Closure, part I.

Today I (finally) washed out my backpack and the various wool scarves I accumulated on my 2010 aventura.

I also (finally) finished putting together a scrapbook of memorabilia from the aforementioned journey, and (finally) packaged up Viki's Andean trekking topo map after updating my copy to match our route from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu.

A few weeks ago I (finally) handed off a few aventura gifts lingering in my hall closet.

So...

Now where?

Road trip, day eight: full circle.

Spokane, WA

Road trip, day seven: Many Glacier.

Spent the first part of my last day playing up at Many Glacier. I stopped at the ranger station to inquire about bear sightings; I'd been threatened with death if I came back to Portland in a bodybag from a bear mauling, and it sounded like if there was a place to see them, this was it. I think the ranger had been barraged that week because of the Jack Hanna incident and she reassured me that hiking alone, without bear/pepper spray, would be fine. It was.

The path to Grinnell Lake takes you along Lake Sherburne, a recreational lake but also gorgeous.

Then it heads a little deeper into the woods, where I ran into the self-proclaimed "Youth Brigade" - a bunch of older gentlemen fixing a foot bridge.

"I hope you brought your gloves and hammer," one of the men joked as I walked past. "I'm on vacation!" I stated. "So are we!" he replied. Turns out, they were spending a week volunteering in the park. Ahhh, retirement.

A few miles later I stumbled upon the amazing lake that is Grinnell.

I think everyone has this same exact shot

I sat for a while by the shore enjoying the quiet (interrupted now and then by me clanging the bear bell) and my granola bar/chocolate lunch. On the way back I took a different trail up to Feather Plume Falls...

note to self: less falls, more lakes

... and then along Piegan Pass back to the parking area. The peaks were stunning.

Stopped briefly at Two Sisters Cafe for one of the best four-berry lemonades I've ever had. I'm sure that had nothing to do with my 8-mile hike and the heat.

reuse, recycle... decorate

Afterward I attempted to go to Lunch Creek at Ben's suggestion, but parking for that off-trail area was centered around Logan Pass and the construction and tourists made it impossible. Next time!

I did get a photo as the car crawled by

So I headed down to my last walk in the park, to St. Mary and Virginia Falls. St. Mary Falls was really pretty. The water near the falls was as blue as any tropical island, and for a moment I forgot I was in the mountains.

donde estoy?

the falls were nice too

Virginia Falls was lovely, and no one was there. I savored my last few hours in the park quietly watching the falls, playing with my tripod, and getting the obligatory "Hi, Mom" shot.

"HI, MOM!"

looking the other way

And then it was back to the hostel for my last night in town. I only got a taste of Glacier this trip, but I can't wait to get back and do some real backpacking to the less touristy places.

the end, part I

But first, the real world for a bit. It's going to be amazing, right? I said, RIGHT?!

Road trip, day six: tourist day!

What would be a better start than breakfast at Luna's (featuring eggs, bacon, toast and coffee - although I suppose a true American breakfast would have been supersized). My server, Ben, tipped me to Lunch Creek and invited me on a day hike Thursday with him and his girlfriend if I ended up staying around a bit longer than anticipated. Very nice guy.

Her Maj's namesake FTW

I headed to Going to the Sun Road mentally prepared for lots of tourists and that's what I got. First stop was at Wild Goose Island for some photo ops...

but first, a family photo

duck, duck...

... then I went up to Logan Pass.

the obligatory shot

Instead of just admiring Hidden Lake from the top like most folks were doing, I decided to hike down to the bottom at the recommendation of some ladies (who thankfully - and quietly - replaced the honeymooning couple) at the hostel. Great views...

... tons of wildlife.

hi! I'm not a bear

we're not bears fighting

I'm not a baby bear

also not bears

definitely not a bear (but my favorite wildlife shot of the trip)

It was spoiled a little on the way back thanks to a crazy German lady (I can say that - I'm German) and a guy with a very expensive video camera and improper shoes (hello, did you not SEE the warnings about the snow and slush?!) and spoiled even further with lots of traffic traffic traffic and construction...

