World United States Washington Kettle Falls

Jonathan and Shantia's Escape 2011

Leaving Glacier Jul 27, 2011

Glacier was amazing. We saw mountain goats and sheep through the rangers’ telescopes. We saw a bear on one walk. We saw dozens of ground squirrels and got a few cute photos of them. We saw deer several times and - on a walk with the dogs, straight up in the air, on an off road vehicle trail outside the park yesterday, we found deer antlers that had been shed last winter - they feel like a real treasure! As you know from yesterday’s entry we’ve taken a lot of pictures – way more than we posted :-) We have taken a number of flower photos in the park and I’m hoping my sister Anne might be willing to make a collage of them – since she seems to enjoy such things. I bought a chart so we can, hopefully, identify most of them. There is such a profusion of color in the alpine meadows. It’s hard to believe the roads in the park only opened on July 13 from winter snow and will close again about October 1st as the snow starts again. It’s also hard to believe and VERY sad that in 1850 there were 150 glaciers in the park and today there are only 25. By 2030 they will definitely all be gone and by 2020 they may well be gone – Jonathan wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to get to Glacier before they were all gone! Daytime temperatures at Two Medicine campground ranged from about 45 to the low 70’s. Some night temps were definitely below 40. One night there was a dramatic thunderstorm, terrific gusts of wind rattling the tent, intense lightening (which fortunately never got real close) and booming thunder echoing through the mountains (the real meaning of thunder sounding like the Giants bowling). The play of sunlight and clouds across the mountains was fascinating and ever changing. We were very impressed with our contacts with the residents on the Blackfeet Reservation – they were congenial and easy with all the visitors as we shopped and strolled through the towns. They have a philosophy that we can learn from one another and they are not isolationist about ceremonies and sacred times. The 2 men from the Blackfeet Nation whom we heard speak at National Park programs were well spoken and passionate about their community. The unemployment rate is 75% and this means most youth leave to find jobs. As some might guess we have a contact with a man who might be willing to work with workcamp groups. He’s a social worker (and a veteran) who runs an “Outward Bound” type program for the youth on the reservation and he also works with veterans struggling with PTSD issues. So he is very interested in exploring hosting some folks who might help to build a facility for the camp or for the veterans. Anyone want to help? (It will not be cheap because of travel – but I think the living can be worked out to be reasonable.) There’s lot’s more communication to happen before anything is even probable… But it’s an interesting possibility and we are feeling called to try. We had several yummy versions of huckleberries – muffins, coffee cake, cobbler, pie with peaches, pie with raspberries (the best!) They are fairly similar to dark blueberries, with a slightly different taste but hard to describe. Wiki says they have larger seeds than blueberries. They put them in everything out here. Had an awesome brunch in West Glacier on our way out today, and bought yummy kabobs, raspberries and tabouli at a farmer’s market in downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. (We had stopped there at a bank to work out the final piece of getting money transferred to pay for our trailer in Canadian funds—one more fax tomorrow and it should be done in time for our Friday AM pickup. That’s probably been our biggest hassle, and we did not luck out on the exchange rate, either!) Tonight (Wed.) we are in Kettle Falls, WA, north of Spokane and just south of the Canadian border. Tomorrow we cross into British Columbia and drive the last six hours to Chilliwack!

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