Oh Deer! Still Hanging Out in Waterton

We have made the decision to hang out through the Canadian August Long Weekend holiday. We are just not sure we can move north and find a campsite. It is 90 degrees today so we did a short hike and  tried to fish a little bit (no luck). We ended up in town next to the lake in the shade of some trees by the afternoon. The lake is freezing cold so it is good for a dip but not long swims.

The wind is blowing fiercely off and on with gusts that are blowing people's hats off. I am being treated to a demo from some very expert wind surfers who are obviously local. The gal was about waist deep in the water scanning the lake to the south where the wind was coming from. As the white caps grew about a quarter mile out she started shouting to her guy partner who was just moving onto the beach. She told him to hurry as the big wind was coming. To me it was blowing pretty hard already, but she was reading the lake surface way out. When the wind hit, it hit hard and she jumped up, hung her butt down and flew across the water. Her partner followed but by taking a slightly different tack than her exploded across the lake at twice her speed. Both are very, very good windsurfers and know this lake well. Great show as we perform another stealth dinner in a campground kitchen shelter down by the water, charging the devices. We did confirm that our out of town camsite entitles us to showers at the in town campground showers.

We had visitors in the campground this morning at breakfast time. Three deer, two bucks and a doe. We have actually seen quite a few deer but before this just one small buck. Both of these guys were good size, sporting full racks of antlers covered in velvet. They grazed between several campsites and around ours for about a half an hour.

The plan for tomorrow is another long in  an then up to a lake hike. Most likely it will be Forum Lake but you could go to Wall Lake from the same route. We will see how the legs feel. Wall Lake is the "postcard" lake of Waterton.

 

Stealth Dining and Goat Lake Hike

This will be a quick post. We don't have the greatest campsite in Crandell Mountain. The area for tents is just patches of gravel, bear boxes for food and little to no trees to shelter us from the sun. It has turned warm here (not like the heat wave back home)  but enough heat so that you want some protection from the full sun. It was 85 degrees at 6PM today. That temperature melts away as the sun goes down, and in the AM it is pretty chilly. We were bundled to the max. Layers peeled as the sun rose and the wind went from howling at dawn to a stiff breeze for breakfast. Going to try to get in under one of the tree shaded sites tomorrow (those are "RV sites").

So, tonight we are stealth dining. We have come into town and with our previous knowledge of the campground facilities and the kitchen shelters, we are parked in the day use picnic area but hanging out in the nearby campground kitchen shelter. We are having a quiet no muss no fuss dinner. We are using the electric out for charging and the town wifi for things like this. One of the campground's shower buildings is about 50 yards away so as long as we don't call attention to ourselves we will also have stealth showers.

And we need those showers. Today we did a hike out to Goat Lake. We actually tried to multi sport.  The description of the initial trail was that it was an old logging road and open to biking. Not so much for our touring bikes. Sweetness gave it her all and I have to take the blame for putting er in a position where her long frame was just not nimble enough and my legs not tough enough to pick through what was really a single track mountain bike ride. We gave up after a mile and stashed Sweetness and the Hopeville Flyer in the woods for the return.

At the 3 mile mark the Goat Lake trail turned and went up, really up. we did about 1000 feet of climbing in 1.5 mile. The trail to me had a very White Mountains of NH feel, in that it was all no nonsense. Switchbacks that just went after the grade in tight turns. You want that lake,we are are going to take you there. Of course, when you looked around, it was not NH. We worked uphill across a scree slope that had our knees knocking a bit on the narrow parts. We slabbed over to the outlet of the lake which was running as a waterfall through a thin crack in the mountainside.

The lake was a joy. Clear at the edges sinking to an emerald green as the shoreline gave way. It was a typical mountain tarn, a circle of peaks and a ridgeline contributing their waters to make the lake that then tumbled out as waterfall.

Camping is allowed here and if you willing you to schlep your stuff up the 1000 feet it would be a nice place to camp. We settled in for lunch and then Marsah saw them - two mountain goats way above us in a crack that led to a ridgeline. Very far away, it took the binoculars to confirm it was goats not sheep. They were just hanging out and grazing and moved slowly from green patch to green patch. Quick leaps up or sideways, with grace and what seemed like a minimum amount of effort got them to the next place. It was fun to watch.

The other amazing thing about the lake was that it was full of small trout. I am sure there ,might have been some big guys out there deeper but lots of small feeding fish at the lakeshore. You would here the gulp at the surface and then the rings. A couple of times you would get a flash of underbelly as they came up hard. The amazing things was that the water was so clear that all you had to do was look where the gulp was and you could see the fish underneath. Once you saw what the looked like in the water you could pick them out without the gulps. Couple dozen at least just gliding along near the shoreline. No fly rod or spinning rod in my pack, and certainly no fishing permit (in Glacier the fishing was free without a license) to day but tomorrow we will do another short hike to a lake lower down and with a day fishing permit in hand we will see what we can do.

