STUPID ANIMAL TRICKS
We slept in the next
morning, recovering from our 17-mile hike the previous day. After a lovely breakfast of eggs and
huckleberry pancakes, we lounged around a bit before discussing how we wanted
to spend the day. Originally I had planned
on another long hike. Initially my
destination had been Triple Divide Pass.
Then I’d switched to Gunsight Lake, with a side trip out to a viewpoint
of the Jackson Glacier. Christy wanted
to take a day to rest though. She
certainly wouldn’t have objected if I’d decided to hike solo, but I chose not
to. She would be heading home on
Saturday, while I would be spending the following two weeks hiking solo in the
North Cascades. I decided I’d rather
spend the day with her than out walking around in the woods by myself.
So what to do? We thought about finding a place along St.
Mary Lake to bask in the sun, but we just couldn’t get excited about it. Instead, we blatantly disregarded the terms
of our rental car agreement and drove to Canada. This was, without a doubt, the first time in my life that I’ve
decided to drive to Canada on a whim.
Fortunately I’d brought my passport, for just such a spontaneous
occasion as this.
We headed out later that
morning, and spotted a Bald Eagle while driving along Lower St. Mary Lake. The line at customs was exactly one car
long. The friendly girl working there
checked my passport and Christy’s birth certificate, and asked us a series of
entertaining questions. Did we have any
alcohol, cigarettes, weapons, dope, fireworks, or anything else fun? How about sex, drugs, or rock and roll? She let us through, so I guess we must be
pretty boring people.
Even with the 5 minutes
spent at customs, the drive from Rising Sun to Waterton Lakes National Park
only took an hour. Waterton Lakes was
the one place on this trip that I couldn’t get into for free with my National
Parks Pass. Still, at $7 per person, it
was a bargain.
I had promised Christy that
there would be no hiking, but there was still plenty to do and see. First, we drove up to Cameron Lake to have a
picnic lunch. We were on our way to the
lake, and had just gone around a sharp curve, when we spotted a bear cub
crossing the road. As we approached,
the cub hopped up onto the guard rail.
For a brief moment he paused there, with all four paws on the rail,
looking back at us. I scrambled to get
my camera out, but by the time I did, he had disappeared down the embankment
below the road. I had just missed what
could’ve been the photo of a lifetime.
We still aren’t sure if the
cub was a black bear or a grizzly.
We’re guessing it was a grizzly, but it’s hard to tell with cubs. We never saw any sign of its mother. Presumably she had already crossed the road
before we had come around the bend.
The lake has an officially
designated picnic area, but apparently it consists of exactly one table. That was ok though, as we found a nice place
in the grass along the shore. From
there, we had a fine view out across the lake to the peaks beyond. The sunshine was abundant, and after we ate,
we settled in for a couple hours of relaxation.
I had just started reading
my book when Christy broke the silence.
“Oh my God, is that a Moose”? I
looked up, and followed her gaze. The
lake has canoe, kayak, and paddle boat rentals, and there was a large brown
animal standing in the water over near the dock. We walked that way, hoping to get a better look. Sure enough, it was a female Moose, and she
was doing her best to feed on the abundant aquatic vegetation growing near the
docks.
It didn’t take long for her
to draw a crowd. I didn’t really want
to join the fray, but I did want to get some photos. From where we were, the Moose was largely out of sight behind the
dock. So, I walked around to a beach on
the far side, where I had an un-obstructed view. We watched her for quite a while, and I took an absurd number of
photos. Finally, after 30 minutes or
so, I told Christy that there was nothing more I could do in the way of
photography, unless the Moose climbed into one of the paddle boats and went for
a spin around the lake. Moose look
almost silly enough for this to be plausible, but alas, it was not to be.
We returned to our section
of beach, but after that excitement, reading in the sun had lost its
charm. We packed up and headed into
town. Along the way, we saw a couple of
deer, but no more bears. Once in town,
we made a brief stop at Cameron Falls, which was ok, but not particularly
exciting. Then we drove down to get a
look at Waterton Lake, before stopping in town to indulge in some ice cream. Somehow, we managed to spend almost as much
money on the ice cream as we did getting into the park. Then, we stopped by the world-famous Prince
of Wales Hotel to check it out. We
wandered around the lobby for a few minutes, before walking out into the back
yard for another great view of Waterton Lake.
After all that, it was still
only mid-afternoon. So, we took a drive
up the Redrock Parkway. This drive was
pleasant enough, but not as exciting as the road to Cameron Lake. While driving, I considered taking a short
waterfall hike that begins at the end of the road. When we arrived though, we found only a trickle of water in the
creek. Under those circumstances, I
doubted that the hike would be worthwhile.
We made one final stop
before heading home. We headed over to
the Bison Range, as bison were one of the few types of wildlife we hadn’t seen
in Glacier. The range is a large
fenced-in grassland that you can actually drive through. We had completed almost a full lap, only
seeing two bison, when we reached a small pond. As we approached, we spotted two more bison walking down the hill
towards the water. We stopped to get a
few photos of them getting a drink.
Once they finished, though, they kept walking towards us. I began to get a little nervous, as one of
them approached our car. I wasn’t sure
what his intentions were, and I was just getting ready to pull away, when he
paused. Then he unraveled what looked
like a hairy fire hose and unleashed a torrent of urine that would’ve impressed
a racehorse. He must’ve unloaded about
a half-gallon right there in front of our car.
Fortunately, Christy got photos of the whole thing. I laughed until I cried as we headed back
out to the highway.
The drive back was uneventful. The line at customs was even shorter this
time (we were it) and the guys working there were extremely friendly. They warned us to watch out for cows in the
road, which is something that we had gotten used to over the last couple of
days. We ran into a couple of “Montana
traffic jams”, but still made it back to camp well before dark. We had salmon for dinner that night, but we
had to wait until after dark to work up an appetite, thanks to all of the ice
cream we’d eaten earlier that afternoon.
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