Exploring

Dear Portland,

JOHN IS HERE! JOHN IS HERE! JOHN IS HERE!

 

The adventuring began today. And oh man, we had a adventures.

The day started out without rain! We walked to the coffee shop and then to the yarn store. We were killing some time before the Algeria/England Soccer game so we walked down Main street and went into "Montana Outfitters," a serious cowboy store. WALLS OF BOOTS. It was amazing. Then we went downstairs to the antique store and I found a goldmine of old school cooking/baking stuff. By the time we were done exploring ancient cowboy mountain antiques it was time for the game. Off to KB Sports bar (at 12:30pm), which is connected to the Historic Kalispell Grand Hotel. The game was disappointing but we did meet this fun British couple.

Back home for a minute (ran into the people who were looking at my apartment today as they were sitting on my porch) and headed for the mountains of Glacier National Park on Going-to-the-Sun Road. Stopped at a Farmer's Market that was more like a craft market (not much food), and continued to the gates of the park. We knew there would be a fee, but were hoping it would be around $15 dollars for the day, that's as high as we would go. The park ranger told us $25 for the day and as we turned around I had flashbacks to turning around at the Grand Canyon last summer. 

 

We had spotted a paved unmarked trail head near the bridge (not far from the official park entrance) and parked on the side of the road to check it out. Went down to the river and followed the path until we saw a tower where I was sure Rapunzel lived. John asked her to let down down her hair but no such luck. We came in to this encampment where there was a whole bunch of firefighting related signs and things and just wandered around. No one seemed to mind at all. As we got into a strange residential area we asked a couple people where we were (park ranger permanent residence) and then they pointed us to a 2 mile bike trail. 

 

 

 

After following it a little ways, we noticed a large animal on the path and it admittedly took me more then a few seconds to realize what it was, but when I did, I literally stopped in my tracks. A little more then 100 ft in front of us was a BLACK BEAR CUB! I was so shocked and excited and enamored that I completely forgot I had a camera around my shoulders. I just stared. I had never seen a bear in the wild before and it was magnificent (even for a baby). Unfortunately a bicyclist interrupted our rapture and away into the forest the cub galumphed. We didn't see the bear again but we were also visited by a doe, some colorful songbirds, and a few gophers. 

 

 

I hadn't worn the right shoes for adventuring (failing boots), so not far after that we turned around and headed back to the car.
We will be going back tomorrow with my neighbors recently expired Park Pass to see if we can get in to see the lakes and all that good stuff. 

In other news, when John got here, he informed me that he has recently become gluten-free. I made completely perfect chocolate chip banana bread that he can't eat it. More for Dillon I suppose.