We think hike/fish in the morning. Stealth shower in town and then afternoon tea at the Prince of Wales. Might have to break out the clean towel.

Pictures are coming, just not today. Sorry it is so hot back there.

Quick Update

We move to a campground out of town today. We will not have great wifi/phone for a about a week. Expect short updates when we are back in town for stuff.

Biking In Waterton

This morning we had a bit of a logistical twit to figure out. Next Monday is a kind of Canadian holiday. They call it "August Long Weekend". New to us but it means that it is absolute peak season in Waterton. We have been pretty good at working the jigsaw puzzles of reserved campgrounds versus "first come first served" campgrounds.  We took a short recon ride this AM to check out the large first come first served campground to our north, Crandell Mountain, as our reserved campsite in Waterton Townsite expires tomorrow morning. It will be tight but we think we can squeeze it if we are there at 8AM to put our name on the waiting list. If you are leaving you have to be out by noon so, we will circle back just after lunch to see if we made the cut. It is about 20 miles out of town, and much more primitive. However it is in a beautiful valley and offers easy access to a couple of hikes we want to do.

If we get a site we will park it there through the weekend. If not it is northbound to the provincial parks of Alberta. We hope we get one as Waterton is a good set up for us. There is a small grocery in town and we have enough basic foodstuffs. We would be able to do a load of laundry just before Banff and there are places to eat.

After we reconned we came back to town and biked out of town down a bike path that runs about 1looking back into the US. 0K out of town back to the park entrance, along the shores of middle and lower Waterton Lakes. Great views of the rangeland leading up to the park and on the way in great views of the mountains that ring the Upper Waterton Lake

Trail had short steep ups in parts and I could really feel the effects of being at altitude. Very hard to recover my breathing after a short up. The wind runs down valley and picks up in the afternoon, the ride back was into a tough headwind of easily  30-35km per hour, sustained. It was a long slow pullback to town, through the wind. We did get to see a demo of Blackfeet dancing.

Showers and then pizza in town for dinner!

 

Why I Love Camping In Canada

I dont know if I have written about this here in the blog but this is my 40th anniversary of my first trip to the Canadian Rockies. Yes, Douglas Hammerstrom you can take a deep bow this morning in Colorado for arranging a two week excursion in a VW Microbus for 5 guys with a lot of excess testosterone to visit the pictures of Banff you saw in National Geographic. So, wrong in your choices in politics, yet so right in your choices in recreation. Such a life changing inspirational trip that this is my fifth and Marsha's 4th trip back to the area. I could go on here for a while but this post would have to be tagged with the label back-in-the-day and that is really not the point of this.

There is in my mind a difference in how Canada approaches outdoor recreation, especially camping. Here at the Townsite in Waterton Lakes there is a European-International vibe. Some of it is the origin of the park from the railroad days a hundred years ago where you built places like the Prince of Wales Hotel and bent the railroads to bring folks to the resort. The townsite has a little village of shops and small restaurants. Not a lot, but just enough to take a stroll or a bike ride from the campground to have a bite to eat and spend some tourist dollar. It is quaint, baskets of flowers hanging along the streets, lots of benches to stop and sit, bike racks if you rode in.

The campground itself has hot showers (and not quarter showers, just push the button and out it comes). There are kitchen shelters near each of the loops. These are enclosed buildings with long picnic tables, wood stoves and lights. It is like they are saying, " Yeah, sometimes it is going to be bad weather. It can be rainy, windy and cold. You are going to want to be able to hang out in a dry space to cook or eat or just play cards or read a book. You don't have to huddle in your tent."

This morning I was up early so, I grabbed my Kindle and the rest of our electronic resources, and headed for the kitchen shelter with a bag chair. I plugged in the devices for a good charge while I read for and hour (note to family members glued to iDevices. Cold weather, and it was real cold last night , zaps battery life, sleep with you iPhone). Nothing fancy but the shelter got me a charge up a quiet hour or so in a comfortable spot.

I also get 4 hours of free wifi a day in the campground and the downtown village (I could pay for higher or faster usage). There is a laundromat in the village

This in contrast to our recent experience in the US at what arguably is the premier campground in one of the top US National Parks. At Apgar Campground there were no showers, there were no electrical hookups for RV's (meaning that when it was not quiet hours, generators were humming to charge RV batteries or run AC/Heaters). The only wifi was outside the visitors center (and no posted notice of it in the campground). It took two tries before Marsha discovered that the little snack shop in Apgar Village did have hot dogs and buns. There was no restuarant, and West Glacier was a drive out of the park. And let me add we LOVED our time there.

