the REAL Chicago day

Well, we knew the day had to come eventually--it was time to go home! But not before we took another side trip, of course. We flew out of Kalispell VERY early in the morning and arrived in Chicago around 11am. The original plan was to visit Chinatown and then the Museum of Science and Industry. But, since so much of what we had planned for our *first* Chicago day had fallen through due to weather, we decided we'd try to go back and do those activities again (AND, we had already paid for them, of course!)

So, despite the fact that it was a very bad day crowd-wise to be going to the big tourist spots in Chicago, we stashed our luggage and made our way to Navy Pier. We went on a river boat architecture tour, which was very fun (although the sun was beating down on us pretty hard).

We rode the ferris wheel--although it wasn't dark, the view was still grand. And of course it has special meaning to us, since it was here that Kevin proposed to me! (One of the two places anyway--Kevin proposed twice so that I could pick which story to tell people when they asked). We were going to use some of our other Navy Pier tickets (saved from our first Chicago day), but the lines were soooo long. We did wander around the stained glass museum in the basement of Navy Pier some. I believe we also had ice cream. Yes, Haagen Das was definitely involved, I think.

Pretty soon, it was time to head back to the train station, where we boarded a COMPLETELY full train headed back to Champaign. Thank goodness for our sleeper car! We didn't get to sleep any, actually, because they were delayed in serving dinner and by the time we got done with that we were practically there. We were glad not to be crammed in like sardines like most of the train, though.

And so, we returned to Champaign. I immediately started trying to think of ways that we could return to Glacier! We do have a pass that's good for all year.... Okay, it's not actually happening of course, but really I feel like we just scraped the surface on all the amazing hikes to do there. It is definitely my favorite National Park now! Chicago was fun too, but I would trade the crowds for a mountain view any day.

Two Medicine

Friday morning came all too soon, but we had to get up and check out of our lovely little cabin. We had planned to on this amazing, very difficult (about 15 miles and 3000 ft of elevation) hike called the Pit-Dawson loop. (*Sigh*--I still really want to do that hike someday!) But, everything conspired against us. We were tired from our late night and didn't get up early enough to start a long hike like that for starters. We were still pretty worn out from the previous day's hiking also. Also, it was rainy and windy and all-around cold. And, there was the internet problem still--Kevin still had to fix some things for his work. So we definitely had to scrap the Pit-Dawson plans.

The first thing we did that morning was find a little cafe that had internet access. Kevin worked on his laptop while I stared at the mouth-watering pastries. I ended up buying one to eat later. Then, we went across the street and had breakfast at the Whistle Stop. We ordered the asparagus omelet and the huckleberry french toast and each had half of each. YUM!! The french toast was pretty much deep fried. Deep fried huckleberry deliciousness.

Anyways, I digress. After breakfast we checked out the old lodge in East Glacier Village. The lobby is very impressive, supported by 50 or 60 trees (with bark still on) that are 3-4 feet in diameter each. Not much in the way of views, though, unlike some of the other lodges we had seen previously.

Next we headed on out to the Two Medicine section of the park, which is very beautiful and less crowded than some of the other sections (not that any of them were really all that crowded). We took a boat ride around the lake (thank heavens the boat was heated!!) and then walked a very short loop to see the "Trick Falls" (water comes out of two different places, one above and one below).

Then, we tried to decide what to do next. We wanted to do *some* hiking, but nothing humongous like Pit-Dawson. We settled on the Scenic Point trail, which--although steep--is relatively short (6 miles round trip). We figured we could just go part way up if we got too tired.

We were breathing pretty hard as we traversed the endless switchbacks, but the views were nice and the rain let up mostly. We ate lunch part way up. It was fairly windy, until we got to the top. Then it was ridiculously windy. Kevin and I figure it must have been like 50 mph winds, maybe faster. (We judged this by later putting our hands out the window of the car while we drove different speeds and tried to gauge if it felt like it did on top of the mountain.) Many times we just had to stop, bend down, and hold on to our trekking poles for a minute or two until the gusting died down. Perhaps you can get some feel for this by looking my hair trying to fly entirely off my head in the photos.

