Our Trip to East Glacier National Park

Labor Day Weekend Fred and I went to East Glacier for get-away trip before my move down South. The first 4 pictures are before we started our 8.5 mile trek.  Notice how happy we are!

 

 

The beginning of our hike of the Lower Loop.  This was a 4.2 mile hike up to the Granite Park Chalet.  We thought, "oh, this won't be bad - 4.2 miles".  Boy were we wrong.  We had a change of elevation of 2200 feet.  It took us 3 hours to get there and 1 1/2 hours to come back down.  About 1/2 mile from our destination, this man going down said, "Oh, you came up the hard way, huh?" Fred said, "What's the easy way"?  This nice man explained another way to come in on a flatter but longer trail that did not have that much elevation change, then you go down the way we were coming up - hence the name - LOOP.  Anyway, we finished and felt like we accomplished something.

 

 

Not too far into the trek~

 



The Destination -- the Granite Park Chalet. This is a small lodge that is only accessible by hiking or horseback and has about 15 rooms for rent. It is very basic with no running water.

 

Goats on the side of the highway

 

 

We stayed at the Glacier Park Lodge

The AMTRAK comes the to depot across from the lodge. 

Summer 2012

Richardson's Lake - the place where we went swimming growing up

Brandon soaking up some rays

 On one of our many evening walks

 Shadow waiting for her ride on the 4-wheeler

 Big Sky - the 4th of July

 Riding the ski lift to the top of the mountain

 At the top

 320 Ranch

 The 4th of July Celebration at Big Sky

 Getting ready for our trail ride

 The Dining Room at the Ranch

Brandon wearing his Hunter's orange, his Clemson orange with antler's on his head. - Not really - that is Fred's elk hanging on the wall.

Fashion + Creative Handyman =

Lately, I have been noticing that it seems like all the ladies are 3 inches taller than usual. For a while I was afraid that maybe I was getting shorter but then I realized it is just due to the latest fashion in shoes. These things are huge! I thought you needed a prescription to buy shoes like that but I guess not. Terry, as always, must be on the cutting edge of fashion and "just had to have some". I said "You'll break your dadgum ankles in those things!". Well after stocking up on some Ace bandages, we decided to head out to the Helena mall. After circling the complex for two hours we finally found  place to park. It seems there was a bit of a run on the shoe stores. Nothing like some friendly competition! We elbowed our way into the building.

As we entered the shoe store, workers were actually raising all the door headers for the additional headroom that is required by these gargantuans. Well, pretty soon she spotted "the ones". Here is a photo:

Ok, to me they are ugly but what do I know? It didn't matter anyway because when we saw the price tag, that pretty well nixed the deal. I could tell Terry was very dissapointed so I tried to come up with a solution. Well, in the spirit of Red Green, I figured that this should not be a problem for a "creative handyman". When we got home, Terry crawled in the bed and sobbed quitely while I went out to the shop to see what I could rustle up. After a few hours of careful engineering, design and craftsmanship, I produced what is probably my best work ever. I couldn't wait to show Terry.

I hurried over to the house and rousted her from a deep sleep. When she got to the shop and saw my creation her eyes almost popped out. She couldn't wait to try them on.

Remember: If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.