Carolan's Winter Adventure in the Great Bear Wilderness

Last night we heard from our daughter Carolan about her weekend. If you want to know why much of my hair has disappeared and the rest is turning gray or white--think Carolan and her adventures!

Carolan, along with her friend Jeremy and one or two other friends, drove on Route 2 from Kalispell/Whitefish, Montana to Essex (so small you can hardly call it a town) and the Izaak Walton Inn, which is on the Middle Fork Flathead River, just south of Glacier National Park and immediately north of the Great Bear Wilderness (a section of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex). They parked their car there, and then Carolan snow-shoed while Jeremy and the others cross country skied about 4 miles to Marion Lake in the Great Bear.

Carolan walked the Marion Lake Trail with a pack on her back, and her snowboard over her shoulder. The trek is about four miles long, with an elevation gain of 1800 feet. This is the definition of exhaustion. The trek was over very deep snow, so deep they could not figure out the depth--but it was over Jeremy's head. Maybe there were 6 to 10 feet of snow there. When they got to the frozen alpine lake, they snow-shoed and skied the mile across the lake. After that they climbed much of the way up a nearby peak and skied down.

That night the crew winter camped, probably at 6000 feet, and made their way back the next day.

Izaak Walton Inn and Amtrak Train, about 4 miles from Marion Lake

Middle Fork Flathead near Essex, Montana (Wikipedia)