I guess I am trying draw the distinction about the feel of the experience. I know that I will have the same options in Banff and Jasper around the campground services. I have experienced the same in style of campground accommodations at Prince Edward Island. I don't want to get out on a philosophical limb here but it is almost like the US is the stance of the rugged individual. You can pit yourself against the environment, and go CAMPING (as long as you haul your RV/House) with you for comfort. The Canadian experience for me has been, hey, this place is great and beautiful, come and enjoy it it. We love being the outdoors, lets make it easy and relaxing.

I do not know if I am reading too much into it but we do greatly prefer camping in Canada and would choose it over the US anyday. It is looking like pizza downtown for supper, and tomorrow we are going for afternoon tea (after some morning activity and a shower) at the Prince of Wales.

Arrival in Waterton Lakes National Park - Oh! Canada!

We drove from East Glacier to Waterton Lakes today. We went past St. Mary's where the fire is still active. Did not see fire but there was a lot of smoke coming down the valley. Saw the major staging area fro firefighters and the field that had been turned into a helipad. It is raining in Waterton so hopefully some of that will trickle over the range to help with the fire.

Waterton is exactly how we (and faithful reader Janice Shannon) remember it from some 15 years ago. Beautiful, windy, rainy and cold. We are in the Waterton Townsite camping area, right in the town village area with Prince of Wales hotel overlooking the town and lakes. We get 4 hours of free wifi and then get to start paying. There is a lot to say that will come later but let me get right to the highlight of the day.

Bear!

In the meadow that stretched out in front of the Prince of Wales Hotel (away from the lake) a good sized black bear was out munching on berries and other delights. Just doing his bear thing like I am sure he/she has done many times before. We observed from about 100 yards and were cautioned by the ranger that to be any closer we really should be in a car.

The Prince of Wales Hotel is just stunning in its location, history and grandeur.  Sitting on a hill overlooking the lake and town, the bellhops all wore kilts, and as you sat for afternoon tea with a harpist playing you observed the water and mountains through a wall of glass window. All in a circa 1909 grand hotel, where the central lobby soared three flights and each floor of rooms became an overlooking balcony in wood and timber framing. we are going to try to head there for tea especially if the rainy cold weather holds up. 

We also took an afternoon walk along the shore of Cameron Lake and saw an eagle soaring and then drop like a rock to grab a fish. It clearly was an eagle, it clearly plunged to the water and rose, but it was pretty far away. It was either a juvenile American Bald eagle just coming into adulthood as it was pretty brown but we saw white as it flew, or a golden eagle with the belly of the fish in ts claws flashing white as it flew.  Just too hard to say for sure which it could be. 

Much more to say and more pictures but lets see if the wifi holds out for this post at least.

Good Bye Glacier - Seranos for Dinner

Tourists, and long wait for a table, and Tequila, not a great mix.  However, decent Tex-Mex food at what has to be the busiest restaurant in East Glacier. Off to Canada!

 

Wildlife in Glacier

So far in Glacier we have not added to our wildlife list. In past trips we had seen sheep and goats in Logan Pass but with the fire it is closed. On our last hike we were up high in an area that looked promising for seeing both but no luck. It was not for want of trying. Spent a lot of time eyeballing the upper reaches of the slopes of  peaks around Two Medicine Lake (or "two med" as we locals call it).

Really the best Glacier had to offer was deer. We had the regular 5 o'clock deer in the Apgar campground. One was a nice young buck with his antlers in velvet. We had a major traffic stoppage on the the Avalanche Lake hike for doe with about 20 people freezing the trail to a standstill as she did her thing.

The best was on the Granite Peak hike where we watched a doe for a while as it foraged between us on the way down and another group on the way up. We watched for a while as she was off to the side of the trail and then wandered down. When we moved on there was a gap between Marsha and I as I stopped to adjust my pack. The deer cut up to the trail and stood sideways across it munching away at flowers on the upslope. Marsha was toodling along, now a hundred yards ahead.

I was kind of stuck like well, a deer in the headlights. I had already been admonished by a ranger for breaking federal regulations by plugging my phone into a visitor center outlet, I was not about to get tagged for harassing wildlife. I ended up moving slowly and talking to it as I walked by. I was hoping that my voice would get it to move a bit. It shifted enough for me to get by but I could have reached out and patted its rump as I talked and walked. In retrospect I did put myself at the mercy of a sharp kick from the business end of the hind legs, but the deer was habituated to the public and just kept munching as I slipped by.

Last night at dinner folks were talking about seeing a couple of bear on the road north toward St. Mary's Perhaps we will be treated to a sighting.

Glacier Winding Down

So who would of thought you could find the worlds biggest purple spoon in East Glacier Park  MT? Well you can. We had a nice about 4 mile hike to Aster Falls and the Aster Park Overlook in the Two Medicine area of the park despite some claims of sore calves from my  mate before we started. Then back to Brownies Hostel to do some laundry and take showers before heading out for some Mexican food. Tomorrow we are off to Waterton Lakes.

