Hikes in Glacier National Park

Here's the second installment of our Glacier National Park series.

While neither John nor myself are crazy enough to do extended day-long hikes, we do enjoy short hikes in the national parks we visit. While we were in Glacier, we had the opportunity to do a few short, but scenic hikes/walks.

The first hike of our trip was also the most strenuous: Apikuni Falls. John had read some hiking map and said that it was just 1 mile roundtrip, with nearly 800 feet in elevation gained. He actually misread the map, in that it was actually 1 mile each way, but the elevation gain was really a bit of a killer.

Being it was our first hike, we were overly prepared in terms of bear prevention. We had always heard that you should have bells on to warn away the bears, and so appropriately enough, we acquired 6 Christmas bells on rope necklaces from the Bear Family. Below, John models his bells.

We were the only ones on the trail with bells, so later we asked the rangers about it. And, contrary to popular belief, the bells actually don't do that much good to alert the bears. As the ranger said, humans normally don't make bell sounds so that doesn't really help the bears out. Instead, they urge you to use your voice while talking/singing, as well as clapping, etc. So after the first hike, we put the bells away.

The hike up to Apikuni Falls was quite pretty, and we came across some lovely flora and butterflies.

It appeared as though a rock slide had covered up part of the traditional trail to the falls, with the new trail being a bit more tricky, especially with one patch of poorly placed snow right on an incline.

But we made it and the falls were quite lovely, and well worth the work to get there.

Our second hike was a quick stop on the way back from Two Medicine Lake: Running Eagle Falls.

These falls were named after an actual woman indian warrior.

The walk out to the falls was short and sweet. What I found to be the nicest part was that there were no other people out at the falls. 

I could definitely see how it could be a busy place on a warmer/sunnier day, but we enjoyed having the place to ourselves.

Another walk we did was the Trail of the Cedars. This is also where we saw the Harlequin Duck.

This was a boardwalk walk around a basically Pacific Northwest rainforest. It was very moist with lots of moss and crazy trees.

I liked all of the moss on the rocks - very picturesque.

Cool tree stump along the Trail of the Cedars.

Tree with white moss/lichens on the Trail of the Cedars.

Our final hike of the trip was appropriately the hike to John's Lake. John was adequately excited.

The one difficult part about this hike was that the trail was deserted and it really appeared to be prime bear territory.  As a result, we did not dawdle at the lake when we got there, but quickly headed back.

We did not buy any bear spray for this trip (it was an expensive $60/bottle - but we probably could have found some cheaper on Amazon if we'd planned ahead), but we decided that when we visit again, it would be worthwhile to buy some. Even if we don't use it (hopefully not), it might give us a bit more piece of mind while out hiking so that we could enjoy ourselves a bit more.

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It's a Rough Morning

The picture says it all and accurately represents how the humans and dogs are doing today.  We're all a bit sluggish, sleepy, maybe a tad cranky this morning.  It's been a slog to get through it, but maybe more coffee will help...the humans at least.

There are just some days that it's hard to get out of your cozy slumber ball.

Animals of Glacier National Park

We went to Glacier National Park in early June and it was our first opportunity to use our brand new camera (more on this in another post). It took some fabulous photos, and allowed us to capture some wildlife that we wouldn't have been able to photograph with our old camera.

The highlight of the trip for me was to watch 2 adolescent Bighorn Sheep duke it out over something in a picnic area fire pit. They truly reminded me of Tito and Shaak Ti. The smaller, darker one appeared to be the dominant one (Shaak Ti) while the bigger, whiter one lurked about and waited for his chance to dart in and grab something to eat (Tito). 

We came across these two while waiting in our car (in the cold rain) for our boat trip around Two Medicine Lake (a good tour). We had seen one sheep wandering around the campground when we went in to talk to the rangers and so when we came out, I made John drive around the campground. And sure enough, we came across these two.

We got to park the car pretty much directly in front of them, approximately 30 yards away, and then watched them for 1/2 hour (John here - it was much longer than that). I think John had his fill after a few minutes, but he stuck it out to make me happy. And in the end, we were rewarded with a pretty good close-up of one of them as he sauntered away.

And while it was somewhat cheating, here's a picture of me with a stuffed Bighorn Sheep at the Many Glacier Lodge.

