Surprises!

Friday, July 4, 2014

After yesterday's adventure we think it might be smart to just take one hike and see how it goes.  But first, breakfast!  Eggs over medium with those cinnamon buns we bought last night - perfect! We have a leisurely morning but since we still haven't switched over from Tampa time we are still ready to set out by around ten.

If you plan to live here in the winter, you have to have one of these!

We're going to hike to Appistoki Falls and the weather is cool enough that I'm glad I have jeans and a zip-up hoodie!  Of course it doesn't take long before the hoodie is around my waist. 

Pretty soon I'll get bored with taking these photos...but it's all so gorgeous!

Everything is beautiful and we are starting to recognize some of the vegetation.  

This was taken in the parking lot at the trailhead.

Who knew a trail needed a median?

As we're hiking we come upon a group of four ladies who are examining a very tiny orchid.  We get to talking and hike together for twenty or thirty minutes.  One lady, Diane, has fifteen merino sheep whose wool she dyes with natural plant dyes.  She has a border collie who she is taking to Canada for training as she uses him and an older dog to herd the sheep.  
Another of the ladies is the pastor of their church and knows a lot about the Blackfeet.  

The other two are mother and daughter and mother is an expert on the local flora.  We manage to retain two of the names she taught us, service berry and meadowrue; we learn to recognize huckleberry, and that beargrass is a member of the lily family. Although Meriwether Lewis called it beargrass because he saw bears standing in it, bears don't eat it! Horses do!  

This is a very young huckleberry.  They don't ripen until August.

Eventually we move ahead because, believe it or not, we are faster!  Three of the ladies are around our age, but then there's Mama.  But mostly I think they slow down for the plants more than we slow down to take photos! 

The Appistoki Falls are very pretty and are a good reward for the 1.3 mile (round trip) hike.  And there's a 175 foot change in elevation over half a mile.

Down we come and we realize that we are feeling much better today than we did after our first hike yesterday.  Maybe we are getting adjusted.  

We think maybe we should do something more since we're feeling so good.  Let's go down to the boat dock and see if we can catch the forty-five minute scenic cruise.  

Well there's a waiting list for the one o'clock cruise, but the good news is we're first on the list!  We hand around, eat our PBJ sandwiches and take more pictures of the mountains.  

When all is said and done there is room for all six of us who are waiting for "standby" seating!  And both Marilyn and I get window seats for picturing!  

See those hikers?  They are on a real trail.  Notice the large rock and pay attention....

The captain of the boat is Carly and she gives a detail-packed narration and offers all the passengers the option of taking about a two-mile hike to Twin Falls and back.  What the heck - we're feeling good and, hey, it's more waterfalls!  Sure, we'll do that! Carly has promised that it is a gentle slope and a good path. How bad can it be?  People are taking their young children!

Setting off.

The second stopping point.  The first was to point out the only "civilized" rest rooms on the path.

Carly has just graduated with a degree in biology and gives us lots of good information. At one stop we see a "bear tree" which has bear hair stuck to it, a tree that has been eaten by porcupines, wolfsbane, a lichen which is poisonous, old-man's beard, another lichen but people have been known to eat this one.

Porcupines eat the cambium layer.  Sometimes this will kill the tree.

That's bear hair caught in the bark.

Another stop has Carly teaching us the difference between spruce and fir trees.  She says to shake hands with the tree and if it sticks you it's a "Spiky Spruce" and if it is soft, it's a "Friendly Fir".  So there!

This little one was paying attention when Carly said it was all right
to shake hands with the trees.

At the next stop we learn that false indian corn will make a pregnant goat have a deformed kid or a stillbirth, we see more beargrass and we feel so intelligent because we know all about it. Well, maybe not all, but we do know that it only flowers once every three to ten years.  We learned that the reason for that is so its predators won't come to depend on it as a food source. We see a plant that looks like a bottle brush and can actually be used to wash your dishes when you are camping.  And there are lots of other flowers, like wild strawberries and glacier lilies.

This false indian corn will also cause a human fetus to abort - not the recommended method.

When we get to the falls you can sense the awe of our troop of hikers.  There are, indeed, two falls for the (figurative) price of one!  And each one is gorgeous!  

"Two - two - two falls in one!"

The plan is for everyone to hike back to the boat dock for the 3:15 boat.  If you miss that one, the next is at 5:15.  Hmmm. Can we get back in time?  Some of these folks are really speedy!  We decide that we've got enough photos of the falls and better see if we can get a head start.  We do a darn good job of it, even stopping for photos of things like the moose print, a smaller print that might be an elk and the bear scat that wasn't on the trail yesterday!  That's a little too scary!