Last Day in Glacier - Sunday in the Park or Silly in the Tilly

Today has been a little bit of an off day. We are still in East Glacier, at Brownies enjoying the amenities of being in town. The Two Medicine Lake part of the park is about 10 miles up the road. We did a short hike Aster Falls and then up about 1000 feet to Aster Lookout which got us up high enough to get views back down the lake and the surrounding mountains. Enough of a climb to wake up the calves that were destroyed on the Loop hike but not enough to cripple me, like yesterday.

Last night was a tough evening as a good round of delayed-onset-muscle-syndrome hit hard. It may have been Brownies uneven floors and sandaled feet requiring extra work by the calf muscles for balance and stability but I was a hurtin' puppy trying to walk around the building. We also had some folks who had a little bit of a party going on until 1 AM. Not anything serious but enough loud talking and movement that kept tripping the motion detector so that light shown in our room making thing annoying. We took our time (our legs made us take time) avoiding the morning rush of folks who had to be moving and grooving out of the hostel.

It was a fine hike, short enough to get in one more round of laundry, a dinner out and hopefully a better night's sleep. We leave for Waterton tomorrow, but we have a reserved campsite in the main townsite campground. Oh, Canada!

I did splurge on a new Tilly hat today. Too much money, I already have a similar hat that would do the job, but the Tilly does look better and will work for fly fishing and for keeping sun and rain off my face and neck. For hiking I never realized that they have a chin string tucked up inside. Besides, they float. I of course blame this extravagance on Hammertsrom who with his stern doctor voice (as stern as a lurpy kid from Pittsburgh can muster) admonished us to do a better job of protecting our skin from the sun especially when being outdoors.

First some photos for my portfolio for admission to the Babinski school of photography:

 

And now some pictures from the hike -

 

 

One More Word on Theodore

After visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and reading David McCullough's book Mornings On Horseback about TR's formative years, I have been trying to reconcile several ideas in my head. Roosevelt is celebrated for his advancement of "the strenuous life". He calls the outdoor life a "tonic" and points to his outdoor activities as a major part of shaping his life experience. Historically he is credited with bringing forward the ideas of conservation and outdoor adventure as part of the thinking that pushed the idea into the mainstream of American thought and psyche.

Except his experiences lead from his position as a wealthy elite. In fact the elite of the elite. His family's wealth was of long standing and entrenched from his grandfather's time. His house were of the upstairs/downstairs Downton Abbey style. Not in physical size but with servants in the lower house cooking and upstairs servants to serve meals and attend to family needs.  In his childhood his father and mother took the entire family to Europe for a year of travel, and they went again through Europe onto Egypt  a chartered rip on a boat down the Nile (complete with servants). Nobody had to go into work and punch a clock. True the Roosevelt family did attend to business, but the ability to walk away for long periods of time was a testament to the wise investment choices made by the family and the size of their fortune. His explorations come with the extra "padding" of wealth to hire support in the form of guides and cooks and manservants.

Roosevelt comes to the Dakotas ostensibly on business to explore about raising cattle in the North Dakota badlands. He is also a crux point in his life. He has just lost his beloved wife who died just after giving birth to his first child. On the same day his mother died. Two beloved figures in his life. He turns his daughter over to his sister to be raised. I cannot fathom his grief. He plunges on with some politics in the spring but after the Republican convention he is off to the Dakotas.

In the Dakotas he does have help from folks who were guides for him in Maine. It is also said that he threw himself into learning the trade of ranching, never being a very skilled cowboy but adequate and willing to the tasks.

McCullough never says it but I can imagine him riding out to the edge of a grassy butte and just letting the tears flow. Roosevelt in some of his writings talks about this being a change point in his life. Now being unfettered with family he faces decisions about his life. His experiences in the Badlands are a way for him to step away from New York re-gather himself through the tonic of the vigorous life and plunge ahead.

And yet it was his wealth that allowed him to do it. His cattle venture cost him about some $700000 in today's money. As a young man he was able to step away, sort out his life as best he could, weather a financial loss and see his change circumstance as a product of a vigorous life on the range. He was not the workaday cowboy supporting the daily tasks and the venture after Roosevelt returned to his city and wealth based life. Maybe in some way you needed to be financially independent to allow the tonic of the wilderness to work on you. Otherwise you  are just a work-a-day-joe whose roping and riding are a paycheck rather than a adventure to write about or to be able to tell stories about in the drawning rooms of high society.

It is not without notice that I also am at a change point in my life. I don't have Roosevelt's means but there is a certain parallel that for the short time we have the means to travel and the luxury of time and the wilderness to short out what comes next. So for it has been for us, like Roosevelt, a delightfully bully tonic!

Saturday is Laundry Day at Brownies

We moved from West Glacier to East Glacier this morning. We are back at Brownies Bakery, Deli, Laundromat, $5 Shower Stop, Worlds Largest Purple Spoon associated with the next door Whistle Stop Cafe (outdoor seating if you would not mind being careful to step up as you go through a sliding glass window to the roadside patio).

