Wed., June 20, 2018 Happy Birthday in Montana

 Wednesday, June 20

Happy Birthday, Greg! We celebrate this bright morning with blueberry pancakes!  Then we stop at the front office to get some ideas of where to explore today.  Nothing scheduled here till a 5:00 meeting about going to Alaska.

We are told that the Going to the Sun Road will open today, but figure it will be too busy today, so plan that for Friday.  Instead we head back to Two Medicine to see Running Eagle Falls.  Running Eagle was a female Blackfoot who did the fasting and wilderness tests usually reserved for males who wanted to be warriors.  She was successful and a legendary warrior and leader.  The Falls are a short hike.  So nice to see blue sky again!

On the way in, we spotted a moose with a young one crossing the road, but they vanish quickly into the dense forest. Some places the forest is almost park-like with nice green grasses between the trees.  Other places the trees are so thick that they create a dark wall from the passing road.

There is an artist named Diane set up here painting and I speak with her for a while.  

She is from Colorado and she too is grateful for some sunshine. There are artists all over the park this week, she says, and there will be a show of their work next week at the Hockaday Museum in Kalispell – where we stopped just a few days ago!  If Going to the Sun Road opens, we may make it to the show.

More flowers, and a family shows up with young kids who like playing in the dirt and pebbles along the river.

The trail to the falls is closed due to  high water. 

We continue down to Two Medicine Lake and it is a gorgeous gem today! 

 I could hear the men fore and aft in this canoe giving lessons to the Dad and Son in the middle.  

  By the time we leave, the parking areas are overflowing and we are ready.

From here we take another road towards Browning, again through pastureland with many horses and these pretty wild irises in one damp spot.

 Montana is called Big Sky country and we can see why as beautiful blue sky and white clouds surround us 360 degrees!

In Browning, we head for the Museum of the Plains Indians. 

 In the parking area, Greg stops for Beth to go take some photos and he is approached by a couple of panhandlers who chat a bit before asking for money. They look pretty rugged, with tattered clothes and few teeth.  Greg gives them a little change as we move on to the museum parking. We have heard that alcoholism is a major problem in this area.

The man who greets us at the museum, Reaggan, asks where we are from.  He is a Blackfoot who used to work for Compaq Computer near our home in the 90’s. Then he was in Silicone Valley for a while.  He is now managing this museum and some other businesses here in Browning and says he enjoys working the admissions area sometimes and talking to people from all over the world.  Very friendly and well spoken guy.

The museum is small but very nice.  Built in 1940, it is well maintained and depicts the life of  the Indians of the Plains which included the Blackfoot, Arapaho, Crow and several other tribes.  There are individual panels dealing with different aspects of Indian life – from Home and Horses, to  Warfare, Hunting,  Courage and Honor, etc.   There are displays representative of each area, such as saddles, blankets, weapons, cradleboards, pipes, containers, games, etc.  Reaggan told us that all of the items are authentic - no replicas here.

The largest display is of ceremonial clothing. There are outfits featuring animal skins, painting, beadwork, feathers, fringe, quillwork, etc. I  am especially impressed by the quillwork where they use porcupine quills to create intricate patterns. Beautiful and detailed work!  (Sorry, no photos allowed.)  There are also dioramas showing aspects of Indian life, like the Sun Dance celebration, or Moving a Camp.  Though there are written explanations and descriptions, it is the visual aspect that reaches out and grabs you at this museum.  

We take Route 486 back towards Babb, and notice a ranch that raises bison.  In Babb, which consists of just a few buildings (population 174), we visit an antique shop and a general store. 

Back at the campsite, we forego the planned steak dinner when the 5:00 meeting we were going to attend is changed to 6:00 because the hostess isn’t back from her hike yet.  We meet with a small group interested in going to Alaska. We share how our previous Alaska outing was planned.  There is a woman who did one of the pricy, RV caravan trips who also chimes in.  Some emails were shared to see if a trip might be organized for 2019 or 2020.  We are considering doing it again but wouldn't want a highly structured trip.

The lady who hosted the discussion, Lish, is also a wildflower expert, I was told. (She also works for Road Scholar!)  So I ask her about some of the flower photos I’ve taken and we spend a half hour or so with two books, identifying most of them.  Since this ran late, I miss the writing workship scheduled for 7:00. Greg has a fire for a bit and then we crash before the 10:00 meeting about the stars.  We haven’t seen many stars yet this trip because of cloudy skies.

