After fires, crews working to get trails, roads, reopened

With upwards of 1.7 inches of rain over the past week in some locations and 10 inches of snow being reported in Glacier National Park's high country, firefighting crews across the region have been demobilizing.

The Thompson Fire crew left its camp on Monday evening. In Spotted Bear, the focus has turned to getting trails and roads open both in and out of the wilderness for the upcoming hunting season.

The backcountry hunting season in the wilderness opens Sept. 15.

Like the Thompson Fire, the overhead team from Minnesota which had been managing the Spotted Bear Fires, has now been turned over to a local Type III team.

In the 70,000-plus acre Bear Creek Fire area, crews have cleared hazard trees along the Meadow Creek Road down to the outfitter camp and are now working up Bunker Creek, said information officer Al Koss.

Koss said crews have also gone into the wilderness with crosscut saws and cleared trail 80 - the main trail into the wilderness via the South Fork of the Flathead.

The problem, he said, is the tread has sloughed off in several places from Mid Creek down to Black Bear and will need repairs before it can be opened and at this point, there is no firm time frame on when they'll be completed.

Crews are also working on the Spotted Bear River Road and are assessing damage done to the Big Bill-Whitcomb Trail that goes over Gunsight Mountain down into Schaefer Meadows in the Great Bear Wilderness. That trail also needs work before it can reopen, Koss noted. The 22,200-acre Trail Creek fire did not burn trailheads at Beaver Creek.

Glacier Park has eased restrictions around the 18,000-plus acre Thompson Fire. Trails and backcountry campsites in Cut Bank and in the upper Two Medicine drainage have reopened. Fire investigators also determined the Thompson Fire was lightning caused, dispelling previous speculation that it may have been caused by humans. Trails in the Nyack, Coal Creek and Ole Creek region remain closed. Evacuation orders for Essex were lifted due to the Sheep Fire and U.S. Highway 2 is completely open without pilot cars.

Glacier Park's biggest problem recently has been snow. Up to 10 inches fell in the high country and the Going-to-the-Sun Road closed over the weekend at Logan Pass. It has since reopened. The closure situation changes on a daily basis and folks heading into backcountry should check http://www.inciweb.nwcg.gov for the latest updates.