Saturday
Our new flight leaves very early the next morning. We arrive in Kalispell at 1:15 which essentially makes us lose a day in the park. However we aren't upset at all until we hear about all that we missed with the Super 8.
Tim & Christie pick us up and we head to the park. We stop at Lake McDonald Lodge for some pictures and then head through the middle of the park on the "Going to the Sun" road to the East Glacier Lodge. The views are spectacular.
Tim's goal was to see a bear and had been a little disillusioned by a kid working at the Kalispell outfitter that said "I have lived here all my life and have never seen a bear." So it was nice that on the road across the park we saw a mother black bear and two cubs. Bear count = 3.
Sunday (My birthday if you want to get me something. On my wish list there is still a Rolex and a Ferrari, surprisingly enough.)
We went into Canada to see the Prince William Lodge and for a hike to Lower Bertha Falls. The Lodge had availability, but at $250 USD/night we were happy to stay in the US.
The hike was long and with good rolling hills that definitely trended upward. The falls were nice at the top -- we tagged the rock and headed back down. Unfortunately, this "easy" hike caused the group to stop trusting me and requiring a book check for all future hikes.
We had lunch in a little cafe while I tried to work on my sunburn. We then headed back through the incredibly polite US Customs (really, it was -- although there was some questions about why Christie was with Tim).
On the drive back, we saw a grizzly mom with two cubs and a juvenile black bear. Bear count is now 7.
Dinner was at the lodge. The place is run by temporary help mostly from Eastern Europe. Tim and I had a little side game going trying to get the Russian staff to say "Moose and Squirrel". He kicked my butt.
The other thing that was Tim with his restaurant background was constantly asking "How do you prepare this..." or "How do you prepare that..." Yet when asking about the Elk, he asked the waitress "Elk, how do you pronounce that?" She gave us a very confused look and carefully said "Eeeellllllkkk". Nicole and Christie were on the floor.
Monday
Today we went to the center of the park for the requisite Hidden Lake trail. It is a very steep hike, but mostly on board walkways. We were struggling at one point, only to look over and see a guy that had to be 120 years old with an oxygen mask. Needless to say, we sucked it up and hiked on. The great thing about this hike is that there is so much wildlife -- no moose, but a lot of squirrel.... ...and moutain goats, and big horn sheep. The view is spectacular and unlike anything else in the park.
I made everyone eat at Two Sisters and then follow it up with pie at the Park City Cafe (Pies for Strength!). We then went on to Apikuni (Trick) falls and to the Two Medicine area. We finished with day with a good dinner and got Nicole ready to fly out on Tuesday...
Tuesday
Ryan is out. I call Mike and he says Ryan is in. We verify on the way to the airport and we have to unpack Nicole's suitcase to get the tent and other things for Ryan out. We take a casual day and come back to pick up Mike late that night.
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