Dog Days of Summer

Marias Pass - Highway 2

August is winding down, tourists are returning home from summer vacations, kids are going back to school, farmers markets are running low on fresh produce and the distinct nip in the morning air tells us that autumn is not far off.  As leaves start to turn, we'll be turning the RV southward in search of a warmer climate.  In the meantime, the dog days of summer are upon us, in more ways than one, and it feels good.

We had thoughts of going east from Montana and following the Mississippi River to Louisiana.  However, hot weather, Hurricane Isaac and other factors resulted in a change of plans.  Instead, we turned around, came down from Marias Pass and settled into a nice little RV park for a two-week stay near Whitefish, Montana.

This is Ron's corner of Montana.  Many years ago he lived in Eureka and Whitefish, his mother taught school in Whitefish, his dad helped construct the aluminum plant in Columbia Falls, and his sister Carol was born in Kalispell.  These communities have grown and changed over the years and the faces are different, but the mountains, forests, rivers and lakes haven't changed much.  They're still there and still beautiful.  This is familiar territory for us and it still feels somewhat like home to Ron.


The grandstand was packed with cheering fans
 at the Lincoln County Fair dog show.

Eureka:  We drove up to Eureka one day to see how the old town was doing and to check out the Lincoln County Fair.  We arrived on the first day of the fair which, unfortunately, was set-up day.  There were plenty of clues, such as no entrance fee, no parking fee, no traffic and no other fair-goers to be found.  There were also no exhibits to look at, very few animals on the grounds and only two active food booths.  But we were not discouraged.  We wandered around the grounds, had a bite to eat, peeked into empty barns and watched about 30 seconds worth of cow judging.  The only significant event of the day was a dog show.  After all, these are the "dog days of summer" so what could be more fitting?  Six dogs were entered in the show and it was all over in half an hour.
Eureka was a logging town and the "Christmas Tree Capital of the World" when Ron lived there in the mid-1950s.  Since then, all local mills have shut down and Christmas trees are now raised in neat little rows in farms in other parts of the country.  Tourism has taken hold and strangers from California and other far away places have discovered that life is pretty good in this remote corner of Montana.  Nearly all of the original stores have moved north of town, leaving the old downtown buildings for trendy art galleries, crafts shops, rustic log furniture outlets, gift shops and real estate offices eager to sell log cabins and properties with lake or mountain views.  It's not the same Eureka, but it was nice to see many of the old buildings upgraded and still in use.

Ron's grandpa worked for many years in Eureka's Great Northern Railway depot.  The old building is still standing, but barely.  It sits a stone's throw away from the town's historic park, but has virtually no chance of being restored since the park already has a nicely restored depot.  That depot was moved from the townsite of Rexford which, thanks to Libby Dam, now lies at the bottom of Lake Koocanusa.

The historic park has a very nice museum and the first house (cabin) built in the Tobacco Valley.  The addition to the left side of the cabin was a blacksmith's shop, probably the "home occupation" of the occupant.

Whitefish is a town of about 7,000 people at the south end of Whitefish Lake and near the base of Big Mountain, a popular ski destination.  It enjoys year-round tourism and always has something interesting going on.

We drove up to Big Mountain one day and rode the chair lift to the summit (6,817 ft.). 

Nearing the summit of Big Mountain

Flathead Valley and Whitefish Lake

Views were terrific, even with a layer of forest fire smoke beneath us.  We wandered around the mountain top, picked some wild huckleberries and enjoyed the day. 

A variety of non-snow attractions have been added to enhance summer tourism.  The Alpine Slide (photo) is similar to a toboggan run down a long winding (plastic) course to the base lodge.  Spider Monkey Mountain provides a fun climbing tower for kids. There are also zip lines, a walk in the treetops on boardwalks, a challenging aerial adventure park, and miles of hiking and biking trails.  It's a mountain for all seasons.

 

Car Show:   Summer is a good time for car shows and we were lucky to be in Whitefish on the weekend of its Concours d'Elegance, a show featuring European classic cars. Ron couldn't pass it up.