The hostel (et al) has an abundance of character. The floors creak. From your second floor room you can see through to the store below from the missing knots in the pine floor, and the second floor hostel porch where I sit now has a pitch of about 15% from the wall of the building out to the railing. But a nice breeze, comfy padded chairs, a plug for charging and 5 bars on the wifi allow me to rest sore legs, and watch the world go by. Marsha is fighting for washer and dryer space in the laundromat, buying wooden spoons in the spoon shop and taking advantage of the "fire sale" on the "ash" colored tee shirts in the shop across the street. Dinner will be out tonight.

The hostel is also a fire trap. It is old and all wood. I think we are in land that is part of the Blackfeet Reservation and I think there may be a looser standard of regulation. I can understand the stance of the rugged Western individualism, I can understand the loose regulation in small place, but any health and safety regulator, even the most lax and on the take, would have a tough time letting this place slide by. However it is cheap, convenient, and it has a certain vibe that says that it is what it is. Don't expect more, don't expect less, this is enough to cover your bases, it will be fine.

It is worth knowing about for the future as the town of East Glacier is an Amtrak stop.  The lady at the shop across the street said that about 200 people per day disembark. East Glacier has a waiting room and baggage services (including bikes). West Glacier is also a stop but no services.

We have decided to stay in East Glacier at Brownies for two nights. We are on the east side and the fire still goes on. Simpler to stay put, as our room is available tomorrow as well. Also, we are relearning the time honored lessons of travel, less is more, deeper experiences are better than broader experiences and hot showers and clean underwear are worth it.

Glacier National Park: Day 4 - The Granite Peak Chalet Hill Workout

Again posting this from the the Glacier Visitor Center, so I hope to update this post later in the day. East side fire still rages. The ranger who is posting new info said it s about 5000 acres and 10% contained. She did not comment on how they were fighting the fire i.e., letting it burn and just protecting park properties. Las we heard they were  fighting from the air, but with the wind and the potential for the fire to move quickly, they were not putting crews on the ground.

Going to the Sun Road is still closed to Logan but open to what is called the Loop. At the Loop you can catch the Loop Trail which goes up to the Granite Peak Chalet. Folks usually do the trail from Logan hiking out the Highline Trail, 8 miles of relatively flat to the Chalet and then dropping down 2200 feet and 4 miles to the Loop Trailhead.

This one gets blamed on Marsha who thought it was a good idea to take the shuttle up to the loop grab the trail and hike up as high as we could hoping to get to the Chalet.

It was as advertised. Four miles of steady plodding up. We were out early and the days was cool. We had a nice breeze. Again after a short bit, we popped out onto a hillside of an old burn. Same bear danger as yesterday. Low open country, with berry plants growing up in the old burn. Easy country for bear to move in, berries past their peak but enough and an early morning hike when bear are out. Lots and lots of Yo, Bears on this one.

It was a tough but beautiful hike. It was a plod, and steep in parts. You always reach a point were you think that you should stop and turn around. We met a gal who had been doing workshops and she encouraged us to keep going as the chalet was worth it. We (I) sucked it up and got to the top.

 
The Chalet was worth it. It sits with great views over the surrounding mountains. It takes overnight guests. You bring your own food. I can see the enticement of a walk  in from Logan, spend the night and then either hike back over or down along the Loop Trail.

We had lunch at the Chalet and then pounded our way back down. It was OK, but by the end, our legs were toast. Afternoon was hotter so sun exposure was again an issue. The last mile was just a slog.

It was 4 miles up, 4 miles down. The elevation change was 2200 feet up and and 2200 down so we did 8 miles with 4400 feet of change. Calves feel like somebody was playing hammer dulcimer with 3 pound hammers on them.

Off to Brownies for showers, laundry, and dinner out. We also need a place to stay tomorrow night. SO, the adventure continues. We have decided that we like parking ourselves in one place and exploring for a while. I have a much better appreciation for what Glacier has to offer after being here for a few days, much better than my last trips here.

Glacier National Park: Day 3 - Hike Along Lake McDonald

Hope to embellish this post with pictures later today. It has been an exciting and fun few days in Glacier, but with limited changes to charge devices and wifi from the vistors center that is kind of flakey after hours there has not been a chance to update.

As the east side fire still has Going to the Sun road closed we opted for an out and back hike on the "far"side of Lake McDonald. It was a nice hike along a relatively flat trail with nice views of the mountain side on the opposite shore "behind" our campground. It was probably between 5-6 miles.
The trail popped out into a old burn area from a major fire in 2003. That meant low growth was coming back nice flowers and berries. Very good bear country so lots of sharp calls every few minutes to announce our presence. (Yo, bear! No Bear! Yo! Berries! No Bearies!  Yo Bears - No Berries!)

