Going to the Sun

Wednesday - July 20, 2016
This day was a haul - we drove for a minimum of 14 miles to make it from Minnesota to Glacier National Park in Montana. I was really looking forward to this particular morning because this was the first opportunity we had to utilize the contents of my car to a greater capacity. The campsite was empty with the exception of a man relaxing in a camp chair, enjoying the company of his Yorkshire Terrier. An enormous shoutout needs to be given to Freecampsites.net for this quaint find. There were four pull-in sites for cars and electrical plug-ins. The stalls in the restroom did not have doors, which was hilarious but totally acceptable considering the limited occupants. We pulled out our camp chairs and fired up my $20 Coleman stove. I was impressed at how easy it was to get started - simply insert the butane fuel cannister with the notch pointing skyward, lock it into place and go! Our water quickly boiled and soon we were enjoying bowls of oatmeal while lounging in our camp chairs, feet propped up on my Rubbermaid bins (love multi-purpose equipment). The campsite was also a community park, which I imagine is it's primary purpose. There was a large pavillion filled with picnic benches, a children's playground and a ballpark in the distance. Apparently there was a boat launch there as well, however we did not get a chance to check out the water source. Since we had such a long day, we decided to pack up and get moving once our bowls of breakfast were cleaned off. We drove down the long, flat backroads of Minnesota passing farms, farms and more farms. We made a quick stop in Valley City to fill up on gas. In town (I need to look up the definition of a "city"), we passed a United States Air Force plane mounted for display across the local VA building. Had we more time, I would have loved to stop and take a closer look. We jumped back onto the highway and continued on 94W. We passed a really interesting sculpture titled "Geese in Flight". It was a flock of geese that took a formation resembling an eye and it was marked the entrace to the Enchanted Highway. After having passed it, I do feel a twinge of regret for not taking a quick detour to see the other sights on that strip.

Though the landscapes in North Dakota went through very little variation, it was still beautiful to drive through. Montana, however, had North Dakota beat by a landslide. The rolling hills were littered with farms and fields bursting with color - patches of gold, emerald and tan kept a smile on my face for the entire duration of my drive. The highway ran over countless humps and as we passed over the highest one of each batch, a twinge of adrenaline hit me as my body anticipated a drop like you would find on a rollercoaster ride. The most immense, gloomy clouds seemed to hang stagnant in the sky as if they were in no hurry to keep traveling across the land. Despite passing beneath these dark clouds, we hit very little rain. We took a gas stop in Miles City, Montana where there was a large sculpture of a long-necked dinosaur. We checked out their beer cave and were impressed with their spread: Bud Light, Miller Light, PBR and Coors Light. Hidden amongst the 30 racks was a sixer of Bluemoon, the most sophisticated beer they had. I had looking for a relatively cheap and decent tire gauge for the duration of our trip and finally came across the cheapest one, ringing in at $3.54. We jumped back into the car and continued our journey - our next planned stop was Great Falls, Montana. The drive continued to astound us as it evolved from gentle slopes over hilly fields to patches of coniferous trees. As the sun set, it seemed as though the Big Man Upstairs was looking out for me because the road began to wind through a valley, blocking out the blinding rays. We hit Great Falls at about 9:30pm and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually quite large, like a real city. I got a jolt of excitement as we passed a sign for the Malstrom Air Force Base. For those of you who do not know, I have been doing some work for the Air Force these past few months which is why it has been exciting to see the places that benefit from our engineering work. We pulled into a Walmart to get some supplies for the next mornings breakfast and switch drivers. We still had four hours to go, so after refilling our tank we hit the road. For whatever reason, that stretch of driving took a lot out of me and I could barely keep my eyes open. I even went as far as open up my Gameboy, which I had not opened since the Friday before (a REALLY long stretch for me whenever I am in the middle of a game - Pokemon X for anyone curious to know) to try to stay awake. As we approached Glacier, I got my act together to get some directions for our campsite. When we turned off the highway and began to roll through single lane paved and unpaved roads, I was almost unsure that we were going to the right place. However, once again Freecampites.net did not fail us in providing us with the coordinates for another boat launch where there were 3 campsites. Since it was so dark, we could not quite find the campsites, but there was a completely empty parking lot open for us to pull into. After some readjusting and throwing equipment into the front seat, we settled comfortably into the back of the car for another great night of sleep.

Playlist included: TLC (officially the only CD to listen to more than once on the trip so far), Modest Mouse, Xtreme, Monchy y Alexandra, Regina Spektor, Outkast, Sean Paul, Chingy and Lil Kim (can you tell we were throwing it back?)

