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.