Hi Gram,
Howard and I woke up early so we could go say goodbye to everyone before they headed to Mt Rainier for their hike. We said another round of goodbyes, then headed back to Seattle. The next few days weren’t terribly exciting as I caught up on some errands to get ready for my Bali trip, spent a little time with Howard and Andy, and swapped out the camping gear in my car for my tools and bike. I said goodbye to the kids, then headed East. My friend Maria was in Montana near Glacier National Park, so I decided to stop there to spend a few days visiting her and seeing Glacier.

I stopped in Couer D’Alene, ID for the night, about halfway to Glacier. Sore from the drive and the past few days in tents, I got a hotel and headed out for a walk around the area. The walk quickly went from commercial to residential and it was cool seeing some of the small houses along the way. I kept the walk short, but was glad to get the blood pumping and stretch a little before heading to bed.

The next morning, I got back on the road and kept heading East. I kept seeing signs advertising a huckleberry shake at the exit I’d be taking to head North. With mouthwatering pictures and the phrase “Best. Shake. Ever”, I knew that I’d have to stop and give it a try. So I did. Walking into the shop, I could tell they made a good profit off the tourists passing through the area. I fueled up and parked, then walked in to find out where I got this legendary shake. I admire their traffic flow, passing entrants through a convenience store with the typical candy bars, beverages, and other gas station fare, seamlessly through a cafe where you could order lunch, into a much larger store with shirts, stickers, magnets, jams, jellies, and any other kind of tourist knick knacks imaginable. I stopped at the fudge/ shake stand and stood in line waiting for my delicious shake. I was planning to get a small, but they knew that sizes would slow down the line so there was only one size offered. I placed my order, then watched them make it as I stood to the side and waited.

Contrary to their advertising, it was not the best shake I’d ever had. It probably wasn’t even in the top twenty. They started with soft serve ice cream, then ladled a carefully measured portion of berry syrup on top of that, topped with scoop of berry compost. They stuck the cup into a machine that dipped a blending wand in to mix it all up, then topped it with whipped cream. A lid and a straw, yelled my name, and placed it on the counter. I admired their assembly line efficiency, but marked them down for the bland uniform taste and consistency. I got about a third of the way into it, then threw the rest away. I always say that every experience should be a good time or a good story, hopefully both. Well, this one gave me a decent story… so good enough.

It’s a shame that we have a “fire season” but this is the world we live in today. Lighting strikes and out of control camp fires take advantage of hotter, drier conditions to fill the sky with smoke while firefighters rush to contain and extinguish the fires. Knowing this from afar and seeing a real mountain on actual fire are two very different experiences.

I finished the drive up to Glacier and planned to stay in Columbia Falls, near where Maria was staying. I tried a couple of hotels, but there was only one place with any vacancies, and that was a bunk in a shared room. Normally, I would be fine with that but two things kept me from booking it – first of all, I was carrying the last couple doses of my vaccine for typhoid in a cooler and didn’t want to put that into a shared refrigerator. Second, I’m working on actually spending my budget on things that matter to me instead of cheaping out on everything, and this would be a test of my willingness to spend. I searched Airbnb for places in Columbia Falls and found a studio apartment within my price range. I booked it before talking myself out of the spend, and looked up the address to go drop off my stuff. It was then that I remembered that you have to be careful with Airbnb searches. The app will recommend a place half an hour away – because of their rankings and algorithms – over options that are in the town that you actually searched. If you’re not careful, you might reserve a perfectly nice place and find yourself driving back to the town that you drove through half an hour ago.

Once I dropped off my bags – and it was a really cool place with a comfortable bed, don’t get me wrong, just farther from the park entrance than I’d planned – I headed to a park to meet up with Maria and her adorable pup Tango. We decided to head into the park where she could show me a great place to watch a sunset. We saw smoke pouring from one of the wildfires in the distance, veiling the sun and making for a cool view while we drove. At the park entrance, the ranger told us that there had been a car accident earlier, closing the main road, but they expected it to be open soon. Undeterred, we decided to take a short detour to a lake for a while to wait out the closing.

There are some humans that don’t respect others, and they ruin it for everyone else. For example, dogs aren’t allowed on any trails in the park. I’m sure that’s because there are some dog owners that don’t clean up after their pets or who take untrained or dangerous animals that bark incessantly or bite other people or let their furry friend off the leash, letting it get into trouble. Not only is this unfair to the pet owners who follow the rules and have well-behaved dogs but it’s disappointing for all the friendly and happy dogs that don’t get the memories of hiking with their owners. Fortunately, dogs are allowed at the lake so Tango was able to sniff and play and retrieve sticks to his heart’s content. He hasn’t learned to drop the stick when he returns so you can throw it again, but his attention span is short enough that if you have ANOTHER stick, he’ll drop the one he’s carrying and go fetch the one that you throw. In this way, we were able to keep him entertained and exercised for a while with just two sticks. Sometimes, in fact, he would be on his way back and see another, bigger, newer stick on the ground and abandon what he had for what was possible. Sometimes, what was possible in his mind was a stick much bigger than he or the branch of a fallen tree, still very much attached to the trunk. He would wrestle with it for a bit, trying to bring it for us to throw, then get distracted by the stick we were waving. He got a lot of swimming and running in while we wandered along the beach and talked to other visitors.

Once he was tired out we drove up the road – a slow pace along a dirt road with pot holes and gravel – and chatted about life, travel, vans, people, and friends. We got up to the gate that was still closed, blocking further progress while the rangers took care of the accident up ahead. Disappointed, we turned around and headed back down the same dirt road. After stopping alongside the road to fill her water bottle from a spring – she was sure it was clean water, although I still would have put it through a filter – we headed into town for dinner. Many of the restaurants were already closed, but we found the Moose Tavern still open and welcoming. It’s a classic old fashioned bar, dimly lit with sawdust on the floor, and carvings in the walls from years of visitors passing through. We got a couple sandwiches and ciders that all turned out much better than either of us expected and listened to some music that we couldn’t figure out if it was live, recorded, or intentional. After a long day of driving and exploring, I was tired and ready for bed so she dropped me back at my car and I headed to the apartment. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Glacier tomorrow!