Day 6 June 22nd Cooke City, MT to Pryor, MT
Today we crossed over Beartooth Pass on Beartooth Scenic Highway and it was CRAZY! Although it is nearly the end of June there was 25 ft drifts next to the hwy and snow covering as far as the eye could see. We saw people skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling. We also saw a crazy ski lift at angle well over 50 degrees. We stopped in Billings, MT to eat- our first fast food meal of the week, checked email and made phone calls. While sitting outside the library a homeless man asked us for some change. Jacob told him we were living out of our van and he said “oh I’m sorry”. It is quite ironic that a homeless man was telling us he is sorry. We then made the treck to S ranch and meet up with Nolan (my cousin). We drove 45 minutes to Edgar and at the local bar- the only establishment within 45 minutes of the ranch. We then chatted with Jim, the boss, who told us we need to be ready to go by 3:30 AM on that note we went to bed.
Day 7 June 23rd Pryor, MT
Nolan woke us up at 3 AM and we dressed up in his cowboy gittyup. We then ate breakfast at the Scott’s. We and 7 other cowboys rode 45 minutes to get to the mountain where we would be branding all day. This ride was extremely muddy and 4wd. We got to the top of the mountain and all the tents set up were destroyed because of a storm that went through the night before. We then saw 60 horses come over a ridge. 7-8 horses per cowboy and they rotate each horse each day. We drove the rig to the spot where we were going to be branding and wrestling calves all day. Nolan explained how you wrestle a calf and we had a few minutes to see other people do it. The operation was- a cowboy on a horse would rope a calf by the hind legs and 2 calf wrestlers would get it while it was being dragged to them. One would take the legs and one would take the head. You put it in a position so that it can get branded and get shots and if needed its balls cut off. It was quite an experience every time!! Each calf was a different experience with a New York woman riding a calf backwards, Chels getting a rope to the face and getting tossed into the panel from the calf. We did this all morning stopping at 12:30 for lunch. We then went on a horse back ride with Nolan around all their land. We were riding up the hill side and our horses were best friends…whatever Jacob’s horse did- Chelsey’s horse did. Jacob’s horse starting running up this hill and Chelsey’s did too- and she started falling off one side and then the other, yelling all the way up the hill. Towards the top of the hill Jacob’s saddle came loose and fell under the belly of the horse, making Jacob dive off the horse- I am sure Nolan had a great time with us J It took us and hour and a half to get back to the ranch because the roads were too muddy and the trailer slid off the road. We were very tired and sore cowboys at the end of the day. We chatted and spent the rest of the evening with Nolan but headed to bed early because Nols had to do the same thing tomorrow starting at 3AM. The ranch was a great experience!! The only way to understand what it is like to be a cowboy is to be sitting in the muck holding a calf’s foot, while it screams, and getting hair smoke in the face.
Day 8 June 24th Pryor, MT to Glacier National Park
We were very sore and tired this morning. We had breakfast at Nolan’s and treated him to a house cleaning. We know understand that cowboys don’t have time to clean and how easy it is to get a house dirty. We drove to Glacier National Park (about 10 hours…however we were in a tired daze driving through gorgeous country so it went by very quickly). We stopped in a few small towns treating ourselves to ice cream and kept on keeping on. We got to Glacier and was going to camp at Many Glaciers camp ground. We were supposed to meet Jess and Marcos the next day in this area. However we found them in the campground, ate supper together, and chatted the rest of the night. Being so far north is different because it is light out until 10:30pm…making it difficult for our bodies to know when bed time is. We slept in our van tonight at Jess and Marcos’s campsite.
Day 9 June 25th Glacier National Park
Today we hiked up to the Red Rock Lake trails with Jess and Marcos. The park is covered in snow and the main road through the park (Going to the Sun road) is not even open yet…trails are very limited right now. Hiking follows glacial lakes and valleys surrounded by giant snow and glacier covered peaks. It is a humbling environment. We took a nap and had lunch at a lake surrounded by mountains. This is definitely grizzly bear country so when we were hiking we had to be loud and cautious although we just saw a moose and a distant mountain goat. Exhausted we drove over St. Mary’s, set up camp and took an afternoon nap. We had supper and went to a Geological ranger talk. It was very interesting to learn about the different rocks and how all the peaks were formed. We meet some other teachers and science people there. We drove up the Going to the Sun road as far as we could and plan on biking the closed section tomorrow morning. The view from the road is beautiful with huge lakes and snow covered mountains. Sadly only 25% of the glaciers are left with an estimation of all glaciers in the park being gone by 2020.
