Jenny Lake Loop

We hiked all the way around Jenny Lake today which we estimate is about a 8.8 miles including side trips to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. The hike up to Inspiration Point was pretty strenuous but we only gained about 600 feet elevation. The falls were pretty impressive.

Most people who come to see the falls ride the ferry boat across Jenny Lake so there are are about 200 of "our best friends" walking around the area. We then hiked up to Inspiration Point which offers up a great view of the lake. We lost most of our "friends" on the hike around the far side of the lake. At one point we were told some folks had seen a bear but we missed it.

We had dinner with Katy, Lanny and son Chad, our friends from Lees Summit. It is nice to visit with people we know from home. There are plans to do more activities with them before we move on later this week.

Miscellaneous

We did a little bit of everything today. I washed clothes, shopped and beautified myself while John fished. When he got his fishing license, John asked the clerk if he could recommend some flies. This guy knew his stuff! The flies John bought are odd looking for flies but they work! He actually caught four trout and has a fish story about the really big one that got away!

Mid afternoon we decided to drive all the way and check out the north end of the Grand Tetons. We drove through Colter Bay Campground and decided we liked the one we are in better. Then we stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge where they have a great view of Jackson Lake with the mountain back drop but the lodge was not anything to brag about. Signal Mountain has a nice marina on Jackson Lake and the drive to the top of Signal Mtn. was nice with impressive views of the sage brush valley. The rest of the drive down Teton Park Road was uneventful but took longer than we thought. Still, we got back in time to eat a quick dinner before John took off fishing again.

I met a nice gentleman at the water station who has hiked the Grand Canyon. We may have to invite them over to tell us more about what to expect. Also, our friends from Lees Summit flew in today so we have extended out stay so we can do some stuff with them.

Death Canyon

Sounds ominous, doesn't it? We picked a hike that was just short of 8 miles to test our muscles and get a workout in preparation for the Grand Canyon hike.

This trail led us to the upper end of Phelps Lake before going up the side of Static Peak and into Death Canyon that separates Static Peak from Prospectors Mountain. Both mountains are over 11,000 feet but we went up to only 7,000 feet for a climb of a little over 2,000 feet. We walked through alpine forest, across several rock slides, a lot of switchbacks, and over subalpine terrain before following a beautiful stream falling down the mountain side. At the top of the trail we came to Alaska Basin Junction where we could have continued on into the mountains. But that was far enough for us. This spot was flat, shaded and had grassy areas near the stream. A perfect place for lunch. That is, until the black marmot tried to steal our lunch. He was very persistent to a point that we had to move to keep him away from us!

The hike down was okay because it was mostly down hill. About a mile and a half from the trailhead we came across a meadow where several people had stopped and were obviously watching something. It was a black bear, browsing for berries and making his way down the hill towards the lake and right past us. We didn't want to stick around for pictures as he was getting pretty close so we moved on with no photograph.

We see buffalo every day as we drive back to the campground so I got a quick picture.

Moose!

Jackson has a farmer's market every Saturday morning so instead of going to the grocery store first, we stopped there. The first thing that caught John's eye was the bacon-on-a-stick. A must have if you love bacon! I stocked up on veggies and fruit and then finished up at the grocery store.

Since we have made plans to eat dinner in town tonight, we opted for a car tour and short hike today. The Tetons are so awesome. Not much snow on them right now but you can spot some glacial snow on the tallest ones. One of the most popular spots in the park is Jenny Lake but because it is Saturday, there are way too many people around to enjoy this spot so we hiked along two smaller lakes -- String Lake and Leigh Lake. It was an easy two mile hike through shady forest on a pine needle path. Almost every afternoon the clouds build up, it thunders and lightenings, it rains in spots and then by early evening the skies clear, the wind dies down for a beautiful night. So we got rained on. We drove back down the valley to Moose Junction and then to a small commercial area called Dornans. There is a shop, grocery, bar and restaurant with a short walk to the Snake River.