But the views from the road were lovely, even on such an overcast day.

The sun finally came out and while I hadn't planned on stopping because of all the people, I found The Best Parking Space at Avalanche Lake so I decided to hike up to see what all the fuss was about...

okay, I get the fuss

... and then I meandered back to the car via the cedar walk along the river.

not seeing the forest

After a brief stop at the general store at Lake McDonald, I headed back to the hostel. Two short hikes and lots of driving meant almost 12 hours on this one road. It was pretty...

between Hidden Lake viewpoint and Logan Pass

... but worth a whole day? Not sure.

But hey, I was in Glacier National Park, so whatevs. Beats cubeland any day of the week.

Road trip, day five: Two Medicine.

The next morning I was sleepy and grumpy but I made my way to Two Medicine about ten miles up the road.

Two Medicine, countless reflections

My first stop was Running Eagle Falls (also known as Trick Falls). Part of the falls runs underground and comes out through a cavern, and when the water is high the falls run over the top of the cavern too.

low water season lets you see the trick

Next up was Rockwell Falls. Bear bell ringing, I headed into the woods and through pretty little bear-free meadows, and happened upon a sign pointing to Aster Falls a mile or so off the main trail. Being a sucker for a waterfall, I turned left, hiked to the falls and continued to the lookout above.

Aster Falls

life at Aster Lookout

death at Aster Lookout

On the way down I ran into a nice Midwestern family who I would see again at Rockwell Falls and a few days later, at Virginia Falls. Big park, small world.

The path to Rockwell Falls goes through high meadows of flowers and dead/living trees. The trails were somewhat overgrown, which surprised me given the foot traffic and imminence of bear season, but still no sightings.

not a bear

Along the way I'd been promised (via Moon) a footbridge reminiscent of Indiana Jones, and they were right.

you can't do this to me! I'm an American!

The falls were pretty, and I sat with the Midwestern family and ate lunch while we all admired the view and I remembered how spoiled I was, having access to this type of thing whenever I want in the Columbia River Gorge.

it's no Wahkeena, but it'll do

They turned back and I headed onward to Cobalt Lake. It was here that I really felt like I was in Rocky Mountain country. The air had that unmistakable Rocky Mountain scent, the streams were clear as glass, and the mountains were gorgeous.

The lake was also gorgeous. Yeah, I have access to waterfalls galore, but I have to go high up and far away to see lakes like these.

hello, new tripod!

cobalt: a cool, slightly desaturated blue

The flies were not so gorgeous, so after a quick photo stop I headed down Two Medicine Pass Trail toward Twin Falls. The hike took longer than I expected and I'd already hiked more than I thought I would. I was mildly worried about my Achilles tendons (which still haven't recovered from the Bend 12-hour sand hike and subsequent 20 miles over the next few days last May) and was taking it slow, but I knew that the boat back to the parking lot area left at 3:20 and 5:20... it was almost 3pm so I regretfully skipped Twin Falls and went to the boat queue instead.

A hundred other people apparently had the same idea and the boat only held about 50 people, so when I heard they were sending another boat in about 45 minutes I walked the quick 2 miles out to Twin Falls.

pretty, but not worth lingering too long and missing the boat

"About 45 minutes" turned out to be 30 minutes. As I got back to the dock the (packed) boat was leaving, which would've meant another hour-plus wait at the fly-riddled dock or more wandering on my achy feet. But the driver had forgotten his backpack and noticed me when he slowed the takeoff and jumped back onto the dock to retrieve it. "Need a ride?" he asked with a smile. "You're my hero!" I shouted, and boarded.

One of the women at the front of the boat commented on how lucky I was. Standing in the open air at the front of the boat, looking out on the lake, I thought about my adventures this year, the ease in which I found a place to live and a job when I returned, and my friends and family who supported me through the whole endeavor... and I thought to myself, "lady, you have NO idea."

