I ignored the advice to skip the north loop in Glacier and it was the best mistake I ever made

Everyone on the forums said the north loop in Glacier National Park was too buggy and overgrown in late July, pushing people toward the popular Highline Trail instead. I went against the grain and planned a three day trip on the Belly River route starting at Chief Mountain. The first day was rough, I won't lie. The mosquitoes were thick enough to hear, and I got turned around for an hour near Dawn Mist Falls. But on the second morning, I woke up at Elizabeth Lake and had the whole granite basin to myself for two hours before I saw another person. The solitude was unreal. I saw a moose calf from maybe fifty feet away because there was no crowd noise to scare it off. I learned that sometimes the 'bad' trail is just the quiet one. Has anyone else had a trip that was better because you went against the common wisdom?

2 comments

2 Comments

mark7312mo ago

What if you just got lucky with the bugs?

jakep242mo ago

Luck is a factor in any project, but calling it all luck ignores the work. Bugs are a known risk, not a random lottery. If the process was solid, then luck had less to do with it. You plan for things to go wrong. Saying it was just luck dismisses the whole point of having a method.