Montana_day2a

MONTANA Day 2 continued

After the activities at the pass, we zoomed on to Rising Sun, along St. Mary's Lake, and stopped there for a late lunch. Nothing special. We then backtracked to Sun Point (above), which was a very short walk to a rocky outcropping over St. Mary's Lake. After that, a mile-plus hike to Baring Falls.

Our hiking was done for the day. We got in the car and went around the Eastern rim of the park to Many Glacier, a more remote area with a big historic lodge.

Now let me first say the obvious: Many Glacier Lodge is old. The problem comes when old meets new. My guess is that in the old days, genteel people conducted themselves with decorum when visiting the national parks, observed similar hours, and basically all got along. That's important here, because the lodge has essentially zero sound insulation so you Hear. Every. Noise. in the Freaking. Place. We were in the absolute worst spot, on the hall between the lobby and the restaurant/bar. The doors had no seals or rubber on the frame, so every closed door sounded like a slam, and you heard intimate conversations in the hallway. Not that many were intimate-- most were shouted.

I ended up sleeping the first 2 hours in the car (body in the trunk, head and shoulders in the folded-down back seat). It was that loud inside... unignorable. By 12:30 it had calmed down enough inside that I could sleep in the room.

But here's why people continue to stay at Many Glacier Lodge...

It's bloody gorgeous.

After dinner around the corner at the Swiftcurrent Motel, I went for a walk around the lake. I started out just looking around, but figured I could knock off a 2-1/2 mile flat hike in no time. About a third of the way around, however, folks on a boat on the lake started yelling, "Look out! There's a bear over there! Get out of there!" Well, it turned out they were yelling at the other side, and it turned out to be a deer, but I figured it wasn't too great a time of day to be hiking alone, so I headed back.

Back on the beach behind the lodge, I heard the recurring cry of "Look out! There's a bear over there! Get out of there!" I ran to the source, the rapids at the lake outlet, and apparently just missed seeing a black bear crossing. Fortunately, the fly fisherman missed it too. One can evidently run pretty damned fast in those waders.

You could spot bears up on the mountain next to the lodge. Far enough away that you sensed they didn't much want to be around people if they could help it.

Continue to Day 3.