Chili Cook-off:   A local newspaper ad for a Chili Cook-off caught our attention, so we drove down to the Spinnaker Bar & Grill in Lakeside on Flathead Lake to check it out.  There were 18 cook-off contestants with their steaming pots of simmering goodness. Some were mild, some hot, most with beans and some not.  For the small fee of $5, we could taste any and all of the concoctions to our hearts content, with plenty of $2 beer to wash it down and a live band for added enjoyment.



Preparing for the race.

A bonus feature of the Chili Cook-off was the annual Wiener Dog Races.  Wiener dogs and chili seem to go together somehow. The races were terrific. Those little fellers ran their hearts out as the crowd cheered for their favorites.

These wieners are running as fast as they can go . . . except for Lane #3

By far the favorite wiener dog was little Woody.  He had a rear leg problem and needed a wheeled harness to get around on his own.  Woody was a fearless competitor but couldn't compete with the others.  He finished last in the race but first in the hearts of the on-lookers.

We'll return to Glacier Park for one more day of hiking and sightseeing before leaving the Whitefish area.

We've had a lot of fun in this part of the country and will probably be in Montana another week or two.  The Eureka dog show and the Flathead Lake wiener dog races are behind us, but we're looking forward to the remaining dog days of summer and whatever surprises come along.  With several fires still burning, we can expect to see a few more smoke tinted sunsets before winter sets in.

Glacier National Park

Our brief stay in Libby was fun, but it was time to leave and make room for the annual auto show crowd.  It was another beautiful Montana day as we followed Highway #2 to Kalispell.  The miles passed quickly as we paralleled the Cabinet Mountains, cruised through green valleys along Libby Creek, and past beautiful Thompson and McGregor Lakes.  Traffic was very light and we saw several deer along the way.

Ron’s cousin Chris and his wife Tracy had been reading our blog and noticed that we were inching our way toward Glacier Park.  They live in Great Falls but had been camping at Glacier for several days and suggested we meet somewhere.  We told them we would be camping at Glacier Meadows, so they also checked in and were all set up when we arrived.

Our RV Park was a few miles west of the summit of Marias Pass and the Continental Divide.  It's in the middle of nowhere so there was no radio, TV, cell phone or other services that we come to expect wherever we are.  However, to make it a little easier on us urbanites, the campground provided a booster in its picnic pavilion.  If we held the booster appliance against the cell phone, stood on one leg and faced northwest, it was possible to make a call.  It was a little inconvenient but Bonnie made it work.

The solitude of Glacier Meadows was very nice, especially at night when it got totally dark and the highway traffic was nearly nonexistent.  An occasional distant train was music to Ron's ears.


It was nice to spend some time with Chris, Tracy and their lovable dogs Teddy and Cricket.  We talked about family stuff and the “good old days” over a dinner of salad and barbecued burgers.  The next morning we all drove over to East Glacier Park for breakfast.  The old 1912 railroad depot is still a prominent feature of this very small town.  Our grandfather was a Great Northern RR station agent there for many years.  Their family lived upstairs and that’s where Ron's mother and Chris’ dad grew up.  Ron also lived there for a few years when he was very young.

 





Glacier Park Lodge:  For the past 100 years, tourists have stepped off the Empire Builder at the East Glacier depot and walked through these gardens to Glacier Park Lodge.  We called it "the big hotel" when we were kids and these lawns were our playground.  It was constructed two years after Glacier National Park was created in 1910.  It’s showing its age now, but is still a magnificent structure.  Since our family history is tied so closely to the hotel and depot, East Glacier is always one of our favorite places to visit.

Glacier Park Lodge

The Blackfeet Indians had no idea what was coming when they sold a piece of their land for a hotel site.  They watched in awe as railroad cars brought huge 15 ton fir and cedar logs and a gigantic lodge was constructed.  Sixty of the 40 ft. timbers were used and most were 500 to 800 years old when they were cut.  Douglas firs were used inside the lobby and the verandas were supported by cedars from Washington.  The original bark is still intact. 

Blackfoot Nation:  When Ron’s mother was growing up in East Glacier Park, she had many Blackfoot Indian friends and taught some to play the piano.  In return for her friendship, she was made an honorary member of the Blackfoot Tribe in 1946.  A deer skin “certificate” (see photo) illustrated the event in story form.  She was given a number of other gifts, including a drum with her story painted on it.  We took photos of these items to Browning, the center of the Blackfoot Nation.  We wanted to see if we could find out more about them or to provide information that might have been lost in a fire that occurred some years ago.

