Sunday,
June 16, 2013
I
took a ride today up to an area about seven miles from my trailer called Two
Medicine. The road actually ends at Two
Medicine and there is a big lake, Lower Two Medicine Lake, most of which you
can’t see because it curves around behind a mountain. They have boat rides that will show the whole
lake and drop you off at trailheads and pick you up later so you can hike some
of the backcountry trails.
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| Falls before Two Medicine Lake |
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| Two Medicine Lake |
Today
I was just getting away for the day with Pati and Dexter. This is a day I don’t like remembering
because Pati died a year ago today. I
guess I should be thankful I’ve survived the past year without her and didn’t
do anything stupid or destructive. I am
pleased that I made it through it…there were some times I wasn’t so sure I
would make it. I hope to continue on this path of rebuilding my future one
day at a time.
We
just took the drive to get familiar with the local area. I plan to come back by
myself and hike a few trails and maybe take the boat ride in the near
future. It is a very pretty area with
majestic mountains and lakes.
The
best part about the ride today was that I saw my first bear, and it was a
Grizzly with a cub. I was on the road driving
back and a car was in front of me and he braked and I saw the bear and cub
(could have been two) just going off the side of the road into the brush. I could only see them from the backside but
they were light brown so most likely a Grizzly. Neat! I just hope I don’t meet up with them on the
trail.
I failed to mention where I am parked while staying here for the summer. Here are some pictures of my parking place. It is pretty nice and right in the town but only about a quarter mile from where I will be working. I was really surprised on June 16th, the day I was really down, with a visit from my very special friends and former neighbors, Yanni and Jose. They live in Beaverton, Oregon and Yani had a business trip to the area so they took a chance and surprised me with a drop in visit. It was so great to see them and they really made my day.
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| My parking area looking East. The cabin is not occupied but we are discussing renting it out this Summer. |
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| Looking west to the mountains and Glacier National Park from my "patio". |
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My first and probably only visitors were Yani and Jose from Portland! Geat surprise!!! Love these guys!
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Tuesday,
June 18, 2013
I
worked a few hours on Monday cleaning some cabins that I am responsible
for. Today (Tuesday) I mowed grass
around the cabins for a few hours. I am
going to have to work up to this physical exercise as I am not used to it. I
was tired after a couple hours of mowing.
After
work, I decided to see what the Blackfeet Indian Reservation was like so Dexter
and I took a ride down a gravel road that went East out of East Glacier Village
that seemed to go forever. At first it
was interesting and crossed a river that looked real good for fishing and then
I saw a few big lakes also but eventually it was just grassland and some range
horses and cattle and a house here and there and I wondered if I should turn
around. Well I didn’t and eventually
ended up on a highway that took me back around on the reservation to the town
of Browning and eventually back home.
I
was not impressed but at least now I know what it is like East of me, lots of
land and little else. I know what is
West and North……Glacier National Park.
Anyway, from now on I will be going into Glacier.
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| The Two Medicine River on the reservation that I may do some fly fishing in. Easy access. |
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| This is what the majority of the Blackfeet Reservation looked like. Great for cattle. |
It
is Wednesday after work and my boss at the Lodge, Bob, came by to say hello and
have a drink with me late this afternoon. Just before he drove up eight police
cars came flying down the street code three and stopped in front of a house
close by. I couldn’t see what was going
on but it must have been a serious call, maybe domestic violence or worse. An ambulance came later too. I didn’t know there were so many police in
this area. I never did find out what happened. Made me feel a little more secure knowing they do respond in force.
After
things settled down, we were sitting outside and the sky was getting dark and
thunder was booming and all of a sudden it started raining and hailing and
raising all kinds of commotion. We sat
under my canopy but it got worse and Bob decided to rush to his car and get
home. I quickly pulled in the canopy and
it has been blowing and raining and howling the past few hours. Of course I
don’t have internet or direct TV due to the storm so I am catching up on my
blog. Looks like a good night to read on
my book or watch a DVD.
Sunday,
June 23. 2013
I
was off work Thursday and Friday and it was raining so I decided to drive into Kalispell
and buy a new faucet for the bathroom.
