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| Jessica Stickseed (Hackelia micrantha). |
Other delightful surprises kept showing up along the trail: blue forget-me-not like flowers (
Hackelia micrantha), a wild clematis with drooping blue flowers (
Clematis occidentalis),
so many other flowers that I couldn't begin to guess at! I wish I could have
had an expert botanist with me, I'm sure one could have pointed out so
much more than I could take in.
 |
| Native clematis (Clematis occidentalis) |
 |
| Along the trail. |
 |
| Mountain Death Camas (Anticlea elegans) | | |
|
|
 |
| Going to the Sun Road below the trail. |
As
the trail wound around thickets of subalpine firs and some very steep
hillsides, it was now several hundred feet above the Going to the Sun
Road. The lush vegetation of the Garden Wall began to thin out and
become more like grassland. Fields of bear grass in bloom dotted the slopes.
 |
| Looking towards Haystack Butte. |
 |
| Looking down a chute. |
 |
| looking toward Haystack Butte. |
I
hadn't encountered any hikers for a while, and it had stopped raining
when I turned around and saw this tiny creature on the trail right
behind me. I'm still trying to figure if it was a Pika, a small mammal
that inhabits high-altitude meadows in the Rockies, or a baby chipmunk
or vole of some sort (the coloring looks much like a chipmunk but it's lacking the characteristic stripes).
 |
| A tiny inhabitant of the Highline Trail. |
 |
| Pika or chipmunk? |
I
held still while the tiny-eared creature grazed on the vegetation
around the trail briefly and then disappeared into the brush. I gazed at
my watch--it was getting towards four o'clock. I had intended to reach
Haystack Falls before turning back, but I needed to turn around now to
get back in time to return my rental car before they closed at six.
 |
| Looking up. |
Reluctantly I turned back. Other hikers returning from Haystack Falls passed me. I stopped now and then to take more photos.
 |
| Wildflowers on the Garden Wall. |
 |
| Wild onion (Allium schoenoprasum) |
This
was the last photo I took before my camera froze up. The shutter would
not focus or shoot, and when I tried to see the other photos I had
taken, it would not change modes. Oh-no! What was I going to do without
a camera, and this early into my trip? I had two weeks ahead at Sperry
Chalet--how was I going to get the photos I needed? How could I have
been so stupid?
Well, there was nothing I could do for now. Perhaps
when the camera dried out it would go back to normal, or I could find a
store in Columbia Falls where I could get it fixed quickly. But on a Saturday
evening, the chances were slim. I passed a couple of Japanese tourists with
very fancy camera rigs and was tempted to offer to buy one of their cameras,
but they didn't understand enough English for me to even try.
I
trudged on back towards my car. At least I'd gotten the hang of using
the poles and my stride didn't feel so awkward as at the beginning of
the hike. I drove back to the car rental place to call Kevin as prearranged. I explained the situation with my camera but
he said he didn't know of any camera repair shop in town--there wasn't
any store where I could make a quick purchase either. My only hope was
to pray that the camera would dry overnight and work again.
That
evening I tried to think of alternatives if the camera didn't go back
to normal the next day. I called Herb and he thought perhaps he could
buy me another camera the next day and ship it to Kevin overnight, and
Kevin could send it up with the next mule train that would resupply the
chalet in another few days. I fell asleep praying this wouldn't be
necessary...
