Akokala Lake - Glacier National Park

Here's a post I should have made a while ago! I had the pleasure to go on a group hike with a bunch of lovely ladies from all different corners of the country. We went to Glacier National Park and took the trail to Akokala Lake. It was a very easy hike, low and mostly flat.

There wasn't a whole lot of crazy things or views on the trail but the lake sure was beautiful!

At this time of year the mosquitoes were eating us alive, you really couldn't stop, even with bug spray they were intolerable.

 Coming up on a small bridge, about three quarters of the way to the lake.

Here's the bridge.



What was neat on this trip is that we got passed by a forest service pack team.









The team was bringing in panels to be installed in the water ways. 

They are hoping to keep the Lake Trout population from infesting Akokala Lake. The Lake Trout is a growing problem in the parks waters.

There were two strings of 5, including the riders mount. It was pretty sweet to watch as they crossed over the creek while I waited for the rest of the group to catch up to me.














When we first arrived at the lake the surrounding peaks were shrouded in clouds creating an almost unreal look. It felt as if you could become enveloped in the soft puffy layers if only you were to stare intently enough. 

Much to my delight, as we sat there eating our lunches, the clouds began to drift away unveiling the magnificent peaks that laid underneath. 

At your farthest left, still beneath the clouds a bit, is Reuter Peak.

Kintla peak is in the middle to the left hand side, also just beneath some wispy clouds.

To the middle right and clear as day is Mount Peabody.

Numa Peak sits on the far right, towering above the lake.

The whole hike was just under 12 miles, so if you're looking for a little distance and an easy trail, this could be for you. 

With all the fish I saw, I would highly suggest bring a rod!

Happy Trails!

What should we EAT?

Now here's a big question! What should we eat? I'm on the go whenever I'm not working and I'm hiking, trail running, backpacking... these are all things that require a lot of energy and therefore a lot of food. 

Calories, carbs, fats, trans fats, protein, fiber, sodium...?! The list goes on of things in food to count and watch. Now I'm by no means a nutritionist, I am not a health professional nor do I claim to be. However, I am generally in pretty good shape and I can conquer a 16-mile hike in one day without feeling like I'm dying for days afterwards. My diet isn't perfect either, there's probably more food I should... or shouldn't eat.

Back to the original question then, what to eat? Let's begin with what not to eat:

Soda - Duh! There are waters that are carbonated with natural fruit flavor, they're delicious and way the heck better for you. They come in a can and everything ;)

Prepackaged foods - To me this means TV dinners. Why? They're packed with salt and very, very little actual nutrition. If I "have" to go this route (it's been a long week and I'm exhausted!) then I will get a minimally processed, all natural meal from the organic section in the store.

Boxed foods - Same basic principal. These foods are packed with sodium and not much else.

Fast food - We've known this for years! How many of you still indulge in this nasty habit though? Fast food is typically the opitamy of what NOT to eat... I mean who else can make a salad unhealthy? Take a bunch of over-processed, nutrition-less junk and put in a meal, that to me describes fast food. Speaking for myself (which of course this whole post is), once I got away from this kind of food it now makes my stomach sick if I munch on a buddies fries or other grease laden food.

Deep fried food - I think we can all figure that one out.

White flour foods - White bread, tortillas, hamburger buns, hot dog buns, PASTA, etc. These are all things which are void of nutrition and when processed by our body do us no good.

Now, let's talk about what we should eat:

Veggies - Yep, that's right, you're momma learned ya good when your were a wee one and she was telling to eat your vegetables. So we don't all like all the veggies out there, I'm not a fan of eating food that tastes bad to me. You can't get me touch a bell pepper but I sure do love me some broccoli! Find what you like in the veggie section, buy it and eat it. Even if it's just carrots with ranch, ya the ranch is bad for you but you're still eating the damn carrot right?

Less processed food - Whole milk instead of non-fat, regular cottage cheese instead of 2%, real cheese instead of american single slices, food made with real sugar instead of sweetener... Why? Well, the way I look at it, less processed foods are more natural. More natural is probably better than artificial, in my mind.

