Saturday 6 September saw the FSSS (international) department put on their annual day trip to Glacier National Park, about a 3-4 hour drive north of Missoula. We departed from campus at 0700ish on the dot.
After around an hour and a half we found ourselves in the town of Poison (or Polson. Both seem appropriate). We stopped at Walmart for those with weak bladders and those who forgot to buy supplies. We were held up from departing Walmart because there had to be a couple of jokers who took the piss and went to McDonalds, much to the distress of Mona, the trip leader. Them Irish…
We continued to the park while Mona kept us well informed with information about the local areas. She described “Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake on this side of the country. Salt lake isn’t a fresh water lake. And the one in California isn’t as big…” “there are cherry orchards on the left and right of the road. They grow cherries there.” I’m glad I took my workbook so I could understand the complexities of rural Montana business. Once we entered the park we stopped at the gift shops which happen to be lakeside.
Following our shopping stop, we proceeded to Avalanche Creek to seek some trees and a small stream (i forget the exact details, the trees are very famous though). We had a leisurely stroll around a loop track and ended up at the place we began and sat down for lunch.
After lunch we made our way to the meeting point with the famous Red Buses which took us to the top of the “Going to The Sun Road.” Our driver Steve was very informative with a voice fit for radio. He talked about the attitudes towards the park. In particular he spoke about if a forest fire breaks out, the park will let it burn (unless there is an arson attack) as it helps promote new growth, as well as prevents larger fires in the future.
At the top of the mountain, which is approximately 2000m above sea level, we stopped and had half an hour to roam the gift shop and take a photo or 2.
As we trecked back down the mountain Steve’s radioesk voice allowed most of the bus to ‘rest their eyes’ until we made back at the lodge, again time was given to explore another gift shop. I headed for the lake shore again instead.
After waiting for the bus to be fixed we made our way to a dodgy Chinese food restaurant where we drank the bitter soft drinks, ate the dodgy meat dishes and tried to eat dessert. Tried is the pressing word there. Even jelly is too hard for them. And the fortune cookies, more like cheap horoscopes. Anywho the final 2.5 hours on the bus home were interesting. I believe more than half the bus was just trying to make it back to campus without dying or needing to use the crude bathroom in the back of the bus.
We arrived back at campus at 2330 though it may as well as been 0300 as some people crashed the second their heads hit the pillow
All photos (c) James Mitchell