Some photos from our trip this summer to Montana.
The genesis of this trip: back in August 2020 while cooped up during the first part of the pandemic, we decided that we would plan a trip a whole twelve months ahead, on the theory that by then the pandemic would have been done and dusted, everyone vaccinated etc. So we (Amy and myself, along with another couple Pete and Rosana) went ahead and reserved a vacation rental place for the month of Aug 2021.
Fast forward to 2021: virus eradication efforts are maybe not quite as far along as we would have liked (eep), but we decided to go ahead with our travels in any case (especially since we were all vaccinated, etc).
We decided to drive as opposed to flying -- this allowed us to bring bicycles and a bit more gear than usual. We started our drive from home on July 30th around lunch time, then stopped for dinner with Than's friend John in Hamilton:
From there we drove to Ann Arbor, kind of a long day, but were able to meet with another friend of Than's from way back (Sumi), for a nice dinner at a restaurant there. We drove on a bit to Kalamazoo MI and crashed at a motel there. Motels seemed very busy and full of travelers. We saw RVs, cars, motorcycles, moving vans, you name it -- everyone seemed to be on the road and on the go.
For this part of the trip we listened to "Midnight in Chernobyl" in tape, a really riveting non-fiction account of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, told largely via material derived from interviewing the people who had been been part of it (the book apparently took decades to research). Very engaging.
Lunch stop in Minnesota (we went through a small corner of it), by the banks of the Mississippi:
Dinner after the ride: lettuce wraps...
At the lodge after dinner:
From there it was another marathon, all the way from Custer to Kalispell, super long driving day. Montana and South Dakota are definitely "big sky" country, huge expanses of fields as far as you can see, lonely expanses sparsely traversed by trucks of one sort or another.
The Kalispell rental house:
Not a huge place, but with a nice living area, picture windows with views of the mountains to the east, a decent sized kitchen, and a sizable storage room in the back with space for bikes and other debris.
The location is about 11 miles northeast of "downtown" Kalispell, in an area that is sort of transitioning between farming and residential-- plenty of hay, wheat, alfalfa, and canola still being grown, but a lot of houses as well. The soil around the house was fairly sandy and dry; pretty clear that you can't cultivate things in the area without watering them.
Although we rented the house for the entire month of August, I definitely did not have enough vacation to take the entire month off, so I decided that I would work most of the first week and most of the last week, with a few workdays sprinkled in the middle as well.
I had been unsure about the quality of the internet connection at the house, and after a few attempts that first morning of "work" (big air quotes) it became clear that it wasn't going to cut the mustard-- good enough for email and web browsing, not good enough for zoom sessions and downloading Git repos. I got in the car a couple of times to drive to a place where I could use my cell phone hotspot, but eventually Amy had the good idea of looking for a "co-working" space in Kalispell, and found a place that looked viable.
I went in the next day to give it a try, and it turned out to be an ideal place to be productive. Small building with maybe three or four medium-sized office rooms, tables, chairs, cubicles/cubbies and a coffee pot + water cooler, and most of all, a nice fast internet connection. I worked there for the rest of the week and was able to get quite a lot done (at any given time there were only 2 or 3 people there as far as I could tell).
Also discovered that there was actually a fairly decent biking route that I could take to get to the co-working space from our house, mostly on back roads (just one stretch on highway 35). I rode there (11 miles one way) in the morning and back in the afternoon, getting some exercise in the process.
Pete and Rosana's friends Bill and Lisa were with us for the first week as well (we have arranged ahead of time that they could use one of the bedrooms before the kids turned up, so that worked out well).
Amy and the rest of the gang (minus yours truly, since I was working) drove down to the neighboring town of Bigfork and had breakfast at the Echo Lake Cafe, an eatery that had been recommended to Pete by a couple of his friends from Missoula.
Playing an oversize version of "Jenga" while waiting for a table:
Food: kitchens in rental houses are always a crap-shoot -- you never know exactly what you are going to encounter, both equipment-wise and in terms of staples. For this trip, I decided that I would bring my own set of cooking knives. I have a fabric "wallet" thing that I use with three or four cheap knives that I bought at H-Mart (hah), a few wooden spoons, and a sharpening steel, so I packed that along:
Amy brought a small electric tea-kettle (very handy indeed, we used that every day on the road as well), as well as a selection of tea and a box of her Starbucks "Via" instant coffee (a mainstay). Food-wise I brought a collection of spices (especially the things I need for a couple of my Indian and Chinese dishes), several packages of Asian noodles, and a bag of bulgur wheat. Those all came in very handy; that part of Montana is very much lacking in Asian grocery stores. I also brought along two varieties of hot spice paste: a tub of Korean "gochujang" (again from H-Mart) and a jar of Chinese-style hot bean sauce, for making stir-fry dishes and such.