At the river is a small concrete platform that juts out over the water a short way. We were enjoying the river view when John heard a noise, turned and spotted a bull moose! He was only about 20 feet from us, standing on the water's edge grazing on the overhanging bushes. He walked a little closer then got distracted from his eating by a passing raft of people. He began this head swinging thing but we're not sure why or what it meant. He wasn't a huge moose but he did have a good size rack of antlers and a long beard. Awesome!

We had dinner in Jackson at The Blue Lion. We shared a rack of lamb that was some of the best lamb we have ever had!

Aspen Ridge - Boulder Ridge Trails

John forgot to set the alarm clock so we got to sleep in this morning. Then it took us until almost lunch time to get our act together to go hiking.

This part of the Grand Teton NP was part of the land that was purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He wanted to help preserver this land from development but the government and people of Wyoming did not want it to be part of the national park. So in 1927 he started buying up ranches and ended up with 36,000 acres of land. Then in 1949 the National Park Service finally accepted his donation of 33,000 acres to the Grand Teton National Park. The other 3,000 acres around Phelps Lake were kept as a family retreat and passed on to his son, Laurance who donated it to the American people to become a part of the park in 2001.

We chose two trails to hike - Aspen Ridge and Boulder Ridge. Aspen Ridge was 2.5 miles long and ended at Phelps Lake after climbing up to the top of the ridge and going back down to the lake. Boulder Ridge Trail left the lake, climbed up a little shorter ridge and ended back at the parking lot. Of the two, Boulder was the prettier trail with pine, aspen, boulders and wildlife. We heard and then spotted a large bird sitting on a aerie singing to its babies. With its white head we thought it was a bald eagle but found out later that is was most likely an osprey. They look alike when perched but are quite different in flight. The other bird we spotted was a small, brown chicken like fowl which was clucking and pecking its way among the underbrush. The ranger told us that was a rough grouse. We had never seen one before. They are fun to watch and he didn't seem to mind having us around.

After our 6 mile hike, we were thirsty so we stopped in Teton Village and had a beer at the Mangy Moose. By the time we got our hamburgers grilled the storms that had been building over the mountains poured down. Nice cool evening now.

Enroute to Grand Teton National Park

We left camp early in hopes of getting to the campground in Grand Teton park early but that didn't work out very well. We stopped in West Yellowstone, MT to dump the tanks and take on water. After a quick stroll through town, we ate lunch on the road. The shortest route to Grand Teton National Park is through Yellowstone Nat. Park. The speed limit is only 45 mph with stops to view animals. One stop was to see a grizzly bear in the middle of a field which was not a very photogenic location and another was for a bull buffalo in a grove of trees. Again, not very photogenic.

This route took us down memory lane as we had traveled this way with Erin and RJ about 18 years ago. We sure didn't recognize many locations other than Old Faithful, the mud pots and possibly one place where we rode bikes. Of course, some time between then and now, Yellowstone experienced a huge wildfire so the landscape has changed some.

We drove the eastern route south past the Teton Mountains to try and get to the Gros Ventre (pronounced "Grow Vant") Campground on the south end of the park. That is an Indian name of one of the tribes that used to summer in the Teton Valley. There is another road that goes closer to the mountains and lakes that we will explore this week.

As we drove to our campsite we saw another Bay Star and a Born Free RV. We met the Bay Star owner just before supper and I walked over to the Born Free to discover it was driven by a single lady we had met on our Yucatan Tour 3 years ago. It was great to catch up with her. Another couple we met earlier this week is also camped here.

Big Sky Golf Club

After fishing for about an hour this morning, John agreed to go golfing with me at the golf course in Big Sky. It was a beautiful course, designed by Arnold Palmer, so it was a long course. I was playing pretty well on the front nine but then dug my club in the ground and hurt my wrist on #10 and my game went down hill in a hurry! We won't talk about John's game other than it was not pretty after that for both of us. But it was a nice day, not too hot with a cool breeze. We stopped at a local brewery, Peak Brewery, and drowned our bad scores with some good beer and a couple of fish tacos.

After supper, John fished and I visited for a long time with our neighbors who are from Denver. They are very nice and funny. John did get to join us and we hope we run into them again on our travels.

