Uraling to present limits on Western half of Going to the Sun Road

Thursday, June 8

Martha and I rode Scarlett from our campsite, along the Going to the Sun Highway (15 miles of which are under construction/repaving operations) and; motored slowly northward along Lake McDonald's eastern shore.

We'd left before 8:30 I believe and already things were pretty congested at the parking lot adjacent to the campsite near the road closure gate.  In fact, the campground was closed, to allow vehicles to use its spaces as "day use parking".

We hiked the Trail of the Cedars and eventually went past the closed highway gate and onto the Going to the Sun Highway itself.  It was open for hikers and bicyclist; enabling us to claim we'd hiked the highway!

Some views along the way:

Views at the Sacred Dancing Falls:

The day, as you can see, had turned overcast and rain sprinkles moistened things as we rode down to the McDonald Lake Lodge for Martha to check out.

The weather turned bad enough to cancel scheduled boat tour.

The Red Buses were running, but the park shuttle

won't start till July 1 apparently.

We ended up eating a bag lunch prepped by Martha before the ride and looking around the crowded but cool looking lodge's lobby area:

What do you think?  A Ural-based addition

to the tour bus company's offerings?

The way home was a bit soggy but not too bad.  The rest of the day and the next couple of days are forecast to be rainy.  We had dinner with the Z's: Blackened Tilapia and Brussels Sprouts with Bacon.  Yummy.

Today, June 9,  the objective was a visit to the Visitor Center to get Martha's National Parks Passport stamped.  They also had Wi-Fi for the public, so I used it to upload this post.

Now Camping on West Side of Glacier National Park

Tuesday, June 6

We left the Libby, MT area just before 9am and headed to do errands/laundry in Eureka.  Then it was on to the very crowded city of Whitefish for groceries.

We're staying at the full campground that is Fish Creek Camp in Glacier NP, near West Glacier, MT.  It's sites, at least along Loop B are quite narrow and small.

The site we reserved was tiny and sloping.  Took me quite a while to level the VRRV after unloading Scarlett and detaching the trailer.  It's possibly the toughest site to level that I've ever used!

Cell signal is weak, allowing slow texts and voice calls only.  I used the weBoost cell signal booster to slowly upload this post.

We'll be here a few days, the Z's are joining us later on, tomorrow afternoon.  We rode Scarlett down to orient ourselves to the area, see the visitor center which was closing when we got there, and finally check out the concessions at Apgar Village.

The view from Apgar Village

The Going to the Sun Highway isn't open all the way, probably won't be till next month.  So no riding to Logan Pass as I did with Bobscoot, Bluekat, Ron and Martha oh so long ago.  LINK

Wednesday, June 7

After breakfast, Martha and I took the trail leading to Rocky Point, which runs along the west side of McDonald Lake.  This is the lake on which Fish Creek Campground is located.

The trail had a plethora of mosquitoes and of course we neglected to spray on some repellant beforehand.  Still, they were slow, so easy to kill.

We didn't go much past Rocky Point though the trail takes you all the way to the north end of Lake McDonald.  Way too many trees obscure the views to the lake however so we returned to camp instead.  We hit the trail at almost the right time, it was full of northbound hikers as we trudged southbound back to Uma.

Quiet Weekend at Lake Koocanusa

 Saturday, Jun 4

A short visit to the Libby Dam, we'd done the Dam Tour but no photos are allowed so the objective was to show you the mural that's mounted on the lake side of the Peace Tower which is the at the center of the dam.

A pic of the rigs from across the rive

The mural

Spillway view of the dam on a sunny day

closeup using CCjon's Coolpix Zoom Camera

While I was taking pics of the dam, I spotted an eagle and managed to get one semi-good shot:

I like the juxtaposition of angles

Sunday, not much got done, did ride with Martha to check out the "marina" to the north of us along highway 37.  There wasn't much to it, but it did have a small swim beach.

Monday, Jun 5

The Z's left today after lunch, we'll be meeting up with them again at the Glacier National Park, probably Wednesday.  

Here's Martha during one of several wifi-mooching sessions, using the Z's Starlink internet access as the Dunn Creek Flats COE campground doesn't have cell signal.

We went for a ride into the nearby town of Libby both to see the eagles of the "City of Eagles" and to look at Paul Bunyan's Frying Pan at the Heritage Museum.

I think we got pics of the two largest eagles....there's apparently a plethora of them in town by the same artist.

I posted the pics and posting from the Libby Dam Visitor Center BTW, as there was no signal at the camp.

Now in Montana, after a day's riding in Canada

 Jun 01, Thursday

Martha and I rode Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol across the border into Canada at the Eastport/Kings Gate border crossing.  We rode on Route 3A along the Kootenay Lake, enjoying the views.

Here's one of several small harbors along the lake:

We made it to The Glass House, a roadside tourist attraction.  The builder had been a funeral director who collected enough spent bottles of embalming fluid over the years to eventually build himself a house made out of said bottles!

More info on the castle-themed house here: LINK

Next, we drove over the 5km or so from the Kootenay Ferry's eastern embarkation point to a lighthouse for which Martha had spotted signage.

It was a good find.  We had access to the top of the lighthouse and the outside balcony.  Here's a pano view of the lake from the lighthouse on Pilot Bay:

Though surprised, we were pleased at the access we had:

It was about a 180 mile round trip but well worth it!  A quiet evening back at Lake Robinson finished off the day:

June 02, Friday

We displaced to the Libby Dam and Lake Koocanusa in Montana.  

While Martha relaxed at the Dunn Creek Flats COE campground, I checked out the eastern viewpoints to the Libby Dam nearby:

Got caught in the rain so I waited it out, mostly, under a gazebo at the top of the dam viewpoint.

Got back, slightly wet but safely.