The local grocery stores were mostly what you would expect, but there were some interesting things that I had not seen before. In the produce section we found a large bin of "Hatch" peppers, which I had never cooked with before. These were green, with about the same volume as a regular green pepper, but longer and narrower and more cone-shaped. The flesh was mostly sweet, but the seeds and membranes were hot (roughly the same hotness as a Jalapeno-- substantial but not at the "nuclear" level). I bought a big bag of those and did a tofu dish with sauteed peppers, which was very tasty.
We also cooked a bunch of our favorites: I made grilled eggplant, grilled pork with gochujang, bean thread noodles and my take on the Korean noodle dish "jap chae", as well as "Ma Po" tofu. Amy made her dish with farro + roast carrots and tahini sauce (really good!), baked chicken with mustard and white wine, a fantastic baked salmon with slices of orange and herbs on top, a pasta bake (comfort food), and an excellent dish of roast zucchini with balsamic vinegar and feta. Not to mention several pans of brownies (which were hoovered up almost instantly by both older and younger generations).
Some cooking photos. A killer salad that Rosana put together:
On Friday (Aug 6th) Amy discovered a local "pick your own" cherry farm place down near Bigfork and managed to cajole the group (minus me) into driving down for a visit. That turned out to be a superb find -- by pure luck it happened to be right at the peak of the local cherry season, so they were able to pick a bunch of big bags of Lambert (the usual purple) and Mount Rainier (yellow + red) cherries to bring back home. Amy also made cherry crisp for dessert, which was excellent.
Photos:
On Saturday the 7th we made our first foray up into Glacier National Park-- we started at the west entrance and drove in a short way hike the Avalanche Lake trail. This is a modest hike, not too long or with too much elevation gain, so it seemed like a good one as a warmup for more strenuous hikes later on.
We woke up fairly early for that one, and it was a good thing that we did, since by the time we got there the parking spots were almost gone. I parked our car and Amy leapt out to go stand in the middle of one of the other last remaining spots so that Pete + Rosana would have a place to park as well.
Photos:
The lake itself:
Taking a break:
I worked again on Monday and Tuesday after that weekend hike. On Monday night Pete and Rosana's daughter Blue arrived with her partner Giulia, then on Tuesday Ethan turned up, and then eventually (after his first flight was cancelled) Oscar arrived as well, so at that point we had a pretty full house.
As another warmup for the higher-elevation stuff in Glacier NP, we decided that we would do a local hike first, and found a trail about 45 minutes drive to the south that looked interesting.
The drive up to the trail head was interesting-- from Foothill road you head east into the hills on something called Jewel Basin Road, a dirt road that seems well-behaved for a while and then gradually narrows and steepens until it seems almost vertical (with plenty of big potholes to boot). We held onto our hats though and eventually got to "Camp Misery" trail head (who names these things?). The hike to Birch Lake is not too far, maybe about 6.5 miles total, a "down and back". It was warm and the weather was clear, although definitely a fair amount of haze from wildfires.
Photos:
From the lodge the road winds along the valley for a while, then starts a steep ascent (6% grade), covering about 20 miles and with 3400 feet of elevation gain, all along a 2-lane road that is clinging to the side of a steep mountain wall (with very little in the way of guardrails). Amy was kind enough to drive us into the park; her plan was then to meet up with Rosana, Blue, and Giulia and do a couple of hikes from the Logan Pass area.
Here are the bikers at the start of the ride, getting geared up. I think this was about 6:25am or so.
After we finished up and met up with the other gang, we had a nice lunch at the Snow Goose Grill in Saint Mary (our meet-up time was high noon).
We had some very good gaming sessions these few weeks: Bananagrams, Codenames, Ticket to Ride, and a bunch of others, including an entertaining multi-player thing called "Captain Sonar" (definitely want to try that again some time). Photos (this one is a Codenames session):
... and here is "Captain Sonar" (which is truly a wild rumpus of a game if played properly):
On Saturday we had another nice bike ride, this one starting from the rental house and heading south to Echo Lake Cafe along Foothill Road (this turned out to be a very nice road to bike on, I had several good rides on it). We split up into two contingents, a group of bikers and a group of non-bikers (who agreed to meet us there by car). The ride was about 16 miles, so a bit over an hour or so.
