Jo Ellen's Journey

08/17/09

 Our last day in the Park!  Where has the time gone…. even with bad weather?  There were no trails around this Lodge since it is outside of the Park, but we walked to the two small retail areas doing touristy stuff. 

 The view from our room was beautiful… overlooking a pitch/putt golf area, mature aspen, cottonwoods and lodge pole pines and a true English Garden full of flowers that flows from the hotel to the train station!  All of this is set off by an Indian tipi to provide a different kind of atmosphere!

 Since checkout was at 11:00 and the train didn’t come until 6:20 P and the shopping is minimal….. I read a book, C. played with his cell phone (we finally had limited coverage!) and we waited!  The last time we had left the hotel, a woman had made a snarky remark about how many bags we had (10 for 4 of us)… saying, “didn’t we know how to pack light?”  This time,… people had more bags than we did!

 Back on the train, we had more roommettes but they were not together.  We mentioned to the Steward that he had alot to live up to since Gul (the first guy) had been so great!  He rolled his eyes and said, “I trained him!”……. he did us one better by moving us upstairs to a suite!… once we had off loaded some of the other passengers at White Fish.  What fun!  We giggled like 13 year olds since we had our own bathrooms/showers and double beds! (nobody had to sleep in the pulldown overheads).

It was overnight to Seattle!

08/16/09

 It was STILL raining!  The clouds kept rolling up and over the tops of the mountains like waves at the beach leaving fresh snow with every advance.  The rain was cold and soaking both hikers and trails…. walking in mud is not great fun even with galoshes!  Every now and then the sun would appear and present the illusion of safe trekking…. it never lasted!

 Our hotel provided an assortment of games and jigsaw puzzles for just such occasions, however, so we were not totally without something to do.  Curtis, being the Engineer/Executioner, chose one without a box top! 

We had a 1,000 piece puzzle and no picture!  It was full of purple, blue and tartan plaid color pieces….. and we were totally captivated…. 4 college educated folks hunched over a card table, getting in each others way and offering both insult and encouragement.  I have never thought of puzzling as a contact or competitive sport…. but I think I’ve changed my mind.  We did not finish it by the time we had to leave so we will never know what it showed!

 Curtis and Charlie and Josie did take a break and try to go for a walk (I declined!).  The Rangers had previously closed one of the trails we were going to go on due to bears but they figured the local trails were probably OK.  It was only a short distance, however, when they ran into not one but two bears….. a black and a grizzly!  We had been told DO NOT RUN….DO NOT SHOUT AT THE BEAR….DO NOT LOOK AT THE BEAR….  Josie took off running….. Curtis and Charles yelled at the bear, waving their arms…. and kept wishing they had brought the camera!

 The van eventually came and took us back to the East Glacier Lodge (CIVILIZATION! – cell phone and computer access – OMG!). 

By now we were heartly sick of the hotel food (same menu for all locations) and went into “town” to find something else.  We found Sorrano’s, a Mexican cafe in a 100 yr old cabin, with anglo chefs.  The food was delicious (crab enchiladas for me…. a huge nacho plate for C.)…. we were walking home so the Margaritas were also worth the wait!

08/15/09

Today has been completely scheduled by a Red Bus Tour!  They are the ubiquitous buses that have canvas tops that can be rolled away so you have an unobstructed view of all the mountains, forests, rock, rills and flora/fauna.  The only problem was that it was raining…. hailing…. and eventually SNOWING!  (in August!),  They provided Pendleton Wool blankets like in a sleigh ride and the four of us snuggled up in the back seat to stay warm while we drove through the Park on the “Going-to-the-Sun” Road.

It was an 8 hr tour and we crossed the Continental Divide twice….. which would have been really exciting except we couldn’t see 10 feet in any direction!  The clouds had completely socked in the upper reaches of the mountains and it was only because our driver had made that trip a gazillion times in the past 9 years, that we made it down going and coming!   Hairpin turns, tunnels, bridges, road construction, downed trees, wet pavement, no guard rails (just low stone walls from the 20’s), SUV’s, inconsistent yellow lines and NO VISIBILITY made for an exciting day.

 Our guide was distantly related to the former mayor of NYC and kept up a running patter… some of which was even informative.  He took us to Lake McDonald Lodge which is a lovely, cozy hotel on Lake McDonald with a rustic interior that was illuminated by hand painted lanterns featuring native American designs.  The originals had been painted on buckskin and had mostly burned to a crisp over the years…. the reconstructions glowed beautifully.

After a day in the back of the bus, we could not face another meal in the dining room.  We decided to walk to a different restaurant which “was only a mile” down the road.  We even checked the map for a hiking trail to see more country.  Got a good start…. found the trail head…. set a jaunty pace and completely missed the turn off!  Had to walk all the way on the highway!  What was I thinking?!…. by the time we were finished eating, it was raining again so we got wet one more time.

