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July 4, 2010
Happy Birthday, America! I am currently in Glacier National Park. Yesterday, we drove up here from Yellowstone. Leaving Yellowstone was quite exciting. A Black Bear literally crossed in front of my car. Like screeching brakes, seat belts tightened, pedal to the floor stop so I wouldn't hit the bear. Nobody should be that close to a bear. But we had the protection of Chloe. It was a black bear and it was just wandering across the street. No big deal. We dropped by Mammoth and headed on out to Glacier.
For the record, if you live in Montana and are not a cowboy, can you respond. Because I am pretty sure only cowboys live in Montana, and there are only a few cowboys left, as you know. They're practically endangered. These poor men, living in Montana, with no one to talk to. They must speak cow. Mountains flanked the left side of the road as we headed north. The rest was flat grassland and cows.
We arrived at our campsite at Glacier, St. Mary’s Campground. The wind greeted us. Without help, we couldn’t possibly have set up camp. The tent kept acting like a parachute with
each gust. It took forever, and was exhausting. With a little help from the neighbors, we were able to get set up. The view from out campsite is quite beautiful. You can see the protruding layers of sedimentary rock lifted high into the air. You can also see a huge belt of a basaltic intrusion that metamorphose the surrounding layers of dolomite into marble. It is such a great representation of geologic intrusions and metamorphism. Enough about that, back to our campsite. We made grilled cheese sandwiches in honor of my friends who didn’t get to eat them this year at Blue Heron. We drank Kokanee. We had a fire. We also kept on waiting for it to get dark. We waited until around 10:30pm when finally the sun set. It is confusing when 7:30pm feels like mid afternoon.
Sleeping was horrible. The wind continued to rip throughout the entire evening. Our tent was literally being lifted up with each gust. We had all of our heaviest objects in the tent, including our bodies, we were tied off at all 4 corners to trees and we were staked down and yet our tent still nearly blew over. Sleeping was horrible.
Yet, Carol, your tent and us, have survived! A great tent!
Today we have quite the day ahead of us. Could possibly be the best day yet. We are going to view a glacier from the closest possible point that we can get to. Blackfoot and Jackson Glacier. We will be hiking over 15 miles to do this. We have read up on our bear knowledge. Did you know, that a quiet hiker is a dead hiker? You need to make noise to not surprise the bears. Also, did you know, that if a grizzly bear attacks you, you need to lay on your belly, cover your neck, and play dead? But, if a black bear attacks you, you need to fight back? That’s right, fight that black bear. I think I’ll play dead for both after I throw them my sandwich. Can’t wait to get going!
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DAHLIA
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love the entries and the pictures....sounds like your both having a ball...so happy for the 2 of you..what a great adventure..Love Mom