Montana Road Trip part 3

The adventure continues..... But before I do that I need to insert: Today @ school in my CTS class aka: Career and Technology Studies class. My instructor asked how many of us knew what a BLOG was.... and thanks to Mrs. Stephanie Tobler... I was able to say I knew what it was hahaha not that I knew how to use it or what its intended purpose or audience was but I had a general idea of what they were! haha yay for me!!

Anyways back to my Road trip, I gotta get this finished up before I forget all the critical details:
So where were we? ah Yes we spent a lovely night at the Blue and white Motel.... Woke up in the morning had the most AMAZING pancakes ever....for those of you who are in close proximity to an IHOP get the new york cheesecake pancakes...SO DELICIOUS!! I'M IN LOVE. and I was a little bitter when I didnt get to have them before I left Idaho the following week but thats a whole nother story.So now we have ate and are ready to head to Logans pass for our hike... When ALAS adventure calls our name once more!!

Who could pass up an opportunity like this???? It screams EXCITEMENT!!

haha so A.D.D. took over our vacation once again and we had to check this out....

This "little" guy walked right in front of the car! COOL

This guy started to follow us for a while and I attempted to make a video so that it would appear that this bear was trecking through our campsite....however you will notice the lovely Bear whisperer ruins my attempt right at the end of the video by walking right up beside the bear. haha

So this was super fascinating for about the first 5-10 minutes then once you really start to think about it you realize that this little habbituary is pretty much the most depressing thing of all time....and your inner naturalist/ treehugger senses are triggered and you must leave... or else you are overwhelmed with a need to FREE THE BEARS!!

So Pressing onward it is time to head to Logans Pass where the real fun began!! "theLoop" hike which runs along the "looking to the sun" road is freaking AMAZING!! most beautiful view EVER!! it was fabulous the wild life was incredible!!!

HAHAHA K the gopher video was a joke...Brett gave me a pretty hard time for making that one. But up close it looked really cool cause the stupid little guy wasnt scared of us at all I was throwing stuff at him the whole time trying to get him to run but he wouldnt and up close you could see his little Jaw moving I thought it was cute. WHAT EVER BRETT!!!!

Anyway on a real note this hike was actually SSOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!

see what I mean.....this is the view for practically the whole hike! GORGEOUS!!

My efforta at the beggining of the hike to keep the pants clean and Dry....you will understand the significance of this statement later on...

 

Some actually cool wild life right above us on the trail...Brett wouldnt let me try to pet this one.

We saw tonnes of Big horn sheep on this hike and had a fairly close encounter with a couple....but thatll come later on... :)

So this Hike is started at the Logans pass visitors center, and you have the option to walk all the way along the trail which eventually brings you out further down the mountian on the looking to the sun road. or you can turn off the path about half way and hike up to the glacier over look. which is about a 45 minute Hike straight up, to get back down you hike back down to the main trail and either continue to the lower part of the road and get picked up by a shuttle which takes you back to the visitirs center....or you can just reverse your hike and walk back the way you came so you end up at your car.

This is roughly the beginning of where the trail turns off and heads up to the glacier overlook and it just gets steeper and steeper the further up you go.

This is my SAD attempt at being creative on the way up to the glacier overlook. O and did I mention that about half way to the turning point for the glacier overlook it started to rain...??? so at this point were soaking wet but "we came this far we have to make it to the top" So Brett being the gentleman he is made me where his jacket on top of my hoody and sweatpants....and he went in his Tee shirt and shorts.

I am not going to show many pictures of the top because the pictures dont do the AMAZING view any justice what-so-ever.

I LOVE this pic. anyway the View was incredible!! but I couldnt stop there so we hiked up even further to eat our lunch

Bretts Sandwiches got mangled everyday!! and who doesnt eat subway on the top of a mountain??

I took this picture pointing straight down from where we ate our lunch... it was a little steep! haha

Time to head back down....... Heres where it gets really interesting!!

So we get back down to the "overlook" from our little extra hike to our lunch spot and these 2 guys are there from Arizona. Were on top of a Glacier overlook=it is snowing. Brett is wearing T-shirt and shorts. So Arizona guy starts giving him trouble saying "Boy you better get down off of here before hypothermia sets in... I have an extra jacket I'll give it to you." Brett being stubborn as he is resists the offer. (Yes it was snowing.....however it was still only like 5'C out so not too overly cold) So home boy #1 says we need to get off the mountain while we still can!! "take the short way down to where the shuttle picks people up its only 2.5 miles down from the main trail." We say no thats O.K. well miss the shuttle. (the last shuttle heads up @ 7:00and our little stint with the Berenstein Bears set us back and we didnt start our hike until about 2. So at this point were barely even half way and its like 6 o'clock. Home boy #1 insists we take the "short way" down and try to catch the shuttle. then Arizona boy #2 comes along all decked out in his snow gear right from head to tow. And he sees Brett and says "Boy- you a fool, ain't no room for fools on these trails boy. You know how many people Die in Arizona every year because they dont prepare for the elements??. Boy you a fool. You need to get off this mountain Boy. and quick." babahahahahaa So they wouldnt leave Brett alone untill he agreed to atleast wear a rain poncho. so he did. Anyways so we say K thanks guys but were just gonna head back to the car cause we wont make it down to the shuttle. so we take off down the trail and run into a slight problem