The old one started leaking under the sink again so I thought it best to
just replace it. It is 85 miles one way
to Kalispell but it is the closest town with a Lowes and Home Depot. It even has a Costco and Wal-Mart so that’s
where I have to go to stock up or get specialty items like the faucet.
It’s
still early as I sit here writing. I have to go to work around 9:30 today. I have been waking up around 6am since I got
here. I think it’s the clear mountain
air. I don’t mind because it gives me time to relax, check email and maybe do a
little work on my blog before going to work.
I
have decided to treat myself to breakfast two or three times a week at the
local’s favorite café, East Glacier Grill.
Yesterday I went to the Glacier Park Lodge located right here in town.
It is a beautiful big one hundred year old lodge built on the Blackfeet
Reservation but the site was purchased from the Piegan, a tribe of the
Blackfeet nation so it’s part of the park.
They
had a big 100 year celebration with a free lunch so I decided to
partake…remember it was free! I stood in
line for awhile with many other people but finally got to go in and go through
the buffet line. Cheeseburgers or hot
dogs and all the fixings. It was pretty
good but I got seated at a community table with some folks that were not real
friendly and their little girl kept looking at me like I was going to eat
her! That didn’t make for a pleasant
lunch but it was a good lunch. I am
still having difficulty with being just one…seems the only place to sit is the
bar!
I will take some pictures of the lodge for a later post. It is really neat but I will show all the lodges in the park at one time.
Tonight
I went over (invited) to Bob and Diane’s cabin for drinks and company with
their friend, Martin. He is the man that
is from Georgia and drives the big red tour buses through the park during the
summers. We had a nice visit and I
shared some Montana whiskey with them that I had bought while in Kalispell. Diane really liked it so I left what was left
in the bottle with her to enjoy. She told me to stop at the distillery and
visit on my next visit to the west side because the operation is interesting
but the building is really neat.
Monday,
June 24, 2013
I
woke up to a fairly nice overcast day this morning. I decided it was time to
have that breakfast out so I went over to the (I later found out it was the
wrong place) café and settled in for some biscuits and gravy and eggs. It was not bad but not my favorite as the
gravy was thick and not so tasty so I will try something else next time. By the time I left it was raining again! I came back to the LTR and let Dexter go
potty before going to work.
Since
it was raining I couldn’t do any mowing plus I had to clean the Bunkhouse and
the Loft. These two places are located
in the big red barn and have lofts in addition to the lower areas. This usually means more work because more
people sleep there and more beds and cleaning have to be done.
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| This is the office and the home for the owners. |
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| Cabins 5 and 6 which are my cabins during my work week but I also cover the others when Berta is off. |
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The far end of the lodge area where the Bunkhouse and Loft are.
|
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| Bunkhouse on the left and Loft on the right. The Loft goes way up...lots of stairs. |
The
Bunkhouse was pretty normal and I got it done without much effort. When I stepped into the Loft I was shocked at
the mess left behind. Bob told me this
is unusual but does happen and a man and his two young sons had been staying
for a couple of days. I went back to the
office and grabbed a really big trash bag and went to work. The Loft has a hide-a-bed couch below and a
queen bed up stairs plus they are given a blow up mattress if desired. All the cabins have kitchens and
refrigerators and microwaves plus dishes and utensils and the Bunkhouse even
has a 3-burner stove.
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| This is the inside of the Bunkhouse. |
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| Loft upstairs but seldom used and kitchen and living room. |
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| Bedroom and bath. |
So…anything
can happen or be left behind. Most of
the time so far the folks that stay have
done a pretty good job of cleaning up after themselves. This time nothing was
done and I think the man felt guilty about the way they left the place because
he left a ten dollar tip on the counter.
I told Bob about it and he said it was mine to keep so my breakfast was
almost paid for today.
I
must admit I get pretty darn tired after about three hours of cleaning and
changing beds and vacuuming and moping and climbing the stairs to the Loft etc. I hope this will get better in time as I am
not used to doing much physical labor. It certainly is not going to hurt me and
will help me get back into shape. Even
mowing grass with the power mower is hard because I have to mow around lots of
small and large trees and bushes so it is a physically demanding chore. I
haven’t even tried to do any trimming with the weed wacker but that is on my
list.So
after 3 ½ hours of work, I am sitting inside relaxing this afternoon watching
the rain come in from the mountains.