The burn country also popped us out into open country with full sun beating down. Most of the hike was a bake fest. The lake was there just off the trail, but the shoreline was home to aggressive flies and a collection of both yellow jackets and wasps. The seemed to be finding shelter in the rocks and stones of the shore. Lunch was very quick.

By the end of the hike the sun wax taking its toll. We were pretty good in managing our exposure with our floppy hats, lightweight shirts and lots of water. The jump in the lake when we were back in the campground was welcome. More when the Internet is kinder.

Glacier National Park: Day 2 - Fire On The Mountain

Here was the plan for today. Take the 7AM Logan Pass shuttle up the Going to the Sun Road. At the top we would head north along one of the premier trails in the world - the Highline Trail. Yesterday Going to the Sun Road was closed late in the day as a small fire on the east side exploded into a 100 acre fire due to the high winds. Campgrounds on that side had to be evacuated and hiker were being located and the fire expanded rapidly. We still got up very early to queue for the first bus out just in case, but no dice, road was closed over the top all day.

So, let me tell you about the end of day 1, after we nabbed a campsite. We did a short hike up Avalanche Creek to Avalanche Lake. It is in a beautiful cirque fed from water exiting the Sperry Glacier. We counted five cascading waterfall coming over the headwall feeding the lake. Great hike, not to hard, just enough to let your legs know they were working.

On the return to the campsite we happened on a scene just on the road by our site. A couple about our age flagged down a ranger and gave him an earful. Playing the game of campsite roulette the arrived early (like us), tagged their site and then took off in their Mercedes motorhome for the day. WHen they returned someone was set up in their site. The woman was angry and frustrated, and the ranger was trying to figure out options on the fly. With all of the loops and other NP campsites full, it was going to be a long late drive to find something else. Her frustration was getting the better of the situation. I was teasing the young couple the next site over, by saying - watch this, I am going to go over there and tell  them that for $100 they can park on our site , but they have to sleep in our tent and we get to sleep in the Mercedes. With the situation escalating, it was not time for jokes butit was a good idea in principle. We ended up just making the offer of sharing our site through the ranger, they accepted, and things got immediately better for them. Until of course next morning at 6:15 AM while stuffing my car keys into the bottom of the pack to scoot for the early shuttle, I set off the car alarm and it took a few minutes to shut it off. 

The shuttles did not run up and over today, so the early up was a waste. Marsha just so a notice that it is now up to 2000 acres. Not a lot of hope for tomorrow, but we will try the early express. Back up plan is taking the time for huckleberry pancakes. 

We ended up doing a little biking, and I got to go fishing. First on the shores of Lake McDonald with spinning rod and fly casting into the wind. Later I got out onto the river outflow from the lake. No success except a few nibbles. I got one to follow a lure a few feet, had another rise to a fly and spit it twice, and on the river just one nibble but was in a good area as several small fish jumped near me. It was a windy day and you had to watch your casting but it was a real joy to fish in such clear water. The lake became tedious as the gravel shore line got into my sandals and the clarity masked depth. One false step and knee deep became chest deep and then swim time. The water was cold but not frigid Marsha got in for a lake swim before summer. 

On the river I was able to fish a hole just below a bridge and the water was warmer. I could wade across in water up to my belly button. I had great fun casting and floating flies and nymphs out in the middle of the river. It just amounted to a few hours of casting practice, which I needed. In the end I got much better at shooting the line and getting it where I wanted. Lots of wind but no wind knots and with t he clear water it was easy to figure out likely spots of cover to cast to, They were just not buying what I was selling. 

I am at the Apgar Visitor Center which actually closed a few hours ago. Marsha observed someone yesterday plugging a device into an outlet on the side of the building. Building has free wifi, is just down the street from the huckleberry ice cream stand. Charging and blogging, a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Here are the pictures:

 

100K for the Eastford Escape

Outside of Glacier NP. No traditional one mile push however.

Camp Glacier

Made a strategic decision that we hope will work out. Part of the game in U.S. National Parks is campground reservations and sites. By the time had enough structure to our trip in Jan-Feb all reservable campsites at Glacier were taken for the time we were going to be there. Thus our stop at Brownies Hostel. There are always some sites available on a first come first serve basis but they get grabbed quickly. We got out of Brownies and were at the main west side campground Apgar Village at 8AM. Already the "takers" were circling the "leavers" and we jumped right into the thick of it. We grabbed the first spot we had a chance at. Apgar is very nice and there are shuttle buses to lots of other sites and trailheads. We started thinking about our plans to jump back to the east side and sleep at Brownies. We have a promo site in a nice campground. Why move? So we changed up. We will spend four nights here at Apgar, ending our stay with one night at Brownies with its showers and laundromat before we move north to Waterton. Anything on the east side we will take the early morning express shuttles to Logan Pass and then on to St. Marys.

