~*~ Jewel Basin Dayhike ~*~

“Do you need a fishing license to fish in a fishless lake?”

Date: August 7, 2007

Miles: 4-5

We had a relaxing morning. When we got up, Brad cooked breakfast for us and then proceeded to take a nap. Apparently, breakfast was exhausting and required some time on the couch. I decided to go for a little walk around the neighborhood to get my bearings and check out the area. When I came back, I did the dishes in the sink and started on the laundry. What the hell? Am I maid? He better not get used to this…bwahaha

Since the weather was nice, Brad decided a good day hike in the Jewel Basin area of the Swan Range would be a good idea for the afternoon. I don’t argue with him because he has yet to steer me wrong.

It was a long but beautiful drive to the trail head. The last 7 miles are on yet another winding and twisting dirt mountain road. It takes longer but it’s well worth the trip. As soon as we reached the trail head, we saw a minivan with a flat tire. Yeah…that is going to suck for someone when they return.

Jewel Basin has a lot of intertwining trails running through it, and lots of little lakes that you can wander to for fishing, swimming, or whatever. We scrapped our original plans and decided to hike into Twin Lakes first and see if there were any fish in it that would be biting. Another group of 4 with a dog was gearing up to head out as well. The trail was lined with more fireweed, some pretty little yellow flowers and some red Indian Paintbrushes. I enjoy seeing the wildflowers because that is something that is typically missing in the East.

It was a long easily graded trail heading up into a notch before dropping slightly down to a spur to the lakes. We had views of Flathead County to the northwest. It is really quite an expansive area down in the valley. I’m sure I hounded Brad with a million questions as we walked… “what’s that?”, “what mountain is that one?”, “what range is this?”, “where are we now?”. I’m sure I probably drove him a little bonkers but I was trying to make mental notes of virtually everything and not wanting to forget a thing.

I was taking pictures of the flowers along the way, and stopped briefly at the notch to take a couple of pictures with us in them. We descended slightly to the Twin Lakes area. There were two small lakes seemingly hidden down in a little valley. I think that is one of the things I’m truly enjoying about this area. When you come across these little mountain lakes, it’s like you’ve stumbled on a hidden treasure that nobody else could possibly know about. There are no crowds, no other people, just you and this little lake. And for that brief moment in time, it’s your own little secret.

As Brad walked around one side of the lake, I took the other. He was scouting for fish and I was just scouting. Period. When we finally reconnected on the other side of the lake, it had begun to sprinkle a bit. The sky to the south was looking pretty ominous so we scampered into a nice little camping area, threw down the thermarest, put on a long sleeve shirt and settled down for a snack and to wait out the rain. It didn’t rain too hard, but enough to want to stay out of it as the temperature seemed to drop pretty substantially and we both got chilled. Maybe fishing today wouldn’t happen. Once the rain stopped, we decided to head over to Picnic Lake and see how the fish were doing there. However, on our way back up the spur trail, thunder was clapping like mad in the distance. Wuh oh? Shouldn’t we be heading away from the ridge and not towards it?

Just as we reached the top of the little spur, the group of 4 was headed down thinking they were going to fish. We didn’t tell them otherwise, wished them well and were on our way. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t want to cooperate with us. As we walked, it rained. It didn’t rain hard but the wind was a chilly addition along the ridge! I followed the local through the grass, through the rain and along the trail. I’d follow that boy anywhere. With the rain coming down, we decided to just head back down to the car so we looked for the Alpine Trail and took that back towards the car. This was a much steeper descent but just loads and loads of switchbacks to get us there! More wildflowers along the trail made for some nice pictures. I tried to use the macro setting on my camera and get a close up of some fireweed but the damn wind didn’t want to cooperate. Brad was amused by my endeavors. He doesn’t even try to hide his amusement.

It didn’t take long to reach the trailhead again since the descent is a fast one. By the time we reached the car again, the rain had subsided and it was starting to clear up again. Despite the nutty weather, it was a nice hike and a good introduction to yet another great place to visit. My list of places to go and mountains to hike continues to grow with every new place that we visit.

We took a slightly different route back to Kalispell and passed some incredibly beautiful ranches along the way. I can’t help myself. Every time we pass a field loaded with round bales of hay…I have to say “heee-eeey” and then I laugh at myself. Seeing huge, flat tracts of land that stretch for miles is one thing, it’s another when the backdrop is a place lake the Swan Range or Glacier National Park. Seems funny to have such immense mountains and such flat land occupying the same space.

We decided to grill some brats for dinner and relax. We don’t have a lot to do so I have a feeling we’ll be kicking back and enjoying the evening. I’m not sure what is on the docket for tomorrow but it’s nice to not have any plans so we can spend some low key time together.

Jewel Basin pictures are up!

Floral Park Hike from Logan Pass to Lake McDonald

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