Say What? and on to Waterton

Back to hiking....

As we hike, we form a column of determined adventurers.  This works well on narrow trails, and allows people to go by us in either direction.  It also leads to some creative bear deterrence from the guides. As we move, there are calls and responses betweeen the leaders in the front and back--- enough noise to make it clear we’re coming through. The first time I hear “Yo Yogi!”  and “Yo BooBoo!”, I think the guides are just trying to amuse themselves.  They succeed, and they keep us laughing (and keep bears away).  

There are a few other humorous moments.  When Stacey, the Glacier Park naturalist and guide, provides some information, the people closest to  her hear what she’s saying, and those of us who are either ahead or behind catch only a few syllables as we pause and gather around. At one point Stacey is pointing and I hear…   “…ol… ea…i…ating…”

I look in the direction I think she’s pointing and think, “There are  … “P ol ar …b ea rs migrating”  That sounds ridiculous.   

Behind me someone asks, “There are flying beagles hydrating???”

That sounds equally ridiculous.  Then we all see where Stacey is pointing...

Golden Eagle Migrating

Not ridiculous.  Spectacular.

The miles of hiking takes its toll on my knees, so I focus on the view...like the regal Golden Eagle or the views of Grinnell Lake from the Garden Wall.

Grinnell Lake

After leaving the Chalet, we descend about half a mile in only 4 miles. At this point, while we intrepid few have hiked, stopped for a snack at the Chalet, and moved on, Eric has run back to the starting point, brought the van around to the end of the trail, and made his way up to join us.  I am humbled by his speed and skill.

and grateful.

By the time we reach the end of the ‘loop’, everyone feels the day’s exertion.  Going downhill jams your toes into the front of your boots and demands a lot of your knees....funny how that doesn't occur to me going up.  

It is with satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment that we reach the end of our first hike, congratulate each other, and get in the van to head north to Waterton, the other part of the International Peace Park.   Our accommodations for the evening are the other end of the spectrum from the Granite Park Chalet--we’re at the Prince of Wales Hotel.

Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton

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Bears (again)

Since my blog entries turned to hiking, it may seem to you that I’m obsessed with bears.  In my defense, each tour begins with safety information and instructions on what to do if we see a bear. I’ll spare you the repetition, but will elaborate a little so you understand how I feel.

I am fascinated with an animal so intimidating that Lewis and Clark expedition, on seeing their first grizzly, named it ‘Ursus Horribilis’-- the Horrible Bear.  And Glacier National Park is bear country--both the ‘harmless’ black bears (that are not always really black or harmless) and the grizzly.  

Bears are likely to attack when they are startled,  when protecting their cubs, or when hungry and unintimidated by the ‘prey’. So we make noise (hence my very bad rendition of ‘Making Whoopee’) to avoid startling them. And if we’re a little on the quiet side as we’re hiking, someone in the front calls out somethng like  ‘Yo, bear!’ and someone at the back replies something equally clever like,  ‘Yo Yogi!” or  ‘Yo, BooBoo!‘  The first time I heard ‘Yo bear!’ I thought it meant there was a bear nearby and I almost climbed a tree (which is useless because grizzlies can climb). But once I realized we were safe, I found the 'protective calls' funny.  Picture it...a line of adults on a trail in the woods calling out 'Yo, BooBoo!' every few minutes.

So we often sounded a little silly.  But we were safe.  At one point, we saw the claw marks a bear had made on a tree and I took a photo of one of our group near the marks for perspective:

Those marks are made by some serious claws. 

Toward the end of the trip, I buy a couple books about the bears.   It's good that I read them after I visit Grizzly Land. The first, Night of the Grizzlies  by Jack Olsen*, which describes events from 1967 (long before my trip), relates the events of a summer at Granite Park Chalet when trash was accumulating, bears were gathering, tourists where enjoying the daily bear shows, and....this was not a good thing.

The other book is Mark of the Grizzly, by Scott McMillion **  The first story is about a Granite Park Chalet incident.  By incident, I mean an encounter in which a hungry bear got a very good meal ....

For a harrowing true story of human-grizzly interaction, consider the movie, Grizzly Man, a 2005 documentary by Werner Herzog that tells of Timothy Treadwell, who spent thirteen years living with the bears of Alaska.  To see a trailer, check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWycuaWJFCM/   More than once in this movie, someone makes the point that while Treadwell's 'friendship' with the bears was an act meant to protect them and their environment, his behavior ignored basic bear facts and ultimately was  a fatal mistake.

I have digressed from stories of *my* trip to Glacier partly because of my fascination with/terror of bears, and partly because Glacier National Park IS grizzly country.  There is a good reason for the rule, ‘Pack it in, pack it out.‘   It is not a good idea for grizzlies to get too familiar with humans or see them as food providers of any sort (even if it’s trash).  Grizzlies will never- never- see you as friends; food, maybe, but not friends.

*  © 1969 and 1996  Homestead Publishing, Moose Wyoming

** © 1998, Globe Pequot Press

Fighting Fire with Fire

Only when I began to travel did I learn the real meaning of the phrase, ‘fight fire with fire.’ 

Earlier I noted that my trip to Glacier National Park was a while ago and the Trapper Creek Fire of 2003 had since destroyed about 20,000 acres of the park.  In my last post,  the Chalet is surrounded by trees.  I looked at some more recent photos online-- it doesn’t look the same.  The chalet remains, but there are fewer trees.

People are a primary cause of fires, but fires started by lightning strikes cause more destruction than human error.  That doesn’t make the lightning strike fires better.  But fire is a part of a natural cycle.  

Before humans moved into areas previously populated by only animals and plants, that natural cycle worked fairly well (usually).  Fires can open up a forest canopy, enabling sun to promote new growth, or burn scrub in the grasslands with the same affect. Some seeds--certain pine cones, for example-- need the fire’s heat to open and take root.  Ashes  nourish  new plants.   Insects make new homes in the burned trees and attract birds. Some trees--certain oaks, for example--withstand fire better than others, so the loss of competing vegetation helps them survive.   And so the chain renews, life persists. 

When humans stepped in, those who depended on hunting for food  found forests could be a hindrance.  Then they discovered (probably learning from nature) that a little fire could reduce the underbrush and create a path leading game closer to hunters.  

We don’t depend on hunting anymore, and all over the world we’ve populated areas that once were wild. So now a fire that lets the sun shine or clears the scrub also threatens homes and lives.  Over time, we’ve also learned that we can manage fire.  

A controlled or prescribed burn fights fire with fire.  It reduces  the  naturally occurring accumulation of dead matter on the ground that could otherwise fuel wild fires.  Like those ancient hunters, we’ve learned to use fire to our benefit.

An example:  in May, 2016 WNEP channel 16 in Pennsylvania  reported that a brush fire was a ‘controlled burn’ to reduce the wildfire risk and improve the native animals’ natural habitat.

http://wnep.com/2016/05/10/brush-fire-along-casey-highway-is-controlled-burn/

Naturally occurring fires seem to have a four to twenty year cycle, depending on the normal accumulation of waste in the ecosystem.  Now that we've populated so many areas that once might have burned every four to twenty years,  we can't just let nature run it's course.  We have learned that we need to manage the ground waste with controlled burns in order to protect ourselves, at least to some extent, from massive destructive fires.

Is climate change affecting the severity of fires?   I leave that for the experts.  For me, though, the natural cycle is a reminder of the order of things, the immensity of the planet, the systems that compose it, and our teeny little place in the system...even if we do think we know better.

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