We’ve talked a bit with our neighbors on either side and Debbie, a single traveler from the Chicago area.  One couple are pretty new at rv'ing and are from Atlanta.  The others are from Wisconsin. There are other rigs from California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Oregon, Canada and others!

Tomorrow there is supposed to be a pot luck dinner, but we’ll be having steaks, baked potatoes and corn on the cob at the campsite.

June 19 Hiking in the Rain/ Blackfoot Dinner

 Tuesday, June 19

Up early and the rain continues.  We have coffee and breakfast and meet at the tent for the 8:30 hike.  There are 11 of us going and the leaders, Yan and Kiki, go over gear,  sealing any foodstuffs in bags, water and of course bear spray.  Bears have an incredible sense of smell (their sensors are like a sheet of 8x11 paper compared to our postage-stamp size ones).   We are told that if you cooked bacon for breakfast you need to change clothes, or consider yourself a walking snack.

 They go over some trail etiquette, like those going uphill have the right of way,  and toileting in the wild (we have a group shovel to bury any of that and baggies to seal toilet paper in to carry out.) Finally, about 9:00 we hit the road in two vehicles for the drive to Many Glacier and Red Rock Falls Trail.

Most of the folks have proper boots and raingear, so we set off with Yan in front and Kiki bringing up the rear.  Both are experienced and have interesting tales. Yan, a tall guy, sets a quick pace, but others don’t, so we just re-group now and then.  Beautiful scenery and lively chatter with frequent pauses for photo ops despite the light rain.

Plenty of water in the streams and falls.

 Two of the men are semi-professional photographers and have tripods and some amazing lenses.

Here is a glimpse of the mountaintop across the way at one point.

Closer by, there are nice flowers here and there.

 We've been seeing lots of wild strawberry plants in many areas, here and in Canada.  Some are blooming already.  I used to love to eat them when I was a kid back in Pennsylvania - tiny but sweet.

 The rain continues, intermittent and light.

We spot some mountain goats high up on a rocky mountain (see small white dots), and a few ground squirrels, but nothing else this rainy morning.

Two miles out, we come to the falls.  Beautiful from above,

and from below.  Love the rushing, gushing sound of the water.

 Some people snack a bit and rest before we head back the way we came.  The trail is busier now that the rain has stopped.  Tomorrow we will talk with folks who did this hike in the afternoon and saw several bears.

We practice "leave no trace" but do leave a few footprints...at least for a little while.

Back at the campsite, we drape the wet stuff where we can.  The rain has stopped, so Greg works at gathering firewood and getting a campfire set up.  Beth takes the computer up to the office and works with photos from the last few days. Their wi-fi will get you email, but isn’t very strong for anything else.

We find out that Chewing Blackbones is the name of a Blackfoot Chief who, when a toddler, was somehow lost  and survived by chewing on the bones found by campfires.

Tonight we are having a traditional Blackfoot dinner in a nearby picnic area and thankfully the rain holds off.  The menu includes bison, squash, sweet potatoes, greens, frybread, and a dessert made from serviceberries with a bit of oatmeal-type crumble.   

After dinner,  we are entertained by Jack Gladstone, storyteller/poet/singer. 

 His father is Blackfoot who quite possibly fired the last shots of WWII as a navy gunner taking down a kamikaze plane (after announcement of cessation of hostilities).  His mother is a German who his father met in Seattle after the war.   Jack is a mountain of a man and won 2 Rosebowl rings playing football before coming back to his roots.   Very engaging.  His songs are his own and obviously from the heart.  They deal with this area and his heritage with titles like “Legends of Glacier” and “Circle of Life. ”  Like several of the Blackfoot people we have met, he is educated and has traveled a good bit, and then returned to this area.  Several have mentioned visiting Texas or Houston when they learn where we're from.

The weather is looking better and we're hopeful for tomorrow. This is the lake this evening from our campsite.

Greg pretty much crashes after dinner – long day and hard work chopping and splitting wood.  Beth reads a bit of her book Almost Anywhere: Road Trip Ruminations on Love, Nature, National Parks, and Nonsense by Krista Schlyer.   A perfect fit for this time and place. 

 Perhaps I should write a similar book called  Always Somewhere – as I find that each location is somewhere special to someone and has it’s own sense of place.