Day 10 June 26th Glacier National Park
Today we woke up and biked Going to the Sun road from the east side. It was 3 miles of beautiful scenery with waterfalls, rushing rivers, and glaciers. We had to stop at the top other wise we would have prosecuted because they are trying to clear the snow. At this point there were 3 avalanches in the same spot causing 25-30 foot drifts making it not open for another week in a half. We then cruised 25-40 mph on our bikes down the huge hills that we just road up. It was kinda sketchy or awesome. We drove to the West side of Glacier which took us about 2 hours to get all the way around the park. We stopped in Apgar (West Glacier) visited the Visitor Center and had HUGE scoops of ice cream. At the visitor center we learned that Many Glacier is the hot spot for wildlife especially the grizz because it is so dry and open, whereas the west side is very moist and densely vegetated. We camped at Avalanche campground and did an evening hike to Avalanche Lake which was gorgeous! We hiked up through thick Cedar forests with down trees and a lot of moss. At Avalanche Lake there were at least 3 waterfalls over 500 feet high cascading into a glacial cirque lake. We walked around the beach and we saw a black bear cub out by the water. We knew the mother bear must be close. Rowdy kids scared the bear away (so we think). We picked up our bikes and rode down to another waterfall that was at a rushing river over look. Because many of the trails are closed because of snow we have decided to not do a backpacking trip in Glacier.
Day 11 June 27th Glacier to Kootenay National Park (Canada)
This morning we rode up the west side of Going to the Sun road that was closed. It was not like the east side- steep and short. It was 6 miles and a very nice ride. Crossing over a sweet bridge with a great view we spotted a black bear about 15 feet away. We slammed on our breaks and got the camera out. The bear started walking towards us (to cross the bridge) so we got on our bikes and backed up a little bit. It was about 10 feet away. Chels was fumbling her camera and case and freaked out because she couldn’t get clipped in to get away from the bear. The road was closed at the top and wouldn’t see piles of snow or anything- just a sign saying closed. We went back to the van and headed to Canada. We went through customs and were a little nervous about it- we both have never done this before. The customs guy was really nice and asked about where were from, who owned the car, where we were going, how long we were staying, if we had a hand gun(and if we didn’t tell him…Jacob would go to jail, and cease the van), and if we had any alcohol. We thought he was going to take the alcohol away so we were slow to reply yes. He asked how much and he said “That is it!! You must not be heavy drinkers” We made it into Canada. We stopped at Radium and got information on Banff and Jasper. We found out that it is Canada day on Tuesday so there will be a lot of people out. We camped out at Marble Canyon and got eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was light out until 11pm, so we are going to sleep in tomorrow morning.
Day 12 June 28th Kootney to Banff National Park
We drove over to Banff and went to the visitor center. It is hard to work the money system here- we are trying to use all credit cards and not exchange any cash over. We had a picnic in front of the visitor center and wow there are weirdos bringing back some style in Canada. We saw fanny pacs, vests, and man pris. We hiked up C Cirque which was about a 4 mile hike to the top of a ridge looking one way into the Banff valley and the other way at a glacial cirque. It was beautiful! We went to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine which are both amazing- teal covered lakes with huge mountains and glaciers behind them. There were tons of people around- none of which speak any language or are from this continent. (Lake Moraine is on the Canadian twenty.) At 8:30pm we set off on a backpacking trip about 3 miles in. We talked all the way because we don’t have bear spray or bells- just each other. Chels was a little scared at the beginning but too exhausted to care by the end. We found our campsite by 10:30 (it was still light out and no bears to be seen). The tent was surrounded by a glacial lake with steep mountains all around it. We couldn’t wait to get up and explore tomorrow morning.
Day 13 June 29th Banff to Jasper National Park
We woke up this morning to Bald Eagles fighting above the lake. We hiked up a little ridge by our campsite. This hike had very loose rocks but was deceiving to how high it was. We made it up and down safely and cooled off in the lake and backpacked out to our cars. Then we drove the Trans-Continental Hwy to Jasper and looked at all the waterfalls, mud falls, ice fields, glaciers, lakes, and AMAZING mountains!! We stopped at Peyto Lake and checked it out. We also stopped at Columbia Ice Field and saw the Athabasca Glacier. It is receding a ways but it is amazing how much of it we can’t see. The Ice Fields go soo far behind the mountains that you cannot even imagine it. We headed into Jasper the town, had supper and checked out the town. We are going to sleep in the van tonight.