Thursday - July 21, 2016
I thank God for my eyes because with them, I am able to see the beauty of this world. I thank God for my body which is the vessel that carries me through this world and allows me to feel the earth beneath the soles of my boots and on the tips of my fingers. I thank God for my hearing which allowed me to notice a beautiful pair of birds hunting for food in the pools of a waterfall. I thank my friends and family and coworkers for being supportive of this time off because with every passing mile, I feel more rejuvenated. Glacier was so breathtaking that I could easily see myself coming back for weeks on end to take in all that it has to offer. We slept in until about 9:30am feeling incredibly reenergized. I could have never anticipated how comfortable a mattress pad on a 1/2" piece of plywood mounted in the back of a car could feel. I am definitely not insane - Jacquie has been having great sleep as well. We woke to the sounds of pick-up trucks pulling into the parking lot and both felt a twinge of sadness at losing our solidarity and opportunity for more quite sleep, but it was time to get up anyway. We unloaded our kitchenware and marched down to the water where we made egg scramble with onions and cheese. In my world, there is nothing that can replace the feeling of satisfaction that comes with cooking and eating a delicious breakfast outdoors. We even enjoyed some Folger's made classy by my drip coffee maker. Once the dishes were clean and packed away, we headed to the entrance of Glacier National Park. We gased up the car at a station just past the entrance and made a quick stop in the West Glacier Visitor Center where I purchased a National Parks passport, a series of postcards (get ready friends!) and a small, fabric map of the park. Purchasing the National Parks passport felt like the start to another journey - it will be a lifegoal of mine to visit as many national parks as possible throughout my lifetime. At the park entrance, I purchased an Annual National Parks membership! The membership and passport felt like an incredible combination of opportunities to see the beauty that our country has to offer. After all, there is no greater beauty than that which is found in our national parks.

Going to the Sun road is absolutely the most beautiful road I have ever driven down, hands down. After entering the West Gate, the road immediately brought you to Lake McDonald. Across the lake, you could see the Howe Ridge and Stanton, Vaught and McPartland mountains. Driving through the loop was incredible as it took you through tunnels and winding and snaking around the mountainsides. I could have driven down this road for miles, but after about an hour we pulled over to hike the Virgina Falls trail. We packed my climbing pack with all kinds of gear, just in case we ended up on the trail until late or in case something happened. Somehow, we managed to flag down the shuttle (which only passes each stop every 45-60 minutes) to take a quick a ride up to the St. Mary's trailhead. The first leg of the trail wandered through charred and burnt trees. The clearing provided by the fire allowed us some beautiful vistas of St. Mary's lake across which Little Chief, Mahtotopa and Red Eagle mountains could be seen. We dipped down a side trail to take in the clarity of the water cascading down from St. Mary's falls. We encountered a 5-year-old who was flaunting her model status and did not like her photos being encroached on by the likes of me or Jacquie. We quickly passed and the trail wound through the forest, occasionally overlooking baby waterfalls and creekbeds. We passed many fellow dayhikers which provided me some comfort since it was getting so late into the day and I was a little bit concerned about encountering bears. Jacquie picked a couple of flowers for us to drop at the top of the waterfall for Laura. Gathering flowers for Laura has been a healing tradition of our trail family (Laura Paradis, Holly Teufel, Kelly Stewart, Colleen Clark, Jacquie O'Brien and me) since her passing. Just between Jacquie and I, flowers have been picked and given back in El Potrero, Mexico, Red Rock Canyon, Nevada and Glacier National Park, Montana.

We took a break by the Victoria Falls where I saw that pair of birds hunting for food. It reminded me of a video of a family of ducks where the parents were teaching their newborns how to hunt for themselves in the rapids of a river and that it was rather treacherous for the newborns - a true test of survival. With this particular pair, only one was actually in pursuit of food while the other seemed to either be egging it on or expressing that it was too scared to hunt like its counterpart. As I watched the birds flit around the waterfall beds, a man asked me if I thought the hike was worth it. Personally, I thought it was rather short (3.6mi hike that Jacquie and I completed in a little over an hour with breaks), but I said that it was worth it. Nearby, a boy rapidly shook his head to the question and exclaimed there was no way. I laughed at the comment and it turns out the man and the boy were part of a Boy Scout troop visiting from Florida. He admitted that there was very little preparation that they could have done to be ready for hiking through the mountains of Montana - the stairmaster can only get you so far. He had engaged me by stating that he had seen many pairs of women hiking throughout their trip and he was wondering if we were in an organization. I wanted to say, "Yes, that organization is called the Female Race and we can hike outdoors just as well as any man can", but I held my tongue. He did not ask it in a malicious or sarcastic way, but that thought could not help but push it's way across my mind. I told him that we were not with any organization and that my friend and I were roadtripping across the country with our end destination being British Columbia. He was interested about our progress and excited to hear about the trip. We wished each other luck on the rest of our travels and I followed the trail back down to where Jacquie was relaxing by the falls. We channeled our inner Colleen and both made yoga poses by the water. As we hiked back towards the trailhead, we discussed our favorite authors - George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway. I admitted that I loved George Orwell too and that I had to read more of his work beyond Animal Farm and 1984. Like Hemingway, Orwell was also a war correspondent and he did a great deal of reporting out of Spain, my favorite country. We discussed what made us like dystopian fiction such as Orwell works, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. It's possible that it's because they invoke opposing feelings - sometimes a person is filled with gratitude that their own society is not quite as bad, but on the other hand it can make a person grow suspicious and begin to question their government and societal practices.