We also took a few old photos of some of the Blackfoot Indians who met the trains arriving in Glacier Park.  That's how Mom got to know many of them.



The day turned out to be very frustrating.  We found several people who were interested, but none who had the authority or ability to talk to us about heritage matters.  We started at the Blackfoot Information Center.  Although the sign says “open”, the chain and lock say otherwise.  It hadn't been open for a long time.
 

A gentleman at the nearby Museum of the Plains Indian was very interested in our story and suggested that we contact Mr. Murray at the Heritage Center.  We went to the center, which is also a gift shop, and talked to a Blackfoot elder who was also very interested and knew several of the Indians in the photos.  He sent us to talk to a woman in another part of the center who listened to the story but had no interest, other than selling souvenirs to tourists.  She also told us Mr. Murray didn’t work there, but could be found at the community college.  It turned out that Murray was an employee of the tribe and it was his wife who worked at the college.  In any case, we found the community college and waited in the college library for the Murrays to finish their two-hour lunch, only to find that they had no interest in history nor heritage stuff.  Murray said the place to go would be the Enrollment Office at the tribal headquarters where they kept all the membership records.  We found that office, but the person most able to assist us was out of the office and nobody knew when she might return.  That was the last straw for us.  We had spent parts of two days on this mission to no avail.  We said “Good-bye” to Browning and went back to Glacier Park to sit by a lake.

Bonnie looks for grizzly bear or mountain goats on Rising Wolf Mountain

It was another warm day, but a few clouds and cool breeze make Two Medicine Lake a very comfortable place to spend a few hours.  We found a nice shady spot along the lake shore to place our bag chairs and enjoy the views while sipping huckleberry cream sodas and searching through binoculars for mountain goats and grizzly bear on the surrounding mountains.

Many Glacier Hike:  Another beautiful part of Glacier Park is the Many Glacier area.  It's on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake and the site of the park's largest hotel (lodge).  We took the small boat to the end of the lake, hiked over a small hill to Josephine Lake, then took a second boat across that lake, followed by a longer hike to beautiful Grinnell Lake.  Bonnie was ready to take an even longer hike to Grinnell Glacier, but it was too late in the day and much too warm for that one.  Maybe next time.

Taking Chief Two Guns across Swiftcurrent Lake

Grinnell Lake with Grinnell Falls on the distant wall.

Glacier Park is bear country.  They estimate there are about 800 grizzlies in and around the park.  So, we were sure to read the signs, carry our "bear bell" and make plenty of noise on the trail.  Bonnie spotted a grizzly and two cubs on a mountainside . . . through binoculars.  That was close enough.

This is the trail to Grinnell Glacier.  We hiked part of it, but will have to do a little more conditioning before going all the way to the glacier.  However, by the time we're ready to go, the glacier will have melted away.  It was a beautiful hike, even for a short distance.

Grinnell Trail overlooking Lake Josephine



We never get tired of Glacier Park.  It's a beautiful place.  Only about 25 glaciers remain but there are still lots of lakes, streams, rugged mountains and hundreds of miles to hike.  Can't wait for our next visit.  We'll close with a late afternoon view of Two Medicine Lake.

Libby, Montana

The Problem with Brakes:  As we  closed our Little Diamond blog, we were looking forward to being towed into Newport to have the RV brakes fixed.  Well, things didn't work out as anticipated.  We gave our Good Sam Emergency Road Service at least four days notice of our problem.  They immediately scheduled a 10 AM Monday appointment at the brake shop and assured us that a tow truck would pick us up that morning.  So, confident that all arrangements had been made, we carefully maneuvered the RV into towing position and waited . . . and waited some more, as the day was heating up to 95 degrees.  Finally, we got a call.  The tow truck would be two hours late.  We couldn't do much about it, so we mopped our brows and settled back for a couple more hours.  Finally, the tow guy called to ask what kind of rig we had.  Apparently, Good Sam forgot to tell him.  In any case, he decided he couldn't tow us with his tow truck and would have to call around to see if he could find a larger truck.  Then the nice lady at Good Sam called to say the tow guy was having trouble finding a truck and it would be another three hours or so.  Not good news!

