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The Trip Begins

The trip began without fanfare as I drove from Hailey to Helena, Montana on Sunday the 21st. Leaving the Wood River Valley in the morning, it appeared that the sky was beginning to get smoky (when I spoke with Deb at the end of the day, she said there were brush fires burning and smoldering throughout the area) - and then there was drizzle for most of the drive.  I decided not to stop in Butte to track down the Fairmont Hotel, at which Robert Frank shot one of his memorable photos from an upstairs room windows for The Americans.

I arrived at Bonnie and Marshall's house, caught up with them, and we shared a wonderful dinner with their son Greg. The next day, Marshall had to have some service performed on the Airstream sprinter, and we didn't get going until 2.



Since we got a late start, and with stopping for a beer at Bynum, and exploring the dinosaur fascination in the vicinity, our arrival at Glacier was around 6 - and the campgrounds were already full. However, that was entirely mitigated by seeing a grizzly sow and her cub at lakeside immediately upon entering the park, and we subsequently saw (from our car) another sow with three cubs and a black bear. So we wandered down the road to Babb and St. Mary campground, and spent the night there.  


We had a cold dinner of snacks on the picnic table, and went to bed fairly early...it was a glorious full moon...my sleeping bag would soaked in the morning by the heavy dew generated by the nearby river.

An inauspicious beginning to our travels..... 


The livingroom of Bonnie Lambert and Marshall Mayer in Helena, Montana


Dinosaur facsimile, Bynum, Montana

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 28, 2010 at 3:26 PM

    So happy to hear from you...ah, the scenery is "breathtaking"...thank you for sharing....Miss Piggy

    ReplyDelete

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