But after we defeated the Big horn sheep... home boy #1 caught up to us and insists we go down to the lower level and he follows us off the Glacier overlook down to the main trail to ensure we take the "short 2.5 mile" trail down the mountain. So hes not giving up so we give in and go on our merry way don to the lower part. We walk and walk and walk and walk and finally we see a sign. It says not that were getting close but that were actually still 5 miles from the road!!!! So homeboy was WRONG!! and it would have been just as fast for us to walk back to our car....where we would be guaranteed to be able to get home. However were on our way down to the shuttle which we have allready missed. So we keep walking it keeps raining and snowing we are Soaked exhausted its getting Dark and we have no idea how we are going to get back to the car which is probably about 20 miles up the road on the Windy mountain roads. Finally @ about 9:00 we get to the road and have now missed the shuttle bus by about 2 hours, and we look Homeless:

So we do what any desperate stranded person would do... We hitch hike!! haha so CRAZY I know! But desperate times call for desperate measures!! So the most stereotypical montana hillbilly picks us up... and for the 20 minute  drive up th windy road we heard all about the lift and 35" rims that hes got on his vehicle and blah blah blah. So we finally make it bakc to the car...YAY!! homeward bound! Right?...

WRONG!

O crap were on empty, we dont have enough gas to get back to west glacier tonight guess were stayin in east glacier. So we start driving to east glacier. They are doing construction on the windy mountain roadsso there are parts where only one car can go at a time and there are solar powered traffic lights directing the traffic so each light is about 10 minutes long. Its dark there is no one on the road. we get to the light realize we have a wait so Brett puts the car in Park. We get talking soon enough the light turns green and Brett goes to put the car in drive and The shifter is STUCK!! So I burst out laughing! as Brett trys to fix the problem. So at this point we are both soaking wet, Freezing cold, Its pitch Black, There is no one around for miles, Neither of us have cell phone service, car is on empty, and now the car is STUCK in park. on the side of the flippin mountian!! hahahahahaha. So we try to mess with it for a bit. Finally someone comes along, Brett waves him down to ask for some tools... hes got nothing says sorry I gotta go...and drives away. A few minutes later another guy pulls up... we ask him for tools. Hes a bike repair guy so he hooks us up with some tools, we take the shifter apart to see what the heck is going on. Bike Man asks to see the shifter once its off and he drops it on the highway and all the little springs and metal shims go all over the road! so we find all the pieces and buddy figures there is not much else we can do so he sayd sorry guys i gotta go. we give him his tools and he's on his way. So now to recap:we are both soaking wet, Freezing cold, Its pitch Black, There is no one around for miles, Neither of us have cell phone service, car is on empty, and now the car is STUCK in park. on the side of the flippin mountian!! and the shifter is completely dismantled and we have no tools to put it back together!. At this point we have no more ideas....were stuck here till morning. Then Brett says "Kayla I'm droppin a prayer" haha so we did and cool thing happened not even like 10 seconds later Brett is like "hand me the owners manual" opens it up to a freakin picture of the shifter that says "if shifter is jammed turn to page whatever" so he does and it showed us the little emergency release slot that you shove a key into and then the car with shift into gear. SSOOOO FLIPPIN COOL!!!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Anyway so were driving away and brett says " we are not telling anyone what just happened" I say O.K. crazy and thus I am blogging about it hahaha. Dont kill me Brett. Stephanie is the only one who ever looks at this thing. So its like 11:30 now and we make it to east glacier. A.D.D. gets us again and we spend like an hour looking at our pictures then figure hhmmm we better find somewhere to sleep tonight. So we get to St. Marys camp ground. Set up the tent and go to sleep (after over paying, guessing on our camp site #,playing with a stray possesed cat and unsuccessfully searching for shower tokens that is).

So its morning And were SOAKED!! turns out the little pop-up tent wasnt water proof! there was water everywhere!! apparently Brett was up all night Frezzing to death. but my super sleeping bag 5000 from the G-parents kept me nice and warm. anyway I'm getting flipping tired majority of the excitement has now been shared however I will probably be able to sum up the rest quickly in the morning. But I am Sick and I need to catch some zzzzzz's 

To be continued for a very short period of time cause this BLOG is ridiculously LONG!!! 

Montana Road Trip part 2

so the adventure continues.... We left Waterton and headed south. Shortly after crossing the border I saw a Black bear in the distance and as we drove by I screamed, "BRETT!!! did you see that bear??" immediately Brett slammed on the brakes in the middle of the highway and did a 3 point turn right there.

We got back to where the bear was and to my surprise wild life expert Olsen realized that this was not the threat that we initially anticipated.... and in fact this particular type of bear just so happens to travel around Montana in heards. The next heard we saw contained a Grizzly and two black bears weird combo....... I know right!

To this day I have not lived this one down, every Cow we have seen since then depending on the colour is a grizzly=Brown, Black bear=black, Polar bear=white, Panda Bear=black and white dairy cows. haha.
So we continued our journey to Glacier National Park....... Or as delerious Brett would say :

Gacier Natier perk.... 