But, the view from the very top was very worth it.

Coming down wasn't even too bad on my knees. When we got to the car, I pulled out my saved pastry to eat as a reward. Unfortunately, it was pretty stale by this point and not nearly as good as it looked. Sad, isn't it?

The only thing left on our itinerary was to drive back to Columbia Falls, where we would be staying at the Back Rock B&B again for our last night before flying home. At the last minute, I decided we should drive the longer but more scenic route back over the Going To The Sun Road, just because I really wanted to see it again. Luckily, it was Friday, so they weren't closing the road at 9 for construction. (I think we entered about 8pm). It was really foggy up near Logan Pass, but once we past that, the views were incredible with all this mist dancing around in the background. I felt like I was stuck in some fantasy novel or something, with the misty mountains and the mysterious lighting.

There was a ram standing right on the side of the road, posing for pictures. I was soooo glad that we took that route--it was a great way to end our time in Glacier!

The only problem was that we got back late to Columbia Falls and hadn't had dinner yet. We ate at a blah place called the Nite Owl, and made our way back to Bad Rock, where the owner had graciously left the door unlocked for us. We had a very early morning the next day, so we hurried and packed and went to bed to get at least a little sleep!

Lookout and back

We woke up and had breakfast the next morning (more backpacker's food), and got packed up to head out. Check out time was 10am, plus we wanted to have time to do more hiking. Unfortunately, as we were packing, I discovered that our second can of bear spray was missing! I was distraught, but chagrined, because this time *I* had been the one in possession of the can in question. We searched all over and asked all over and even tried to buy another can from the chalet (they didn't have any in stock), and finally just had to be resigned to making lots and lots of noise on the trail so we could be certain we wouldn't need one! I was thinking for a while that the can had been stolen (and looked suspiciously around at the other guests holding identical cans), but we heard from our Livermore friends later that they had overheard some ladies talking about how the had been so "lucky" as to "find" a can on the ground. It turns out I left it over by the outhouse (probably right when we first arrived--I was a little distracted about my need to get in there, fast!) It probably fell off the belt of my pack.

It was sad that they hadn't seen fit to turn it in to the front desk or anything. Especially considering that we'd found a Nalgene bottle on the trail the day before (a full Nalgene bottle, mind you--so it was heavy), which I schlepped all the way up to the chalet and turned in to the grateful owners who had lost it earlier that day. I guess Karma wasn't working for us just then. Ah, well. We figured maybe they would end up needing the bear spray in a bear encounter, and so we'd effectively saved their lives. What heroes we are!

Anyway, our main task for the day was to hike back down the way we had come. We decided before we went back down, though, that we wanted to go up a bit more first--to the top of the Swiftcurrent Lookout. Another 2,000-ish feet up is a small lookout building where a ranger stays all the time, watching for fires. It was a steep hike up, and pretty darn strenuous! It was also partly snow-covered. But the views were worth it, and it was fun to talk to the ranger about what it's like to live life at the top of the world! (Very hard to sleep in late up there, as you can imagine.) He also pointed out the different glaciers that were visible from there, and we chatted with a young couple who had also made the trek up. The guy was a geology Ph.D. student, and he showed us some cool things about the rocks up there.

It was cold and windy, and it looked like a storm was coming, so we decided we'd better head back down pretty quick. Going down is always the hardest part for me, because my knees start to complain. We did take a shortcut at one point and just slid down the face of the snow rather than doing a whole bunch of switchbacks. I put on my rain pants and just slid down on my derriere. (It turned out to be steeper than it looked--I was going really fast! At one point I started turning unintentionally and Kevin said I was thrashing about like an upturned turtle. But once I righted myself things were okay.) Kevin decided to "ski" down on just his boots. He sort of half ran/half skiied down. I prefer my way, personally.

