I hiked out to Iceberg Lake this morning, starting with a naturalist and a large group. I only lasted about a half an hour with them. As I suspected, the pace was just too slow for me, so I pressed on by myself. I ended up walking part of the way with a young woman who is working here for the summer - but I walked back alone. I'm glad I didn't let the bear warnings and the "never hike alone" warnings scare me off. I talked the whole way - conversations with people when others were available, conversations (?) directed at the bears when I was alone (hey bear! hey bear! where are you hiding?). Some people put bells on their packs - but according to the rangers the human voice does a much better job of alerting the bears to your presence. The area is loaded with berries that the bears like to eat, and the key to hiking is to warn the bears of your presence and not surprise them.
It was a very enjoyable walk. It was amazing how cool is was by the lake. There is a lot of ice floating in it - even though the air temperature is quite warm - and there is cool air rising off of the ice in the lake.
I got back to Swiftcurrent at about 12:30, just in time for lunch. Then I wandered back to the campsite to meet my new "camp-mate". Don is from Minnesota, came in on a motorcycle. He took off to hike, and I headed over to the Many Glacier Lodge to relax for a while.
When I got back to the campground I noticed a big sign that somehow I spaced out yesterday. It said "Bears have killed or injured people in the campground". Scary, but just a warning to be careful...
Right now I'm waiting for clothes to dry. I washed out what I was wearing today, but decided that it looks too much like rain to risk air-drying it, so I popped back to the motel to use a dryer. I've put my rainjacket out in the tent for later, and I think I'll cover the bike when I get back. Don & I are going to have dinner in the motel dining room tonight. So far it's been a nice, relaxing day. I'm glad I stayed - although when I initially got back to the campsite after lunch I actually considered packing up and leaving. I am definitely having a hard time just staying in place! I took the time to look at my maps today. It looks like it should take me 7 days to hit Banff from here. And I have 9 days left until I need to be there - which leaves me some rest days or bad weather days. If all goes well I will have the time to get to Kananaskis Country.
Later on... Just after Don & I got to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn for dinner it started pouring! It rained really hard for about 2 hours - we finished dinner then hung out on the porch for a while. There was an unbelievable double rainbow at the end of the storm, and a large temperature drop. I actually used the hood on my rainjacket to help warm up. I was almost afraid to go back to the campsite - wasn't sure what I'd find there. It was none the worse for the rain though, and the tent and contents came through totally dry. Most of my gear was still in the panniers on my bike, and since my panniers are totally waterproof (thanks to Ortlieb - http://ortliebusa.com) I wasn't worried about anything there.
Two more cyclists joined us in the hiker-biker site - Bonnie & Richard from Bozeman. They were unfortunate enough to get caught in that rain on their bikes. It's Bonnie's first tour, but Richard had done quite a few back in the 70's. They are headed for Cardston, Alberta tomorrow to visit the Mormon Temple there.
Richard was very interested in my bike - I'll have to remember to tell Peter about all of the attention the bike it getting.
I heard a very sad bear story today. A mother grizzly and her 2 cubs broke into the ranger's quarters at Goat Haunt. Apparently these bears had scared some boy scouts a couple of weeks ago. The kids dropped their food (not the right thing to do), and the bears got a taste of human food and learned to associate humans with food. This week they removed a screen from an open window in the ranger's quarters, climbed in the window, raided the refrigerator, and generally trashed the place. Unfortunately the bears were too clever for their own good. The ranger told us that they will be killed tomorrow - part of the bear management program. I hate to hear stories like this.
