Another day sitting in the car while it rains, another post. Don't let me mislead you, most of today was gorgeous, it only drizzled a little just before bedtime. But here we sit in another campground outside of Glacier National Park reflecting on another week gone by. We spent almost the entire day in the sun outside a single shop in East glacier village, a 1 stop sign town. Because they had showers. And laundry. And pizza. And ice cream. And cell service. The necessities in life...
We began the Montana adventure meeting up with 'old friends': cousin Becca and her girl Sarah. They harassed us into visiting while we passed through town and insisted on showing us what Montana had to offer. They are both spend most of their days in the remote forests building trails and experiences. We tooled around Helena for pizza and beer, and made a day out of the road south to Bozeman, stopping at Wheat Montana Bakery along the way. Again with the baked goods.
Bozeman had lovely charm to the shopping and culinary district. We also managed to swing by a used gear store and the Bozeman REI, where we ran into another 'old friend', Sarah-from-Bozeman. Sarah-from-Bozeman was another 2015 Anderson award recipient, and probably has a real last name but introduced herself to me as Sarah, from Bozeman. We spoke of climbing, and she suggested some local cliffs to which we could attach ourselves to relatively easily. So after our final night boozing with Becca and co., we headed off to the Red Cliff sport routes, because we are too chicken to try multi pitch trad on our own yet... We snuck in a few early evening climbs prior to some major storms rolling through. Stacy got the hang of setup and tear down of anchors, and I led a 5.9 that was truly humbling.
With everything being soaked the following day, we rang up Sarah-from-Bozeman who happened to have the day off, and suggested some hikes. Middle Cottonwood turned out to be quite nice. I will admit, I have always considered the climax of a hike to be a vista, a summit, a pass, or some other sort of altitude feature. Never before was I willing to admit how breathtaking a field of wild flowers could be, but...wow.
After the hike Sarah-from-Bozeman kindly offered us a spot on the futon if we brought beer. We sang songs, told jokes, and met a nice (and very cuddly) cat and 2 dogs as it rained cats and dogs outside.
The following morning, after a splendid breakfast, we parted ways, and headed off to an 'old friend' of a park, Glacier. A few local yokels had told us about a stop on the way called Crystal Park. This is a state park where recreational mining for quartzite crystals is permitted with hand tools. So we stopped and dug around with our poop trowel for a few hours, and lo and behold, crystals! It was a good activity to clear the mind and vent some energy. On to Glacier...
We had already been to Glacier NP, back in 2010 when we lived in Idaho. It was a case of holiday romance that lasted after the holiday. I still claim it is my favorite park. We managed some wonderful hikes that trip. Some mountains are beautiful to look at, some inspire awe, and some inspire fear. Glacier contains a range of peaks that install all those emotions. With majestic peaks, tranquil lakes, massive waterfalls, and an uncompromising attitude about wildlife managment, it is what a park should be.
Our reason for returning? Old friends! We were contacted and asked to meet up with Matt and Courtney, an absolutely wonderful couple that were on our absolutely wonderful hike in Patagonia. They happened to be visiting around the time we were! We met their wonderful relatives, including a rambunctious niece and nephew. Oh and there was Teddy, the mini adventure dog. Some fun day hikes were had, along with mountains pies and s'mores!
We didn't want to be too social/crash their family time too much longer so after 2 days we wandered off to the most remote part of the park for some backcountry. We decided to attempt a 3 day jaunt up to Boulder pass. Apparently, the lower sections of the trail is so overgrown that the plants untie your shoelaces for you and then pick your pockets when you attempt to retie them. The way the campsite reservations worked out, we were stuck with an appalling 17 mile day 2. It would be up and back. It was a very long day and the trails were more than overgrown, the ground completely hidden by green wet growth in some areas. There were some fresh big game signs, but no actual sightings. We managed to make the pass, and celebrated with rehydrated apple crisp that night.
The hike out the following day was very rainy and depressing. Ups and downs and bushwhacking through soggy vegetation. But our soggy sorrows were drowned at the coolest bar I've been to yet. The Northern Lights Saloon. Hit it up if you are ever in the middle of nowhere 20 miles from Canada. That night, we attempted to dry our stuff in the car on a backwoods Montana forest road as mosquitoes feasted on Stacy.
And now we come full circle to the following day of sunshine, laundry, showers, beer and pizza. Life's rainy days are usually followed by sunshine, beer and pizza.
-K
P.S.
We did one final hike after I wrote this, up to ptarmigan tunnel. It was a gorgeous day, and the tunnel is a really cool thing. It was blasted through the pass cwwm in 1930 to accommodate the luxurious horse camping of the pre-WWII aristocracy. The previous trail was too difficult for their horses and they had to walk. At least that how ranger Bill explained it to us.
Onward to Canada!!!
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