WOW - Glacier National Park

This post has 2 parts....a drive in the park yesterday, and a hike today.

First...a drive in the park yesterday, including a spectacular sunset.

 

Second...hiking today....

Today I...

Today I…

• Struggled to get up, finally rising at ~10:30
• Had a cold shower (the water heater in the camper wasn’t working) when it was ~7 degrees outside so the water was nice and cold – that’s mountain man tough
• Hung out at the ‘Barn for a few hours
• Had a great lunch with Chad.  We went to the Bitterroot Brew Pub, and both had the ‘special’ steak burger that had special ingredients of peppered bacon, green chili, and peanut butter.  YUM
• Did some more work on the blog post for my ride along the Hiawatha Trail a week or so ago – I have SO many pics for this ride.  What an experience it was
• Did some more work on the blog post for the "hunt for Finnegan"
• Did some prep work for my trip to the Glacier National Park later this week when the weather is better.  Have a read about the road called the “going to the sun road” that runs through the park.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going-to-the-Sun_Road
• Dug out some warmer clothes, including bike clothes
• Listened to some music, then more, then more, including listening to the local radio stations who play great music...but can tend to be repetitive
• Enjoyed the light rain that fell all day, though I was hoping that I could take a pic of the Bitterroot mountains to prepare a daily “time lapse” of the snow cover as it gets lower and lower – but they were covered in cloud
• Took some pics of the "clouded in" mountains, then again when the cloud whisped about parts of the mountains, but the photo's didn't capture what I wanted
• Read some more of a book titled: The Big Burn, which is about the massive bushfire that affected this region and others (also Wallace…) in 1910.  It also documents the formation of the Forrest Service.   I’m enjoying reading about the history of Montana & its surrounds.
• Had a small dinner of half a Subway roll – I didn’t need much food after the lunchtime burger!
• Heard some great public radio about the dangers involved in taking too much of an over the counter pain killer - Tylenol....who needs liver function!!
• Spent a little time helping Chad & Tracey’s twin daughters with their homework – a first in an impromptu session.
• Indicated that I’ll head out for a 9am ride tomorrow morning with Tracey – and I now note that it’ll be about 5 degrees Celsius in town at that time…and colder in the mountains outside town...should be interesting!
• Turned on the hot water in the camper..hoping that a miracle had occurred and that the hot water was again working…and it was.  Hopefully it still is after my ride in 5 degree temps!!
• Am now looking forward to going to bed, perhaps to do some more reading

Finnegan, now recovered, but has been kidnapped by chipmunks. Seriously.

I must apologise for not updating you on Finnegan earlier.  Finnegan is now healthy again, but I'm sad to inform you that he's been kidnapped by a devilish gangs of chipmunks, headed by none other than Mark "Chomper" Read 

(for non Australian readers this name is is a very clever play on words, see this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopper_Read)

This is a recap of Finnegan's illness and his recovery...

You'll remember that in late August, Finnegan jumped out of my pocket while we were taking photo's of him at Finnegan Rd in Oregon, after we happened past it.

The following morning, upon discovering that he was missing, I drove back as quickly as I dared from the small town of Biggs Junction along the Colombia River (where I stayed the night).  Luckily Finnegan was at Finnegan Rd, but he wasn't in good condition after he spent the night at elevation in exposed terrain. 

The best frog hospital in the country, The Frog Hospital, was an 8.5 hour drive away (assuming no stops).

After an exhausting cross country drive across three states to The Frog Hospital, Finnegan was admitted quickly into the Intensive Care Unit, where his condition was stabilised, and he had a somewhat restful night.

His friends came to visit, and they were reminiscing about old times!

At one point the nurses attended to Finnegan to check his temperature. They were shocked at his fever, and his guests had to leave so that he could rest. 

Being the friendly bunch they are, it wasn't easy to herd his guests out, but eventually they left and Finnegan could start to recuperate.

Poor Finnegan had a setback though, and needed to be transferred back to the ICU..which is a fridge.  Yes my friends, frog medicine isn't normal.  That's why I had an 8.5 hour drive to reach The Frog Hospital in the first place!

His chart didn't look good...

...and he was lonely, though he did put on a brave face

Finnegan was eventually nursed back to health, and I've been assured by his medical team that the toyAliens present at the Ravially County Fair had NOTHING to do with his recovery.  Nothing.  Here are some pics of the Parade that opened the Fair.  I have no pictures of the toy aliens *sad face*

note that the Police car is an Aussie Holden!

a girl with the candy that she collected from the cement truck that spewed the candy from where the cement would emerge(!), and from passing floats/exhibits - most of whom threw candy.

one of many cool old trucks.

Back to Finnegan.  During his recovery he was visited by his buddies, until the nursing staff decided that he had been in perfect heath for several days, and had been taking liberties including having his mates visit at all hours and them collectively eating the hospital out of food. 

So, he was discharged a few weeks ago, and has been hanging around the "compound / Ranch".  His most recent outing was to the the Lost Trail Bike Festival last weekend - http://daisyalpha.blogspot.com/2013/09/lost-trail-mtb-festival.html

You may recall that there was a rather cute chipmunk at the Festival.  

The chipmunk, Mark "Chomper" Reid, and his devilish cronies kidnapped Finnegan on the Saturday, sometime in the late afternoon.

I don't yet know why he's been kidnapped, perhaps given his remarkable powers of recovery, they wish to make an elixir from his essence?

In my next installment I'll tell you about the search for Finnegan.

Historic Wallace, Idaho

The words below may not do the pictures nor to the history of Wallace justice.  There was a big party at Chad's last night around a fire, there was a lot of alcohol involved, and I didn't make it to bed until 3am.   It feels like it today!!

About Wallace.

Wallace Idaho.  Population: 960

It was a mining town - Wallace produced more silver than any other mining district in the USA.

Every building in downtown Wallace is one the National Register of Historic Places.  This was done so that a revised Highway wouldn't go through the centre of town and ruin it in the process.  You'll see from some of the photo's below that the town is in a small valley, and that the highway is raised above the very fringe of the town.

This link will give you more information about Wallace:

http://getoutnorthidaho.blogspot.com/2009/07/11-reasons-why-wallace-idaho-rocks.html

Here we go...

This was a lovely place to read, I spent 2-3 hours here on Friday afternoon

 

Note the lack of power lines in most of the pictures, the lines are run down alleys.

I really like the detailing on this building, I wish that I had a better picture.

Some explosives boxes that were featured in the Silver Museum

 

Some of buildings in the next two pics have covered rear exits & stairways.  These were brothels.  There were a LOT of brothels in Wallace.

This was the railway station.  It was moved 40 metres to make room for the highway that you see behind the station.

Here are a few pics from inside the station.   I was given a great tour by the "Station Master", who delighted in telling us the history of the town and the railway.

The next two pics are of the single women's waiting room...they were separated from the men / rowdy miners, etc!

Note the elevated highway at the back of the picture.  You can see from these and the pics above that Wallace is surrounded by mountains and hills - the elevated highway is a ugly and intrusive, but is far better than having the town destroyed.

Notice the elevated highway on the right of the picture.