Canada, Eh?

Glacier National Park – Thursday, June 30, 2011

We’re off to the northern part of the park which is in Canada and is called Waterton Lakes National Park. Yes, Canada has National Parks too. We were on our way after we went to the ranger station to see if we could stay another 2 days. There is so much to see and do here we didn’t want to be rushed! We can’t keep the same camp site, but we are confirmed.

We thought we could use this as a dry run through customs.  When we got to the border, we chatted up the border agent who was very friendly.  Since we had to wait in line, we had several minutes to talk to him.  He gave us some hints about what we could bring over in the RV, but said in the end, it all boiled down to the agent at the crossing.  Since we would be going into Canada at a different crossing the next time, what we could bring over was still up in the air. We’ll play by the rules to be safe.

Once in the park, after the Visitor Centre, the first stop we made was the Prince of Wales Hotel.  We thought about having Afternoon Tea there, but couldn’t find the price.  The Tea Room was packed and we figured if you had to ask the price you couldn’t afford it.  The hotel was beautiful.  It’s built high up on a hill overlooking the lake and town.  Well the wind comes roaring down out of the mountains, across the lake and up the hill towards the hotel.  We tried standing on the lake side to take some pictures and had difficulty standing up.  The wind had to be blowing 35 – 40 mph.

We headed into town to go to lunch at Pearls Internet Cafe for a sandwich wrap and some internet work. The wrap and salad were excellent, the service was minimal, and the internet was non-existent.

We saw the Cameron Falls, and drove the Akamina Pkwy to Cameron Lake.  We started to hike around the lake, but partway around the trail was underwater.  We tried striking out through the woods to bypass the submerged trail, but no luck.  Then Frank finally understood that we couldn’t hike around the lake anyhow, because it was closed at the far end due to deep snow covering the trail.  Bummer, return to start.

Next, we’re off on the Red Rock Pkwy to Red Rock Canyon and Blakiston Falls.  As we had just finished our hike to the falls, a person rushed up to warn us about a bear he had just seen on the trail we had just come off of.  Good thing we weren’t 5 minutes slower or we could have been bear bait!

We went back to the village of Waterton to do some shopping.  Frank found a nice light weight day pack with a good frame and support.  Now he can ditch the kiddy back pack he’s been using and complaining about almost daily.  EJ found some potential gifts for friends (that’s if she doesn’t keep them for herself). Also saw a group of deer grazing in the park.

Time to head  back to the US border and the RV at St. Mary.  While we were pleased with the friendliness and efficiency of the Canadian Border Crossing, we were made to feel a little like criminals when crossing back into the US.  No banter at all, just a “Turn off your engine, unlock all the doors, and stay in the car”.

We drove back on Chief Mountain International Hwy and saw some neat mountain shapes including Chief Mtn (9080 ft).

We made it back to BG about 9:45PM.  Taz and Mocha made sure we were aware of their displeasure about dinner being 3 hours late.  Apparently our cats think they have a rough life.

BG Miles Today	0	BG Total Miles	3381
Eat Out total $	245.43	BG Total Fuel $	1694.53
Entertainment total $	74.50	Total Camping $	438.71
E Miles Today	145	E Total Miles	1271.5
E Total Fuel $	227.41	Day # of Trip	30

Two Medicine

Glacier National Park, MT - Wednesday , June 29, 2011

Our stay in the park has been wonderful.  You’d be surprised at how many Florida folks we’ve run into.  Even the camp host here at the St. Mary campground (our basecamp) is from Florida.

Wednesday we took a drive to Two Medicine, a supposedly little visited portion of the park.  However, since the Going To The Sun Road is closed because of snow, we’re finding these little visited areas of the park are seeing major use. We considered going on a boat tour on Two Medicine Lake, but the wind was pretty fierce, so we decided to do some hiking. The scenery here is amazing.

While we were picnicking at the camp store, we decided our tuna sandwich needed a local component. We found a new favorite, Moose Drool Brown Ale from Big Sky Brewing Co in Missoula, MT. We also met a young lady who was trying to get a ride to St. Mary just to see what was there.  One couple said they’d give her a ride but they weren’t coming back to Two Medicine.  She said no problem, she’d find a ride back.  That’s a 35 mile stretch of mostly deserted road.  She had more guts than we do.  We’d be wondering the whole time how  we were gonna get back.

On the way back from our Appistoki Falls hike we took a parallel trail that was separated from the main trail by no more than10 feet.  About halfway back, we stopped and watched 4 mountain goats pass by on the main trail.  We think they had no idea we were standing there.