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| Rain and wind coming in! |
I
did put a cover over the roof vent (inside) over my bed so the bedroom is now
dark (I blacked out the windows too) and I might be able to get a little more
sleep. I still want to get up around
seven every morning so hope I don’t oversleep!
Poor
Dexter was bitten by some kind of mean bug and I am nursing him a bit in two
different places. At first I thought it
was ticks but none there….just a fair size raw sore. He will be fine but I really have to watch
him carefully around here between the res (reservation) dogs and the bugs. I will certainly be glad when the mosquitoes
decide to go away. They are driving me
nuts but I have yet to be bitten. I
spray myself down every morning and wash it off every night and start over again
the next morning. They are horrible!
I
ordered a new satellite dish for my direct TV as I could not pick up any local
channels like from Great Falls or Missoula etc.
I was told I needed this new dish that will pick up the local stations
so I found one on eBay for a reasonable price. I was shocked at the size of
this dish compared to mine that I have been using. It is so big it would not fit into my stand
so I had to order a tripod for it.
Just
my luck as I gave a very nice tripod to my brother when I was in Hurricane
because I didn’t need it. Oh well…the
tripod was only thirty dollars and it would cost that much to ship the other
one to me. I hope to get it this week
and get it all set up and make it work.
I will let you know. It’s a good
thing that I have a big truck to haul it in when I leave.
I
will be off Thursday and Friday. If it doesn’t rain I plan to take a short hike
in the Two Medicine area on Thursday so I hope to have lots of pictures and
things to talk about then. I bought a new waist belt for short hikes that has
two water bottles and a pouch for my small camera and an energy bar plus my
bear spray fits on the belt so I am ready to go.
Today
is Tuesday and I put in a few hours mowing grass today but it was still too wet
to do much. I will try again tomorrow. I got home before noon.
As
I was sitting here at my trailer this afternoon I heard a motor outside and saw
Woody, the nephew of the guy that owns this property, Tony, outside mowing my
lawn. He mowed the whole thing and told
me he would come back in a few days and weed-eat the rough areas. I was
surprised and pleased and told him so. I
had planned to mow it myself tomorrow.
These folks are really nice people.
Woody told me they would take care of me and gave me his phone number if
I needed anything. He is a nice guy,
retired Navy so we related well. I am
very lucky to have these guys looking out for me.
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| Woody |
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| Woody, Tony , Cooper and Dexter. Tony owns the land I am parked on...looks like Santa! |
So
I had a nice lazy afternoon and I grilled me a great turkey burger and had some
nice scotch. All is well.
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| I had to taste it before I could take a picture! It was great!! |
Wednesday,
June 26, 2013
I
worked a solid five hours today cleaning the Bunkhouse and mowing. I tried to use the big gas weed eater but it
is so heavy I got tired quickly. I will talk to Bob about putting a shoulder
strap on it. I decided to give the zero
turn riding mower a try and it took me awhile to get the hang of it. It felt good to be sitting while working so I
mowed a large area and it really looks nice. I wish this place was such that I
could do all my mowing on the riding mower.
I
was talking to Diane about getting an elk burger at the Lodge and how expensive
they are. She said she has plenty of ground elk meat in her freezer and she
will give me some. I can’t wait to make
my own elk burger. Maybe they will have
some antelope meat too so I can try that out.
Tomorrow
I am going on that hike about ten am. It is still cold and windy and a little
rain but the weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow. We will see…I don’t hike in the rain but I do
carry a poncho just in case. Just thinking wet and cold gives me the shivers.
I
just changed my mind about tomorrow. I
was reading some info on the hikes etc and decided to go on Friday. There is a
boat ride on Two Medicine Lake and a Ranger led hike to Upper Two Medicine
Lake…a couple of miles. So I think this
would be the best way to get introduced to this area. Tomorrow I will wash my truck and do some
clean up around here…laundry and stuff I would normally do on Friday.
Thursday,
June 27, 2013
Here
it is Thursday and I decided that Dexter and I would take a ride up to Many
Glacier. That place is the last East
side stop in the park before you have to enter Canada to go to Lake Waterton. If I ever get my passport I will go to Canada
for a few days.