(John here - please note Alycias' awesome t-shirt that I got her for her birthday.  It says "I like to party, and by party I mean take naps".  Truer words hath nigh been spoken by a t-shirt)

And here's a photo of a stuffed mountain goat at the East Glacier Lodge. 

Another highlight of the trip was our walk around the Trail of the Cedars trail. It was a very easy walk (most of it on boardwalk), so I can't really call it a hike. But as we were wandering around, we saw this family looking excitedly through their binoculars. After experiences in Yellowstone and Yosemite, I've learned that you pay attention to anyone who's focused on something with their spotting scope. So we go over and see that they're excited about a duck - a Harlequin Duck. Initially, he was about 50 yards down river and the family was super excited about that (they were doing a bird count for their trip and this duck was #202). But then, he flew up right in front of us and landed in the river to continue floating downstream. I was able to get a picture up pretty close, and he was indeed a handsome duck.

While waiting for our boat tour around Lake McDonald, we also spotted a few other birds in the trees. First, a Yellowbellied Sapsucker was working over a tree pretty well. I tried to get a good picture, but he wasn't so great at holding his head still.

And then a Western Tanager. He's hard to see in the photo, but a close-up zoom shows his distinct orange head and bright yellow body.

We also saw a bald eagle on our Lake McDonald boat tour, but honestly, those are fairly commonplace to us. We see them regularly flying over the Red River of the North by our house.

One animal we did not see on our trip was a bear - grizzly or black. While it would have been exciting to see one while driving around, we were definitely glad to have not come across one while hiking around in the woods.

Finally, one last animal we encountered were hand-carved merry-go-round horses in Missoula, MT. John wasn't super excited to go on the carousel, but it lived up to its name as one of the world's fastest carousels. 

I could feel the wind whipping through my hair as we whirled around and around. For $2.25, it was well worth the trip.

Goodbye Huge Elm Tree

We had some fierce winds for several days over the last week, with gusts over 50 mph on more than one occasion.  The wind brought down a large tree branch of our neighors across the street, which led to a tree maintenance crew coming out to clean up the debris.

While they were out here the arborists with the local Parks and Recreation District (they're responsible for maintaining the trees on the berms) noticed that the huge old elm tree on the Northwest corner of our lot had a pretty large hollow cavity at the base, seen above.  They left a note in our mail slot on a Wednesday morning that said the tree would have to be removed.  The time frame for the tree removal was pretty vague though, it said "crews would be on site either later that day or within the next couple of weeks". 

My expectation of the speed of local government entities is till stuck on California time though and I fully expected them to come take down the tree at the end of that two week period (or longer).  I forget that I live in North Dakota now, city services are pretty awesome, damn responsive, and actually can get things done quickly (when they want to).  A work crew was on site by 1:00 that afternoon, there was barely enough time for us to say goodbye and mourn the loss of our tree. 

It's always sad to lose a large tree in the garden and Alycia was pretty bummed out.  It has drastically changed the complexion of the garden though, and not just the big empty space where the tree used to be.  The whole area underneath and sections of the front garden that were full to part shade are now full to part sun.  It's a substantial change in the amount of sunlight that a large of swath of the garden receives.  Suddenly plants that were unthinkable in various front yard locations have become feasible.

The work crews that arrived at 1:00 had reduced that elm tree to the stump you see below by 4:30 that afternoon.  They cut it down and hauled away all the debris, leaving only a stump and a layer of sawdust coating part of the front yard.  The additional sunshine that comes through this space and allows us more "full sun" plantings will make up for the loss of this elm tree, and we've been promised that the stump will be ground down in the Fall and a new tree will be planted in the space next Spring, but it's still sad to lose a tree.

Paprika Yarrow and Awesome Customer Service from BloomingBulb.com

I wrote about some new plants that we added to the garden last summer in this post and this post last year.  These plants were root divisions that were on (huge) markdown from BloomingBulb.com.  Sadly the Arizona Sun Gallairdia didn't survive the winter, at all.  The Summer Sun Heliopsis, Paprika Yarrow, and Caradonna Salvia are mostly all thriving whilst very few of the Zing Rose Maiden Pink Dianthus made it through the winter.

Here's a photo of the Paprika Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), planted between tomatoes in the raised bed on the left and the apple trees (out of frame) on the right.  Please ignore those weeds.

