Mini Ha Ha Lives On: 2010

Well we packed a dry tent in bright morning light.

But they were still clearing 8 feet of snow from the Road to the Sun but only had 2 yards to go..so a round trip to West Glacier it was to be.

I wished we could have gone on a train through this open tunnel

Then this bridge

Just to prove that we saw one of these but at a distance

The sun continued to disappear, and suddenly we were in the North Yorkshire Moors in August.

But -4.

Arriving at Two Medicines to breathtaking monochrome beauty

Then followed by colourful flash

I couldn't get enough of this stark beauty - Duck Island

To help my valiant little Elph give you perspective - spot the boat

Then more doe eyes getting familiar

Erm just to remind you this is almost Midsummer's day at St Mary's Lake

So we went in here

Complete with lederhosen clad college grads and hot chocolate.

Time to head off and set up camp but not before old bruno finally put in a really close appearance. He was distracted stuffing his face with lingonberries which it has to be said have been snuck into every single Montana dish including the world famous egg, chips and lingonberry. If warmed sufficiently they also make an excellent heat plaster and piles soother...he just has them neat...100,000 of them each summer.

The will to stick a pole in the ground whilst dodging snow and rain was waning so we decided to stay in a motel. The Red Eagle motel run by members of the Blackfeet tribe. And we had Great Great Great Great Great Grandma to book us in. She was a native American and baboushka fashioned in the form of the inner most Russian doll you always manage to lose!. She reached my chest and she was freaked out by Phil's credit card and he was freaked out by her reaction; it was like a Jack Russell terrorising a Great Dane.

Technology challenges over as I talked her through the process, key in hand we dashed up the stairs anticipating a lovely warm room and shower. We got a fridge as the heaters would not come on; so down I had to go to Grandma to get another key. Same thing twice more and Grandma who was running out of keys and all the family had gone into town (which one????). We resorted to looking in a room which was being dried out by electric fans.....checking the fuse box above the bathroom door revealed that all the switches in our original room had been set to off. Problem sorted I took all the alternatives back at which point Grandma announces she was on the point of coming up and sorting it herself...I just imagined Phil's face as she walked into our room and asked to be lifted up to the fusebox...like she knew that was the issue.

Showered and smelling of those electric bar fires your mum used to get out of the back of the gas cupboard in emergencies and, which first burn the inch of accummulated dust, we went back to "Yodelehhays ville" for dinner in a large refectory style dining room festooned with the various Swiss canton flags. Then off to the lounge to do a spot of smithying...

It was a tough call to return to Grandma and the Red Eagle but hey ho we tore ourselves out of the seats.

Tomorrow will be sunnier...but not in our part of the world. First we decide to secretly cook bacon sarnies on the baclony..least said. With this view

And off to the start of the 3 waterfall's walk around St Mary's Lake. No 1 Barings Falls

Then down to the Lake itself and still no sun

Then No 2 - St Mary's Falls

Then tranquility again

Until we meet a wild eyed man who is uncharacteristically distant and uncommunicative, as if he is somewhere else. Then a couple about 5 minutes later , the woman is sobbing uncontrollably, asking if we have seen a dazed man rushing past. His wife had fallen off the footbridge at the bottom of this, Virginia Falls.

She had managed to hold onto the bank momentarily with her husband desperately trying to get down to her but then she was swept away. We were not yet at the falls so crossed over a lower bridge to see if we could find her on the other side but there are sub falls and swirling pools and rocks and fallen timber, if she didn't drown she would be battered and torn to ribbons and of course freeze.

We carried on and this is what she fell off, I could not bring myself to cross but P did to get the shot above. My heart was in my mouth all the time and my knees like jelly.

Below me and my brave smile.

We headed back somewhat dampened in spirits and still turning off the path to look for her. 40 minutes after that a Ranger comes running past us with full pack; there is no other way to get there this is a wilderness. No heli pads...nuffink.

As we carry on silently the sun tries to make an appearance.

Back at the little car park we decide to see if we can see the mountains we only partially saw yesterday at the far end of the lake. As we set off we are passed by convoys of NPS cars and emergency vehicles.

By the time we get to the main car park before the Road to the Sun ascent to Logan Pass from the East (which is still shut grr) there are specialist divers getting in and out of wet suits...marked out as those who are still a healthy pink...on their way there, those which are a deathly blue...back and unsuccessful in their endeavours. We see the couple we bumped into and she is all wrapped up in blankets and still in a state of shock.

We travel on to bemoan the shrinkage of the Grinnell Glacier over the past 100 years which is comparable to that of the previous 100,000 or some such miserable statistic.

A slightly less gloomy Duck island tries to lift our spirits

Then a brown bear obliges with a road side appearance.

We decide we must spend one night in east Glacier camping so head for St Mary's campground...2/3 of which is shut due to flooding. But we will treat ourselves to a good meal says P.

- (and what's that supposed to mean?)

- in the warmth he says...thinking he's recovered so well.....

The sun finally decides we need a real treat so late afternoon evening gives us these:

We go to bed hearing no news of the hapless woman.

I take one last pic of the mountain trying to pick out it's awesomeness in the dark! Hmmm.

And we settle down in our little tent with a flask of tea. I have reminded P about the fact that we should not have any food items etc in the tent due to bears - we are camped amongst lingonberry bushes........

And who is it who wakes up in the middle of the night to hear something snuffling, grunting and grubbing about outside the tent?

What numpty thinks that if she secretes the flask inside the sleeping bag tucked under her arms it will mask any smell?

And who tries communicating the situation in a near hysterical whisper to her knight in interlock combinations and HKR beanie hat only to receive the muffled response

"And your point is?"

NU"&*!B^!V"R%WRCS^"!&YP*USD!)"(NUD!*Y )&"!TED^&!T D^T!D^ !RR! (silently of course)

I have no idea how long I lay there short of breath and trying to decide whether anyone would notice my last will and testament scrawled on the inside of the fly sheet in my own blood. Then I consider that maybe given the response it should be P's last will and testament instead, not that he will be able to get his arms out of that snug fitting sleeping bag in time.

Dawn over the mountains and I still have all my limbs to take a picture of our camp surroundings:

We decide that although travelling back we have to re-visit the places we had experienced as stark monochrome beauty.

Stopping at the main St Mary's Lodge the news came through that they had found the poor woman wedged under a rock. There is lots of talk about the dangers of the park but it is meant to be a wilderness, that is it's attraction and people go there fully conversant with this knowledge including us. If it is overrun with rangers and rules it is no longer a wilderness. In fact the bulk of the deaths in Glacier are through drowning and freezing in the water.

We leave for brighter climes. First St Mary's Lake big....