Whole grain - This can be bread, tortillas, crackers, buns, whatever. If I can get my hands on it in whole grain... I'll do it. I prefer whole grain to "whole grain wheat", there is a difference there.

Meat - Yep, I still think meat is pretty good for you. A big juicy steak may not be as good for my health as lean ground turkey but it's a heck of a lot better than a fast food burger!

Fruit - Strawberries, bananas, apples, pears, oranges, plums, etc. There is sugar in fruit, this is a pretty well know thing... arguably making it "not good for you". Ya right?! If the only way you're getting sugar is through fruit I doubt you gonna be packing on many pounds and feeling sluggish!

Beans, lentils, quinoa, oatmeal, etc. - There is really a ton of good food out there for you, all you've got to do is start eating it!

Once you begin eating smarter you begin feeling better. Pretty simple right, give you're body better crap and you won't feel like crap all the time. It irks me a little bit tot hear someone that just when to Fast Food Town say "Gee, I sure do feel sluggish and cruddy everyday after lunch." Well... I sure wonder why! Maybe it was that little gremlin that goes around punching people in the gut and slipping sleeping powder in your drink whenever you're not looking. 

How about some pictures now!

Quinoa, cauliflower, broccoli, fried turkey patty and delicious cheese.

Meal on the cheapy cheap! Tiny steak, tiny scallops, small salad and mushrooms with a bit of spinach and cheese.

Meal eating out at work. Super delightful Cesar salad and black bean soup!

Mhhh wine.

Quinoa, ground turkey fried up with onion and yummy spinach.

Groceries

Maybe this will inspire you to eat better, maybe not. What I can tell you is I feel a hell of a lot better since I began eating well! I still get to eat delicious food too.

If you have pics of some cool food I'd love to see them! Send 'em post 'em, whatever ya want. Towards the end of this hiking season I am considering making a post on trail food as well! Oooh, exciting!

Happy Trails!

Birthday Weekend!

So I admittedly didn't do any hiking this weekend. I did have a very enjoyable time camping for my close friends birthday though!

Here are a few silly photos:

Matt enjoying the water.

We went to Blanchard lake which is South of Seeley Lake, MT by about 20 minutes. 2 hours and 20ish minutes from where I live.

Mr. Pike, caught by none other than the birthday boy himself! And he was yummy. <--- the pike I mean

Ron, my very talented pup... falling asleep suspended in mid air. How does he do it?! What would you call that a zzzuper power?

More silly antics! Ron is clearly not in to it all, or maybe he just wanted a butt photo? Either way I would say, mission accomplished.

Ron, self-appointed cooler guard.

Catching some waves, the Ron dog is so cool he even floats right along with us. Of course all we really caught were fish and moss but it sure was a blast!

Wooh for a fun weekend... until next time, happy trails and wiggly tails!

Clayton Lake - Fishing!

It was going to be a hot day, the forecast said almost 90... what to do? Of course we still wanted to hike but it would be way too hard on our dog, Ron, in those temps. So we searched around for a lake... there are plenty that you can drive to but that isn't terribly appealing to us and would probably be very busy on such a hot day. Skimming over topo maps I noticed one just about 2/3 miles out from a trail head over by the Hungry Horse Reservoir, it looked like a decent size too. Having not spent much time hiking in that area yet I was excited and the hike sure didn't disappoint!

The hike is short, roughly 2.6 miles to hit the lake.

Leaving late morning the temps had already hit 70's in town. From South Kalispell it took almost two hours to get to the trail head, it got warmer the whole time, of course. At the shady trail head the thermometer read 77 dergrees.

On this particular day my roommate was going to float the river, thus leaving her pup without anything to do. We decided to bring him along to have a fun time as well, better yet he just so happens to be a wonderfully behaved dog.

Check out that handsome devil!

The hike in begins very mellow and flat, there's a ton of water on the way. Hitting small streams every quarter mile or so was a wonderful thing for this scorching day!

We were stopping every quarter to half mile in shade spots to give the dogs water and cool them down. There was a wonderful breeze every so often that couldn't have felt better on this day.