We hiked back to the trailhead and decided not to wait for the shuttle to get back to our car. Even though we left in the same direction down Going to the Sun road, it's charm was not lost on us. We decided to pull over to grab some items for our dinner in a local grocery store. There we purchased scissors (so I could finish making the curtains), spaghetti sauce, sausage, green beans and a 6-pack of Bufflehead Brown Ale. We returned to the boat launch and unfortunately the campsite we were hoping to grab was already taken. Luckily, I jumped out of the car to check out an area marked out by three large boulders where there appeared to be a pull-off and I found two fire rings tucked within the trees. I took these as campsite markers and excitedly ran back to the road to wave Jacquie over. We were thrilled with the find and began to unpack our camping gear and cooking equipment. We cracked open our Buffleheads to set up the tent when we decided it would be worthwhile to backtrack down the road to see if we could find any campfire wood for sale. We took a 5 minute drive back down North Fork Rd. and pulled off onto a road where the Smoky Bear Lodge was advertised to have a gift store and other amenities, but when we found it the owners stated that their campfire wood was only for sale to their tenants. It was not worth the journey back to town for wood, so we headed back to camp. I figured it might be a good idea to pull over to check the other empty campsites to see if there was anything left behind and SURE ENOUGH two logs were left behind! Jacquie hilariously cradled both logs in her arms as she ran back to the car and we drove off as if we were getting away with murder.

In my attempt to be conscientious about the fact that we were in Bear Country, I had us cook about 20 feet away from our campsite. The spaghetti sauce quickly came to a boil and I added the leftovers of my dehydrated pasta that I had prepared for the John Muir Trail. I was not sure how well they would be ready and I had to add some water to the pot to help the process along. I grew tired of waiting for the pasta to soften, so we switched the pot for our pan of sausage and onions (Jacquie cut them herself!). We added some salt, pepper and garlic salt from a nifty multi-spice container as our fixings sizzled. The aromas wafted into my nose, signaling to my stomach that it was nearly time for dinner. I added the contents of the pan to the pot and let everything simmer for a few minutes. We filled our bowls with dinner and made our way down to the water. These were the same bowls we had brought to Iceland and the food combined with the rubbery smell of camping bowls brought back fond memories of all the meals we had enjoyed together while on the trail. We reminisced huddling beneath the pavilion of an outhouse to keep out of the rain, next to a trio of Swedish men who were hungrily eyeing our expertly made dinner. I believe this is was the night that the joke about the food of my people was made.

I polished off my own helping of food and assisted Jacquie in finishing hers (in true Iceland form). We cleaned up, packed our food away then switched focus to building our fire. The fire started immediately with the help of all the kindling found nearby - it seems as though the folks using the campground before us had chopped up a few logs for their fire. The logs we had snagged were quite large though, so it took a lot of nursing to keep the fire going. It appeared as though we were overly ambitious - if and when the fire did finally catch, we would have to be up for quite some time before it would die down. Thankfully, it never quite made it. I channeled my inner Kelly / adventure-woman and began to make a number of jokes about going skinny dipping in the river before bed. It took a surprising lack of convincing to get Jacquie to agree - she was already bundled up in her warmest coat and for those of you that know Jacquie, she does NOT like the cold. Therefore, I was pretty pleased when my half-assed attempts to get her to join me were successful. We stumbled in the dark down to the river and began the process of disrobing. After several bursts of laughter, the both of us were in. We were both surprised to find that the water was actually relatively warm. Jacquie jumped back out pretty quickly but I laid in and enjoyed the running water. When we finally climbed into our sleeping bags for the night, we were both glad that we had to decided to jump into the water. I burrowed into my sleeping bag, thrilled to have finally gone skinny dipping in a natural body of water and even more happy to finally be camping in my tent without the rainfly on. The gurgling of the river lulled the both of us to sleep quickly. Tomorrow will bring us to the ultimate destination of our roadtrip, Squamish, where we will climb the granite slabs to our hearts content.

Playlist included: Cage the Elephant, Arcade Fire, Florence and the Machine, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend