Glacier Park is starting to get busy. We got the horses loaded up early and tried to beat the traffic. Lincoln Lake was our destination today. The trail takes off from Going To The Sun road just a couple miles short of the Lake McDonald Lodge. This trail is a pretty steep grade and it doesn’t usually get much use. It is a little over 8 miles to the lake. You travel up and over Snyder Ridge and drop down into Lincoln Creek. From there its 3.6 miles further to the lake.This lake has a beautiful waterfall coming out of Lake Ellen Wilson which is right above. – Beaver Chief Falls.

Lunch at the lake edge

Today we rode the south boundary trail of Glacier Park down to Harrison Creek. This is the site of an old homestead belonging to Dan and Josephine Doody. Supposedly Dan kidnapped Josephine from the railroad boom town of McCarthyville to become his wife. Another story is Josephine had killed a man in Colorado and had moved in with Dan to hide out. Josephine became famous for her moonshining and bootlegging. The old cabin is falling down now and nature is reclaiming the area, but it is fun to visit and view the history here.

The old Fordson tractor at the cabin

It is a beautiful ride down the south boundary trail to arrive at this site.

The horses were very well behaved on this ride. The trail is somewhat precarious. One misstep in the wrong place and you will definately have a problem.

From the trailhead at park headquarters it’s about 8 miles to the Doody cabin at the junction of the Harrison creek trail.

Great weather conditions for a ride up the South Fork of Two Medicine. This trail is part of the CDT trail system. We were just out for the afternoon and spent some time fishing, but it was such a nice day we still ended up close to Badger cabin. Be prepared for multiple creek crossings if you’re heading down this trail.Sometimes the cutthroat run a little small. Still a lot of fun.

Couple mule deer and lots of elk tracks were all the wildlife we saw.

Nice scenery with Summit Mtn. in the background.

Ouch!!! Connie accidentally shut her fingers in the pickup door just before leaving at the trailhead. Wrapped with cotton and vet wrap she went on the ride. What a trooper!

On Fathers Day evening Freckles and I took a ride up our mountain. This offers some fantastic views from up on Teakettle. 

Horses just seem so much happier when they are in their mountain pasture. They don’t get to spend a lot of time out here, about 2 hours early morning and late evening, but they sure look content.We rode up to long creek on big river trail yesterday. Connie had never been up to spruce park or beyond and its sure a nice easy trip. Great for a early season ride. Banjo (the bay) is the most inexperienced horse we have, so he gets training time on easy trails. I took him over to Glacier Park to ride the Old Flathead ranger station trail. There he experienced meeting up with strange horses, and new people. It’s good for him to meet hikers with bright colored backpacks on, and other trail hazards in a somewhat non-treacherous area. This is a pretty trail ride that follows along the flathead river on the Glacier Park side.

It is beautiful up on Teakettle Mtn. this spring. While excess rainfall has caused substantial flooding damage in the area, it has also led to a rich lush forest this year.

We took a nice ride up McGinnis creek today with our neighbor joining us. This is a beautiful area for a spring ride. Easy riding up old Forest Service roads that are closed to motorized vehicles till July 1. Every little waterway or drainage seemed to have water flowing, and the forage was exceptional, but we only saw one lone elk. From the pass you get great views looking toward the camas valley and Glacier Park.