Portal Creek Trail

John fished some more this morning while I just goofed off. We have decided to stay one more night at this location because we like it so well. The folks camping around us are really friendly and have some fun tales to tell or seem to enjoy hearing our tales. We might join one family that left today in Teton National Park.

This afternoon we looked for a place to hike. We drove up a gravel road called Portal Creek Trail that promised a hiking trailhead but we didn't know how far we would have to drive. After 4 miles, we parked the Jeep and started walking up the road. It was a pretty walk, very quiet and peaceful except that I had to talk every once in a while to scare away any bears that might be lurking about. Saying things like "Yo Bear, heh Bear, go away, Bear!" Of course, we never saw one. After two miles we actually came to a trailhead that promised a 2.5 mile hike to Hidden Lake but by that time we were tired and ready to go back down so we'll save that one for another time.

John actually caught a fish this evening (don't ask how big/small!) while I visited with some new neighbors. It is so nice here!

BEAR!

We had lots of excitement this evening! Just as we were finished eating inside the RV, John caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. It was a bear walking through our campsite! He ambled along, sniffing at our grill (John had cooked salmon tonight) then started wandering over to the next site. Before I could get the camera out and focused on the bear, the neighbor's dog barked and scared it off. It went down near the river where there was a fisherman, walked behind him then circled the end of the campground, crossed the highway and went into the campground on that side. The campground host was near us in his car so he drove over to his RV and actually got a picture of it. It was a small, well fed black bear only he was a cinnamon color.

With all the excitement I almost forgot about getting the slide fixed. John got up early and drove into Bozeman so that he had cell service to call Newmar. He was gone for almost three hours (Bozeman is thirty minutes away) so I was pretty worried that things were not going well. But when he returned he had a monster wrench and instructions to fix the slide himself. Within thirty minutes he had it working right! Yeah!!

We drove up to BIg Sky for lunch and then John got some trout flies that the neighbor had indicated the fish were striking. So the afternoon was spent with John fishing and I was reading, and rearranging the kitchen, then another fish outing when he caught two trout while I cooked dinner. And then the bear!

Moose Creek to Greek Creek and a Big OH NO!

Check out time was at 2 PM so we had plenty of time to fish, explore Big Sky and to stake out the campsite we wanted to move to in Greek Creek CG. No luck with the fishing, there is golfing in Big Sky and we got the site we wanted. We are camped right on the Gallatin River.

The Big UH OH happened after we moved the RV to the new campground. We decided it was only about a one mile drive so we did not lock the slides after we got them in. So when I started to push the large slide out, I did not pay close attention and did not realize that one of the locks had locked up during the drive and I ended up knocking it out of alignment so that now it will not open nor close all the way. Not sure what we will do next.

John has tried fishing some more and at least got one bite!

Dodge and Virginia Cities

After a two hour drive south through a lush, highly irrigated valley and then up to the Tobacco Root Mountains we came to two gold mining towns originally established in the 1860's during the gold rush. Actually, a small number of towns cropped us along the river but these are to only two to survive. Dodge City was a small mining community that is still here today due the diligence of folks willing to move homes to this city or rebuild and refurbish the buildings. It is mostly a living, outdoor museum with people dressed in period costume doing tasks and chores of that day such as rebuilding guns, washing wool and spinning it, preparing a lunch of stew with mountain spinach and re-enacting scenes from that era. We started our tour in the museum where they had a large collection of musical pipe organ like instruments that played with compressed air or by piano rolls. There must have been about 30-40 buildings to explore, stables, post office, general stores, homes, slaves quarters, hotels, a school, jail and bar. In the bar, the barman explained five different gambling games the miners would have played with cards and dice. The hotel had been refurbished so that people could stay there and the bakery actually sold bread, coffee and ice cream.

A small gas powered train ran between Dodge City and Virginia City which are only about a mile apart but we chose not to ride it. Virginia City is more the commercial and touristy town. Even though most of the buildings are original from the 1860's and are being used for stores, bars and restaurants, it was not near as appealing to us as Dodge City. Virginia City has survived in its original condition because it never burned down as happened to many gold mining towns. The city had a reputation as a wild town until a group of vigilante miners decided to put an end to all the murder and gambling and bring law and order to the city. They hung 4 men inside one of the buildings and killed or hung 15 more, including the "sheriff", before things calmed down. Boot Hill Cemetery contains the graves of the first ones hung.

