Day 15 – Saturday : Glacier to Kootenai National Forest (387 km) We treat ourselves to a bit of a lie in bed this morning. OK, some wine was involved last night, so I think it is allowed.
After 15 days I have finally sorted out the process of showering in the camper. Chet told us how to do this, and I have used campers with showers before, but it took a while getting my head around the process. By now I have worked out how to use a tiny amount of water to wet myself, then soap myself with a small amount of shampoo, do a very quick partial rinse and squeegee off the bulk of the suds, then a final short rinse. I am suitably pleased if I have only filled the shower tray with a few cupful’s of water.
Another thing I should have known by now – this is not Europe; you can’t get diesel every 5 miles (there are 5 stations selling diesel within 1 mile of my house). So we leave the campground with half a tank of diesel, but for some reason I don’t want to fill up at St. Mary. It is quite expensive and there might be some cheaper diesel on the way to West Glacier, our planned destination today.
We head south towards Browning. I don’t really want to go all the way to Browning so turn right off US-89. It is marked 21ft vehicles or less, but again, the road is quiet so I risk it. I’ve now realised these restrictions are probably to avoid problems during times of dense traffic rather than indicating that the corners are so tight that you can’t get a 21ft vehicle around them. The shortcut pays off because the views are stunning.
We pull through East Glacier Park, but don’t notice any gas stations. Unwisely I carry on – maybe there is one as we head out of town. But there isn’t and it turns out to be a long way to West Glacier with the fuel gauge seemingly dipping at an ever-faster rate as we head along US-2 following the railroad and using my right-foot increasingly carefully – keeping the RPM as low as possible and the torque converter locked up.
St Mary had two gas stations, so clearly West Glacier will be no problem. Eventually we nearly coast into the gas station at West Glacier. Where’s the green pump? I go in to ask. “No, sorry, we don’t have diesel”. Aaarrrggghhh! The next gas station is pretty much Columbia Falls. It may be only 7 miles, but it feels a lot longer and we are very relieved to see the gas station, and more importantly that its sign has prices in green as well as red. We must be running on fumes by now. Owning a diesel at home I know running out isn’t quite as straight forward as putting some fuel in the tank and cranking the starter for a few turns, so I am very relieved.
Returning to West Glacier we enter the park. Remember, this was our intended base for our Glacier visit, only changed to St, Mary while on the journey. I am immediately disappointed that the road along Lake McDonald provides no view of the mountains due to the trees and the curve of the road, unlike the road in from St. Mary which is very scenic. We get as far as Avalanche Campground, which is still at really low altitude, but the road is closed from here. Traffic is heavy and all the limited parking is packed. The “Large vehicle turnaround” route is partially blocked with parked cars. We squeeze through, but were we in a truly large RV we would have been in trouble. We don’t bother stopping. I think we had seen the best of the park from the other side.
We had planned to camp here, but decide to give that a miss and head on. It is still early in the day, and given we haven’t seen anywhere scenic and quiet to park and have a nice hike, we decide to call it a day and carry on west.
Leaving Glacier we detour off US-2 and onto 206 and 35 into Kalispell. This area looks very poor. It may be scenic, but there clearly isn’t much work around.
We carry on to the Kootenai National Forest to find somewhere to camp. There are several lakes along US-2 there, with camping available. We pull into a campground next to McGregor Lake, but being a Saturday evening it is busy with lots of families and some sort of jamboree, plus people launching watercraft and having big group barbecues by the lake. Sally really doesn’t like the look of it. There is nothing wrong with it per se, but she wants somewhere quiet.
The shores of the Thompson lakes clearly have places to camp, but they appear full and quite closely packed. Instead we pull off onto a gravel road heading north into the forest. Unfortunately we can’t find anywhere that looks suitable to pull off the forestry track and camp, and there are a number of properties amongst these back woods here. It looks the sort of place someone would come along with a shotgun to investigate what you are doing. Back on US-2 we try another turn-off, this time heading south. This seems to be in proper USFS land and I have higher hopes of finding some boondocking, but by now Sally is feeling uncomfortable with the whole idea. Back on US-2 we find a real gem only 100 yards further on. A small campground just off the highway. It has a long drop toilet, and doesn’t appear to levy a charge to camp.
We circle a couple of times and find a suitable site. There are a couple of large pull-through sites for those towing a horse trailer and even a steel coral so you can keep your horses overnight – amazing.
A short walk takes us down to the creek and we’re just returning when another truck camper pulls in near us. They are Karen and Rob.
A lovely couple with a double-slide Lance on a Cummins RAM SRW (I’ve always liked the sound of a straight six). I didn’t even know Lance made a double-slide. It makes for a more compact camper than the 1161 when the slides are in (hence the ability to carry it on a SRW truck), but I guess it limits your ability to use the camper with those slides in.
Both Rob and Karen had worked in trucking, but Karen was originally from Denmark, via Canada. They now lived in Montana with their dogs.