June 18 Roadtreks in Baab

Monday, June 18

Yesterday’s weather hangs on, so  it is very overcast this morning, with low clouds in the mountains and valleys. The first day or two of this, we thought this was interesting, but it is getting old.  We decide to do another run up to the road closure here in east Glacier.  We pass this cyclist heading up Going to the Sun Road - it is open a little further for cyclists and hikers than it is for cars, but still not totally open.

 We have seen probably a dozen or so cyclists with their saddlebags and gear.  Many motorcyclists in some parts of the country too, though not many in Glacier.  Some of the very rough roads advise motorcyclists to use alternate routes.

 Not a lot of scenery today.

  
The only wildlife we see is a young deer.  We stop at a pretty viewpoint and have fruit and cereal for breakfast (and coffee for Greg).

The town of Browning is about a half hour to the east. We  check to see if they have a library, and it says they open at 10:30, so we head that way.  Browning is a majority Indian population and to get there we cross miles of the Reservation. Rolling hills and plains with lots of cattle and horse ranches. 

When we arrive in Browning we find the library closed.  I pop into a business next door – a radio station I believe – and ask if they know anything about the library but they have no idea why it is closed.  We get gas and stop for a few items at the grocery store before going back to the library – no luck.

There is another Roadtrek parked in front of the library and we meet and chat with Linda Willcox who is from Billings, Montana via "back east".  She is traveling alone and mentions that she is going to have lunch at Two Sisters Café, near Babb, before heading to the Roadtrek Get-together.  We decide to do the same.

Two Sisters, supposedly one of the 10 best diners in Montana, is a small place with simple décor and an odd and limited menu.  Greg has fish ‘n’ chips, while Beth has “mile high” broccoli quiche and homemade potato and corn soup. The quiche is especially good. They also have chili, Vietnamese sandwiches, and for desserts, Huckleberry everything.

We have a nice visit with Linda, who shows up just a few minutes after us.  She attended last year's Glacier Roadtrek event and some of their other ones as well, so fills us in on some details.

Chewing Blackbones Campground, which is run by the Blackfeet Indians, is only a few miles up the road and is the site of our gathering.  I say Roadtrek, but there are other types of small rv’s there too. Many of these folks get together semi-regularly at various locations but this is our first time.  

We get a nice site next to the lake, while many others (those who wanted electric) are in a large grassy area.  

The campground is in poor repair with tall grass, one of the two restrooms out-of-order, no tp or towels, and not very clean.  Disappointing.  

To say this get-together is loosely organized is being very generous.  We were told there would be a general gathering at 5:00 but no one is sure where and people mill about in the rain. 

 Mike Wendland, who does a popular website and podcasts tells people the person who organized things isn’t here yet.  A few people from the Roadtrek organization say they are there to film people’s stories and another man is a tech who will be available to answer rv questions and consult.   

Soon, we are told there will be a white board, under a pop-up tent,  that will list events and times.  And there are a few things people signed up for months ago when registering – we have a boat ride Thursday afternoon - so hope the weather will be better by then.  The business office is the only place under roof and it is rather small.  It has wi-fi, though we have no phone service anywhere.  AT&T sucks here – apparently Verizon is the best in this area. Greg goes there for a meeting later in the evening and gets a little more info.

Later, the board appears as promised.  There is a hike tomorrow morning that we will try to attend.  There are limits on many of the events, like photography hikes, and some are already filled!  There are 65 rigs here, so probably 110 or so people. There seem to be many folks who do these gatherings regularly and so form little "cliques".  We know a few people through a facebook group, but none personally.  We do find out that one couple was at the Texas Rally we attended last year, but we didn't actually meet.  The weather isn't conducive to mingling.

 TP and towels appear in the restrooms.  There are a few showers, though not the cleanest and the water smells very metallic.  I come to realize that the restrooms may be cleaner than I first thought because the heavily metallic water leaves stains which may or may not be removable. There is hot-ish water.

A representative of the campground later apologizes for the condition, blaming the weather and a very large event at another campground which took most of their efforts.  (Campgrounds here generally don't open till mid-late May.)  But, it isn’t like they didn’t know we were coming…. He offers a free extra day of camping as compensation.  

We stay inside and dry for a quiet evening.  We're snug as a bug in a rug as the temps fall.