One of my favorite places
in the park: along McDonald Creek.
Proving we
really were tired, I was the first one up and moving at
8:00 AM. Dammit. It's one thing to sleep late at home where
there isn't a lot to do, it's quite another to blow an hour
or two in Glacier. I made a quick note in my journal about
the cold temps during the night then set about to get breakfast
ready. We didn't have anything but oatmeal and cold cereal
so I made an executive decision to start packing things
up and to go find something at the St. Mary's grocery store.
As it turned
out, our tent did not come out of yesterday's wind unscathed.
Two sections of pole were splintered but were quickly repaired
with duct tape and should survive. By 8:45 we had broke
camp and were at the store buying donuts, iced cappuccino,
milk and donuts. Perfect.
Like the day
before, traffic on the Sun Road was light, as was the smoke.
Again, I was feeling upbeat that the surrounding wild fires
weren't going to ruin the views. Arriving at the pass we
found ourselves behind a biker who was probably anticipating
the ride of his life as he crossed the divide. For a while
he was really hauling ass and nursing student Yumi was preparing
herself for the first responder role should he take a spill.
These fears were soon put to rest as the hiker was forced
to ride his brakes when he caught up to a car doing less
than 20 mph. I felt bad for the cyclist, knowing he'd busted
his ass to get up to the pass only to have his thrill ride
thwarted by an inconsiderate dolt who passed up 4 or 5 turnouts
on the alpine section. Not only was the biker being delayed,
but the parade that had formed behind him were as well.
Once we got
down to the Lake McDonald valley we started looking for
evidence of flood damage from the previous November. The
repair crew must have done a wonderful job because we could
find no sign of flooding. We made a quick stop at one of
our favorite spots along McDonald Creek and moved on to
the Apgar campground to find a site for the night. The smoke
was considerably thicker here on the west side and my heart
sank: the fires to the west of the park must have blown
up in the past few days. How would the north fork be looking?
Yumi and I at Bowman Lake
After a tour
of loop B at the Apgar campground we settled on a site and
decided to head over to Eddies at Apgar Village for lunch
and shopping. As is usually the case, I found Yumi another
Glacier coffee mug and some moose earrings while I scored
a GNP fleece from her. My buffalo brat was a huge disappointment
while Yumi's Rueben was unremarkable. Note to self: the
only edible brats are made in Wisconsin, buffalo or otherwise.
On a whim I
decided to run into the back-country office to see if I
could get the Gunsight Pass hike spread out over 3 nights.
I'd been pondering doing this on the drive along lake McDonald
just a few hours before, thinking that even if Yumi was
still hurting she'd be able to handle a shorter hike. Fate
was on our side: the route was open, much to the surprise
of the back-country ranger. We were forced to watch the
bear video which was a new version from the one I had viewed
online countless times before. Permit in hand I left the
office feeling as though I had pulled a fast one for some
reason.
Our next stop
was the laundromat at West Glacier. Though I found it ridiculous
that Yumi wanted to do laundry after one day I realized
there wasn't much else to do in our condition anyway. Besides,
it would be a good time to write out the post cards we'd
picked up in the morning even though they wouldn't go out
until Monday
Yumi enjoying her trout at
the Northern Lights
Once we were
stocked up on clean clothing it was time to get up to Polebridge
to say hello to my old friend, Greg, at the home Ranch Bottoms.
I had done a redesign of the store's website back in April
and hadn't talked with Greg since then. I was looking forward
to introducing him to my new bride, who he referred to as
"Yummy".
The outside
North Fork Road was in it's typical shitty condition, though
a little bit worse than I remembered it. We arrived at the
store to find the guy who was not Greg at the counter. "What
was his name" I asked myself, but I couldn't remember.
Even though my brain wasn't working, Dan's was, and somehow
knew who I was without the benefit of seeing Yumi.
I called Yumi,
who was still sitting in the truck, to come on up and we
spent an hour chatting and drinking lemonade before heading
off for Bowman Lake---another place Yumi had not seen but
I had in 2005.
Yumi enjoyed
the bumpy ride to the lake and the actual lake more even
though it was quite smoky. I was beginning to think I'd
made the right decision to give away our hike in the north
fork. After spending a few minutes at the lake it was time
to head back to Polebridge for some dinner at the Northern
Lights.
We were able
to grab the last table inside and placed our order. Yumi
opted for the pan fried trout while I went with the country
style BBQ ribs. Each entree came with a small salad, dinner
roll and penne pasta. We washed it all down with lemonade
served in small Mason jars instead of plastic cups as in
'04 and '05. To be truthful, my ribs would only rate about
a 6. Some were tender, others not and I didn't care for
the Marinara sauce. Yumi, once she got past the few bones
she'd found really liked the trout. When we were nearly
finished eating an older couple, Eric and nancy, asked if
they could share our table with us. No problem. We asked
where they were from and they where we were from. when we
told them "Wisconsin" they mentioned that they
would be heading there in a few weeks. Naturally, I asked
where. Naturally, they said "Manitowoc". I guess
it's still a small world after all.
Yumi and Dan at Home Ranch
Bottoms Store
After paying
our bill we went back to the Home Ranch for our daily shower.
There weren't lights in the shower room and darkness was
coming on fast but we managed to finish before nightfall.
Afterwards we spent another hour chatting with Dan, who
let us know that Greg would be back on Wednesday. that worked
perfectly as we would get off the trail on Wednesday in
definite need of a shower.
The drive home
seemed to take forever as we dodged potholes, rattled over
wash board ruts and evaded deer right up to our site at
the campground. Knowing that we only had a 6-mile hike the
next day made it real easy to delay our prep work until
the morning. My knee was feeling fine but Yumi's wasn't
coming around as I had hoped. Hopefully she'd be fine in
the morning after our day of rest.
