained trail which was a welcome change from the last fishing hike I took. That was up to St. Joe Lake and my knees and shins are still covered in healing scabs from climbing over the many fallen logs that covered the trail.

The boys didn't waste any time in getting in the water and casting out their lines. I think they all had a couple of bites and maybe David actually caught a fish, but in general they didn't think Red Rock lived up to the billing of "decent fishing" as stated in a book Dave had about fishing in Glacier. But the area sure made for some pretty pictures.

My boys enjoying some time together in a glacier-fed lake. BRRR!

After they had their fill of frustration fishing, we headed back to the trailhead where we had left Charlene with Zoe and Josie. We had some lunch and then drove back down the road towards another fishing spot.

I think I have blocked out the name of this fishing area because of the unpleasant experience I had here. Here's the story.

The wind was coming up and Dave was wavering a bit about fishing another spot. Carson really wanted to so he talked Dave and I into renting a canoe to get to the next spot. The boys paddled us across the lake to where a little stream was coming in. We beached the canoe and the boys did a bit of fishing. Carson got a fish on so Dave got out his phone to take a picture. After the photo op, Dave put the phone in his pocket and then started to cross a log that was jutting out into the water to get a good vantage point for his fishing. I told Dave since I wasn't going to be fishing or in the water, I would be happy to hold his phone for him. So he handed me his phone for safekeeping.

We got back into the canoe, I tucked the phone safely away between my waistband and my life jacket, and away we went down the lake towards another little creek. We beached the canoe again. Carson got out first and then it was my turn to get out. I remembered a second too late about the phone that I was supposedly holding for safekeeping. I had already dropped it into the water when I remembered that I had tucked it into my waistband.

I could have died. I felt so bad about dropping Dave's phone into the lake. But props to him, he didn't freak out. He didn't get mad. He just said "You dropped my phone". And darn it, if his reaction didn't make me feel worse. It just showed me, once again, what a gem he truly is.

So we initially thought the phone might have survived (we put it in rice as soon as we got back to camp), but about 4 days later it became apparent that it was probably a goner. Unfortunately we had just upgraded in March and did not purchase insurance for the phone. Ugh! Dave only wants his pictures off the phone so that is my task. To see if I can get the pictures off or if the people at the Apple Store can help me.

More Glacier recap on my next blog post.