About a mile in the climb begins, it's a pretty gradual incline and there are plenty of switch backs. You're also greeted by the views an open uphill climb provides.

Rest break!

Another

And even more resting!

Now those are some Hot Dogs! Too corny?

Moving on...

Nice big creek! Aaah, the water is so cool and refreshing. Ron, however, was not keen at all to cross. The water was clipping along pretty quickly so I will admit that we caved and carried him part of the way across.

I can tell you that if you've never been to Montana, you're probably missing out. Even the less scenic hikes here can wow you!

 Yay for snow!

The lake is close and I can tell the dogs are getting excited.

The heat dissipates as you hit the lake, feels like 70 instead of 80 and the lake is COLD.

Oh ya, that's what I'm talking about! Look at this lake. This day we set out on a mission to find a good, cold lake and get some fishing in. Boy did we, we ended up spending about 7/8 hours at the lake. We enjoyed the dogs, got wet in the water, lost several lures, and of course fished.

 









The dogs had grand time and by the end of that day little Ron was finding any log or rock close to us and napping.

 




Caught a few keepers.

We'll definitely be coming back here to camp, the spots are terrific.

Evening sun at the lake.

The trail makes a loop around the lake.

Great hike, even better lake. I would highly recommend even for the less physically inclined. What seems really wild to me is that we didn't see anyone else the whole day! 

You can bet I'll be back at this lake ;)

Tired pups say, until next time happy trails!

For a full album with even MORE photos, Click Here

Crater Lake

Today we set off on a bit of a longer endeavor than last time... a 12 mile trek to Crater Lake. This hike begins at the main Jewel Basin Trail head which is pretty heavily trafficked and then technically goes out of the Jewel. 

 




We got started on an old road so it was very wide open, there were patches of snow here and there.





About a mile in you'll come up to where the trail splits of too several trails. You can head to Mount Aeneas, Picnic Lakes, or just about anywhere in the Jewel Basin for that matter.

This trip was so beautiful that the only way to truly express the trip is visually using photos, so there's gonna be many of them an fewer words.

Just a few miles in you hit a high point where you can gaze into the valley and look down on Martha Lake.

  




You can easily see straight to the bottom of the lake, it also has a waterfall going in to it but I wasn't able to capture that splendor using my phone... guess you'll have to go see for yourself! 



















More patchy snow along the trail... Ron loved snacking on it!

About 3 Miles in now and behold Birch Lake! It's a very large lake and the trail to Crater follows right along the whole shore of it.

Watch out though, use insect repellent on you AND your pet. There are black flies in this area, their bite is very irritating and they can hang on to your pets belly for some time if you don't catch it. Those of you who are also equestrians are likely very familiar with the little buggers.





 




With the summer being very mellow up to this point in the year, there was still plenty of snow on the way there! It required a lot of exhausting side hilling in the snow and to be perfectly honest, it got pretty old after the 3rd or 4th mile of it!









We did end up losing the trail at a couple of points due to all the snow, it was nearly impossible to tell where it was. We climbed some rocks and looked out over beautiful views though!

We found a spot for lunch!

Trail food... it always tastes so good because after all the work you're starving!


Overall the trail isn't very difficult, there's no really significant elevation change and I'm sure that without the snow it would have been pretty mellow... If you do happen to go at a time when there is snow make sure to have ice cleats and trekking poles at the very least or I really wouldn't recommend it. It was not easy!

There were several points after Birch that we were able to see the trail, most of it was washed out from all the snow melt.

There was a waterfall by Squaw Lake coming right across the trail. Refreshing as well as visually pleasing!

 Squaw Lake

Did I mention all the snow?!

We're about 5 miles in now, a storm hit and the rain was coming down so we took shelter in some trees to let it pass... Ron was looking a little tired at this point so we decided it was time for him to take a little  ride!
 

 And off we go!

There's a short descend to the lake on a pretty small trail with all kinds of rocks and brush.

To see the full album from this trip click here.

 

The lake was even better than I'd imagined! There was almost no snow in the area surrounding it.

Trail conquered!

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Until next time, Happy Trails!