The Echo Lake Cafe is a great place to eat brunch and breakfast, with nice outdoor tables and good food. We hung out in their garden while waiting for a table, then enjoyed a meal together.
Hanging out waiting for a table:
On the bike ride back Ethan and I decided to make a detour to Echo Lake itself for a swim. It was a bit silty, but cool and very refreshing.
On Sunday we decided to give our legs a rest and do some kayaking, and Amy was able to grab us some reservations at Lake McDonald. Lots of haze and smoke from the wildfires, so not the greatest day for hiking. Photos:
Super hazy starting out:
That was a nice morning (Lake McDonald village also has a nice ice cream store, of which we availed ourselves).
In the afternoon we had a volleyball session-- Rosana is a complete volleyball nut, and in order to satisfy her cravings she brought along a portable set, which she put up in the back yard. A few photos from the games:
Next big hike we did in Glacier was the Piegan Pass trail: this is a route that starts along the Going To The Sun road a few miles downhill of Logan Pass to the east, then winds it way up into the mountains to join the Continental Divide trail, and finally winds up at a saddle that gives you a look down into the Many Glacier area of the park to the northeast.
On the way to the trailhead, lots of smoke in the air from wildfires:
About a mile into the trail, it joins up with the Continental Divide trail:
When we got to the top of the pass, it was about the same. We had a quick confab in the car -- the kids wanted to hike no matter the weather, but I got cold feet (didn't really feel like hiking 11 miles of "inside of cloud"), so we dropped them off and I drove off with Amy. Big mistake on my part it turned out! Only the first 3 or 4 miles were fogged in, the rest of the hike was fine, so I am afraid I missed out on a good one. Few photos below, taken by Ethan, but there are many more in the album he shared.
Post-fog:
Up top:
This is from a jaunt that Ethan did up the Swiftcurrent spur trail -- it's looking down on Grinnell Glacier from the other side (which we later saw up close on a subsequent hike).
Riding the ferry boat. Glad I brought a hat...
Making our way:
This is a shot of Piegan Glacier, visible across the valley:
Rosana hiking:
This is a shot from most of the way up the trail, looking back to the southeast. You can see the trail sort of hugging the side of the valley wall:
This is a shot from the pass itself looking to the north into the valley towards Many Glacier. The mountain wall to the left was awesome, but we couldn't see much out into the distance because of the smoke...
On the way back down:
Stopping for a frisbee break:
A final post-hike ritual: soaking your head in the creek at the end of the trail. Very refreshing.
A shot of Ethan later in the week on a bike ride with Amy. There are a couple of paths billed as "rail trails" in the Flathead valley, but they were pretty modest. I think we had more interesting rides on some of the smaller roads.
The next big hike we planned was the High Line -- this is a trail that starts at Logan pass and runs to the west, hugging the side of the mountain wall, then over a saddle and back down to join up with the Going To The Sun road at the "Loop" trailhead. For this hike it was Ethan, Oscar, and myself-- Amy wasn't interested, but kindly volunteered to drive us in to the trailhead.
It was a bit cloudy on the way there, then about halfway up to the trail it was basically like driving through the inside of a cloud:
Foggy part near the start:
Amy and I eventually drove back and collected the kids later in the afternoon (lots of driving that day for us); it sounds like it was a fabulous trip.
The following weekend, Amy and kids and I decamped from the rental place and drove out to the east side of the park, to visit Two Medicine and Many Glacier, which are reached from entrances on the eastern side of the park. The drive from Kalispell to the nearest eastern entrance was a solid two hours, making it tricky to do day hikes. Amy's strategy was to drive to Two Medecine, hike for the day, then drive up to St Mary and stay there overnight, and then the next day drive to Many Glacier and hike there. This turned out to work quite well.
On the drive to Two Medicine we were thinking in terms of maybe renting kayaks or doing a shorter hike (since we didn't want to overdo it). When we got there, however, there was a fierce wind from the west (a good 30mph or so), and it was not particularly warm, so the kayaking plans went out the window. We instead opted for a couple of shorter hikes. The four of us started by taking a short ferry ride across the lake (which was actually rather interesting, since we got to hear the ranger piloting the boat talk a bit about the ecology of the area). Then Ethan and I hiked up to the upper lake, and Oscar and Amy decided to do a trail running to the south of the lower lake.