After dinner and huckleberry ice cream in town...

when in Rome, after all

... I was resting my Achilles in the hostel lounge when a guest came in and said, "I don't know if you're interested, but there's an amazing lightning storm outside." I followed him to the porch and watched one of the most amazing storms I've ever seen, which was accompanied by a guy playing acoustic guitar in time with the bolts.

I love Montana.

Road trip, day four: why DID the bear cross the road?

A: I don't know - he was walking too fast across Highway 2 for me to snap a photo, let alone ask him.

Sunday morning after waiting for the car windows to defrost (and the mandatory coffee stop at the Mercantile, of course), I got a very early start out of Polebridge.

later that day the temperature would hit 92 degrees

One of my tires looked questionable so I stopped briefly at the Apgar Visitor Center to get some park information for a friend and then headed into West Glacier for some tire air. The line to get back into the park was ridiculous but expected, for a Sunday in July.

queuing up

Waiting in line I decided to skip Lake McDonald (where all these people were going) and head straight for the Apgar Lookout trailhead. Moon listed this as one of the top ten day hikes in Glacier, due to the shortness of the hike and payoff in views at the top. The views along the way were sad but amazing too - the 2003 Roberts Fire (man caused, rapidly grew to over 3,200 acres in the first 24 hours) combined with the Wedge Fire (lightning caused) and between the two fires a total of over 110,000 acres were burned - 75,000 of those acres were in Glacier National Park.

Roberts fire remnants

There were very few people going up and down the trail, which was nice but I was still worried about bears so I rang the bell loud and proud. The hike was amazing, offering lovely views of Lake McDonald, the glacier peaks and Canada at the top.

everyone else was here

blame Canada!

purple mountain majesty

After the hike I got some coffee in Apgar and decided to head to Great Falls (about 90 miles southeast of East Glacier). I'd found a picture of the falls while researching the area surrounding Glacier NP and thought it was intriguing enough to merit a side trip. On the way I decided it was Grateful Dead time so I popped in a tape I've used on many a road trip. One song in, I passed this van, which kindly pulled to the side and let me pass.

friends may recall a certain truck that looked similar

Two songs in I passed a sign for Goat Lick, and after all the macaw lick action (or lack thereof) in Peru I decided to check this out.

no goats - rescue or otherwise

The van was in the parking lot as I was walking back to my car so I asked the tye-dye clothed driver and his companion if I could take a photo. We got to talking, and it turned out that they were in a band that plays in Portland now and then, and she has family there. Really nice people, I hope to see them again someday soon. There was something serendipitous about the timing of my choice of music and meeting these folks. More likely, coincidental. I'm going to go with serendipitous though.

Anyway. Moon recommended taking Highway 89 to Great Falls for a more scenic route, so without doing any other research I headed south on 89. The views of Flathead National Forest were definitely worth the extra time.

phun with phocus

Great Falls itself... eh. The part I could easily access was a man-made dam which created a waterfall effect.

you think it's like this...

... but really it's like this

It seems that I could've hiked into some pretty decent actual waterfalls, but it was 92 degrees at 5pm and that did not interest me in the slightest.

But! All was not lost. While waiting for my pepperoni pizza and breadsticks from Papa Johns (the oasis in this whole side trip), I happened upon a veterinarian keeping Great Falls weird.

The drive to East Glacier was long even though I took the shorter route back up Highway 15, but very pretty.

harnessing one of the elements

I got to Brownie's Hostel around 8pm and was greeted by the scent of fine baked goods and the faces of very nice staff. The hostel was charming (despite being upstairs from a grocery store/restaurant) and well-equipped with a real bathroom, electric plugs in the walls and a great kitchen. The hostel dog was even charming...

charming... or maybe dead

I got lucky with a dorm for six all to myself, not that it mattered - the walls really are paper thin, and I think the couple next door was on their honeymoon.

I didn't get much sleep that night.

And that's all I will say about that.