Grandma's first (and last?) great hike of 2009

Today we went to the west boundary of the park, an area we've never visited before. When we first came to Glacier in 2003, there was a major fire in this area that resulted in the park being closed and visitors (including us) being evacuated. That decision was, of course, right on time, and none of us suffered from a premature evacuation. Today we went on what used to be called the Huckleberry Mountain Nature Trail, and is now known as the Forest and Fire trail. With a very short distance, limited elevation, limited visitors, and lots of plants to look at, we all made the decision that this would be an excellent trail for Grandma. She did a great job, holding hands and supported by the rest of us. It was hard for her and in the second half (after the big climb) she rested frequently. She said numerous times that she was very disappointed in her performance on the trail, but we asked her how many 87-year-olds she thought were out on the trails today... she remind us with a wink that she's forever 79.

We finished the hike (it was of course one of those deceptive trails... "the end is just over this ridge... no, this ridge... no...") and got everybody back in the car and drove north to the "town" of polebridge. On the map, it looks like it's as big as Chicago or at least Afikpo, but you get there and it is - seriously - a store, an outhouse, and three cabins. But the store... the store has a bakery... and the bakery might just be the best you've ever had. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. And we were certain it was going to be all flannel, beards, and shotguns, seeing as how there was no way to get there without 4x4, but it was all hippies, college kids, and Phish-types. But even though we'd kept Grandma going on the hike with "We're going to bakery! How many cookies do you want?", we had to coax her out of the car. I think she thought we were going to trick her into going on another hike.

We then got on the hard road and drove another 10 miles to Bowman Lake, which is just as beautiful as any of the top spots here in Glacier. We spent a good 30 minutes skipping stones with a backdrop of the most beautiful mountains you can imagine anywhere.

It's been raining and hailing on-and-off (2 minutes on and 2 minutes off) ever since then, so e've been amusing ourselves here at Casas de Gownezio for the past couple of hours.