Hanging Glaciers Hike

LAKE OF THE HANGING GLACIERS [by Marjean McClure]. – Eight Adventuresome Young Ladies Make Trip To Famous Windermere District Scenic Spot.

            Eight adventuresome girls, namely Marguerite, Doris and Phyllis Dakin, Frances Matheson, Margaret Honeyman, Mabel MacKay, my sister Helen McClure and myself, left Kimberley on horseback July 31 to have a real holiday and see some of the beauties of this country.  We set as our goal the Lake of the Hanging Glaciers, situated 40 miles west of Invermere in the Selkirk Range.  This Lake by the way was first discovered in 1900 by Mr. Frank Stockdale of the Invermere Hardware Store.  It lies at an altitude of 7100 feet.

            Those who saw us leave Kimberley and knew of the trouble we had with our packs must have wondered how we would ever manage to pack a horse so the packs would stay on.  However, we had learned the principle of the thing before leaving so it was only a matter of improving our technique, and this we did very successfully.

            Our chief difficulty in throwing the “diamond hitch” was to see what was happening to the ropes on top of the packs.  Marguerite soon remedied this by discovering that one commanded an excellent view of the situation from the horse’s neck, so there she parked and gave instructions.  By the end of the trip we could put up the packs and throw the “diamond hitch” in a matter of minutes.  And the nice thing about it was that the packs stayed firmly in place right to the end of the day.

            Our outfit consisted of two pack horses and a saddle horse for each girl.  We took turns at the different jobs, cooking, packing, etc.  We were away approximately three weeks and covered a distance of 250 miles on horseback.  It might be interesting to know that during the time we were away our horses were only tied up three nights, the rest of the time they ran loose on the trail or in a pasture field.  The horses returned from the trip in better condition than when they started – as did most of us.

            Weather conditions favored us at every turn.  We had cool weather for riding both up and down the valley, and perfect weather all the time we were in at the lake.

Hot Cakes and Coffee

            On our days of travel we rose early, kindled the fire, ate an appetizing breakfast of the best hot cakes and coffee you ever tasted, packed and were on the trail in no time.  When noon arrived we dismounted, sat under a tree and ate the lunch we had prepared that morning, or more often, the night before.  When the horses were filled up we moved on and traveled until we felt it was time to eat again.  That being the case we stopped at the first good feeding ground for horses, unpacked and turned them loose.  After supper we piled all our belongings close together and placed our beds on either side in order to keep the porcupines away from the saddles, etc.  However, that didn’t keep Mr. porky from visiting us and Marguerite’s favorite job was paddling porcupines with a frying pan in the middle of the night.

            After our evening duties were completed we would sit around the camp fire, watch dusk settle over the land and the moon come up from behind rugged peaks; we would sing songs, tell stories and finally crawl into bed beneath the stars.  We didn’t take a tent of any description with us.

            The first night was spent at Hamilton’s Ranch on Wolfe Creek.  We placed our beds on new mown hay in the barn.  Some of us had a grand sleep but others who were not so accustomed to the bawling of a cow lay awake most of the night and cussed poor Bossy who was lowing sweetly (?) in the next compartment.

            We reached Canal Flat by the end of the second day and spent an uneventful night at the foot of Thunder Hill.

            Going around Columbia Lake the following day “Mae West”, one of the horses, caused a little excitement by sitting on the running board of a passing car.  The driver, horse and rider all looked surprised and a bit scared, but none were hurt or damaged.

            That night we slept in the hay loft of Mr. Lake’s barn, seven miles south of Invermere.  A horse in the barn pounded hard upon the floor in an effort to keep us awake but he was absolutely unsuccessful.

            The following afternoon we rode into Invermere and with permission  from Mr. W.H. Cleland made our headquarters at the barn on the old Experimental Farm.  We discovered that the hay shed provided very comfortable beds, in fact we became so attached to them we hated to leave, and hung around the place for two or three days.  Mrs. McGuiness very kindly let us use a room in the basement of her house.  The room contained a stove, sink and table, so we couldn’t have been better off.

Left Guides Behind

            While there we took in the sights of Invermere and enjoyed a refreshing swim in the lake.  We inquired about guides and discovered that their price was much beyond us, also that they were not very fussy about taking “women” into the hills and that they were quite opposed to us attempting the trip without a guide.  On the one hand we felt quite capable of making the trip alone, on the other hand they didn’t seem to comprehend our independence.  We put it down to the fact that they didn’t know us very well.  It ended with us arising early one morning; we threw our packs with zest and set out alone more determined than ever to find the Lake of the Hanging Glaciers.

            Two days of travel brought us to Thunder Camp, where we spent the next four days.

            The trip in was extremely interesting.  The first day we rode up along the raging Horse Thief Creek to what is called 18 Mile Post.  We thought this a perfect setting for a camp, beautiful mountains on all sides and everything so peaceful and quiet.  We couldn’t help but wonder what the country would be like after another day’s travel.

            The next day we followed on up the creek, the valley became narrower and the mountains higher, the scenery around each bend surpassed that of the last.  Water falls both large and small dashed helter-skelter down the mountain side; fire-weed grew in profusion over the open stretches, in some places it was almost up to the horses’ shoulders.

            It always gave one a thrill to ride at the end of the “line” and watch the procession making its way forward.

            We traveled for miles thru’ country where the alder and willow trees had grown up and hidden the trail from view.  The horses, however, had no difficulty in following the path.  In places the trees were so high you could only see the horses’ ears and the head and shoulders of the rider in front of you.

            Our first ford gave us a rather thrilling time.  It was a rushing mountain torrent where the horses had to jump down two feet before entering the water.  One horse in his efforts to avoid entering the water lost his balance, slid over the bank backwards and landed on his side in the stream.  Horse and rider landed safely on the opposite bank a few minutes later wet to the ears and slightly cooled off.

