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| The Merc at Polebridge is
always a favorite stop for bakery and ambiance. |
|
It was a little brisk when I woke
up at 6:45 so I decided to seek refuge in my truck and listen
to country music for a while. I also decided to leave a
message with Pasqualli. After about 10 minutes I saw a younger
man walking down the road towards me. For some reason I
eyeballed the guy and knew it had to be Pasqualli when he
walked as far as the post with our campsite number on it
and turned back.
After spending close to a half hour
talking about our visits and promised to get together later
that night for a beer. In the meantime Yumi was getting
herself together for our last day in the park---sort of.
We decided to get our breakfast
at the Merc up in Polebridge. Dan at the Home Ranch needed
a Cherry turnover fix anyway so we figured, correctly, that
there would be a wide variety of tempting treats available
by the time we got there at 9:00 AM. We scored enough breakfast
pastries for ourselves today and tomorrow, and the last
two cherry turnovers for Dan and headed back to the Home
Ranch Bottoms for turnover delivery.
Finally, we were on our way up to
trail 40 which would take us up to the lookout tower. Aside
from a few large dips, the NFS road was probably in better
condition than the outside North Fork Road leading to Polebridge
and we had no problems finding the trailhead and small parking
area. I parked near the gate and we were off on what I assumed
was a smaller access road used for the tower's lookout.
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| Yumi and Valida got on like
old friends |
|
After only 20 minutes we reached
the end of the road and quickly found the trail heading
up Cyclone Peak. The hike up from this point was not at
all difficult, uneventful and took us through mostly forest
with an occasional smoky view across to the next ridge over
to the west. In a little over an hour the lookout tower
came into view. That was easy.
I hollered up to whoever was above
that Dan at the Home Ranch sent us to check on "Sweetie".
The answer from up above was what I wanted to hear: "come
on up". I was expecting to find an elderly lady but
was instead greeted by a college aged girl named Valida.
This was her 3rd year at the tower and was passing the time
baking banana bread which was just about ready to come out
of her propane fueled oven.
Yumi and I introduced ourselves
and offered our host some ice cold Lemonade and a bag of
Craisins figuring she'd be living a very spartan lifestyle.
We were partially correct as she appeared to have everything
she needed to "survive" the summer fire season
in her 30' x 30' living/working quarters.
The three of us spent the next hour
and a half talking about her life up in the tower, her college
and father, Glacier and trips she'd done in the park. Of
course, we also took some time to check out the view from
her perch, the smoke notwithstanding. It was a thoroughly
enjoyable way to spend a few hours, and after taking a couple
of pictures we climbed back down to terra firma.
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| Yumi and Greg from Home Ranch
Bottoms Store got on like old friends too. |
|
We'd only been hiking down for a
few minutes when something started running through the underbrush
to our right and then scooted up a tree. Seems we startled
bear cub. The questions that immediately came to mind were
"is it a Griz?" and "where's its mother?".
The cub scurried up a tree about 30 yards from our position
while Yumi and I unhooked the safety tab on our bear spray
and scanned the underbrush for mama. In a few moments we
found her below the trail eyeballing us. Cool. The cub climbed
down the tree and joined his mother and quickly climbed
up to safety on other side of the ravine.
Having only gotten a good look at
the mother's back side I still wasn't sure what kind of
bear she was but that wasn't going to stop me from trying
to get a photo of these two only 60 yards away. Naturally,
they both fled just as I got the camera ready and zoomed
in on them.
The rest of the hike down was uneventful
and we were soon back at the truck ready to finally meet
the elusive Greg at the Home Ranch Bottoms.
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| Randy spent his summer at
Glacier. |
|
We made it back down the forest
service road without difficulty and were soon back at the
Bottoms. Greg hadn't arrived yet so we took yet another
shower and made ourselves presentable. Shortly after we
were cleaned up Greg arrived along with his nephew and one
of his friends. It was good seeing my old pal again after
two years and a few e-mail's back and forth. I introduced
the lovely "Yummy" to Greg and the boys and we
all retreated to the bar for beverages and some catching
up.
It didn't take long for some of
the locals to filter in, most notably Lee Downs. If ever
there was a poster boy for Polebridge and the North Fork
it would be Lee. At 80 years old, Lee pulled into the lot
riding his 4-wheeler, saw dust on his clothes. He had lived
in the North Fork his entire life, sharing time between
his home in the bottoms and his 160 acre homestead in the
Flathead National Forest above. I'll never forget the size
of his hands as we shook. Huge hands, calloused by years
of logging and scraping out a living on the land he loved
so much. There are some characters you'll never forget and
Lee is one of them.
The balance of the afternoon was
spent talking and drinking Moose Drools on draft at the
small HRB bar while Dan, nephew Pat and his friend Kevin
started working on our dinner of cheeseburgers and fried
potatoes on the outdoor grill. I briefly wondered if we'd
attract some unwelcome 4-legged guests, but it didn't happen.
Maybe it was the atmosphere, the company, or both, but whatever
it was the meal was great. Afterwards the "boys"
and I talked about their idea backpacking in the park. I
suggested a few routes and gave them my Trails Illustrated
map as a thanks for dinner.
We had noticed a large home being
built a quarter-mile south of the Home Ranch and had asked
Greg about it. Instead of telling us he drove Yumi and I
up to the place separately on the 4-wheeler for a closer
look. Somebody is going to have an incredible home with
an even better view for Christmas this year.
Sadly, it was starting to get late
and I didn't feel like driving the Outside North Fork Road
in the dark again so it was time to say good-bye to our
friends. It had been a great day in the North Fork---maybe
the best day of the trip. We managed to make it back to
Apgar campground by 9:40 when it hit me that I was supposed
to go see Pasqualli and buy him a beer at Apgar Village.
Yumi volunteered to procure the beers for us and soda for
herself at the store while I stopped by Pasqualli's camp
site to round him up.
Upon our return to the village we
met Yumi and our bottles of Moose Drool. We talked for 35
or 40 minutes, before closing down Apgar Village on a warm
August night---our last in the park for this year.
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