Many
Glacier is known to have the largest bear population in the park but I didn’t
see one today. There is a large number of Big Horn Sheep too but I didn’t see
one of those either today. I plan to
take the boat ride some day and see more of the area.
I AM SO OUT OF SHAPE! MEDICINE LAKE HIKE.
I
went on my boat ride and hike to Upper Two Medicine Lake today. I have to say I barely made it. It was 2.5
miles each way and an elevation rise of maybe 500 feet but it sure did kick my
butt! My problem is the thin air and elevation made me gasp for air at times.
However...I did make it up and back so now I just have to keep on doing this
every week and try to build up my endurance and muscles.
We left the boat dock at 11:30 and got off the
boat at the other end of Lower Two Medicine Lake to begin our hike. We hiked to Upper Two Medicine and had to be
back at the dock around 4pm to catch our ride back. As much as I liked the hike
I think I will go alone from now on so I can pace myself better.
It
was a beautiful hike. We did see a Grizzly bear and her cubs but they were way
up on the side of the mountain,too far to even try to get a picture because I
had my small camera with me with limited range.
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| Just before boarding the boat at Two Medicine. |
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| On the way to Upper Two Medicine Lake |
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| Twin Falls after we started our hike. About half way to Upper Two Medicine Lake. |
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| The final push over the hill to Upper Two Medicine Lake..I was really tired at this point. |
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| Upper Two Medicine Lake. Lots of fish here but I am not sure I will hike this far to catch one! |
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| Ranger Pat. Super guy and did a fine job of talking about the area and plants. |
Ranger
Pat was a great guide but he hikes too fast!
He shared lots of great information about the area and the plants and
the Blackfeet people that lived in the park area seasonally for thousands of
years. We had a large group so we were
strung out on the trail and the age range must have been about seven to
seventy…me pushing the old age end of that range.
I
made acquaintance with a very nice young lady on the trail named Amy from Grass
Valley, California. She was by herself
and on vacation. She is a registered
nurse so we had a few things in common since Josh is pursuing his nursing
degree. It was nice to have someone to
talk with and I am always open to meeting nice people.
She was nice enough to
take my picture and here is one of Amy. I wish her safe travels going back
home. Looking at this picture I asked Amy to take I wish I had not asked. I hate pictures of myself! I have got to lose 20 pounds this summer!
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| OK..fine. I know. Lose the gut. Working on it. |
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| My trail buddy Amy. She is a nurse...nice to have her close by today! She couldn't wait to cool her feet after the hike...the water was really cold she said! |
After
all that exercise I am so hungry I could eat a mule! I didn’t take lunch with me, only an energy
bar, and all the hiking must have burned a bunch of calories. I think I will go to the local cafe and have
a big burger and beer..I earned it.
I
am back and feeling much better. I
didn’t have a burger as planned but had the Navajo Bread Taco. It was different but good and very filling. I
washed it down with a local beer called Going To The Sun IPA. Make that two
local beers. How am I ever going to lose 20
pounds doing that.
Tomorrow
I go to work for my five day run. It has
warmed up considerably and will actually be hot for awhile…near 90. It gets hot here at that temperature because
of the clear air and our being so far north that the sun is closer.
Monday,
July 1, 2013
Well...been
working a few days and it has been pretty warm.
Nothing like what has been happening in the southwest areas..like a 127
degrees in Death Valley and 117 in Las Vegas.
No thanks. I will stay north from
now on until winter sits in. Here I am complaining about high eighties!
After
work today I brought home the mower and cleaned the area up a little. The riding mowers are nice but they don’t cut as low as a push power mower
so I did it. After that I have been sitting in the air conditioned trailer all
afternoon. I have all my pictures downloaded so I need to publish this blog now
before it gets too large for my wifi connection.
I was catching up on the news on line and saw where 19 Hotshot Firefighters perished in a forest fire neat Phoenix. I was really feeling sorry for my own loss of Pati the past few days but I must say that made me realize I am not alone in my grief in any respect. I hope we all will say a prayer for those folks families and friends who are experiencing feelings and very rough times ahead that many of us cannot imagine.
Signing
off..be safe.
