Finally…the epic story will be told.

Okay, maybe that’s selling it a little too much (alright, WAY too much).  But still, given the daunting task of switching photo sites, organizing far too many photos (and reducing them down to a reasonable number for a photo album), figuring out my camcorder, and pulling out the electroshock paddles for my computer on three separate occasions, I finally have the Northern Exposure blog, photo albums, AND video snippets completed.  Before I begin, a word about the photos and videos.

• Not only did I include two albums for Glacier-Waterton National Park, I also threw in a bonus photo album from my trip to D.C. in July 2008.  Never got those photos up until now.  You can read about that trip by using the posting calendar on the left and going to July 15, 2008.
• Until yesterday, I didn’t realize I could post videos to this new site on Shutterfly.  Also until yesterday, I didn’t know how to get videos from my camcorder to my computer without sending my computer into Code Red.  The videos on the website play just a little choppy and with a little bit lower resolution, but still get the gist across.  I even included my Bear Grylls impersonation; hope you find them entertaining.
• Finally, most of the photos in the albums were taken with my camera, but in some situations I had to use my camcorder, which doesn’t provide as crisp a picture.  Sorry about that, but I only tried to use them when necessary.  For each of the albums, just click on the album name, then “Slideshow,” crank it up to full screen if so desired, and pause or go forward/backward as you like (I’ve included captions on many photos…full-service photography here).

Having said all that, you can read on below for the details about the trip, or you can just go to my new Shutterfly share site, titled Random Travels, by clicking on the following link:

http://randomtravels1.shutterfly.com/

And now, without further ado…

Saturday, August 29^th

Our flight to Kalispell, Montana left bright and early that morning from DFW.  We had a stopover through Salt Lake City.  Through the use of CGI, the airline safety video showed a sparkle on Safety Man’s smile when he told us how to use our seat floatation device should we somehow crash.  On our flight from DFW, we were seated next to some yoga instructor who was flying to a big conference in Billings, Montana.  I decided to strike up a conversation with her, and she mentioned that Baron Baptiste would be teaching this conference.  I smiled and nodded my head as if I knew who Baron Baptiste was.  She also told me the conference was at some park in Montana called Featherpipe that was a haven for environmentalists—Featherpipe…draw your own conclusions.  While hearing this, I was holding a book I was reading by political satirist P.J. O’Rourke called All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty.  I was on the chapter about the environment…so I’m sure that went over well.

In Salt Lake City, our plane left just a few minutes late, but the pilot promised us “we’ll be flying fast.”  Translation: “We’re gonna spin the tires on the runway pavement, and we won’t be stopping for bathroom breaks or to check for directions.  We’re NW bound and down, baby.”  True to his word, we got there on time.

Somehow, our mid-size SUV turned out to be a gigantic Cadillac Escalade with a sunroof and DVD player, so I christened it, “The Pimpdaddy Mobile.”  Took off toward the park, and within about 20 miles, we saw about 200 signs for huckleberry shakes, pies, ice cream, tea, coffee, chocolate, and just about every other form of consumption.  So at lunch, we naturally ordered some huckleberry pie and ice cream and got the scoop on huckleberries.  I’d never seen them before, but they’re a lot like blueberries, only a little smaller and colored purple.  They grow wild in Montana, which is one of the only places in the world where they do, so they’re proud of them around there.

After lunch, we jumped on the Going-to-the-Sun highway through the park.  Trust me, it’s one of the most beautiful roads you could ever travel.  Crosses over the continental divide through the mountains.  We went from the west side of Glacier to the east side, and then headed north to Canada for our first two nights in the park. 

In Canada, we stayed at the Prince of Wales hotel, a stately old hotel built in the 1920s to attract tourists to the west.  The hotel employees all wear kilts—really cool—and the hotel looks like it came from The Shining.  Very old plumbing and furniture, but it had some truly great views. 

