Sittin here on the bench....

With thanksgiving approaching this is the perfect picture! Right Officer Obie?!

double trouble

Lily Brown

Lily Brown playin 1st grade girls hoops....2008/2009

Jake Brown MVP

Voted Mr Greyhound for the 2008 6/7th grade jr greyhound football club!

Heading Home

As I have driven hundreds of miles back and forth thru Montana & Canada,i just wanted to give u a glimpse of what Steph has been doing.....as usual...Sleeping!!!

Lake Mcdonald Lodge

our final 2 nites were spent in a cozy cabin here at Lake Mcdonald.We have now stayed at all 4 of the original hotels built when the park was established.Today we head back to missoula for the long trip home(bummer)

The Whitefish Bulldogs

Our favorite dive bar/burger joint in the town of Whitefish is called the "Bulldog".Named after the local high school team and serving the world famous"sour cream&chive fries its the place to eat & hang out with the locals in town.Being that I love "gear" and Jakes team is the "Bulldogs",this was a great opportunity to stock up on "Whitefish Bulldogs" hats& tshirts!!

The amazing cedars of glacier national park

These huge&beautiful trees provided a comfortable shaded enviornment for our final(yeah!) hike.Steph was just like the little kids on the trail,she just had to have her picture taken inside this huge,hollowed out cedar tree!

The Trail of the Cedars/Avalanche Lake

Today is the last full day of our trip.Steph planned a supposedly easy hike to Avalanche Lake.Well,2 miles of climbing uphill wasn't what I call easy,but as usual,Steph loved it!

The Crypt Lake Tunnel

check out this 60 foot tunnel that Steph had to climb on her hands and knees to get through on her way to Crypt Lake.When she got to the Lake she was shocked to see huge chunks of ice still floating in the Lake....In July!!!

Its cold!!!

As you can see from the way Steph is dressed,the weather can get pretty chilly here.Mornings and evenings require fleece jackets.Daytime temps have been in the mid 70's

The Hike to Twin Falls!

Today we took a boat from one end of "Two Medicine Lake" to the other.Then we took a short guided hike to the Twin Falls.Our tour guide Joe Valente has a brother who owns the Wildhorse Grill in Chesterfield!!...small world..again.....

The Glacier Park Lodge

This Hotel was the first of the four historic Lodges built in 1915 by the Great Northern Railroad.It sits at the east end of the Park near Two Medicine Lake

Somewhere over the Rainbow

This morning we awoke to a beautiful rainbow over the Glacier Park Lodge!

We luv the USA!

No more kilometers and crazy canadien prices!!

Grizzly pic 2

Here is a better pic of the grizzly I saw today.Its so much easier to be brave when u are taking pix from the car than when u are out on the trail!

Grizzly country

Drivin back into the park from a run to the gas station I spotted this grizzly eating huckleberrys on the side of the road....look closely,i wasn't about to get any closer!!!!

The hike to Crypt Lake(or not)

As you can read,the crypt lake hike was rated the top hike in all of canada.Its over 10 miles round trip and rated "moderate to difficult"....as you can probably guess,this was a "must see" for Steph.I on the other hand am still in intense pain and emotional distress from yesterdays hike and animal encounter.As a result steph hooked up with some hiker friends(she befriends about 10 strangers daily on bus rides,boat rides ,in restraunts etc) and set off to conquer the 2500 foot climb to crypt lake.The trail is "highlighted" by a 60 foot mountain tunnel,a ladder built into the side of a mountain,and a half mile walk along a cliff....ooh,sounds like fun!....i am packing up and preparing for our return to the USA tonite...

Hiking is...........

As you can plainly see,i have had about enough of this hiking *#?#&....My feet are throbbing,i got blisters out the ass from these freakin boots,my legs are so soar I can hardly move and I am scared shitless of bears and moose!!...Meanwhile Steph is lovin it all!!..Cant we just go swimming,take a nice drive,maybe a bus tour.....just one day....PLEASE!!!!!

Another F...ing Moose!

This is getting ridiculous....halfway thru the supposedly"easy" hike(whoever classifys these things as easy has never met me!) and Steph screams Moose!!!. We end up smack between a female moose&her baby.As eveidenced by the scared look on Ranger Ricks face,this was not a good place to be.The Moose circled us for about 15 minutes making sure we didn't go near her calf.Ranger Rick decided we should slowly head back and not go to kootenai lakes.We decided to take an alternate(hopefully less wildlife infested)hike to Red Rock falls instead.

Back in the USA(for a few hours)

The trail head at Goat haunt ranger station is actually located on US soil,so it is an official point of entry and thus you need to clear customs.The boat crosses the border about halfway down the lake.Our friend officer Beecos of the US customs&border patrol asked us the required questions(where would I be hiding any fruit?)before allowing us to proceed on our hike...

The hike to Kootenai Lake!

Our first full day in Canada was to be an easy guided hike with Ranger Rick from the Park Service.We began by taking the boat to the goat haunt ranger station for the 6 mile round trip to kootenai lake

A room with a view!!

The view from our room at Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton Lakes Canada!!