The drive from Virginia City to Yellowstone Country south of Bozeman went through two mountain passes and was a curvy road. We had selected three National Forest campgrounds along the Gallitin River to try to find a place to stay but they were all full. After visiting with the campground host in the first one, we ended up staying in the parking lot of the day use area of Moose Creek CG. Then 4 more RV's pulled in next to us as well. It was nice having close neighbors to visit with.

Anaconda

No, we are not staying in a snake or near a snake or anything having to do with a snake! That's the name of this town near one of the largest free-standing smoke stacks in the West. Gold lured the miners to this area, silver encouraged them to stick around, but copper is where they made all their money and this smoke stack was part of the smelting plant that produced some of the purest copper in the first half 1900's. It is almost as tall as the George Washington Monument. Other than that, there is not much around here.

We are only 12 miles from Butte, so during a fierce but short thunder storm, we drove over and toured the downtown area of Butte. It is a well restored and maintained wild west town with lots of old buildings mixed in with the new but the rain deterred us from getting out and exploring more of the area and stores. It is said that Butte has over 2,000 miles of mined tunnels under the city and it is sitting near a huge open copper mine.

Route of the Hiawatha

We left Lake Mary Ronan fairly early and drove toward St. Regis where we found our way up a gravel road to the parking lot for the biking trail called Hiawatha. This is a rails-to-trails route that was built by the Minneapolis Railroad across the northwestern USA from Chicago to Tacoma, WA. At the Montana and Idaho border the tracks went through the Bitterroot Mountains. In order to go through these steep mountains, they built the track on a 1.7% grade which meant they had to build numerous tunnels and high trestles. The track was abandoned in the 1970's.

Today 15 miles of that track is for biking with another 30 miles to be added. The portion we rode on goes down hill for 15 miles into Idaho and then if you want you can ride a shuttle bus back up the hill to your car. We chose to ride our bikes back up so we only rode 12.5 miles down. The trail starts at the longest tunnel on the route at 1.7 miles long. Everyone is required to have headlights as there are NO light in any of the tunnels. That first tunnel was black, cold and wet! It took some getting used to and wishing we had worn jackets even though it was 90° today. We rode through 7 more tunnels from 300 feet long to 1500 feet and across 6 high trestles. A couple of the trestles were over 200 feet tall. It was a great ride even if it was up hill all the way back. It was also a very popular trail with lots of families with small children.

Tonight we are camped in a National Forest campground. Our RV threw us a water balloon today! A hose from the water pump came loose and spouted water into one of the compartments. Its a good thing that John is such a handy man. He canabalized a clamp from another hose on to the one we needed and figured out how to temporarily close off that other hose. Now we have to find a hardware store. Luckily, nothing in that compartment was damaged by water.

Lake Mary Ronan

This is a really nice state park within walking distance of the lake. It has about 25 sites which are half full at all times. A lot of people only stay one night but the next night more come rolling in. Tuesday morning, John took off fishing and I walked on down the road to Lake Mary Ronan Resort. Actually its a collection of cabins, homes, camping facilities, dock with a fish shack and restaurant. It's really pretty there, well kept and right on the water. On the walk back up the hill it started thundering and I thought I might get rained on so walked really fast. John on the other hand had paddled to the far end of the lake and had to paddle really fast to get back to the boat launch before being struck by lightning! It thundered for about two hours before we actually got any rain which made for a great nap time!

When the rain didn't stop, we got in the jeep and drove to Lakeside, explored the area, got some gas and came back to clear skies and sunshine. So far this week the temps have stayed in the upper 70's and low 80's -- very, very nice.

Today is another fishing day and I'm walking over some of the same grounds, but it is pleasant and I enjoy being outside. I wrote several notes to friends and sent out 8 postcards. Still no fish in the fry pan. And no pictures it seems, we were so relaxed and enjoying the lake we never took a photo.

