Why Backpack?
You never know what you will encounter while backpacking. Three hours waiting for a grizzly bear and her cubs to leave our campsite tested our patience and nerves.
Photo courtesy of Andy Kittleson
It is a question I’m often asked by friends and family, especially my loving, yet sometimes over-protective Grandmother. The question is usually followed up with statements and additional questions. “That seems dangerous.” “What if you get hurt?” “What about the bears?” “Isn’t it a lot of work”?
For some visitors, backpacking in Glacier National Park isn’t an option. Physical constraints or limitations often determine whether or not someone can carry a 35 to 50-pound backpack into the wilderness. Maybe the cost of setting up a backpacking trip and traveling to Glacier is too much of a financial strain. Or, it could be as simple as not receiving the competitive permit to do a backcountry trip. These can be disappointing challenges to overcome. But then again, maybe overcoming these challenges are the very reasons why people come to Glacier to backpack every year.
For visitors who can backpack in Glacier, there are inherent risks that must be accepted; encounters with bears, mountains lions, adverse and fickle mountain weather, stream and snowfield crossings, and becoming lost, are just a few. These can sometimes heighten our senses though, adding excitement and a bit of adventure to the wilderness experience. It isn’t everyday that you have the opportunity to visit the home of grizzly bears and mountain lions and witness them roaming freely in such a magnificent setting.
Solitude seekers experience bliss around every turn of the trail in Glacier’s 1.1 million acres of wilderness, despite the thirteen thousand (13,000) backpackers who spend a night in Glacier’s backcountry each year. Whether it is a couple minutes high on a mountain top, a couple days along cool forest floors, or a couple hours by the calm peaceful waters of an alpine lake, opportunities abound to be alone. And these places often become sanctuaries for some, or natural cathedrals, where one can reflect in a natural setting.
Backpacking is an activity that usually embodies a group of friends with common interests. Hikers who like the fellowship of others on the trail often find friendships renewed and strengthened. The journeys and experiences together, across miles of Glacier’s interior, are shared and remembered. It is even possible to establish long lasting friendships with new faces met hiking up the same arduous mountain pass or relaxing in the same serene campground.
When I answer my Grandmother about backpacking, I often quote John Muir.
“…in every walk with Nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”
Maybe you have a friend or family member like my Grandmother. What will your answer be, why will you backpack?
This articles was published in Glacier National Park’s Backcountry Guide