Glacier National Park, Day 8

Reed popped Little Richard. We drove to Polebridge, which was in the northwest corner of the park about 35 miles from West Glacier, and was gravel roads a good portion of the way.

Putting things in perspective - photo by Reed Thompson

We met a German ranger at the gate, who said everything was open and there weren't bear problems.

We stopped at the Bowman Lake campground and parked there. Busse and Reed hiked to Numa Lookout, which was about 5 miles each was with about 2600 feet of elevation gain.

What a difference a couple days make in apparel - photo by Reed Thompson

These three are by Reed Thompson

Molly and I were going to hike along Bowman Lake, but there were many, many wolf howls which caused us to redirect. We ended up hiking on the Lower Quartz Lake trail; we made the ascent but didn't do the descent down to the lake because of fatigue.

We saw some bones that wolves had eaten along the shore of Bowman Lake. Busse got really out of breath on their hike, but then reached the top triumphantly. They couldn't see the fire tower until they were about 50 feet away, but the view was great. They ran into a Russian ranger named Ola there who had seen the wolves on the trail, and said that you should share cheese with friends. They saw more bones from wolf meals on the way down, including a deer skull and ribcage.

We went to the Polebridge Mercantile, which was really nice, and we got some huckleberry pastries of excellent quality.

The Polebridge Pastry Selection - photo by Reed Thompson

For dinner, we took a real cute drive to Columbia Falls, and we ate at Backslope Brewing. Along the way, we had some excellent views of the Flathead River, a half-burned mountain, and we nearly ran over some deer.

The next morning. Busse and Reed drove us to the airport in Kalispell, and they continued onward to Denver. Thanks for hangin' with us, dudes.

Here are the links to the individual day posts:
Glacier National Park: Day 1
Glacier National Park: Day 2

Glacier National Park: Day 3

Glacier National Park: Day 4

Glacier National Park: Day 5

Glacier National Park: Day 6

Glacier National Park: Day 7

Glacier National Park: Day 8