Kalispell to Lake Mary Ronan

Needing to do laundry, grocery shopping and bill paying, we left Glacier and headed for a commercial campground in Kalispell, only about a 30 minute drive, on Saturday. We almost had a passenger. Our next door neighbor had pulled in on Friday evening on a Honda motorcycle pulling a trailer. They were parked in our way so we visited with them and found out that he had a gas leak not a hose and wasn't sure what they would do to fix it or to move it since it couldn't be driven. We offered them a ride to Kalispell, but they refused since they weren't sure what they would end up doing.

We left Kalispell this morning and drove about 45 miles south and west to a small state park on Mary Ronan Lake. We plan to stay several days so John can kayak and fish. But he didn't get to do much of that today as it poured rain until about four this afternoon. He finally got all his gear ready and did a short fishing trip after supper. We are far enough north that it doesn't get dark until 9:30 or later so even after fishing for two hours he was able to enjoy the campfire sipping on a glass of wine and eating a brownie!

Glacier View Golf Club

We had a wonderfully lazy morning, enjoying the cloudy, cool air but then got bored with that so we played golf. It was a short, fairly easy course so I did pretty well, actually its the best score I've ever had and I beat John. He won't let me share our scores! Ha! The sun finally came out and then John wished he had fished instead of golfed.

We had a lazy afternoon, went out to eat dinner at the Belton Chalet again, then walked all the loops in our campground which we estimate is about two miles. It's Friday and every site is taken. We are fairly certain that all the other campgrounds in Glacier are full as well.

The Loop Trail

Today was the big day to see if we were in any kind of shape to hike the Grand Canyon by practicing on The Loop Trail. It is 4.2 miles long, with an elevation gain of about 2,300 feet. This would be about 1/2 of what we will travel on the Grand Canyon hike.

We didn't get as early a start as we should have. The temperature today was in the lower 90's with barely a breeze blowing. The first three miles of the hike took us up and through an area burned by a forest fire in 2003 so there was very little shade but lots of wild flowers and new trees. The last mile was through forest littered with snow drifts. We saw four deer cross our path, in fact, one walked down the path right to us! The view across the valley is spectacular. At one point we heard what sounded like a clap of thunder, but there was not a cloud in the sky. It had to have been an avalanche across the way.

We had a nice picnic at the Granite Park Chalet, one of two chalets in the park for hikers. The chalet has 12 rooms with 2-6 single bunks per room. You have to cook your own food and pack in your water, bring your own sleeping bags, and carry out all your trash. They have no running water, so if you want a bath, there is a creek 1/4 mile away. We considered extending our hike by about 3.2 miles to traverse the side of a mountain so we could view a glacier. It was a good thing we did NOT do that! The hike up took about 3 hours and going down about 2 hours. We sweat so much that we didn't have to pee and John drank all 3 liters of his water.

I don't think we are quite ready yet for the Grand Canyon! Groan! I can't move!

Two Medicine & Many Glaciers

There is more than one route into Glacier Park to explore the glaciers, mountains, lakes and waterfalls. One could go into Canada to explore Waterton/Glacier National Peace Park but that's too far to drive in one day. Two others are to see the lodges and lakes of Two Medicine and Many Glaciers. We chose to drive outside the park and south around the tip and then back up to Two Medicine on the east side. It was a pretty drive along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and the Bear Creek to the Continental Divide on Marias Pass. Two Medicine was named by the Indians when two different tribes had their medicine lodge ceremonies at the same site.

In the early 1900's, the Great Norther Railroad built lodges and chalets throughout the park in an effort to lure people to ride their train on vacation. They built them about a day's horse ride apart so you could travel from one chalet to the next. Three of them are now lodges -- McDonald Lodge on the west side, Two Medicine Lodge and Many Glacier Lodge on the east side. Two smaller chalets high in the mountains were restored in the late 1990's and are used today by overnight hikers.

The area around these lodges have cabins, border on lake shores and offer vacation services like restaurants, game rooms, and tours. The lodges themselves are very rustic with huge log pillars and cross beams. A peek into one room found them to be very, very small! Walk in fireplaces and breezeways are common in all the lodges. A feature worth seeing in Two Medicine was the Running Eagle Falls, sometimes called Trick Falls. It is actually two falls, one on top of the other, but in the dry season, the top fall ends and the lower fall appears to come out of a hole in the wall.