After that it was just back down the way we came the day before. It did start raining after a little while, but not too hard. We kept putting on our rain gear and taking it off and putting it on...We enjoyed those same glorious views as on the way up. My knees and especially my feet were hurting a lot, though. (Partially blister related and partially toes getting jammed in the front of my boots from going down the whole time). I was very, very happy once we got back to the trail head and I could give them a rest!

We had dinner at the Park Cafe again, which was WAY crowded this time. We had to wait forever, but eventually we got to enjoy some yummy pie (oh, and dinner too). Kevin went into the little shop next door to buy us *another* can of bear spray, since we needed to replace the one we were borrowing from Bad Rock B&B and which was now lost.

Right about this time, Kevin's phone started getting reception again, and he received all these texts and messages from work. Naturally, some disaster that only Kevin could fix had happened while we were hiking in the backcountry. We were supposed to be driving south down to East Glacier Park, but instead, Kevin had to put out the work fire. We went to a few places looking for a decent internet connection for him, but all of them were slower than slow. Finally, we just decided to go back up to see if the Johnsons would let us use their connection even though we were already checked out. Kevin slaved for several hours getting things back on track, or at least out of disaster mode. It was getting late by now, and we still had like an hour and a half of driving ahead of us before we got to the place were I'd made reservations for the next night. So we finally headed off, after I called and asked if they could just leave our key in the door or something (since the front office was going to be closed). Luckily, they did, and we eventually made it. The cabin was really nice and we both loved it, but unfortunately we were so tired that we couldn't really enjoy it but just crashed right into bed.

Actually, that's not quite true. *I* crashed right into bed. Kevin drove around the little town at least an hour trying to find some wifi signal or something he could use to finish working on whatever the problem was. Eventually he gave up and just came back and went to bed. Kevin's work did NOT win any brownie points with me this day!!

to Granite Park Chalet

Wednesday was probably my favorite day of our whole vacation, so of course I took a LOT of pictures and have a lot to say! Consequently, this will be one long post--you've been warned. :)

So. I was lucky enough to get a reservation for Wed night at the Granite Park Chalet, which is a back-country chalet only accessible by hiking trail. Back in the 1920s-ish (before they built GTTS road) there was a whole system of back country chalets in Glacier, spaced about a day's horseback journey apart. People would take the train in and then ride horses from chalet to chalet each day. Most of the chalets no longer exist, but two still do. One (NOT the one we were staying in) has running water and they cook your meals for you. The other one (Granite Park Chalet) is more rustic--they have no running water, electricity, etc. but they do have one of the best views imaginable. Despite the lack of luxury, the chalets are very, very popular and generally book up like 9 months in advance or something.

When I first started planning our trip, the availability calendar was all full, and then the next day I checked back and found there was an opening on one of the days were considering, so I swooped in and snatched it up! Despite the somewhat hefty pricetag, it seemed like a great way to get a quasi-backpacking experience without having to sleep in a tent or worry about bear attacks in the night. (Actually, there turned out to be several other cancellations later on, so I wasn't quite as lucky as I had thought. But still.) Wednesday night was the night! I was excited about staying there, but I was a little disappointed that our original hiking plan was not going to work out.

There are three ways to get to the Granite Park Chalet. Option #1, the Highline trail, is the easiest (because it's mostly flat) but also most spectacular in terms of scenery. It also happens to travel along a sheer drop off of a few thousand feet, and was completely snowed over still when we were there. Consequently, that trail was closed.

Option #2 was "the Loop", which was what they were recommending people take up since it was the least snowed in. The Loop, although fairly short (4 miles I think), is very very steep and very boring. Not much in the way of scenery. I realized we might have to take this route, but I didn't really want to.

Option #3, Swiftcurrent Pass, was also steep (and longish), but had the views to make it worth it. This trail was not actually *closed*, but it was listed as being quite snowy up after the switchbacks. However, from what I could tell from talking to the ranger, the snow conditions were not actually too dangerous, since the only dropoffs were along the switchbacks, which were supposedly clear of snow.



