Days 6-7: Glacier National Park - Have YOU ever been injured spectating extreme walking?

We had two full days to enjoy Glacier National Park, longer than our other locales.

But first, a shout-out: After enduring a long drive through Wyoming, Idaho and Montana (see Katie's post) we arrived at Tim Kelley's house, one of Katie's friends from high school who not only came down to see us from Spokane but was gracious enough to let us stay in his families house for three nights in Kalispell, just 30-45 minutes from Glacier. We also forced him to read our blog- what a trooper. Thanks Tim for everything! BTW, Tim's birthday is August 21.

Tim by St. Mary's Lake

Day 6- FOR THE WIN

Tim's basement is Winnie the Pooh themed with really comfy beds,they have gypsy carts in their backyard AND a fantastic view of the mountains from the property. Not to mention that when we woke up Saturday morning, Tim had brought us each our favorite Starbucks coffee and got us fixins for an amazing breakfast. Oh man, were we roughing it.

Despite parts of the famous Going-to-the-Sun road (which is the only main thoroughfare that crosses the park from east to west) being closed due to snow, we decided to drive up the road on the west side of the park near Apgar and go as far as we could. The recommendation from the ranger was to take the Avalanche Trail, which stemmed off of Going-to-the-Sun road and led to Avalanche Lake. The trail was muddy due to recent snowfall, but we saw several amazing sights including rapids that looked just like amusement park rapids except cooler, mountain goats, an actual avalanche, and a mama bear with two cubs. Don't worry readers, the avalanche and bears were seen from across a huge lake with binoculars.

Check out the mud on those shoes

On the way back down the trail, we decided to begin **extreme walking** our own version of parkour. This seemed like a great idea as Katie and I launched ourselves over stones and off the sides of tree trunks, and we even got some fellow hikers involved. Until Parm was so engrossed with our sweet moves that she tripped and face planted (gracefully) in the middle of the trail. So spectating extreme walking is now considered an extreme sport and has been banned from future hikes.

Back at Tim's we made an amazing pasta dinner, and had some good wine. After some conversation about how Apple rules the universe kind of like Oprah, and the significance of Groupon (it's a big deal, we decided) we hit the hay.

Day 7- Not For the Win

We got up before 8AM, got our bike gear together, ate breakfast and went to mass. That's where the successes ended today.

Failure #1: We had driven about 30 minutes around Glacier heading for St. Mary's on the east side of the lake when we hit standstill traffic on the side of the mountain. A truck had rolled part way off the side of the mountain (luckily everyone was ok.) We know this because Katie flagged down a cop to ask what happened and how long the wait would be. In her sexy bike shorts. See picture below. Yep, that's my roommate. We waited for about 45 minutes for the truck to be cleared. Parm and I rolled our eyes a collective 3984798374 times.

Failure #2: Once we got through said traffic jam and had been on the road for almost two hours, Parm nonchalantly asks, "Hey, someone brought the key to the third bike lock right?" Deafening silence follows. Without the key we can't get our bikes off the rack. Group fail. It's hard to bike without...bikes.

Failure #3: Not a group to be deterred, we said what the heck, let's keep going and we'll just hike. 45 minutes later, we realize that 49, the road leading up to St. Mary's lodge is also closed. AND we have now gone about 20 minutes out of our way down a detour that dead ends into a lake with no trail. GROUP FAIL. We left at 10:15 and now it was 1:15.

Bright spot: We stop at the Luna cafe in East Glacier for some lunch because we are now so exhausted and frustrated that we made up the following song to the tune of Kelly Clarkson "All I Ever Wanted"

"Tear up the Glacier Map
But our mistakes won' t let go
Every day, every day, every minute

Here comes the emptiness
Just can't find St. Mary's road
Every day, every day, every minute

This second detour's really getting me down
Can't even get our park stamp or bike or hike around
It's time we just went home, let's go home, let's just gooooo

ALL I EVER WANTED
ALL I EVER WANTED WAS A SIMPLE WAY TO GET TO THE LAKE"

...it went on from there.

But anyway, the owner of Luna's cafe was from Pittsburgh! They even had a terrible towel.

Failure #4: Tim joined us and with help from a ranger, we found a way up to St. Mary's where we thought we'd be able to take a boat tour. Turns our boat tours don't start until July despite incorrect verbiage in a brochure we read. GROUP FAIL. It is now almost 4PM.

But, despite our many failures, from the lookout points on the East side, we saw St. Mary's Lake with Wild Goose Island in the middle, we saw a glacier (also learned they will likely be gone by 2030), and we lay on the dock for about half an hour. We also learned some cool facts like the northern part of Glacier National Park was originally Waterton National Park in Canada, and then in the 1930s the Canadian and American governments fused them together to become Glacier-Waterton International peace park, the first in the world. Also, run-off from Triple Divide Peak in the park goes to three separate oceans: the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic.

I can honestly say that this view was worth the whole ordeal. It was just beautiful. A once in a lifetime view with a great group of people.

This is a real picture taken by Tim, not a standard screensaver. I know, amazing right?

Then we came home and had a great dinner with huckleberry dessert, a local delicacy. Bring your passport because next stop is Banffffff!