Prince of Wales Hotel

This historic &breathtakingly beautiful hotel is one of 4 lodges built by the Great Northern Railroad company in the early 1900 hundreds to lure tourists to this vast unchartered territiory.It sits high on a point overlooking the Lake.It is said to be the most photgraphed hotel in North America.We have a fabulous Lake view!!

Canada!!!

We arrived in Canada last nite,just in time to take a sunset boat cruise around Waterton Lake...we saw a Bald Eagle and a beautiful sunset....just as the boat was about to leave another moose(there is a theme developing here)ran thru town and jumped in the Lake and swam to the other side...moose are crazy!!!!&huge!!!!

Not my kind of hike..

Today,for her morning "walk",Steph hiked 4 miles straight uphill to the top of Big Mountain!...i did my part by hittin the cofeeshop and then picking her up at the top!

Proof of Moose encounter!!

For all those who have questioned our moose is loose episode,we now provide photographic proof.somehow in the midst of all our yelling,screaming and running,Steph managed a picture!

Wildflowers

In addition to all the animals,each trail we hike is full of vibrant colorful wildflowers!...being that we have no clue about flowers and their names....we just say..."wow,that purple one is really cool"!

Scenes from the River

This pic was taken as we rode the infamous "Bonecrusher" rapids!The funny part is that the 2 people in the front of the boat turned out to be Wash U grads!...and the guy was from Chesterfield....small world!

Jetskiing whitefish lake

With Big Mountain looming overhead we rented a jetski to explore the lake....we had a lot of fun and the scenery was breathtaking!

Kalispell Mt

Today we explored the mountain town of kalispell Mt.we stumbled upon a really cool outdoor art fair featuring all types of arts&crafts by native Montana Artists....

The Lodge@Whitefish Lake

This beautiful resort on the banks of Whitefish Lake is a great break from our time in GNP.We had gotten used to no modern convienences,but Steph was excited to fall asleep to an actual tv!....and a night with the ac blasting sounds good to me!!....tomorrow we plan to rent some jet skis and explore whitefish lake and the maybe check out the Big Mountain Ski resort...

Raging Rivers!

Today we survived the roaring rapids of the North Fork of The Flathead River!! We swam in 45 degree water and met some really cool people..our guide katie was awesome!!

Tonite....Whitefish!

Tonite we move to the Whitefish Lodge,40 minutes outside the park.it will be nice to have AC/heat,tv,internet &cel service(non of which is available at any of our other hotels inside the park)

Friday day 5

its a beautiful morning here at the village inn overlooking Lake Mcdonald.we are planning a half day whitewater rafting trip down the north fork of the flathead river!

Wildlife galore!!

In addition to our encounter with Bullwinkle the moose,we have seen an incredible amount of wildlife.Bears,Moose,Deer,Big horn sheep,Elk,mountain Goats& Grey Wolves(all in 4 days!)The coolest part is that because they are in a protected National Park they have no fear of hunters&other people.They freely roam the parking lots and Shorelines of the hotels!

Glaciers

Logan pass(on the continental divide)is one of the highest peaks in the park.visible from there is Grinnell Glacier.we learnes that to be an actual glacier the ice must be 100 feet deep,cover an are of 25 acres or more and move...at one time there were 150 glaciers in the park.today with global warming there are 5 left...

Lakes, Rivers&Waterfalls

The famous "Glacier flour" and its resulting blue/green color give the water around the park a truly unique look.these lakes are completely inaccessible by anything but hikers&horseback riders and thus look just as the have for tens of thousands of years!

The Many Glacier Lodge

This fabulous world famous lodge was our home for our first 3 night....a classic lodge with awesome views of mountains and Swiftcurrent Lake

Moose Attack!

Today was supposed to be a quiet short hike to red rock falls(3.5 miles)but steph pushed us further(8 miles to bullhead lake).on our hike back we came face to face with a 7 foot bull moose!!!....we ran like hell!! But steph did get a great picture!.we also saw a black bear with her 2 cubs....we the drove to our new hotel in west glacier..

day 3

today was packed full of adventure.we took a boat tour/3 mile hike to grinell lake,a 3 mile hike around swiftcurrent lake and a 2 hour horseback ride to cracker flats!the day ended with a great meal and a slide show/musical about lewis&clark and the history of montana!

day 2

Today we boarded the famous red "jammer bus" for a park tour.we crossed the continental divide at logan pass(almost 10000 ft elevation).had lunch at Lake Mcdonald Lodge and learned all about the park from our guide Nathan.

day 1

We started at 6am as we left 49 lake forest.we arrived at our hotel at 930pm.along the way we saw bears,elk,big horn sheep and survived the infamous "going to the sun road!"

The first leg of the journey

Bound for Chitown!!!

Steph & Andy GNP 2008 !!!!

In 36 hours we will be on our way to Big Sky Country!!!

test video

Jake's Rifle

Glacier Park Here we come!!

Map of GNP

JFS&BAB @ 43!!

Joel forgets to attend his own party!!

Jake&Wil

Wil Heligman gets tough!!

Brownsville

Welcome to the cabin!

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LakeTrinity Vista

The View From 332!

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