Ideas from our neighbors

Adventures in the Ted: Day 3 - Morning Ride

This was our last few hours in TRNP. We did not double down on the previous evening's trip and star gazing. A few too many clouds and we were tired. We had about 4-5 hours of driving ahead of us so we opted for a bike ride on the east side of the perimeter road (the flat side) heading out for a few miles before breakfast. One last hurrah for TRNP!

It was a beautiful morning. Cool in the early morning sun, little wind. No traffic, pavement smooth like "budder". Just a few miles of pedalling before having a bowl of granola, packing up and moving onto Montana. Bunch of prairie dogs over here, couple of horses over there. Head down, hunched over. The legs make little circles, and wheels make big ones. The road rising gently. We can see the steep hills in the distance.

A guy in a car coming towards us flags us down to tell us there are bison ahead. Couple dozen head. One in the road. We thank him and move on.

We rounded the corner, and boom they are all there. I thought like maybe off to the side, but no, the entire herd on both sides of the road! Big males, and mothers with calves. It is just me and Sweetness and Marsha on the Hopeville Flyer, with a roadway strewn with animals and bison dung. And there are like 50 of them!

Now with our previous magical experience of parting herds with the car, we figured we could move slowly but deliberately and make it to the other side. The one thing the car insulates you from is the huffing and grunting of the animals. This was up close and personal. There was no mistake that we were not wanted, no matter how gentle our pace, how peaceful our manner. And it was a bunch of them that took up the menacing the chorus, especially the Mom's.  Stoically we peddled on and got through.

About 10 minutes later the road rose sharply and granola started sounding awfully good. A good trip back down to the campground, all flat or downhill would be the reward. The bison were sure to have moved off, right?

Wrong! Far from moving they had settled in for the morning, right where they had been. Another white knuckle, heart in the throat ride, slowly observing and listening for bad intent, riding with gears ready to sprint like a time trial champion. Once more through the gauntlet, successfully.

We ran into the guy who flagged us down coming back up the road on a bike. Turns out his is a middle school tech coordinator in the Chicago area. We had a nice conversation, pedaled on, then broke camp, and headed off to Montana. 

Adventures in the Ted: Day 2 - Jonas Creek Hike

The Jonas Creek Trail bisects the the perimeter road. We hiked it upstream for about 2.5 miles. It was fun to be hiking in the west again. Big open space, so trails are placed along valleys leading up to the head of the stream. In TRNP it is the North Dakota Badlands with open prairie and range lands with cottonwoods trees in the draws. David McCollough, whose Mornings On Horseback, I have been reading draws a distinction between the North Dakota Badlands and the South Dakota Badlands. Here it is greener, more range land, suitable for grazing animals than the more forbidding south. I would have to agree. One of my reservations about the stop was that I had seen the southern version, and I could not have imagined what we would do.

The north was wonderful. We hit a cool spell with some clouds and a nice wind each day. The sun was hot, but not too. We were just past peak flowers but there were enough to decorate the trail pleasantly. The trail rose, but steadily, and just enough to let the legs know that it was a hike. My right knees has been sore after riding the last few weeks and it tolerated the hike OK.

A very nice hike indeed!

Adventures in the Ted: Day 1 - Huge Animals

The first day in TRNP we drove the perimeter road. We stopped at the scenic walks to overlooks and a couple of the nature trails. It was a good overview of the park but the only wildlife we saw were a couple of distant horses, and a way distant herd of bison. One of the stops was a place that was said to be recommended by rangers for viewing sunsets, the highest point in the park. We determined that it would be a great plan after dinner to drive the perimeter road to the view point bringing our chairs. It also would be likely that there would better wildlife viewing in the evening.

On the way out we saw two antelope and a group of wild horses. And then as we rounded the corner,  we encountered a young male bison. The guideline is to keep the wildlife at least 200 yards away but he no more than 25 yards and in the middle of the road. It is the beginning of the rut for the young males and this guy was looking for a girlfriend. It was a bit of a standoff until he wandered off. 

Around the corner was the rest of the herd. Maybe 25 head scattered on both sides of the road.  A line of cars in stretched in both directions, a crawl of traffic taking pictures and moving slowly through the clusters of huge animals. 

It is hard to explain the bulk of these creatures. It is not length or height but the thickness of the chest and back and shoulders. A careless move by one of them would dent your car. I could not imagine the damage from an angry bison, coming at you with purpose. It was a gingerly enacted waltz, scanning the animals for intent as we moved through along with the traffic.

The traffic thinned as we rounded a few more turns and encountered another young male. This one was squarely in the middle of the road. There was no way around. He did not move, just stared us down. He did not care for us being there. 

After what seemed a very long while he did move slightly to his side of the road. He flopped down into a patch of sandy dirt and began a dust bath, rolling on his back, kicking his legs, flipping his tail, getting and all over himself. It was quite a show.

I inched forward. He snapped to his feet, and stared the car down again. Then after a bit, as before, he flopped down again, and proceeded with the dust bath. I moved the car quickly past, not looking back to see if he enjoyed chasing cars more than dust baths. 

