Day 17

Morning sun and fall leaves.

Up at 7:30am.  The Works bagels from Wheat Montana and cottage cheese for breakfast.  Tidied up camp some … washed the table cloth and the snack/lunch bag in the dish tub and hung them on the line to dry.  

They require us to dump all wash/rinse water in the flush sink up at the bathrooms after straining out all food matter.  Makes me appreciate having a garbage disposal sink at home. They do have modern bathrooms, trash and recycling services, and water pumps (tastes very strongly of chlorine).  The campground closes next week so we got here just in time!  We decided to stay here another night.  It’ll be the first time we’ve camped in the same spot 2 nights in a row!

Left around 1:30pm for Logan Pass.  

Jeremiah honked at the trolls.

The rest of Going-to-the-Sun Road is closed after Logan Pass.  We stopped about halfway up to take some pictures.  We talked to Jeff who was bicycling up to the top.  He recommended some good hiking trails and some good places to paddle.  He gave us his number and told us to call him if we wanted a guide and he had some extra boats.  

We continued up to the Visitor’s Center (which was closed) and parked.  We wanted to go off a little ways and eat lunch, but the problem was dogs weren’t allowed anywhere off the pavement.   :-\  Then we had the bright idea … hey, it says “no vehicles beyond this point” where Going-to-the-Sun Road is closed … and the road is pavement!  So we prepared to walk down the closed road and find a spot for lunch.  Just then a ranger drove by …. she looked at us and stopped to chat.  “Getting ready for a hike, are ya?”  “Yep, sure are!”  “Uh, you  know the dogs have to stay, right?”  “They’re allowed out here on the pavement right?”  “Well, yeah, of course.”  “Ok, thanks!”  :)

We headed off down the road.  We got a little ways down and I turned around in time to see the ranger start to pull out of the parking lot.  She saw us and stopped and back up, but she never came after us.  We found a spot to sit on the side of a cliff, “on the road”, that had  great view.

And then my camera battery died.

After we ate, we headed back.  Jeremiah, Joshua, and I headed off for Hidden Lake while Mom rested and babysat the dogs.  Hidden Lake started as a trail off behind the Visitor’s Center.  It was mostly boardwalk.  Jeff had compared it to being in Disney Land.  :)  There were some spots that were rocky enough they deemed it safe for us to step on without damaging the flora.  The mountains were amazing.  There was still a bit of snow melting.  Streams, water, and waterfalls all over the place.  The rocks were different shades of purple, green, and gray, so brilliant it almost looked artificial, very sharp and angular.  Some of the larger rocks were thin layers, lots of shale.  The improved trail ended overlooking Hidden Lake.  It was deep blues and greens.  Mountains 360 degrees.  We were expecting to have cell service at the top of the mountain to reach our dinner date, but no such luck.  So we all but ran back down the mountain to try to get to a place where we had cell service.  

When we got back to the visitor center parking lot, a guy there had a spotting scope set up.  He was looking at a mountain goat.  I could see its bright white spot moving through the scope, but nothing with my naked eye.  Again, on the way down the road, a weathered gentleman flagged us down.  “Grizzly bear!”  He had binoculars hung around his neck and was working on attaching his spotting scope to the tripod with shaky hands.  The mount was rather loose and he had rigged a couple rubber bands in an attempt to steady it.  I could see a large dark spot in an open space in the sunshine on the side of the mountain.  I would have thought it was a tree only in was darker and there were no other trees around that area.  He got the scope focused in and then moved aside, advising me to push on the end to steady it further.  There he was!  A big, burly blob.  I could see the lighter brown patches of his coat highlighting his shoulders and rump.  I’ve never seen a bear before!  He let me look through his binoculars.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I could see more clearly through his vintage binoculars than I could the scope.  I just loved his enthusiasm.  Who else flags down a minivan full of tourists to come share that treasure?  He told me that spot was one of the few that still got some October sun.  He imagined the bear was digging up roots.

We finally got ahold of Jeremiah’s client and set up dinner for tomorrow night.  We were back at camp by 7:15 for rice and curry.  Jeremiah taught me how to open the hatch with the tent stake.  I’d tried myself a couple times … there’s a hole under the handle to poke the stake through, but then a great cavernous void.  He shined is light up in there to show me a little black L-shaped piece of plastic.  You poke the the stake in the crook of the L and push to the side.  I finally got it and happily opened and closed the hatch three times just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.  Kinda nice to be able to get in there by myself again.  

Bed at 10pm.

2,797 miles in.