Sunday, August 30^th

Started this morning with a 4-hour horseback ride outside the little township of Mountain View.  Our guide was named Chanta (pronounced “SHON-tay”), and she was the lead guide for the company.  Along the trip we learned that we were her very last trail ride, as she was heading off to university soon.  We felt honored; not sure if she did.  But we had a great time, and even saw a young black bear on the ride back to the ranch!  Unfortunately, it scampered away before I could get my camcorder out. 

That afternoon, we grabbed some pizza for lunch, then headed out for a hike around Cameron Lake, hunting for grizzlies and Sasquatch.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see either, but we did find a chipmunk.  Not only that, but in the township of Waterton (just below the Prince of Wales hotel), the deer are so comfortable with humans that they just walk around on lawns and in the parking lots.  I even got close enough to touch one of them.  At one point I counted five deer lying on the lawn at the civic center.

Monday, August 31^st

Got up early this morning to catch video and photos of the sunrise over Waterton.  Josh took pics from atop the hill, while I went down for some photos and video along the lake’s beach.  Afterwards, we drove out to Redrocks Canyon for a couple more great hikes, then visited the buffalo paddock outside Waterton, before heading east towards Cardston, Canada.  In Waterton, we had each picked up some Canadian whiskey just to sample the local liquor.  The liquor store, by the way, was right next to the office of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Go figure.  We also found out in Waterston that Cardston was a predominantly Mormon community.  Nevertheless, at a restaurant in Cardston, Josh felt the need to ask the waiter about any duty charges for getting liquor back over the border.  The waiter happened to be the son-in-law of the town mayor…who happened to come in for lunch that day and sit in the booth right behind us.  Yet Josh managed to engage the mayor in a conversation about real estate.  He is a lawyer after all.

Back in Montana, we re-entered the park on the east side through the Many Glacier area, which provides some of the best views in the park.  We took a very steep hike up to Appekunny Falls (Native American spelling is “Apikuni”; I bet it means “very steep.”)  Then we hiked to Bullhead Lake that night and got back around nightfall. 

Tuesday, September 1^st

About mid-morning we headed out of Many Glacier and took the Going-to-the-Sun road in Saint Mary, heading west back over the mountains to West Glacier.  More incredible photo opportunities, but thanks to construction delays and a notoriously slow driver at the front of the line who wouldn’t let anyone pass him, the drive took about an hour longer than intended, and we barely made it to West Glacier for our kayaking adventure.  Along with three group rafts, we each got an inflatable kayak for a 4-hour trip down the Flathead River (the water was very cold, by the way).  The first half of the trip was kinda boring, but the last half had five good sets of rapids to navigate, and I’m proud to say that both Josh and I both made it through unscathed.  By the end of the trip, it was already dinnertime, so we ate at a local restaurant and called it a night.

Wednesday, September 2^nd

Our last morning in Glacier, Josh went ahead and rented a fly-fishing pole for some quality time on Lake McDonald.  Since I consider fishing a chore rather than a good time, I opted for one more hike up around the lake.  However, on driving to the trailhead, I got mixed up on the directions (not exactly a lot of signs up there) and ended up on some one-lane logging road going to the middle of nowhere.  I finally found a place to turn around and recovered in time to make the hike.  I then picked up Josh and we headed for the airport for an early-afternoon departure.  We flew back through Minnesota, where I picked up a souvenir shot glass with a little plastic duck floating in it.  (I love collecting shot glasses to memorialize my trips.)

So in summary, I learned a few things:

1)      You can add huckleberries to just about anything.

2)      An iPod and adaptor are great to have on any vacation with lots of traveling involved.

3)      Baron Baptiste is apparently a big deal in yoga circles.

4)      Sasquatch isn’t gonna make finding him very easy.

5)      Glacier National Park (and its sister-park of Waterton in Canada) is a great place to visit.  Doing so made me realize I need to get to at least one national park a year.  We’ve got over a hundred of them; that’s a lot of beautiful outdoors to see.

Hope you enjoy the pics and videos.