7 September 2015, Monday, Labor Day We emerge from the tent about 7:30, and there is a strange bright lightin the sky! We haven’t seen the sun since Wednesday evening, Sept 2.We cook up a bacon bit-cheese-potato cake for breakfast, and then packfor a trip up to Ptarmigan Tunnel in which we will gain 2300 feetover the course of a 5.4 mile hike. On our way to Iceberg Lakeyesterday we met
6 September 2015, Sunday We were encouraged last evening to see the clouds breaking up and a littleblue sky, but it started raining again as we were getting in thetent. A steady downpour continued all night. It was about 40º Fin the tent, even colder outside. Although we tried to sleep inlate hoping for the rain to stop, it outlasted us. We got up around 8and baked a biscuit with dried
5 September 2015, Saturday It rained steadily all night long. It’s actually quite pleasant lying inthe tent snug and warm and listening to the rain on the fly. We didnot have any snow in the campground, but there is new snow on thetops of the mountains surrounding our camp. O’s thermometer reads 5degrees C at 8 am this morning. We are cooking up a huge pot ofoatmeal with brown sugar, cardamom,
4 September 2015, Friday Today is another “administrative” day, and a good one for it. It is coldand wet. We sleep in and then have strawberry scones and strawberryjam for breakfast. Then it is time for showers. They are clean andthe water is delightfully hot. After showers – laundry. I type myblog onto the computer while we are waiting. In the background peopleare coming and going. A woman who somehow manages
3 September 2015, Thursday Today is the day of our glacier hike. Grinnell Glacier, Grinnell Lake- upperand lower, and apparently many other things around Glacier are namedfor the man who was instrumental in protecting this area and thenpublicizing it so people would come and visit. The morning is cool and cloudy. Our gear is ready to go from yesterday’shike. We decide to have breakfast early at the Glacier Lodge so wecan make the
2 September 2015, Wednesday I forgot to mention in yesterday’s entry the burned swaths of forest we saw aswe drove down the east side of Going to the Sun Road. We were veryfortunate to arrive in Glacier on the first non-smokey day in months. It hadrained the day before our arrival. It also turned out to be the lastsunny day before what looks to be a week of clouds and rain. We
1 September 2015, Tuesday We have a great breakfast in Missoula at the Hob Nob Cafe. A sign in therestaurant has one of those 1950’s smiling Moms saying, “Drinkcoffee. Do stupid things faster and with more energy!” Back at theMotel 6 we chat for awhile with a wheelchair bound vet with a mop ofwind-blown curly dark hair. He is travelling the country solo on histrike. He is from Rhode Island and does
31 August 2015, Monday After eating our cinnamon bun hubcap and our apple fritter, we are on theroad to Missoula. The haze has lifted considerably and it is apleasant 70 degrees. Our journey goes well. This part of the trip is much more scenic. Wecheck into the second of two Motel 6’s off I-90. They are less than amile apart, and it was not clear which one had our reservations. Next,we
30 August 2015, Sunday We are up and on the road before 7 am, stopping at Baker’s Bakery in Custerfor a huge breakfast of omelets, enough bacon for an army, hashbrowns and toast. In case of sudden starvation later in the day, we buy a gooeycinnamon bun the size of a hubcap and an apple fritter for emergencyrations. We can barely fit them into the car. Now on to Devils Tower, the first
29 August 2015, Saturday After breakfast we return to Wind Cave, arriving for the 9:30 tour. Thecaverns are huge and unlike the caverns we’ve seen in the East withtheir stalactites and stalagmites. These caverns are noted for theirboxwork formations. Gypsum, which absorbs water, entered fissures inthe limestone which had been laid down in a huge inland sea. Calcite later crystallized in the fissures, and as the limestone graduallydissolved, it left behind the