We decided to gamble on Swiftcurrent. We figured that if we got to a section that seemed dangerous and we didn't want to go forward, we could always hike back and then drive to the Loop and still have time to make it up the Loop before dark. It was a nice, clear day for hiking and the days are long in Montana summers, so we figured it'd be fine.


So, we strapped on our borrowed snowshoes to the backs of our packs, and headed out. (After eating our breakfast leftovers and checking out of the Johnsons'). The first few miles were completely flat, mostly along some lake shores. We crossed a stream a few times (and were grateful for our waterproof hiking boots!) and saw a nice waterfall. We decided to stop and have lunch at Bullhead Lake, which is gorgeous with all the cliffs and waterfalls behind it. We lounged and enjoyed the view from the bottom--soon we'd be hoofing it up that very mountainside. At some point before lunch we passed a group of people coming *down* from Swiftcurrent Pass. They had stayed at the chalet the night before, and assured us that the trail was not dangerous. They said we might have a hard time *finding* the trail in all that snow, but just to head towards Heaven's Peak and soon we'd see the chalet. That was definitely encouraging to hear.


The next section was a whole bunch of switchbacks. I think we counted them, but I no longer remember the number. They were steep and many, but the view just kept getting better and better, and that kept us going strong. I really enjoyed this part of the hike. I did still have blisters, but having made the decision to simply ignore them and press on (although I did cover them in moleskin and all that), things were good.


We met a mountain goat up close, who finally decided we would be allowed to pass. We also saw several marmots.



At the top of the switchbacks, we had to cross a fairly raging section of stream/waterfall. It was a little gusty up top, so it was a tad bit iffy, but really not bad at all, again thanks to our waterproof hiking boots which allowed us to make a few missteps without dire wetness consequences.


Pretty soon we got to the snowy section. We strapped on our snow shoes and headed up. It was steep, but kind of like a big bowl in that section, so that if we had slid down we wouldn't end up falling off a cliff. This part was very strenuous, and I was glad when it leveled off a bit. We did pull out the map and compass once or twice, but it wasn't too hard to follow the trail because we could see a few other people's tracks in the snow.

As we crested the top and started heading along the final stretch, I had to stop every few feet and exclaim over how beautiful it was. Because, well, it was. We could see the chalet below us, and the mountains just opened up all around us. I don't know how to explain how lovely it was--hopefully you can get a feel from the photos.

The way down was steep and slippery--I even fell once, but hey, at least the landing was soft!

And so, at last we arrived! I reeeeeally had to go to the bathroom by this point, so our first stop was the outhouse. Then, we went and checked in and they showed us around and brought us to our room. It was pretty rustic, with two bunkbeds (Kevin and I both decided to sleep on the top bunks) and a little camp chair and a night stand.


The walls were PAPER thin--we could hear every word our neighbors said--and their snoring--very clearly. But the VIEW!! Out of this world. I cannot imagine a room with a better one!


We fixed dinner in the kitchen, where they had a big propane stove. We had to purify our own water, but they had already hauled some from the stream. Normally, the guests help haul the water, but apparently there was a bear sighting somewhere around the stream and so they brought it to us and said don't worry about refilling.






We had freeze dried beef stew (not bad, actually) and freeze dried pudding/s'more stuff (not as good as we thought it would be). We met a couple from Livermore, CA and chatted with them while we ate (since Kevin and I met there, it was fun to talk to them.)











Later that night one of the employees offered to take people out to "Sunset Point" (to watch the sunset of course!) Not surprisingly, the sunset from there was gorgeous. The only sad part was that we had to leave before the sun set all the way, lest we had to traverse the steep snowbanks in the dark.

We fell asleep to the sweet dulcet tones of our neighbors' snores. But hey, they probably had to listen to mine once I was asleep too!