Notice all the undigested hair.  Not a vegetarian!

Here's that moose print.  Carly told us that there had been a young moose sighted twice recently.

We get to the dock with many minutes to spare!  Yay us!  In fact, we're early enough to take pictures of the pile of butterflies that might be getting a drink or might be doing something else!  One even lands on Marilyn's hand!  And there are some tiny little ones that are blue when they're flying but almost invisible when they land.

Swallowtails in their version of a puppy pile!

Not sure what they're doing here.

There's that little blue guy!

There's a young dad who goes into the lake!  He takes his son out a bit but then the dad goes completely under that freezing water! Later we see the family in the parking lot and learn that he is stationed at Great Falls and that they come up to the park frequently.

After dad gets out of the water we notice people on the dock with cameras and binoculars.  There are two bears on the north shore, one black and one brown!  It seems to us that that is about where we saw two hikers when we were coming over.

Glad he's all the way across the lake!

Everyone who hiked with us fits on the boat back and Marilyn and I both get window seats again!! Darn good thing because there is a young moose at the shore line!  AND we can see that illusive brown bear much better now than we could from the dock!

He's a youngster, perhaps the one Carly was talking about.

Remember the hikers and that rock?  Glad we weren't hiking with them!

After the wildlike, the waterfalls connecting all the snowfields just aren't that exciting.  They are awfully pretty though.

There is a couple sitting next to us who spend a lot of time in the park and they tell us that we will see lots of moose and other animals when we go to Many Glaciers.  They tell us to start at Swift Current and look for a tiny trail that goes to a small lake called Fisher Cap Lake.  The moose seem to love it and aren't afraid of people, so the picture opportunities are endless!  If we feel energetic we can continue on to Red Rock Lake for more critters.

Back on shore we eat our bananas because the potassium is so good for us.  Okay, we ate them because we're hungry!  Home we go to download our photos and think a bit about tomorrow before we go to dinner.  We also stop at the Trading Post again. This time I'm in search of a corkscrew.  Once again it is handy that the Whistling Swan is owned by the same people.  When the man at the counter learns that we are staying there and don't have one, he says to take his and just leave it in the drawer when we check out!  He could have just as easily told me I had to buy the souvenir knife which had the only corkscrew in the store.  We've met such nice people!

No decision to be made here.  We're going back to Luna's for the pie, oh, and I guess we need food, too.  Zita is our waitress again and we love that!  She's marvelous.  Last night we learned that she teaches math at a private Indian school and she works at Luna's in the summer.  In a few years she plans to get her graduate degree and who knows what she'll do then.  She describes herself as a "whimsical soul" and we find her charming!  On her recommendation we get the hawaiian chicken sandwich with fried chips and, once again, we split the meal. That's plenty of food for both of us and it leaves room for pie!

The table next to us is occupied by a family of four.  The young son is reading trivia questions from card that are on each table and the dad is doing most of the answering;  but everyone is engaged and no one has an electronic device!  As they are leaving we compliment the mom and she tells us that her kids have to earn things like TV and computer time by performing their required chores.  I think it is the same system that Steph uses with her kids.  I was surprised to find that the children aren't home-schooled.  They seem like perfect candidates.

When we're paying the check we chat with Zita and the bartender, also a Blackfoot, and they decide that for dinner tomorrow we'll have the Grizzly Bait, a salmon sandwich with avocado and pepperjack with lemon caper aioli, and the sweet-potato fries - and of course pie!  We'll never get another chance at Luna's Homemade Huckleberry Pie!

Back to our room and for a change Blogger seems to be behaving!  I'm relieved;  I don't want to get up at yuck o'clock one more morning to finish blogging!  (Hope I haven't spoken too soon!)  Marilyn made us some real coffee, instead of her decaf, because I need help staying awake to finish this.  I think it's working!

Tomorrow is our last day at Two Medicine, which was named because so many people came to be healed that they had to erect two lodges!  We'll do one more hike and prepare to decamp to St. Mary.

There are supposed to be fireworks tonight for the Fourth;  but it doesn't get dark until around ten o'clock and we're sure not staying up late enough to see bright things in the sky!  

There is lots of booming outside and I finally realize that if I can hear it I can probably see the results!  It is amazing to find colored streamers in the sky on three sides of me!  And it is a half moon, a special moon for me.

Happy Fourth!

Good Night, Moon