Untethered: A Year (Or Two) on the Back Roads

Sunday, September 11

I think this one is going to be a little long, but never fear. We'll try not to do anything interesting for a while after this.

We headed from our KOA haven of wifi all the way around Glacier NP to the east entrance on Wednesday. We couldn't go the short way across the park, because our rig is a foot too tall. It won't clear the rocky overhangs on the Going to the Sun Road, the only road through the park. The Going to the Sun Road is 56 miles long, built between 1924-1932. The park covers 1 1/2 million acres, has just this one 56 mile road, but has 750 miles of hiking trails.

On the east side we camped mostly at the Many Glacier campground. Many Glacier is known as the "heart of Glacier National Park," and has a lot of good hiking. The rest of the east side is not short of scenery, either.

Note the definitive answer as to what's at the end of the rainbow....

Our first full day we took an "easy" 6 mile hike to Red Rock Lake and falls. Despite our expectations of pleasant fall weather, we managed to encounter rain.

We have a history of going to places where the weather is supposed to be fine, only to be told, "This is VERY unusual. It hardly ever rains at this time of year." On our way back from the hike we stopped and ate our picnic lunch on the shore of a small lake. Two hours later Kate went on a short ranger-led nature hike that ended precisely where we had eaten our sandwiches. As the group gazed at that spot, Kate saw.....

.....a bear. Luckily it was just hungry for berries, so it didn't charge. Factoid: Grizzlies (which this one wasn't, it was a black bear) eat 200,000 huckleberries a day at this time of year -- 25,000 calories worth.

Huckleberries in the wild (most have been eaten)

Had the bear charged, Kate could have used her bear spray. Bear spray should really be called bear mace. Mace for humans has 17% capsaicin, an active component of chili peppers. Bear spray is 97% capsaicin, and the spray reaches 20 to 30 feet. We were regaled with many stories of people who accidentally set off their bear spray and wiped out all twenty tourists on their bus, etc.

One full day was devoted to a "Red Bus Tour" of the park. The red busses are 80-year-old vehicles first manufactured by the White Motor Company of Cleveland. This seemed appropriate, since all the passengers were white. There are more than 30 red busses still in service at Glacier.

The tour covers all 56 miles of Going to the Sun Road -- and back again. Almost the whole trip is conducted with the convertible top open for better views.

The trip put both of us in mind of our gold standard for cold while traveling: standing on the Great Wall near Beijing in January in a high wind. This trip didn't quite meet the gold standard, but it came close. But the views were worth it.

This one's for scale. The little white dashes toward the bottom of the frame are cars driving on the Going To The Sun Road.

We're determined to hike as many of the 750 trail miles as possible, so we jumped at the chance to join a ranger-led hike to Iceberg Lake. Well, some of us jumped at the chance. The hike covered 10 miles round trip, starting at 5,000 feet and reaching the lake at 6200 feet.

Above is my view of the hike. A one-of-a-kind photo; the only time I was close enough to the group to make visual contact. I understand the ranger had really interesting things to say.

The lake. Definitely worth the effort to get there. Iceberg Lake is in a cirque - a half-open steep-sided hollow at the head of a valley or on a mountainside, formed by glacial erosion. The high, vertical wall of rock above the lake is an Arrete -- a knife edge of rock formed by two glaciers scraping valleys close together in parallel. The ridge along the top is about six feet wide; the wall itself is so thin you can see through it in places.

Seen along the trail: Many green-tinged and red-tinged rocks.

They're the same rock: argillite. Argillite is a sedimentary rock made from mud and ooze. Found everywhere in Glacier Park, this smooth clay-like red and green rock was formed when a shallow tropical sea rose and fell multiple times from a billion and a half to eight hundred million years ago. Present day argillite is green if it was deep under water and not exposed to oxygen. When exposed to oxygen, the rock “rusted” or turned red. Because the rocks of Glacier Park are this ancient in origin, they predated any life forms other than primitive sponges -- so there are no animal fossils, not even of seashells -- just traces of the sponges.

What's it like so far, having an adventure? Pretty nice. Of course there are adjustments. A while back when we were at our first campsite I explained to the camp hosts what we were doing, and that we were about a week into it. They looked at each other and said "Well, you're still married. That's a good sign."

We are different people. For instance our rig has heating, with a thermostat. I find that the sweet spot temperature setting at night is 55 degrees. That's the point above which Kate suffers heat prostration, and below which I experience hypothermia. Kate is a frugal traveler. For example, we conserve bath soap. We often use public showers, so we bring our own soap. So far one bar has lasted three weeks. Tonight I was sort of taken aback when Kate handed me the soap dish and I saw the tiny smudge of soap in it. On my way out to the shower, she gave me my instructions: "Don't get it wet."

The soap (wet).

Many have expressed envy about our carefree adventure. It is great. I want to provide a little texture -- nuts and bolts, as it were. The bedroom where we've slept for the past 30 years in our not-very-big house is about 170 square feet. Our living space in the rig, serving as living room, office, dining room, bedroom, and kitchen, is 70 square feet.

Kate enjoys relaxing in the living room/office, reading the local newspapers. Today she had the Browning, MT Glacier Reporter at hand. Excerpts from the sheriff's log:

9:39 a.m. - Officer out with male and female engaged in verbal argument that was just a young lover's quarrel and nothing criminal.

2:23 p.m. - Officer stopped traffic on U.S. Highway 2 to allow the Blackfeet Tribe's herd of bison to cross to their other summer pasture.

3:58 p.m. - Caller has low tire and is in Browning and wondering where she can get some air.

6:31 p.m. - Officer out with older woman just west of the bridge and gave her a ride to Albertsons.

Kate whips up really amazing meals in the kitchen. Lucky for me. We're back at the KOA campground tonight, but Gene (see previous blog) decided not to barbecue during the thunderstorm.

Elegant dining every night.

Converting the space from living/dining to bedroom or vice versa is easy. Just clear the dishes, pull the table out of the wall as hard as you can, fold up and secure the table leg, lift the table overhead and slide it into its storage slot. Then yank on the seat with all your might and slide it forward. Repeat a few times until the seat agrees to slide all the way forward. Pull up on the front of the seat and fold down flat to create a bed. Pull the bedding out from its storage area under the kitchen counter. Wrestle bedding out of stuff sacks (or wrestle it into stuff sacks if converting back to dining area for breakfast). Dive under kitchen counter to tuck in/untuck bedding. This step usually involves cramps in at least one muscle and some profanity.