On my way to 3,000 ft AGL, I already had a good feeling. After releasing, I headed to a cloud a few miles north of airport, found a lift without much trouble, and went up to 10,000 ft. I kept going north hoping to get to Eureka, a small town next to the Canadian border. But clouds ran out, so I jumped a valley to the east to fly over higher terrain which had more clouds. I went north several miles, and ran out of clouds again. I had to fly over a blue gap to go further north, but I wasn't perfectly sure if the clouds beyond the gap was on the US side or in Canada. Since I didn't want to greet Canadian airforce, I seeked the way to jump a valley again to the east to the even higher terrain. But the valley was totally blue, so I needed a trustable landout option in the valley to commit to the ridge east of it. I circled several times to try to identify a private airstrip named Langton shown on the sectional charge, but I couldn't find it. I punched in a few other nearby airports such as Crystal Lakes and Ryan. Crystal Lakes was about 20 miles and well within the range, but the ridge I was flying would block the path. Ryan was also within the range, but it was 25 miles away, and I would have to fly in the valley to get there (meaning that no lift can be expected). I circled and looked the map again and again, and finally found Langton. It was almost buried in the forest, but the runway looked to be in a good condition.
Gaining confidence, I committed to the ridge to the east which was also Glacier National Park's main ridge line. After gliding a few minutes in a quite air, I got to a cloud, and it was working greatly. I climbed back up to 11,000 ft, went north a few miles to hit the Canadian border. Actually, I stayed about 1 miles south of it just to be safe. There is a lake called Kintla Lake a mile south of the border, so I tried not to go north of it.
Took some pictures, and I followed the ridge to the south watching Chief Mountain on my left. According to the tour guide, it is a very holly mountain to native Indians. When a young man becomes an adult in their tribe, they'd send the man to the top of the mountain, and he prays and fasts for days and weeks until he sees his future (i.e. what occupation he should assume for his life).
I kept flying south to reach Lake McDonald. There are lots of glaciers around it, so I spent half an hour or so watching them and taking pictures. I also flew over Logan Pass, and watched Going to the Sun Mountain from sky. Going to the Sun Mountain is another holly mountain to the native Indians. According to the same tour guide, in the prehistoric time, a god of sun came down to the earth, and taught the Indians everything they needed to know to survive, such as how to raise crops, how to shelter from snow, etc. After teaching them all those good stuff, he climbed to the top of the mountain, and went back to the sun from there, hence the name Going to the Sun Mountain. This name is also used for the main road of the park (Going to the Sun Road) that goes through Logan Pass.
After watching enough glaciers, I kept going south, but realized that there aren't too many landout candidates in the south. The high ridges also made it difficult to see the glide path. So, I cut my way to the west flying over Hungry Horse Lake, and flew over to the center of Flathead Lake's before going back to Kalispell. It was a very nice 4.5-hour flight, and I was really glad I flew today.
Click here to view more photos of this flight.
Mountains in Glacier National Park. Going to the Sun Road is seen in the middle of the mountain.
Going to the Sun Mountain
One of the largest glaciers Harrison Glacier
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