Monday night, the 28th.....weather was beautiful, hot, and people were ready to go swimming! Our parking lot was filled, and it sounded like a bunch of wild indians down at the lake. We can gauge the temperature of the water by the "scream factor".

This is where Bowman Creek joins the North Fork Flathead. We really enjoyed this day trip, and will be back for hikes and camping. Along the way, we found US Forest Service campgrounds that are right on this river....with Darrell's golden age pass, fees are cut in half. Yay!

On our way back from Bowman Lake, we stop for a shot of Bowman Creek.

Bowman Lake has primitive campsites, a boat launch, and lots of scenery. Lots of trailheads to take you on hikes through the park.

Cue the moose! From Polebridge, we wanted to take the inside North Fork road, but it was closed due to a washout. So, we decided to go see Bowman Lake. Mr. Moose was waiting for us alongside the road.

I couldn't find much on the history of Polebridge, except that it's named after a bridge across the Flathead river (made of poles, I suppose). The "merc" as locals call it, has an extremely wonderful bakery and sandwich shop, which we took advantage of. Their huckleyberry pies and baked goods are to die for!

A couple of the meadows along the way, looking east from the road towards the peaks in GNP.

North Fork of the Flathead River. This runs from Canada to Flathead Lake, and the road we took parallels it. This is Amber's outdoor office mostly in the summer.

We took a day off from painting, and went exploring. We took the Outer North Fork road that runs along the east side of GNP. Polebridge is our destination. Along the way, we came upon this unusual waterfall. Not sure if it is there all the time, or is a result of all the rainfall we have had.

This is what the latest 24 period of steady rain has done to our home on wheels. We have a leak coming through the air conditioner.
Darrell's project tomorrow (a dry day) will be to get up on the roof and check it out.
Our park has new creeks and streams running through it, down to the lake.

Happy Fathers Day!
Darrell & I started the day off with our first kayak venture on Whitefish Lake. Weather was beautiful, warm, and the lake was calm.
Then we met Amber and Kent for a hike on the Foys Lake to Blacktail hiking trail. Located west of Kalispell, it is near the town, being developed for hikers, bikers, and horse riders.
Amber cooked us a great dinner, a curry with venison. So delicious!
Kent's dog, Mukwa, wants to be in the picture, too.

Another before/after pic.....this is down by the privy building. The soil was washing onto the pavement, blocking the door to the storage area. We'll do the other side another day.

This was kind of a dangerous, slippery way to get down to the lake; so we ordered 6x6x8 ft timbers (through our fwp supervisor), cut and drilled them, then leveled each step and anchored the timbers with 2ft rebar. Then we filled in the steps with wood chips made from the down/dead wood we gathered from the woods.

Walked down to the lake last night on our usual after-dinner stroll; saw two Mergansers and their babies our for their evening swim. The babies were riding on mom's back, there must have been about 10 of them. Then they all climbed onto the swim platform. It was so cool to see, wish my phone camera took better close-ups!

McDonald Creek in May, and a month later.......

In 2003, fire swept over the east slopes near Lake McDonald.

Another rainy day.....we decided to check out Glacier again, and on our way we stopped at the West Glacier train station. Darrell loves trains!

Belton Chalet is located near the west entrance of Glacier, across the road from the train station. Built in 1910 by the Great Northern Railroad, it fell into disrepair, but was renovated in 2000.

On the recent sunny days that have been days off for us, we've been helping Amber get her house ready to paint. Lots of scraping

I added a log border for that special "foresty" touch.

As I said, it's been raining steadily for about the last 9 days, with few sunny hours.....here we are; as the sun came out, we ran down to the shore to grab a few rays of vitamin D. Mr. and Mrs. Mole!

Not sure what order these will publish in....the guy looking at us is a black-chinned hummingbird, and the other....?I'm guessing a female rufous. Too big and long a bill for a calliope, which was my first guess, then I changed my mind. Any ideas out there?

Having had quite a bit of rainy weather, and only 1 channel on tv......we have had great fun watching our local hummingbird population right outside our window. They are hard to focus on with our camera, so apologies....this is a rufous, the bossiest of them all.

We stopped for a picnic along the river, which is really wide and swift...therefore, the need for this nearby life ring (hopefully not).

Today the sun was shining and it was a day off. So, we took a drive up to Eureka. On the way, we drove along the Kootenai River, which becomes Lake Koocanusa at the Libby Dam.

Most of the food is fresh and organic, grown locally.

Today was the first day of the Whitefish farmers' market. Every Tuesday night in the park across from the train depot, vendors bring their wares and great, fresh food for everyone to buy. Also, live music!

This is what we've been keeping busy with on our work days.....clearing dead wood and piling it up to be chipped, then put on our hiking paths. It's turned out to be great exercise, and good training for when we start hiking in Glacier.

A sunny day! We've had rain for the last 6 days, and today it cleared a little.