Two Medicine entrance:
We wrapped up mid-afternoon, and since the prospects for dinner in St Mary didn't look all that great, Amy had the idea of heading over to the East Glacier Lodge and hanging out there for a bit, then having an early dinner. That worked out well.
After dinner we drove up to St Mary. This was shot from the car on the way -- the light streaming through the clouds was very beautiful and wild looking:
Our final hike at the national park was the Grinnell Glacier hike, which I'd been looking forward to for some time. This particular hike is (apparently) one of the most popular in the park, so we made sure to get an early start, getting up at the crack of dawn and hitting the road after a brief breakfast.
We lucked out on the weather-- some clouds (particularly up in the higher parts of the mountains) but with sun and cool clear air (no smoke). Perfect day for hiking...
At the trailhead there were already quite a few cars, but we were able to find a decent parking spot, so we got organized and on the trail in short order. From the trailhead we hiked south towards Swiftcurrent Lake (fairly flat), then southeast to the shore of Lake Josephine. At the start:
Looking back at Swiftcurrent lake:
From there, the trail ascends gradually, hugging the side of the mountain wall to the southeast, giving lovely views across the valley to the south, and of the lakes trailing off into the distance to the northeast.
Amy ascending. This part of the trail starts to get a bit more steep, with more of a drop off on your left as you are hiking along.
The same bighorn sheep, continuing their "commute":
Looking back towards Lake Josephine (nearer) and Swiftcurrent Lake (farther) and Lake Sherburne (farthest):
Finally made it to the top, maybe by around 10:15am or so, a bit over three hours. Upper Lake Grinnell sits in a sort of bowl surrounded by mountain walls, with the glacier itself abutting it from the south. Spectacular views all around. Directly to the west is a sort of saddle over which the Swiftcurrent spur trail runs (Ethan did this back earlier in the trip as part of his high line hike).
Some photos of the gang up at the top:
The descent was a good bit quicker than the way up, especially for the younger generation (they zoomed ahead, leaving us old folks behind). Streams of people still on their way up as we descended, we could definitely see that this was a popular hike. Ethan decided to count on his way down and wound up with more than 500 people (yikes). Still, it was a lovely walk.
One last selfie:
Kids finished around 1pm (if I am remembering right); Amy and I rolled in back at the trailhead by around 1:45. We decided that it might be nice to get some tea and snacks, so we drove over to the Many Glacier lodge and saw to that.
This is a view from the parking lot looking west at the lodge and the park in the background:
All in all it was a fabulous hike, one of my favorite excursions of the trip.
After that hike (on a Monday) I worked for the rest of the week while the rest of the gang entertained themselves. Oscar left on Tuesday; Pete and Rosana hit the road on Wednesday, and then on Friday we did a final cleanout and headed out ourselves (dropping Ethan off at the train station on the way, since he had opted to Amtrak it home).
Final set of selfies with Pete and Rosana. There seems to have been a bit or wrestling and horsing around while shooting these, not sure what happened:
For the drive back, we opted to do it in four days instead of five, which made for some very long days. We spent the first day just getting out of Montana and into North Dakota (Montana is a mighty big state). Eastern Montana is mile after mile of agricultural fields and pasture, mostly flat, and with a sort of austere, lonely feel to it.
The contrast entering North Dakota was pretty drastic -- all of a sudden you are in the oil patch, with derricks and tanks everywhere, gas flares, and big oil trucks on the roads at every point (an almost dystopian look). We stopped in Dickinson ND, a small to medium-sized city to spend the night.
For fun on the drive we listened to Stephen King reading his non-fiction book "On Writing", which turns out to be surprisingly entertaining (I recommend it as a good book for the road).
From Dickinson we drove all the way to Madison WI, another huge drive, and again very agricultural. That was a super long day, 11+ hours driving. The next day we toned things down a bit and drove to Erie PA, only (hah) eight and a half hours. Amy had reserved us a hotel in the downtown area, right on the water, and we arrived early enough that we decided to go for a bike ride. Turns out that Erie is full of good biking -- we followed a bike path to the west from downtown and then out onto a sort of peninsula that arcs out out into the lake to the Northwest. That was a great ride, but boy was I hungry when I finished up (I hadn't really eaten much during the car ride -- simply hadn't been hungry). Final driving day was from Erie back home -- lots of rain, but other than that it was pretty straightforward.
It was good to be home after that-- after a month away and a 4-5 days of driving each way we were looking forward to staying put for a while!
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