During our wait, we struck up a conversation with another camper.  He had been a race car driver and seemed to know something about brakes.  He said it was possible that the brake fluid came to a boil in the Spokane traffic and lost its ability to function, causing the brakes to fail.  However, if the fluid cooled, it could return to its "normal" liquid state and the brakes would return - like magic.  We drove around the campground, tested the brakes and, sure enough, they worked.  We immediately called Good Sam, cancelled the tow truck, drove the RV over to the brake place in Newport without incident, and looked forward to a chat with Ed.

Ed, the owner of E&L Auto Service, was a very nice guy but seemed to know nothing about our automotive issues.  He had no idea why the brakes did what they did.  So, we asked him if he could look at the auxiliary generator to see why it wouldn't keep running.  He didn't know anything about generators.  Then we asked him why our transmission was having trouble shifting in certain situations (hot weather) and he couldn't answer that one either.  He finally suggested that we drive south to the Coeur d'Alene area and have an RV service place check things out for us.  We thanked him and headed north toward Bonners Ferry and into Montana.  End of story . . . for now.

Libby:  We pulled into the small town of Libby, Montana (pop. 2,600) late Monday afternoon and checked into the Two-Bit Outfit RV Park at the edge of town.  It's a very nice little park with lots of trees, grass, full hook-ups, spotless rest rooms and free cable TV.  It was a welcome change from our previous dusty campgrounds.  We liked the place so much we were ready to sign up for a week.  Unfortunately, the local car club is holding its annual car show next weekend and all local campgrounds are booked solid.  We could stay only until Thursday.  Good enough!

Kootenai Falls:   Libby is on the beautiful Kootenai River at the edge of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.  Folks who love the outdoors find plenty of things to do here.  We decided to visit Kootenai Falls.  We had driven past it many times on Highway 2, but never stopped.  This time, we would take the two mile hike and check it out.

The hike began where the river had cut a narrow gap through the Cabinet Mountains.  For many years, the railroad had carried people and cars through this gap until a road was constructed.  It took a year to punch the road through the final five miles of solid rock.  The first road was completed in 1915 and has been widened since then.

We hiked down the shady trail through the forest, crossed a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks, and arrived on the rocks overlooking the Kootenai River and the falls.  What a beautiful place!

A little farther downstream, a swinging bridge provided access to the other side of the river.  We crossed the shakey windy bridge and explored the other side.

That's Bonnie crossing the bridge.

Swinging Bridge over the Kootenai River

Not far from the swinging bridge was a very small isolated beach.  We climbed over rocks and waded through a stream to get there, but it was worth the effort.

One brave soul was actually swimming in the river . . . and admitted it was ice cold.  He didn't stay in the water very long.

Taking Care of Business:  We had one more day in Libby and wanted to make the most of it.  Ron replaced a dead headlight on the Honda and found a self-service car wash to remove the accumulation of dust and dirt.  The Honda was also due for an oil change so we stopped at Libby Quick Lube.  There was only one employee in the office and the place didn't look busy, but he told us he was booked solid until next week.  Things tend to move slower in this area than we would like, so we have to remind ourselves that this is Montana, not Seattle.  It'll get done . . . eventually.

Heritage Museum:   We wanted a little "down time" to relax and take it easy.  But first, we decided to make a quick visit to the local Heritage Museum.  It's housed in a large 12-sided log structure, 130 ft. in diameter.  The museum had an impressive presentation of local history, with emphasis on the Kootenai Indians, miners, lumbermen, fur traders and other pioneers of the area.

One section of the museum featured area wildlife of all kinds, including these mountain lions.

The museum included a yard full of heavy equipment, mining tools and other interesting displays.  Several smaller buildings, including a furnished old miner's cabin were also available to look at.

An old shay locomotive sits in a dilapidated barn awaiting restoration.  It needs a lot of work but only volunteer labor is available until some money is raised.

Last but not least, Libby must be famous for something . . . and here it is.  The World's Largest Frying Pan!  This pan was created in Libby and used for special events for years before finally being donated to the museum.  It's 11 ft. across and 18" deep.  Very impressive indeed!

We concluded our stay in Libby with a nice dinner of barbecued sirloin steak, with peas and corn on the cob.  We'd like to stay longer but maybe next time.  Gotta move on . . .