Logan Pass, Polebridge Mercantile, and Numa Ridge Lookout Trail

Looks like we'll be getting lots of time to explore the park and various other areas. The park here is staffed with more people than before, so there are lots of college kids looking for hours. We, on the other hand, are looking for the most time off they will let us have and still let us stay here. For now, we are going to be working three days and playing four. :-)

The Going to the Sun Road opened up, and we decided to take a day to drive across it, see the sights, and relax. The photo above is Glen at Logan Pass. As you can see, there is still a great deal of snow around.

We caught this beauty of a photo near Lake MacDonald on the west side of the park. The water was so still that the mountain reflections were amazing.

On another day, we decided to go to the far western part of the park where we were never able to visit when we only had our motorhome for transportation. This part of the park is remote, has dirt roads, and is less well-known. There is a little town there called Polebridge, and in my research I had heard tell of amazing bakery items for sale there. We stopped in, and bought a loaf of huckleberry beer bread (that turned out later to be raisin bread....the girl was confused), and two gigantic cinnamon buns...fresh from the oven.

We took these goodies along with us to Bowman Lake. We had a picnic lunch and then started out on a hike to the top of Numa Ridge. This hike was 11.4 miles round-trip, and for our hiking friends, the elevation gain was 2900 feet in 5.7 miles. For our non-hiking friends, that means: it was STEEP. The hike took us along the lake and then up a forested ridge to a place where we had amazing views in many directions. This view is from one side of the firetower at the top.

This view is from the other side and shows the lake we started at. We actually started at the end of the lake to the right in the photo. Can you see how much we climbed?

What the photo doesn't show you is that we were in prime mosquito territory. We are still scratching! We both almost tripped on our hiking poles as we were swatting mosquitos. (Well, at least I will say we both did....I know I did!)

We didn't see any wildlife other than those darn mosquitos, but it was a beautiful day for a hike. From the firetower we could see three glaciers, and that crystal clear lake. We only met a few other people on the trail, and enjoyed the solitude.

This was another great reflection photo from the location where we started that hike. We both decided it would be a fun lake to have a kayak and just paddle around. The lake only allows motors up to 5 horsepower, so it is a serene place. When we finished up the hike, we enjoyed one of the cinnamon buns. It was AMAZING.....and the car still has icing on the front seat! It was sticky, gooey, cinnamon heaven.

This bighorn was prancing around on the Going to the Sun Road, so we had to take his photo. I wish the sign and the road wasn't there, but thought you might enjoy it just the same.

We are planning our next big adventure, but are not sure how it will pan out. We want to head up to the Canadian side of the park to hike "Canada's #1 rated dayhike". It is a hike to a place called Crypt Lake, and involves a boat ride to the trail, a hike that has a tunnel, a ladder, and narrow trail along a cliff, and a return boat ride. We may head up this weekend and see if we can snag a campsite. All the ones that take reservations are full, so we will have to try the "first-come-first-served" variety. In the worst case, we will just explore the town a bit, and come back. We will have some back up plans made and try that a bit later if need be.

Tonight we are headed to a potluck birthday party for someone we don't even know. All the workampers here were invited, so we decided to tag along for some local fun. Gotta go make a pasta salad to take with us. Hope things back home are going well for everyone. We'll write again soon,

Terry and Glen