On our next hike the guide book said that to reach the base of Running Eagle Falls you crossed a bridge over a creek.  Well, we searched and searched that creek and never could find the bridge.  We could see the viewing platform at the bottom of the falls tantalizing us in the distance, but we couldn’t figure out how to get there. Finally a Ranger showed up and we asked her about the bridge.  She told us that they remove the bridge during the snow melt so that high rushing water in the creek won’t destroy the bridge.  Then she proceeded to point out a pile of lumber on the other side of the creek that was the bridge.

On the way out of Two Medicine, EJ just couldn’t resist  playing in the snow. Pretty poor excuse for a snowman.

From there it was on to the town of East Glacier Park.  Here was another big lodge built by the railroads.  Near each entrance into the park, there are one of these lodges.  We stopped at a café to buy another cup of coffee with the hopes of being able to use their internet connection.  No luck there.  They wanted 3 bucks for a 15 minute session with no guarantee of how fast the connection would be.  We decided we’d wait. When we left the café, we saw the girl who was trying to hitch a ride to St. Mary.  We never did find out if she made it or not.

Back to St. Mary and a visit to the lodge there.  Our quest was to buy tour tickets for tomorrow on the Red Bus to Waterton Provincial Park in Canada.  We knew that the bus stopped at this lodge so we figured you should be able to buy tickets here.  Long story shorter, we were sent in a circle to a succession of locations each confident that the other location sold tickets.  Bottom line, we couldn’t find anyone to sell us tickets.  Hard to believe we couldn’t find anyone to take our money!

Back to camp where later that evening we had some visitors enjoying our “yard”.

BG Miles Today	0	BG Total Miles	3381
Eat Out total $	228.43	BG Total Fuel $	1694.53
Entertainment total $	58	Total Camping $	427.21
E Miles Today	75	E Total Miles	1126.5
E Total Fuel $	227.41	Day # of Trip	29

Glacier National Park–At Last

St. Mary, MT – Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Tuesday we made our escape from Choteau, MT.  But it was a busy morning.  We made what was to be our last blog entry for several days, fueled up, cleaned out the holding tanks, and filled up with fresh water. We tried to go to the Bridges Coffee Shop, but they don’t open until 2PM.  We need coffee at 8AM, not 2PM.  We sat out front in the car and used their internet connection anyway.

While we were breaking camp, one of the park employees came over for a chat.  Turns out he is originally from Alaska.  He gave us two nuggets of wisdom to use on our journey.  Buy Skin-So-Soft to ward off the mosquitoes and don’t ever let your fuel tank get below the half mark.  We think these will be good rules to follow even though we have head nets, a screened enclosure and Cutters to battle the mosquitoes.

At the filling station we met another fellow that had just come from Glacier National Park and he warned us that highway US 89 was a little curvy.  Turns out he was right.  We never got above 35 MPH for the last 20 miles.

We arrived at the St. Mary campground just inside the entrance to Glacier National Park. Having made no reservations we put in our request for a space for four nights.  The Ranger gave us a list of 6 sites to go check out then return and fill out the paper work.  Two of the six were acceptable but by the time we got back to him our number two choice had already been reserved.  So we had to go with our number one choice…darn! By the way, having a Senior NP Pass is coming in handy. The camp site is $23 a night but for seniors its half price.

Our “home” for the next four days

Later we checked out the Rising Sun campground, 6 miles further into the park.  We had not considered it because there was a 21 foot limit on RVs.  As we drove through the campground we saw several 30 foot plus RVs that had ignored the limitation.

Lake St. Mary with the Rocky Mountains in the background.

Our first bear sighting seen along the “Going To The Sun” road.

We also had time to take a hike to the St. Mary Falls. EJ was a little concerned because Frank balanced the camera on the bridge railing that went over the St. Mary river to take this picture.

And as a last note, AT&T cell service is non-existent here in GNP.  However folks all around us are talking on their cell phones using, you guessed it, Verizon as their cell phone service provider.  We think we see a change coming in the future for our cell phones.

Also not having any luck with internet connections.

Notice the Canadian border.  We’re getting closer!

BG Miles Today	108	BG Total Miles	3381
Eat Out total $	221.63	BG Total Fuel $	1694.53
Entertainment total $	58	Total Camping $	415.71
E Miles Today	37	E Total Miles	1051.5
E Total Fuel $	205

Why not stay another night?

Choteau, MT – Monday, June 27, 2011

No pictures today just ramblings.  We decided to stay put and catch up on some busy work.  The story starts like this….

9:30 AM – holy smokes we overslept!  Well that’s not the best way to start the day, although it did feel good.  The temperature inside the RV got down to 57 degrees last night.  We could tell because Mocha (the visible cat) could not be dissuaded from camping out on top of one of us most of the night.  She likes to lay on the highest spot, which means a hip, or your stomach if you’re on your back.  But usually if you wiggle a little bit, she’ll jump off the bed and not come back.  Last night this tactic did not work. No matter how much we tossed and turned, she held on and would not jump off.  At 9:30 AM she was still there.  Although by that time we suspect she was wanting to make sure we knew that breakfast was several hours overdue.

