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Our second full day in Glacier we waited around for a shuttle and finally found one after about an hour, only to find out that the shuttle for the St Mary side didn’t start until July 1. The one we found only went to the Apgar side. Well then.
We had wanted to go hike to St Mary and Virginia falls, but couldn’t find parking at the trailhead, so we went to the 1913 Ranger Cabin that’s just outside the St Mary park entrance. The cabin wasn’t open, but it did have a sign telling some of the interesting history of the cabin.
We then went on a hike that was supposed to take us past a beaver dam that is actively being used by beavers. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring a trail map (the hike was a loop, so I figured we’d be ok), and I started second guessing our route as we moved further and further from the lake. A beaver dam should be close to the lake, right?
We ended up turning around and hiking back the way we’d come and taking a short spur trail to a rocky beach, where we tried skipping more rocks.
When we returned to the trailhead, we consulted the map there and determined that we turned around just short of where we would have seen the beaver dam. That realization was a bit frustrating and disgusting. But we plan on coming back to Glacier, so we’ll repeat the hike and not turn around just before seeing what we came to see.
It was still a good hike though, so it wasn’t a complete loss. We hiked about 4 miles total during this hike. And we’ve learned to take a picture of the map at the trailhead so we have a map to consult or a backup map to consult. The paper maps didn’t show where the beaver dam was, but the trailhead map did.
Proper preparation (i.e., maps) and patience when searching for a landmark that’s not immediately evident are valuable skills that we clearly need to work on 🙂 Have you ever turned around just before the payoff when searching for a landmark or point of interest?
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