Would you camp here?

As I descended to my campsite by the lake, I met campers who'd stayed there the previous night.

Descending to Lake Ellen Wilson Campsite, where I had a permit to camp.

“We watched a grizzly bear all night and this morning on the far shore,” they said, “But it never came to the campsite.”

“But you should be more worried about the mountain goats.  They harassed us all night.”

What would you have done?

Mountain Goats are neat... especially when they are this far away.

I turned around and hiked back out to my car and drove home.  I didn’t want to have goats rustling around my campsite all night long, stealing my hiking poles and shoes to get at my salt.  I didn’t want to be alone in a valley with a grizzly bear.

I like to give animals their space. When I'm not constrained by having to camp in a permited site, I always find campsites that are far from any signs of animals, and if I see lots of scat, I'll just keep hiking. Even if it's something completely harmless like deer. It's my way of being respectful.

The thing that is so tough for me is that some animals in Glacier are acclimatized to humans. I feel much more comfortable around wild-acting animals. Shoot even the begging ground squirrels make me uncomfortable, how they lung at you, how they remind me that we humans are having such a huge impact on these animals. How we've encroached on their land and the few spaces they have left, we come and fed them and disrespect their wildness.

I guess I should have done more research about where to camp.  I'm trying to figure out how to be in Montana.

Mountain goat on the trail.

This hike was in Glacier National Park:
Starting at Lake McDonald Lodge, I hiked up the Gunsight Pass trail past Sperry Chalet to Lake Ellen Wilson.  And retraced my steps back.