We got up to the view point and took out our chairs. It is a spectacular sunset. The remnant clouds of afternoon thunder showers rimmed the western sky. Light streaked through breaks in the clouds. To the southwest but far away an active rainstorm provided a show of light through rain. The view point gave a 360 panorama. It was going to be a pretty clear night once the clounds diminished. We decided to stay until nightfall.

That plan ran into a little trouble. The gentle breeze, of the evening turned into a pretty good wind.  As we sat in our chairs reading and observing the night, we kept going back to the car and layering up. We arranged the chairs so the car was a windbreak, but it was steady. With the sun going in and out of the shrinking clouds, and  setting,  it got colder and colder. Not to mention, in the western edge of a time zone the light lingers late. The sky in the east went through various shades of blue to indigo, to dark blue and competed with colder and colder temps.

It was a glorious show as we sat and hunkered down. The only light was that of about a half dozen distant gas flares as just outside the park the Dakota oil boom goes on. We read on our Kindle and iPad, waiting for the stars to come out at the edge of the road at a scenic viewpoint  at the highest spot in TRNP. Dusk was long in coming for all the show the stars did not peak out of the dark blue blanket.

Then we heard it. The clatter of bison hooves on the pavement behind me, close behind. Marsha and I froze. She could see the big dark shape moving off the prairie and onto the road. I dare not move. We were out of the car without our  steel protective barrier. 

It was a single young male out courting, the brother or cousin of the ones we saw before. Which was safer, bolt for the safety of the car or stay frozen and try not to cause alarm?The clatter of hooves stopped, and my heart rose higher in my throat. We choose the freeze method not because we figured it was the best course, but because neither of us could bring ourselves to move.  

We waited for what felt a long time, then the hoof beats started again. Thankfully he slowly ambled by, crossed the road and shuffled down a draw looking for ladies in all the right places. Immediately, the terror changed to - THAT WAS SO COOL! A bison walked right by us! How cool was that? It was just the charge of adrenaline to ward off the cold and keep us hanging on for stars and maybe a chance at the northern lights. 

We re-hunkered. Put on hats and more layers.  In a short while in the general direction of where the bison ambled there was the yip of a coyote. Then another called out, and another, and then it was a chorus of yipping and crying out to the east. And then, over the ridge, in the draw just below us, much closer, was an answer from another pack. That pack was real close, but we did not waver in our hunker.   We had just out maneuvered, out stared and out waited the best of the bison, a couple of packs of wild dogs were nothing to us! We outsat the yipping and yodelling and things quieted down.

We hung on waiting for stars to show until 9:55, and then folded. I mean literally, we folded our chairs and drove back to the campsite. And true to form, as we drove in and looked up at the limited circle offered in the clearing, the sky was black and full of stars.

Goodbye Ted Roosevelt! Hello, Ted Turner!

We made it to Glacier national Park in Montana. We are staying at Brownies Hostel and Bakery in East Glacier tonight, in the western part of park (hopefully) and back to Brownies to explore the east side more.

The dilemma here is so much to say with band width that is limited and comes and goes as guests jump on and off the Internet. Pretty sure folks across the hall were streaming a movie. So, since things are good now for a little let me rush to say that we LOVED Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We saw bison, antelope,mule deer, prairie dogs, wild horses and great sunsets. Much more to come on this.

It was a long drive across Montana. we broke it up with a stop in Ackley Lake where we saw a bald eagle flying along the lakeshore.

We arrived at GLacier about 2 PM. Went over to Two Medicine Lake.

Bully for North Dakota & Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Long day of driving through Minnesota and across North Dakota. We are now just over 2000 miles in our trip log. We are staying in Medora, ND, a small town just outside Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Tonight we stay at a funky combination western bookstore (a very good western bookstore at first glance) and motel called the Amble Inn. Tomorrow we go into the park for two days of camping/hiking/biking. On the way in we stopped at Painted Rocks which is part of the park. It offers a scenic overview of the formations of the Badlands.

This morning we for the third time got hit with rain showers just as we were packing up. Enough time for a nice breakfast and to start organizing and then a rain shower. Just enough to cause us to scurry more than we wanted to get the things that were pulled out of the car for morning packing back in and just enough to get the tent fly wet. It also brought out the Minnesota Mosquito convention. We will not miss the mosquitos, even though between the screen shelter, DEET, and citronella candles we put up a good fight.

Lake Bemidgi State Park

About a thirty mile bike ride out and back on the Paul Bunyan State Trail and a visit to the Paul Bunyan and Blue Ox statue in downtown Bemidgi and then later  a trip to the local Walmart for some groceries including a roasted chicken for dinner. We are supposed to go on a pontoon boat ride tonight from the campground if it doesn't rain first. Tomorrow we are off to Medora ND and Theodore Rosevelt National Park - yay I finally will get to use my Senior Park Pass😀