At Many Glaciers, we were supposed to be able to see five of the parks 26 glaciers. But a sad fact is that the warming climate is melting the glaciers so it makes them hard to pick out. These five glaciers and two others can seen from the highway, but the remaining 19 glaciers must be seen by hiking to them. This lodge, too, is located on a lake with the surrounding mountains reflected in its calm, blue waters.

It seemed like it would be a shorter route back to camp if we drove the Going-To-The-Sun highway again. Time wise it was about the same but we put fewer miles on the Jeep. John took me out to dinner and we had a really nice experience at the Belton Chalet restaurant located across the street from the train depot in West Glacier. This chalet & cabins were originally built by the railroad and is on the historic register.

Avalanche Creek and Lake

It was a slow morning. We didn't catch the bus until almost 9 AM so we didn't get to our hiking destination until almost 10 AM.

Avalanche Creek was the closest point to us as well as a round trip hike of about 5 miles. We are woking up to a longer one.

The beginning of this trail runs through a hemlock/cedar forest. The creek is from snowmelt high up in the mountains, so right now it is running very fast and very high. The water has cut a deep gorge through the rock making a fast running water fall. The surrounding forest is dense with cedar and hemlock trees so despite the the number of people on the trail, it is still very quiet and peaceful. I love the smell of the cedar and the music of the song birds.

Avalanche Lake is the color of aqua marine, deep and cold. We hiked to the far end of the lake where the numerous waterfalls off of the mountains run together to fill the lake. Again, John wished he had brought his fly rod. Several men were seen fishing but we didn't see them catch anything. Fishing in this national park is free, one does not need to buy a fishing license. There was a path extending past the end of the trail so we explored it, finding a nice quiet, cool place for lunch. The hike down went faster than the one us but we were still pretty tired at the end so we did not extend the hike another 6 miles like we thought we might.

After naps, we rode our bikes on the bike trail to the town of West Glacier. I was having trouble with shifting so we stopped in the middle of the forest, on the trail to fix it and that's when we saw our first bear! He was about 20 feet in front of us. He wasn't very big but he had stopped to look at us and I quietly told John to get the camera! But John had to cough and that scared him off! So no picture, you'll have to take our word that we saw one.

Going-To-The-Sun Road

The main road through the park is an East - West road called Going-To-The-Sun Road. The name comes from a Blackfeet Indian legend or it may have been a whimsical name given by some white explorer. The Sun Road crosses the continental divide and goes over the 6,646 foot Logan Pass. When engineers were designing the road, two options were given to the park. One had gentle grades with 15 switchbacks and hairpin curves. The one that was chosen cost more and took longer to build but it had less of an environmental impact, better panoramic views, more sun exposure for fast spring snowmelt, and only one switchback, called The Loop.

We opted to drive the whole road today and then we would use the shuttle buses to get us to our hikes the rest of the week. The road is only about 51 miles long, but due to traffic, curves, and construction, one can plan to take 2 hours to drive it one way. So we packed a lunch and took off. I'll let the pictures tell the story of the beauty of the mountains, waterfalls, lakes and snow topped peaks.

Just past the halfway point is Logan Pass Visitor's Center where we thought we would take a 'short' hike up to Hidden Lake. It would have been short if not for hiking in snow! Here we are on a snow field at only 6,600 feet elevation, the sun is shining, it's hot and its cool! Despite hiking boots and poles we still slipped and slid up and down the mountain for about 3 miles total. Near the Hidden Lake we came across several small herds of mountain goats with kids. They did not seem to mind the multitude of people on their mountainside. After going all the way to the East Gate, we encountered more mountain goats on the road on our return.

The names of some of the sites were interesting -- Lunch Creek, Oberlin Mountain, Bird Woman Falls, Weeping Wall, Gunsight Pass, Sunrift Gorge, to name a few.

They are repairing and upgrading a large portion of the road so we had to wait a few times for the one lane road. I counted 76 cars in one line.   

Still too warm out for a fire.