            We crossed Calamity Ford without any casualties.  Hell Roaring lived up to its name, which by the way, is the worst part of that ford.

            Thunder Camp lay just beyond.  The setting of the mountains there reminded me very much of those at Lake Louise, even to the Glacier at the far end of the lake.  We reached the camping grounds at 5 o’clock and turned our horses loose on the island to enjoy themselves for the next four days while we explored the country round about.

            We got up bright and early and set off to find the lake.  We forded Horse Thief Creek on foot, wandered up and down the mountain side, over slides, thru’ fallen timber and crossed streams of all sizes.  In fact, we lost a good two hours looking for the trail – all this might have been avoided had we only looked at our map before leaving camp.

            However, we eventually got on the trail and continued up the mountain.  After emerging from the heavy timber we came out into beautiful green alpine valley aflame with flowers.  Some of these were quite new to us but a good many were the same flowers which grow at lower altitude, only they were much larger and more intense in color.  The tamaracks which grew to a greater altitude than any other trees had recently donned their beautiful coats of green and these silhouetted against the snow-capped peaks beyond made a very pretty picture.  As we went higher we came upon patches of snow and close to these we found beautiful creamy white crocuses, Buttercups, mayflowers, strawberry blossoms were also in bloom.

Arrive At Glacier.

            We hurried on and arrived at the lake spellbound and almost too excited to eat.  Then came the thrill of taking pictures from every angle.  I climbed up the mountain to the right and sat down on a rock to wait for the sun to peep out from behind a cloud.  As I sat there I could not help but think that what lay before me was one of the most beautiful sights that I had ever seen.  Around about me was the fresh delicate green of the tamaracks, below and stretching away from me the lake a most peculiar color – sort of a soft muddy green.  At the far end of the lake rose the wall of blue green ice, above and beyond that rose the rugged snow-capped peak against a sky of blue with white clouds sailing by.  The sun burst forth and sparkled with brilliance upon the water and the floating ice below me.  I snapped the picture and hurried after the rest of the gang who had already started over the mile of rock slide along the lefthand side of the lake.

            We reached the glacier which hangs like a wall of ice into the lake.  As we were standing there looking at it tons of ice which had been hanging out over the wall suddenly let go and plunged with one awful roar down into the lake.  Those who were standing near the shore moved in an incredibly short time to a higher, drier level.  Sorry to say in the excitement we neglected to take what would have been a very interesting picture.  The broken ice came to the surface and floated away in the current which appear to come out from under the glacier.

            Half the party thought they had seen sufficient wonders for one day and started back to camp.  The others followed up along the glacier to where it comes down off the peaks in a mass of ice called the Dragon Glacier.  While up there a small avalanche came down to add one more thrill to the day.  We estimated the glacier above the lake to be half a mile long and the lake itself a good mile.

            How we slept that night!

            Then next day we spent exploring the water falls and creeks near camp.  On the third day we set out to find the ice caves which we knew were somewhere around the glacier at the head of Horse Thief Creek.

            We arrived at the foot of the glacier where the creek comes racing out.  We saw what might be called an ice cave.  It was small and a current of air almost strong enough to raise your hat was coming out of it.  We looked the thing over and concluded that it could not possibly be one of the much-talked-of ice caves.  We thought the ice caves must be higher up somewhere and we didn’t want to miss a thing, so decided to go up and see what we could find.  We didn’t know much about glaciers and we don’t mind admitting that we felt timid and slightly nervous as we advanced cautiously over that huge mass of ice which fills the valley from side to side.

            After an hour’s steady climbing, mostly over the gravel bar in the center of the glacier we felt more friendly to the ice beneath out feet.  In fact we were beginning to feel quite at home on it.  By the way, quite a few of the party had only light running shoes on their feet and they were beginning to feel quite cool towards the glacier.  We ate our lunch, left the gravel bar and wandered out over the glacier.  Then began the fun of wandering in and out among huge crevasses.  The smaller ones we jumped across, the larger ones we went around.  At 10 o’clock we were on the summit, the watershed of East and West Kootenay.  Just over the summit the mountain drops quickly away into the valley beyond.  We sat on that warm southern slope for more than an hour gazing out over that beautiful ever-green valley above which rose a range of peaks that would knock the spots off any I ever saw in the country around Lake Louise.  Beyond us we looked back over a mile and a half of glacier and mountains white with ice and snow from base to peak.

Saw Pink Snow.

            One of the most interesting things that we saw upon the glacier was pink snow.  Now don’t think that either the rarified air or glacier water had gone to our heads, we were quite sane and we know the snow was pink as pink as any ice cream I ever saw and there was lots o fit.  We also came across the odd patch of green snow.  Back in Invermere they informed us that the colored snow was caused from minerals in the rocks.

            As we started down the glacier dark clouds suddenly came up from behind the peaks and we made a hurried descent in order not to be caught in the approaching storm.  However, the storm was only getting started there and passed over us with a mere sprinkle.  We were informed that by the time it reached Invermere it was a storm.

Thrilled With Trip.

            We arrived back at camp and all decided it was one of the most thrilling days we had ever experienced.  We had gone up over the glacier to the summit and returned without seeing what we thought might be the ice caves.  When we got back to Invermere they informed us that what we had first seen at the foot of the glacier was the much-talked-of ice caves.

            We spent one more day in that beautiful country and then we started back for civilization.

            On our return to Invermere we were enthusiastically received by the people.  We wish to thank them all for their kindness.  Mr. McGuinnes packed us all in his car and took us to Sinclair Hot Springs – and how we enjoyed that swim.

            Three days after leaving Invermere we arrived home.  We spent the nights at lake’s Ranch, Canal Flat and Premier Lake.