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Since the Badlands I've been hiking longer and longer distances. For my second day at Glacier I decided to really push it and do a long hike. I spoke with a Ranger and he recommended an excellent 15 mile round trip hike across the continental divide with spectacular views. He said it was popular enough for me to do alone (numbers equal no appearances on "When Animals Attack"). So I packed up my water, snacks, lunch and the rest of my gear and got an early start. Oh yea, I now have hiking boots, smart wool socks, and a whistle... AND THATS ALL I NEED...and this thermos. These pictures are from the first couple miles.

Next thing I know I'm huffing it for about 2 hours along a ridge barely wide enough for one person. The mountain face on one side and a thousand foot plummet on the other. Surely an experience that would be right up there with being aggressively nubbed by a wild animal.

Its amazing what people will do for great views.

Finally the summit. An old stone hut built in the 20s for hikers to spend the night. No water or electricity. Basically it was just a roof over your head. Hikers bring their own bedding, filter their own water, and cook their own food. Oddly you could still buy a snickers bar.

Not a bad place to take a break, eat lunch, and rest up for the 7.5 miles trek back down the slip and slide.

I'm happy to say I made the round trip journey incident free. However, I don't think I could have walked another mile. The legs were shot and the feet where really hurting. So much for the "smart" wool socks.

Unfortunately I didn't have a place to stay in the park that night and the itinerary said I should be in Spokane, WA (a mere six hours away) for a lay over on the way to Mt. Rainier. It was already six and the legs were starting to tighten up. There was no way I would make it to Spokane that night so I decided to just drive as far as I could.

So, 35 miles west of the park I pull over and get a room in Kalispell, MT. Thinking it would be a quite night I shower up and head out for a nice steak dinner (hey I deserved it). Not 5mins after sitting at the bar of the Bulldog Pub I am in conversation with a guy named John and his sister Sheila. We chat about all sorts of stuff while I'm eating. They grew up and now live permanently in the Kalispell area. Well one things leads to another (beers that is) and next thing you know they are taking me on a pub crawl through Kalispell. We end up at the oldest bar in town called Moose's Saloon and it's been there for almost 50 years. The owner died a couple of years ago and his name was actually Moose. Talk about character, this place was screaming it. Saw dust on the floor, dark wood everything and awesome people. John knows everyone in the place including his old friend Scotty the bar tender. I'm immediately being introduced to everyone. The night turns into a full bender of which the last couple of hours I'm being walked around the whole bar and being told story after story.

I'll share two I thought were most amusing. The first had to do with a U shaped horn hanging from the bar. They encourage all new patrons to attempt to make a Moose sound out of the horn and if you do you will get a free pitcher of beer. Well everyone in the place wants me to give this a shot. I notice people just seem far too excited to have this happen. So I study the horn and notice one very concerning thing. Its a U shaped horn right? So if you are blowing into one end where is the other end pointed?..... Right, directly at your face. I tell them that I'll do it and people gather around. They hand me the horn and I turn it upside down at which time about 6oz of baby powder fall out. Nice try guys.

The second story has to do with a missing section of a wood beam in the ceiling. Many many years ago Moose lost a $100 bet with one of the more eccentric folks in the bar. Well Moose wasn't happy about paying so he takes a hundred bucks (fives and tens) and staples it to one of the wood beams in the ceiling. Well the other guy being kind of a nut said hed get his money, so he went out to his truck and got a chain saw, came into the bar, fired it up, and cut that section of the beam right out. Scotty (the bar tender in his 28th year at Moose's) then opens this old glass case filled with stuff covered in dust. He rummages around for a few minutes and then pulls out the actual section of wood with the money stapled to it. He said he thought it was in there and that that case hadn't been opened in 20 years.

I try and end the night by saying that I wanted to pay for all the drinks we had over the past 4 hours. Scotty looks me in the eye and says $17.

Well, I get to my room around 3am after promising everyone I'd keep in touch and come back to Kalispell. Ugh...not a good way to prepare for an 8 hour drive the next day.