After breakfast (Sausage Gravy and eggs, yumm!) we wandered over to the local library to borrow their internet connection.  Choteau isn’t large enough for a McDonalds.  The population is less than 1700.  We asked the librarian for permission to use their internet connection on our laptop and she said “No problem", just turn it on and connect”.  Right!  It was asking for passwords, secret handshakes,and special codes.  Fortunately we could receive the signal from the coffee shop next door and so we used that. 

We found out that the Going to the Sun Road, which is the only road through Glacier National Park, is not completely open due to 50 foot snow drifts.  Only 15.5 miles is open on the west side and 13.5 miles on the east side.  There’s access to more glaciers on the east side, so that’s where we’ll be headed.

We also checked out the local newspaper and found out the Rodeo we mentioned in yesterdays blog is considered to be the largest one day rodeo in the country.  No wonder the road through Augusta was packed.  We also found out there’s  going to be a warming trend and it will be in the mid 80’s here tomorrow.  By this time it’s about 1:30PM.

Since we’re thinking about hitting the road, and I’m already feeling like a nap, we decide to visit the coffee shop whose internet connection we borrowed and get a cup of straight up java.  I figured the caffeine jolt would help avoid the nap and we could make it to St. Marys.  Well, after making the coffee, one cup at a time, and talking to the wait person about which cell service provider they used in this part of the country, it was close to 2:30.   (It was Verizon, by the way) We decided “Why not stay another day”? And besides, it’ll be in the 80’s tomorrow which makes it a good day to travel and it’s only 105 miles.

Rex’s Grocery got some of our money, and we built up the larder a little more. not knowing what the supply availability will be like for the next couple of weeks.  We’re trying to hold down on the beef and fresh vegetables as we understand the Border Guards may be a little picky about those.  Also the liquor cabinet has to be pretty much empty by the time we get there.  If they want to inspect the cats, I guess we’ll say if you can find them, have at it.

I worked on the RV.  Repairing the main awning and cleaning the population of dead bugs off the front end.  Papers towels and window cleaner don’t cut it anymore.  We’re talking mesh cleaning tools and lots of elbow grease.  Appears that the bugs like this cooler weather also.  I also worked on getting some of the road grime off the sides. Got a haircut & beard trim from EJ. She worked on catching up on some paperwork and other maintenance stuff.

The sun isn’t setting until 9:25PM which is making it real hard to get to bed at a reasonable hour.  We cooked pork chops on the grille, and combined that with corn on the cob and a dessert of strawberries slices covered with whipped cream. And of course a glass or two of wine to go with it.  Took a long walk around the park along the creek A great way to end the day.

BG Miles Today	0	BG Total Miles	3273
Eat Out total $	221.63	BG Total Fuel $	1575.25
Entertainment total $	58	Total Camping $	404.21
E Miles Today	4	E Total Miles	1014.5
E Total Fuel $	205

Exploring Helena

Choteau, MT – June 26, 2011

After breakfast we explored Helena.  We concentrated on the Last Chance Gulch area and Reeders Alley.  Last Chance Gulch got it’s name from four partners who decided to give this one gulch one last chance before they gave up panning for gold.  They found gold and Last Chance Gulch is now the main street in Helena.

Reeders Alley was an area of better accommodations for the miners of the time.  Even today mostly single men live there.

We provisioned on staples and cat supplies again since this will be the last time for about a week that we’ll be near a major town.  At last we’re on the road. Next we had to make the decision to head for Great Falls or directly to Glacier Park.  Since we had all the necessary supplies and since we have already been on the road for almost 4 weeks and we still haven’t reached Canada, we decided to head straight for Glacier National Park.  We encountered a surprise on the way.  In the town of Augusta we ran smack dab into a whole bunch of people leaving a rodeo. There were so many people walking in the street there was hardly enough room for Big Guy, much less two RVs trying to get past each other.

We made it as far as Choteau, MT and decided to call it a day.Not much between here and Glacier NP (86 miles).  The city has a park that has sites for RVs.  It looked like there were 3 openings left so we took one.  As it turns out, there was a little league baseball tournament going on and all but one camper was here for that.  By 8 PM, we, and one other RV had the whole place to ourselves.  We built a fire and relaxed.  A great end to a good day.

BG Miles Today	102	BG Total Miles	3273
Eat Out total $	219.88	BG Total Fuel $	1575.25
Entertainment total $	58	Total Camping $	396.21
E Miles Today	26	E Total Miles	1006.5
E Total Fuel $	205