 Actually, it was a glorious day…. the scenery we did see was beyond spectacular and we would all do it again in a heartbeat… the pictures do not do it justice, believe me!

08/14/09

Moving onward….. and upward! Our itinerary moves us up to the actual Glacier National Park today and to the second hotel…. Many Glacier Lodge.

 It was overcast/raining/hailing the whole way up with the temp dropping rapidly the farther we went. Our driver was like a local bus service and made several stops to pick up others…. most notably 7 backpackers with a ton of gear each.

There were 4 separate parties, including two 22 year old girls who had just finished nursing school. They had a 14 mile hike from where we got to the Lodge… in the rain… to then set up their tents…. fix supper, etc. I asked if their Mother’s knew what they were doing!!

Our driver was named Valerie and she is a retiree from Oklahoma who comes back every year with her husband to work in the Park for the summer. She told of driving through another rainstorm and picking up a bedraggled fella who needed a 6 mile lift to the Ranger Station. As this was out of her way, but because she was a great gal, she took him…. only to realize once he had settled in that it was Robert Redford! He gave her an $80 tip…. but she would have settled for an autograph. Her parting shot was, “He is OLD!”.

I’m sure he didn’t look his best in those conditions.

Many Glacier Lodge is the largest hotel in the park. It sits on a lovely lake chained to other lakes and ultimately to the mountains with… you guessed it!…Many Glaciers! We arrived in enough time to take the boat trip that was included in our package.

We thought it would be a slow ride around the lake….Wrong! It included 3 lakes and two hikes…. the first one was 500 ft up and 500 ft down…. the second was about a mile through lush woodlands and over rushing streams…. through mud puddles and soggy trails with mosquitos and rain with rapidly dropping temperatures. Bathrooms with pit toilets with no paper! The return boat was 20 min late picking us up…. But we had a blast!

Josie and Charlie (Curtis’ terrific brother and my wonderful sister-in-law) are veteran hiker/campers.  They were patient with us (me, especially) but I’m sure they will think twice about trying to go on an Active vacation again!

The Park restaurants and hotels are run by a concessionaire. Almost all of the restaurants have the same menus with just a few odd choices to make things interesting. Our dinner included a 45 min wait to sit in a loud dining room with music provided by a lone violinist playing with accompaniment provided by his Ipod! The food was equally blah! But maybe I was pooped and needed to go to bed!

Since we have sleeper space, we are First Class passengers and our meals are included in the package. That means we can have anything on the meal menu including dessert! So…. even though we were not hungry, we have eaten breakfast and lunch….. anticipating wine and cheese this PM and an early dinner before arriving at East Glacier Park this evening (we are about 30 min behind schedule which may help a little).

So far, we have spent alot of time napping and watching the Great Northern Plains scroll by. Beautiful, lush farms dotting an alternating flat or rolling silhouette…. or increasingly parched areas with much fewer trees as we have gotten higher in altitude. I feel another nap coming on!

We got to East Glacier Lodge on time (Amazing!). The train station is right across the road from the hotel so the bags got to ride and we hiked a quarter mile alongside beautiful flower gardens, lush grass and a gradual incline to the front entrance.

The hotel, build in 1911 – 1912 has an awe-inspiring lobby framed by tree trunks that are at least 30 ft tall. It has an indian theme with a tipi on the front lawn and in the upstairs balcony. The native American story teller (scheduled for 8:00 PM) did not show, however.

We hiked around the lodge and into the civilized areas surrounding the hotel (an “indian village” is just beyond the RR tracks where you can pay for wifi. Unfortunately for this blog, none of the park lodge’s have computer/internet hookups, televisions/radios, etc. Instead, the lobbies have free games, cards, jigsaw puzzles and places to people/scenery watch. It is a slow decompression for all of us!

 08/12/09 – 08/13/09

The Train! The Train! It took a heep of walking but we finally found our car…. at the other end, of course! They are double decker cars with different sized sleepers, regular seating pulman cars, dining car and club car with upper observation area (get there early cause people camp out!). It is rather like a cruise ship in that we have a steward (named Gul) who brings us fruit juice or mimosas with chocolate twice daily and set up/tore down our beds. Sleepers are also available in larger configurations up to a suite for a whole family of up yo 5 – 6 people.

We have a roommette…. the emphasis on the “ette”! It is …. cozy. (about 3′6″ by 6′3″)…. with an overhead bunk that pulls down and two facing seats that become a lower bed. I took the upper since I wanted to go to bed earlier…. I had hit my wall by 9:00 PM!