Salt Lamp in the Window

Willy is a welcome sight at the end of an adventure. 

In the heavy canopy forest on the east side of Glacier National Park it gets dark quickly once the sun starts to set. After a long day of adventures in the Montana wilderness, or anywhere else for that matter, there is nothing sweeter than seeing Willy sitting there waiting with three excited dogs and  an 8" foam mattress bed.

It is rather interesting how we came to this point. Pamela and I are both widowed. We met through our love of nature, the wilderness, and outdoor activity. I was an ultra trail runner and Pamela had been a triathlete.  Pamela introduced me to vintage trailers and within a short time we had purchased Willy, fixed him up and were volunteers at Glacier National Park. We have a house in Evansville, Indiana that was purchased thirty years ago when my late wife and I needed room for seven people plus two offices. You can imagine. It is quite large - slightly over 4,000 square feet.  Pamela and I obviously rattle around in such a large house and it is an interesting study in contrast to go from 128 square feet to 4000. But Willy is our home for much of the year and will be even more so when we go totally full-time this spring when Pamela retires.  But I digress.

This morning we had headed off toward the far northwest corner of the park to go kayaking in a remote lake known as Bowman Lake about six miles from the settlement of Polebridge and across the road from the Flathead National Forest.

Waiting for the Fourth of July Parade at Polebridge, MT. 

Oh, I have to take the time to tell you about Polebridge.  Polebridge is a community of 15 residence in an area known as the North Fork. It is at least 35 miles from the tiny village of West Glacier, which is only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day and further from Columbia Falls which is a town of 4,800. When we first knew Polebridge the last 25 miles was dirty road. To the chagrin of the residents of the North Fork some of that has been paved since then. Polebridge is totally off the grid. They get water from wells and electricity from three large solar panels with a diesel generator as backup. There is no telephone, television or internet. The central focus of Polebridge is the Polebridge Mercantile and the Northern Lights Saloon.  The Northern Lights Saloon is a log cabin which was the home that Bill Adair built in 1913. I don't know a lot about his first wife, Jessie but  when she died Bill married Emma who sought the Post Office contract and had the name Polebridge approved. Bill built the mercantile in 1914 which was run by Emma while he went fishing.  Today the mercantile includes a bakery that is so good that almost every seasonal employee at the park goes there immediately upon arrival. They have a Fourth of July parade that draws people from all over northwestern Montana. This past year there were almost 2,500 people there. In 2014 I was privileged to be one of the judges. A piece of plywood was put on a tractor fork lift with folding chairs for each of us and we were lifted above the crowd. Needless to say every entry got some sort of best in category. Most of the people here make their living from the wilderness. For example, one of the parade entries was a mule-team. Each of the mules wore a placard with sayings like "Bray for the wilderness".

Polebridge Mercantile and Northern Lights Saloon. (just beyong vehicles) 

There is a park gate near Polebridge at which point the dirt road splits. The left fork heads further north to the even more remote Kintla Lake with the right fork heading northeast to Bowman Lake. This is where the adventure begins. The next six miles goes from an elevation of 3,600 to a little over 4,100. It is loosely called a road, although I must be careful because the locals were proud that it had been graded. It still took us over 30 minutes in our 4x4. The year before the trip took 50 minutes in a 4x4.

"Road" to Bowman Lake

Bowman Lake is, of course, a glacial lake which is long and narrow. It is 7 miles long but only 2,640 feet wide.  It runs northeast-southwest and is flanked by the Numa Ridge on the north and Cerulean Ridge on the south while Numa Peak (9,003 ft high) above Baby Glacier, Mt. Carter (9,843 ft) above Weasel Collar Glacier, Rainbow Peak (9,891 ft) towering over Rainbow Glacier, and Square Peak (8,777 ft) provide snow covered scenery year around.

We put our kayaks in at the boat launch near the Bowman Campground. The water was like glass and the mountains reflected like a mirror. We didn't know our intentions when we started out, but the far end of the lake seemed to call us. Once we were away from the campground and boat launch it was as though we were the only people on earth. We took our time and lazily made our way to the far end. In the six hours we were on the water we saw only one other boat. That was one of those long, sleek sea-going kayaks. They whizzed past us on the far side of the lake. We hadn't gone more than another couple of miles when they came flying past us going the other way.  To us that seemed like a waste. We would literally stop, kick our feet out on the bow of our kayaks, lean back and just lose ourselves in the beauty around us. Look at the picture and tell me you wouldn't do the same.

Bowman Lake looking from the boat ramp at the southwest end of the lake.

The only reason that we returned when we did was that we knew that the Northern Lights Saloon opened at 4pm.  It only has five table and we wanted one.  When you are taking your time and having so much fun you forget that you really are working.  If you calculate our pace we were doing just under a 26 minute mile. Our kayaks are the small (6'), light weight calm water type that are amazingly easy to get moving. We loaded up and headed down the mountain to Polebridge.

Pamela at our table at Northern Lights Saloon
My back is against the far wall. 

The Northern Lights Saloon is a great restaurant. I'm a vegetarian and in that small 5 table restaurant they had three vegetarian offerings on the menu.  Our meals were delicious and went well with the Moose Drool brown ale which we drank from Ball jars.  Moose Drool is a Montana beer made in Missoula, Montana. We got to know the owner.  They had moved to Polebridge when their children were young. Now their grandchildren spend summers with them and have a hard time each year getting accustomed no television or internet. The power went off a couple of times during dinner, but no one was concerned.  You can't see them in the picture but there are also gas lamps. The couple at the table behind Pamela live near Kintla Lake another 15 miles down the dirt road. They were from Georgia.  Like so many people we meet in Montana, they had come to visit and never went home. There is a saying in the town of Whitefish. On the first day you do the tourist things and on day two you visit the real estate office.

Adair Homestead (1913) now the Northern Lights Saloon. 

After a marvelous day of Kayaking at Bowman Lake culminating with a great dinner at the Northern Lights Saloon we headed home. We had almost a 50 mile drive to get home. Besides about a third of it  being dirt roads, the speed limit was 35 mph most of the time.  By the time we were on the Going-to-the-Sun Road along the east side of Lake McDonald the sun was setting. As we approached Sprague Creek, where we live and work, it was dark. No night lights. No lights from nearby buildings or towns. It was dark . . . . except for our salt lamp in Willy's window welcoming us home.

There is nothing more exciting than an adventure in the wilderness.  Nothing gets your heart pumping and adrenaline surging more than hiking in the glorious mountains, gliding across remote mountain lakes, shooting a Class IV rapids, meeting a wild animal up close and personal or standing on top of a mountain you've just climbed. Nevertheless there is nothing that lifts our spirits more than three tiny dogs so excited to see us. Nothing gives us greater sense of welcome, of warmth and safety than to see the lights of Willy.

Like Pliny the Elder said, "Home is where the heart is."