We Drove to East Glacier in search of food and nothing was sounding appealing....so we continued the search to West Glacier. Again no Dice. We made it Kalispel and our A.D.D. got the better of us and we drove right through. We ended up in white fish and at this point we were so tired that we got sick of searching and went to dairy queen. Yes we drove all the way to white fish for Dairy Queen hahaha. So at this point were Exhausted its like 11 o'clock at night and we once again have no where to sleep, all the campgrounds were full....so Brett decided we were getting a hotel. All the hotels were full Except: The Blue and White Motel

YEAH!! the sign on the door says Blackjack you betcha we got a themed room! hahaha what the heck??This room was hilarious!!! SO TACKY!! it was awesome! in a hilarious way.

Like I said this was one classy joint. I figure a picture speaks a thousand words. When we woke up we went for breakfast @ IHOP mmmmmm IHOP how I LOVE you and your new york cheesecake pancakes!

We then started to head to Logans Pass where we would begin our Hike for that day....once Again we got distracted and ended up in

"THE BEAR PEN"!!

TO BE CONTINUED.....

Montana Road Trip Part 1

So my friend Brett and I decided to go on a road trip this summer to do some hiking.....little did we know it would turn out to be the most ridiculous random road trip of all time!!
Day 1- thursday August 26 2010We drove to Waterton Lakes National Park (one of my favorite places of all time) we started our journey about 3 hours later than anticipated- I take full responsibility for that. Anyway got to Waterton @ about 10:30 that night to find no one at the gates to the park...... so got in for free. BONUS haha. got to the park and it was Raining. "Brett I am not starting this road trip camping in the rain and getting all our stuff soaked- lets set up in a camp kitchen"
So we did.... and its a good thing because the wind probably would have been enough to blow our tent clear across the lake! and it rained ALOT. We found out later on our trip that this tent is FAR from waterproof but I'll get to that later. So we parked the car in a near by driveway so the ranger wouldn't suspect anything if he dorve by the camp kitchen that night (which he did- and it scared the heck out of us) So we set an alarm for 6 am in order to avoid getting busted by ranger Bob. 6am came rather quickly and we packed up and headed to find somewhere to brush our teeth only to find this............

 Lovely sign right down the Road from our inconspicuous camp site. So after a good laugh and a pat on the back for not getting caught we continue our search for running water. Brett and I decided on this trip that whenever we are together our I.Q.'s drop by about 150 points you will come to understand as the rest of our trip is revealed. We seem to both have a major case of A.D.D. and on our way to the running water discovered some wild life. so we jumped at the opportunity to create the first episode of our new outdoor reality show which will be called B-K Country.

This lovely little Bambi apears to be upset with me at first if you notice his legs he scratches the ground as if getting ready to charge at me. However later on he realizes I am not a threat and begins to chew on my shirt. They call me the deer whisperer. We became the best of friends.

The "B" half of B-K country is not quite as in touch with his inner animal and prefered to keep a safe distance away from majority of the wild life. Once we were able to overcome our early morning A.D.D. we found some food. Which consisted of a couple ridiculously over priced breakfast bagels and some, over priced sandwiches for our hike. We took the Ferry across Waterton Lake @ 9:00am to get to the Base of the Crypt Lake hike, we were doing that day.

It was pretty windy that morning and we were the only 2 stupid enough to ride on the top deck where it was SUPER cold!! within the 1st 5 minutes of the ferry ride we hit a big wave and Brett and I got Soaked! so we spend the rest of the ride hiding on the floor to stay out of the wind. I was dressed in Big baggy sweat pants and a hoody looking very gangster, and apparently my feeble attempt to steer clear of a terrifying insect looked as though I was break dancing so for the rest of the day I was a breakdancer from Detroit....(this will come into play later on in the journey)

This hike was SO FUN!! Lots of cool stuff to see along the way I'll try to put up some of the best views!!!

 

TADA!!!!! Welcome to CRYPT Lake

Crypt Lake was SSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOO gorgeous!!!! most of the other people that did the hike stopped on the beach, ate their lunch and then headed back down. Brett and I decided to take the trail and walk around the lake up to where all the snow was. SO WORTH IT!! this place was absolutely beautifull!!

Here comes the Ferry to pick us all up! what an Amazing day! We Barely made it back in time for the boat because we are so A.D.D. hence the lack of pictures on the way back down from the lake we had to bag all the way down. So back to my secret Detroit Rapper Identity, on the way back to waterton on the Ferry it was much warmer than it had been that morning so there were about 20 people on the top deck with us this time....Brett decided to place a little wager and bet me lunch that I wouldnt "breakdance" and or "rap" in front of all these people....little does Brett know I dont turn down free Food....

Once the Ferry docked we headed to the camp ground for some free showers....afterall we did camp in waterton so we felt entitled to our shower. Went to the Candy store and the ice cream shop because well you can't go to waterton without going there it just wouldn't be right.  

We were both Pretty Bagged after a full day of hiking..... but the show must go on! It was time to head to Montana for our Glacier National Park Adventure.......

To Be Continued