A few weeks back I e-mailed the customer service department of BloomingBulb.com to tell them that some of the plants didn't live and requested a replacement.  They claim to have a "no questions asked replacement/refund" guarantee.  And do they ever.  I got a credit for the plants they no longer had in stock and a box of Zing Rose Maiden Pink Dianthus was shipped out to my house.

Their customer service was so fast and efficient though that unfortunately the box arrived when we were on vacation and the root divisions looked pretty dicey by the time we got home, so I'm in the unfortunate position of having to request a second replacement.  But BloomingBulbs' customer service was so outstanding, I don't think it'll be an issue.  For that reason they get a full Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes two thumbs up seal of approval.  I'll certainly be buying from them again. 

An Honorary Deaf Dog?

Today we went to our first fair of the season - the Grand Forks County Fair. Similar to last year, we opted to attend the 4-H Horse Show (which occurs during the morning hours when the fair actually is not open). It was pretty hot and humid so we didn't stay too long, just enough to see the Halter Horsemanship and English Dressage competitions. However, we did notice a horse that looked very similar to our own Shaak Ti and Shadowfax...

What do you think? Should this lady be an honorary deaf dog?

Irises in Bloom

Our irises just finished blooming. The picture below is from a week and a half ago when they were at their height of bloom. They're a pretty awesome deep blue/violet color.

Here's that same picture from a week later (just a few days ago).  The irises are almost finished blooming, but also blooming are wild geraniums and daises (of unknown variety).

This area is a small mound that was created from dirt from another project.  Just a few years ago this was nothing more than some scraggly and overgrown lilac shrubs, now look at it.  All of these plants were free divisions from Alycias' colleague who was dividing her irises and thinning some things out in her yard a few years ago.  I probably wouldn't have purchased these plants on my own accord, but since they were free?  I'll take 'em. 

Too Much Sunbeam

Shadowfax spent too much time in the hot summer sunshine today.  It was a lovely warm Summer day today in Grand Forks, North Dakota and she enjoyed every minute of it. 

After baking her brain out on the back steps, Shadowfax can barely make it in the back door before staggering inside and collapsing on the kitchen floor.  Maybe we'll get her one of these sweet cooling coats, or just fill up her swimming pool. 

Spirea - Flowering Hedges

One of the things that we inherited from the previous homeowners was a hedge of spirea that runs North/South along the Western side of the property.  Spirea are fairly popular as hedges around here and not terribly noteworthy.  We kept the hedgerow and actually added to it in a couple of places to make a consistent hedge.

Once or twice per Summer I get out the hedge trimmers and actually make the row of Spirea look more hedge-like.  It's one of the few elements of "structure" in a garden whose character could best be described as wild or random or natural, depending on your level of snarkiness at the time.  In early Summer the Spirea put out profusions of white flowers and smell quite lovely, but other than that they're quite unremarkable.

It's quite a show of tiny white flowers, but only for a few weeks, then it's back to being ordinary hedge plants.  We probably wouldn't have created this hedgerow look on our own, but since it's already here, we might as well embrace it. 

I'm not sure of the exact variety of Spirea, so sorry if I can't give you a more precise name or a Latin name for this plant. 

Free Mulch and Pics of the Mulch Yard

Here in Grand Forks, North Dakota the local Parks and Recreation District operates a multi-purpose yard for cultivating trees and shrubs, storing equipment, and maintaining huge piles of compost, mulch, and other yard materials (it's technically called Old Dutch Park - Map).  And the best part?  It's all completely free!!  Yeah, free mulch.  Sure you have to load it and haul it, but a little bit of elbow grease for free mulch is a small price to pay.

We're huge believers in mulch here on the homestead.  It helps keep roots nice and cool on hot summer days, retains water in the soil and limits the amount of irrigation needed, and breaks down into nice organic matter that creates a healthy soil system.  I've extolled the virtues of mulch before and we've had larger amounts delivered when we had big projects, but for the most part the trips to the mulch yard provide an adequate amount.  Look at that mountain of free mulch!

Here's the mulch yard.  Those are 20 foot high piles of mulch that go on for 100 yards or so.  It's good stuff.  There's also compost, sand, even some small aggregate. As long as you're not a professional landscaper, you can drive in and load up your car for free.  I can fit three full size trash cans into the Subaru Outback, it takes me a half hour total to get there, scoop up mulch to fill the trash cans, and get back home.  Easy peasy. 

