Hee..okay, I’m feeling a bit silly…it is a GORGEOUS day!!!! – Clear, sunny, 50 something, perfect Autumn day and I’m just in from lunch on the front porch and a beautiful after lunch walk with Karl.
This sunrise started it all.
I ran out this morning as I saw the sky changing from morning’s deep blue to pink-violet and then gold…it suddenly dawned on me :)!
Work has been fast and furious getting in hay, alfalfa and wheat – wheat is what they are cutting now…the hay and alfalfa has been baled in the fields for a bit.
The gold of the aspens and birch have been particularly bright this year. There is more red every year as people plant maples (maples are not indigenous) – and this year’s low plants which provide some red have been colorful as well. It has been a spectacular Autumn so far and we still have the larch to go. You can see them turning gold on the higher mountain sides. They should turn and peak in the coming weeks.
But in the fields and the valley: this year’s gold in trees and crops.
Bob knows how to do Sunday…
Sunset, with Karl…
From the top of the trail.
So…we left off yesterday at a stop along the North Fork of the Flathead River. But back to the beginning of the day for a moment…
Sandy took this photo as we were headed down “the road home”…I love it! My little red Jeep, with Karl and I aboard, headed for adventure :)! We took 2 vehicles because I am a tourist wimp and they are energizer bunnies in comparison… I needed to be able to come home when it was my nap time…
Off we go!
Breakfast at The Whistle Stop Cafe in Columbia Falls – where we added the word “terrifical” to our vocabulary…courtesy of our waitress – then north with the stop at the river and on another 40 minutes of dusty road along rivers and creeks, to Polebridge, Montana…home of Polebridge Mercantile…
aka the “Merc”.
The Polebridge Mercantile is famous for its bakery – bread, sweet rolls, sandwiches. We partook! And ate all on their front porch…
…while we took in the local color – and not just the leaves on the trees, but I cannot bring myself to point my camera at strangers so you’ll have to take my word for it.
However, while Sandy was inside getting another Huckleberry Bear Claw, Jerry and I were kibbutzing and noting that the “color” in this kind of very remote place tends to be the same from remote spot to remote spot. And then, a car with people who reeked high class pulled in and asked Jerry if he was from here… Hee… In Jerry’s defense, although he was wearing a cap that said “Paddle Faster, I hear banjo music”, he was dressed in jeans, a freshly pressed oxford shirt, with a belt and shirt tucked in! – AND his hat was on right side forward. He didn’t really look like a Polebridge local…but it was funny.
After that, I was done…Karl and I headed for home leaving Sandy and Jerry on their own for further exploring…they have a Garmin, I knew they’d find their way back to the house..eventually and they did…and it was still light :)!
Meanwhile, Karl and I stopped at another river access. Polebridge local dogs are out and about so visitor dogs have to be on leash…I left Karl in the Jeep while in Polebridge, so this stop was for him.
Beautiful creekside break…and then we went home.
Polebridge, Montana…gateway to the western-most entrance of Glacier National Park, 20 miles from the border of Canada…
40 miles on a mostly gravel road north of Columbia Falls, MT ensures that only the hardiest travel that way. Most of the local population are against paving the road as that would mean more traffic and visitors.
Sandy and Jerry have not met a dirt or gravel road they wouldn’t travel. I knew this road would not faze them one bit so off we went. The road was not that bad as far as rough riding – the dust, though, that was impressive!
We stopped at a river access I know…
We all meandered, including Karl.
Here, there and everywhere along the river.
Jerry gets credit for this one…the darned wildlife…always turning away from the camera :)!
A fellow traveler obliged for a group photo…on the way to Polebridge, MT.