Apgar Campground

We left Missoula and headed for Glacier National Park with no reservations and not sure where we would stay. The drive took us through some lush agricultural areas and then along the west side of Flathead Lake. John is really itching to go fishing here. It is a beautiful lake.

We entered the park at the west entrance and was told by the rangers that there was only one site in the Fish Creek Campground that we would fit in and it was only for two nights. So we then drove over to Apgar Campground on Lake McDonald, pulled into the first site we saw that our RV would fit on and stayed put. Its a nice site in a big campground and we are pleased with where we are.

We walked to the Visitor Center and checked on some of the hikes and found out that the one we really want to take is still closed due to snow cover. In fact, just last week, a park worker slipped on the snow on the trail, slid about 200 yards then fell 12 feet onto the highway. She is still in a coma and in serious condition from her injuries. We'll check on that one again later in the week. We also checked out the transportation system in the park. We can drive our own car or we can take shuttle buses that run fairly regularly.

Too hot for a fire!

Farmers' Markets

We rode our bikes again to downtown Missoula and experienced two farmer's markets and one weekly arts and craft fair. I got some great produce and John found a couple selling beef and pork. It was a really enjoyable morning.

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, grocery shopping and more housekeeping chores. It feels good to get all that work done before we head out again.

Missoula

We arrived at the Missoula Smokejumper Base where wild fire fighters train and work. We viewed the small museum and then joined a tour of the base. These men and women must be a wild fire fighter for at least 2 years before they can train to jump into the fire areas but most have been fighting wild fires for 5 - 10 years. These men and women custom make their own jump suits made of kevlar, and their own supply sacks. They each have their own parachutes. Some will fold their own but most will leave that to a pro but they do their own repairs. When a call goes out for a jump, they have about 20 minutes to dress and prepare their packs before they board the plane. Most jump from about 1500 feet but some can jump from 3000. They must know how to lower themselves out of trees and also how to climb back up the tree to retrieve their parachutes. Supply boxes are parachuted to them full of saws, picks and other fire suppression equipment along with food and gear to survive in the forest for up to 3 days. Of course, all that equipment must be packed out. Those packs can weight 85 - 110 pounds. To top off the tour, four jumpers practiced parachuting over our heads.

We spent the afternoon taking care of housekeeping chores but after supper we took a great bike ride into the downtown area. They have some really cool bike trails that go through pleasant neighborhoods or follows the Clark Fork River. The downtown was hopping! It was the First Friday Art Gallery Night when galleries are open, and there were street vendors, musicians and artists. We listened to a great Blues Band outside a bar and strolled with the college kids, at one point getting sucked into a tattoo parlor! We didn't stay there long!

The city has created a special place on the river for kayaker's to surf, there is a fabulous Carousel and Dragon playground for the kids, plus several parks along the river. We put another 9.5 miles on our bikes

Helena

Some say 'He-LAY-na' but most say 'HEL-e-na'. The gold prospectors did not like living in a town with a feminine sounding name. They liked the more masculine pronunciation with the emphasis on 'HEL'! Ha Ha!

We are the only ones camping in the Lewis & Clark County Fairgrounds camping area so it is pretty quiet this evening. We pulled in her about 10 AM this morning so we had time to explore the capital of Montana including the capital building. The Last Chance Train gave us a nice tour of the city featuring many of the beautiful mansions of the rich and famous. The name "Last Chance' came from 4 Georgian gold miners who had panned for gold in the Last Chance Gulch without much success. They started to move on up the mountain but were told there was no gold to be found there so they came back to Last Chance and decided to give it one more try or "Last Chance" and they struck it rich! The people of this town have done a great job of maintaining and restoring the buildings of their past.

A very unusual building in Helena is the Cathedral of St. Helena. The architecture of this 1914 church is based on a church in Vienna, Austria and the stained glass windows came from Germany. This church has at least 20 windows that tell stories from the Old and New Testaments. It seats 800 people and is used by the community for many musical concerts as it has a wonderful pipe organ and is a beautiful setting. The two spires reach 220 feet into the air. One story our tour guide told us was that some men were drinking and betting about what they could do and one gentleman said he could fly his plane between the spires. He won the bet with three inches to spare but he lost his pilot's license.