Silversprite

Yes they do. Because I nearly trod in it.

In an attempt to shed some of my “Amtrak pounds” (I swear I will take my own healthier foods on their trains from now on), decided today to climb a significant mountain. By far the most convenient is Big Mountain, which is a few miles north of Whitefish.

I hired a taxi to take me to the touristy resort from where the “Danny Oh” trail winds up the mountain, ending at an altitude of 6,817 feet. Sounded good. The taxi driver, a friendly Montanan turned up to the minute.

“Where you going?”
“Big Mountain. Going to hike the Danny On trail to the top.”
(Long pause)
“You packing a gurn?”
[Eh?] “Oh, gun. No.”
“You doing this on your own?”
[Well, there's only me in your taxi] “Yep.”
“There’s bears in them woods. People die in bear attacks. They get messed up real bad.”
“The people in the Chamber of Commerce never mentioned this when they gave me the info on the trail yesterday. How common are these bears?”
“I had one of those bears in my backyard on Tuesday.”

Hmmm; an interesting variation on the usual taxi driver comment of “I had that Robert De Niro in the back of my cab on Tuesday.”

The taxi driver went on about graphic incidents involving bears and tourists. She dropped me off at the resort with a friendly “Well, I hope you don’t become bear poo.”

I had a look around and saw this sign: 

I popped into the only place, it being out of season, open. The three people busying around gave varying opinions on the bear situation. The upshot was:

Sing and make lots of noise, and they won’t be startled by your presence.

Try not to smell bad e.g. of food.

Carry bear repellant. Bears have very sensitive noses and it makes them back off.

One of them disappeared, reappearing with a cannister of bear repellant called Counter Assault. I practised flipping the safety off and pretending to stun Winnie The Pooh with a well-aimed blast.

And with that I started up the mountain. Being weighed down by the cannister, in addition to a (healthy) packed lunch, three litres of water, my laptop (hey, a man’s gotta blog), camera and some other junk, it didn’t take long in the surprisingly intense October heat to perspire somewhat. This was partially negated by the views unfolding around every corner.

After about an hour, a sudden stench of something rotting really badly assaulted the nasal passages. Next to the trail, a pile of poo. Correction: a massive pile of poo, the size of which Armitage Shanks would never have planned for. I’ll save you the details, and the photo (which is too gross to put online), but whatever did the dump was obviously a meat eater with a fast-working digestive system.

I walked on a bit quicker, and started making lots of noise.

Between the poo mountain and the top of the mountain I saw eight deer, many squirrel-like creatures (which were very noisy) and I think a bobcat. Alas, no mountain lions, which according to a more reliable source than the “Bears swarming the mountainside” taxi driver, were in the area.

The summit was spectacular. My camera can’t do justice to this, but from the top the views extended over to the Glacier National Park and the Canadian Rockies. Oh, Canada: one day I’ll visit you.

Thankfully, despite the warnings on the park limit, no effects whatsoever of altitude sickness. The trek down the mountain was, not surprisingly, much quicker, stopping only to take in the view across the valley floor several thousand feet below:

At the resort I got chatting to the staff. I described the poo to one and showed her the picture. She identified it as “probably bear”. So the nearest I’ve got to a bear, apart from the tinned one I bought in Finland last year, is by nearly treading in it’s bowel movement.

Rather than take the taxi back down, they advised that Montana was one of the few places in the US where it was totally safe to hitch. After handing back the bear repellant, that’s what I did. Within 30 seconds, the first vehicle pulled over. He was heading past my hotel (bonus!) and was called Ray. Lived in El Paso, then Chicago where he’d been an electrician for 23 years. Had enough of city living, visited his daughter in Montana three years ago, never left; now worked on the mountain. Hoped to see McCain win next week, but would just be glad when it’s all over.

With friendly goodbyes, he dropped me off at my hotel. Aching from several hours of trail, I made a bee line for the hot tub round the back of the hotel and had an utterly blissful 30 minutes of deep heat aqua treatment. Every hotel should have a hot tub and pool.

Checking email and seeing messages from delegates starting to pick their route to the midwest, thoughts are turning now to GLLS2008 – the ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium. This being a work trip, am presenting there on election day in Obama’s home city, on the subject of Nintendo.  Methinks with the political events, it’ll be a long day…

Tags: glls2008

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