August 18th, 2009 - Glacier National Park

The sun, the rainbow, the warmth! They must have replaced that no good weatherman with a monkey. So God does listen to me!

As it turned out, Kyle was not coming to Glacier after all, but I still needed my tent and stuff. He shipped them overnight to Babb and I will pick them up on my way tomorrow. I was looking forward to seeing him in Glacier, but things didn’t work out as planned.

I stopped at a motel to ask if I could use their internet. While I was in line, I saw a couple asking for the same thing and they got “no” for an answer, so I put on my disaster face and told the owner my bike has broken down and I needed to order some parts online. He hesitated a bit but then agreed to 5 minutes of wireless use. The old man was cranky and checked on me a million times to see if I was really ordering parts, so I updated the website as fast as I could and got the hell out of there.

I started for Glacier National Park rather late since I was expecting to meet Kyle in Hungry Horse around 3pm, but the road was clear and the park seemed pretty much deserted, so I roamed the twisties at 50mph in full sunshine, stopping to take in the breathtaking views at every opportunity.

I met a nice couple from Minnesota and chatted with them for a while, then started to look for a camping spot. I stopped at St. Mary’s campground but found every spot already filled. After circling around a few times, I found an empty spot but the ticket said reserved till August 20^th. There was no car or tent around, so I lurked around a bit longer and decided that I was going to poach it no matter what. I was hungry, tired and running low on gas, so I wasn’t about to go back the 20 or so miles to the last campground.

I made dinner and ate some cookies and since no one showed up, I officially pitched my tent and claimed the campground. I’m leaving tomorrow morning pretty early so I’m sure no one is going to care.

It is beautiful here and the mountains are majestic. Got a healthy fire going and typing my diaries; couldn’t ask for a better day. Next stop: Canada.