The only stuff that's off limits is one pile of shredded wood chips that the Parks and Rec folks use for playground ground covering.

I get mulch from here on a regular basis.  I have procured compost from here before, but after one too many stories of "killer compost", there's just no way to be sure that there isn't some kind of herbicide lurking in that compost.  For the most part the mulch is less likely to contain some surprise. 

Mountains of mulch, it's truly a beautiful sight to behold, especially for a mulch junkie like me.

Birthday Week Celebration

Alycia here. When I was in college, my friends were nice enough to indulge me with an entire birthday week, which for anyone who loves their birthday is much more fun than celebrating on just a single day. I have tried as much as I can to introduce this concept and get John on board with continuing the tradition of birthday weeks, and he is really starting to come around. This makes for an exciting end of May/beginning of June, as John's birthday is just one week before mine, and our Anniversary is smack dab in the middle of the week between our birthdays (I planned this as such).

The birthday week allows the birthday celebrant to be in charge of all sorts of daily household decisions, such as what we will watch on TV at night, and what we will eat for our meals. So while it may not seem like a big deal, I feel that it allows for the feeling of a little extra specialness for an entire week, which is always nice.

For John's actual birthday day, we planned a day trip out to visit some small towns in Minnesota. The first stop was a cafe in Winger, MN that had been recently reviewed by world-renowned local food critic, Marilyn Haggarty of the Grand Forks Herald. The Depot Cafe and Bakery was appropriately located in an old train depot that had been moved and renovated.

There were some nice touches that reminded the customers about the building's history.

The interior was nicely finished with lovely wood paneling and lighting. The food was actually pretty good. John had a very large burger on a homemade bun. I had some of the best egg salad I'd had in a while.

In Marilyn's review, she mentioned a bakery. She made it seem as though it was right next to the cafe, but when we queried the waitress, she said that it was actually in McIntosh, MN, about 10 miles up the road. So after lunch, we headed to the next stop. McIntosh was actually a very lovely town that we will visit again. The bakery had a very large kitchen and appeared to specialize primarily in bread products (duh, it's a bakery), but it had a respectable amount of doughnuts as well.

John was able to pick up a package of sandwich rolls, as well as a couple doughnuts and an apple fritter, which made him happy.

After the bakery stop, we crossed the street to check out the meat market. Why, you ask, would a gluten-free vegetarian support visiting a bakery and a specialty meat store? Well, it was John's birthday and I think it's important to check out all available options for interesting food. Being in the middle of nowhere, beggars can't be choosers when it comes to possible food delicacies. We didn't buy anything at the meat market since there's a pretty good one here in Grand Forks (L&M Meats), but for a town of a couple hundred, it was fairly impressive.

Our next stop in town was the McIntosh Country Store. John didn't think we should go in - he thought it would be a feed store for cattle, etc. But I argued with him and said that the sign said they had fresh eggs, of which we needed some. So in we went. It was actually more of a natural foods store, with some random farm animal necessities. They had a whole bunch of gluten free items and bulk foods, as well as vaccines for your animals. In addition, as I was walking through the store, I kept hearing the cheep-cheeps of baby chicks, but I couldn't find them. Eventually I located the chicks, they were in a box under a table. (John here - it's been a while since Alycia's gotten to play with chicks)

It appeared as though the chicks had been mailed to the store, and they were waiting for their owner to pick them up. While I thought it was somewhat inhumane to mail live animals, according to my mother, this is often how its done. The chicks really didn't seem the worse for wear, at least based on my quick peek inside the box.

I also liked that the store had this lovely metal chicken outside.

And across the street from the store, was a plant nursery that the store ran. We picked up some (hopefully) lovely heirloom cherry tomatoes. We've had heirloom regular sized tomatoes before, but the cherries are a new one and I'm looking forward to what they'll produce.

We then headed home for a birthday nap and later had a lovely dinner with my parents at the Brick and Barley here in town. It's a newer brew pub that has a decent selection of rotating beers on tap. John likes to try the different beers; I stick with the always gluten-free ciders. There are very few decent gluten-free beers and I've learned that the ciders are usually a better/safer bet.