(07/11/12) A Wandering Day; Reconnaissance Work

Slept well and woke up to another gorgeous day. Clouds are in the sky, but no forecasted rain in the near future. Today was a scheduled day of rest with no planned hike. I tried hard as we were planning this trip out to leave recovery days between our death marches. We actually do call them that! Sutter also recognizes that word; we occasionally will take him with us. Only once has he not carried his own weight, literally. It was a six mile out and back (12 overall) on fairly level terrain, but 2 miles from the car on the return trip, he was no longer in it to win it. He lay down and refused to walk. We tried water, a break and treats. Nothing worked. So seeing no other alternative, George carried the fifty pound baby over his shoulder. I swear the dog smiled at me over George’s shoulder for the entire two miles.

Started out this morning’s wanderings going after a virtual cache that we had skipped the day before due to time running short. It took us to Running Eagle Falls, named for a Native American woman. Her people named this place for her because of their respect for her character as well as her life’s deeds, which were as numerous as they were varied. It was a neat place, a mostly flat trail that meandered through the trees and opened to a creek (think Monocacy River-sized, nothing major). There was a handcrafted bridge that you could use to cross the creek. The water again was clear as air (because of no plankton growth), with the occasional frothy churn, which is caused by the suspended glacial silt released from the glaciers. (This suspended silt is also the reason some of the waters have a turquoise tint to them.) The rocks were the same as the ones we saw over at Lake McDonald, neat shades of gray/tan, green and red. The locals call them Christmas tree rocks because of the red and green colors, which is caused by billion year old fossilized algae. Once we crossed the bridge, we followed a narrow dirt trail to a viewing platform. We took some great pics and then headed back to the car.

We also took time to drive up to another east side entrance, Many Glacier. The Many Glacier area of the park is a one road in and out destination. Lots of hikers use it as the jumping off point for big adventures, many of which are long day hikes or overnight trips. It is also a base for trail rides, but more on that later. We checked out the historic hotel. The bellhops and desk clerks wear lederhosen! And there were a ton of chairs where you could just sit, look out the window at the lake and drift off into daydreams.

We hiked back up the hill to the parking lot but before we returned to our car, we crossed to the lot’s other side to inquire about a trail ride. Our hope was that we would be able to schedule a trail ride for Friday, because if they only had openings for Thursday, we were going to have to pass. Turned out, Friday was even less booked than Thursday. We will be riding horses for two hours, starting at 10 AM on a trail to Cracker Flats, an alpine meadow. All of the horses are pretty big because they are bred to be part draft horse. Honestly, some of them were downright humongous! I am so excited for this and George is too. He finds it peaceful and relaxing to ride; he says he feels safe and likes not having to drive and just looking at the scenery. Now, I HAVE offered to drive the car for him, but he says he prefers to drive the car and let me navigate. Goofball!

We drove back to the Saint Mary area because we had some urgent business with our laundry. Mainly, I was out of clean shirts and George was out of clean underwear. He is not the kind of man who thinks turning them inside out gets you an extra day. If he was, we never would have married. The only reason he was not out of clean shirts is he has started to WEAR the souvenir shirts we have bought. That is not fair! Our campground did not have a laundry facility, so we had to find one. The small town of Saint Mary was really pricey, so we were hesitant to look there, lest we pay $15 a load. We managed to locate a KOA, drove in and got set up easily. The hard part was deciding what we were not going to wash. A few shirts and some pants did not make the cut, but we got two full loads in. After we started the washer, we zipped back to Saint Mary and grabbed some takeout and zipped back to the KOA. Our plan was to wash, eat, transfer to dryer, eat and play some games while we waited. Didn’t happen! That dryer was the biggest, fastest, most industrial beast ever! I think both of us could have crawled inside the thing and shut the door, it was so big. It took 18 minutes ($0.25 for 6 minutes) to dry both washer loads in the same dryer. Wow! Folded everything back at the campsite, restocked our clothing bins and we are back in business!