Nice Unproductive Weekend

It was a good weekend but I didn’t accomplish a lot. After only 3 years of retirement I’m just beginning to be comfortable not using every minute productively. I’m still not completely there but I’m getting there.

Friday morning, after our weekly visit to Target, I spent an hour or so riding the bike around the neighborhood. The rest of the day was spent cleaning house in preparation for the couple coming over at 3 PM. I also did some research about scenic drives in VT for our upcoming trip. I guess you could call talking with the couple productive. This turned out to be our last get together with the married couple we worked with to get back together. They made good progress. The ball is back in their court now. I hope they do well. We are to see them again in 2 months for a social visit (Penny’s cooking Mexican) and to see how they are doing.

Saturday we did our Waffle House thing. The server saw us coming and she was setting 2 cups of coffee for us at our usual table when we entered the restaurant. Then she proceeded to confirm our usual order and got it started. There were very few customers in the place and we got special service—my coffee cup never ran dry.

I got on the bike again when we got home and decided to explore a little. I went down to Racetrack Rd and went east, first through the neighborhood where I had my first apartment in this area and then down the back roads all the way to Eglin Parkway and up onto the Shalimar Bridge. When I got back home I measured the distance I traveled using the Google Earth path tool and found I covered just less than 9 miles. I was only riding a little over and hour at a very easy pace. This was my first ride with a gel seat cover on the bike. It did make the seat more comfortable. Now I’ve got the bike all “tricked out” with the seat cover, rear view mirror and small cargo rack over the rear wheel.

I spent the next hour searching for the 2nd pair of travel binoculars we own. I couldn’t find them before we went to Montana and I wanted to have them for the trip to VT. I was successful. They were in a suitcase that we haven’t used in a while. Now all I have to find is the 4GB SDHC card that we own so we can use it in Penny’s new camera.

Penny was having difficulty with the quilt she was making so I suggested we go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. That usually lifts her spirits—and it did.

A little more housework and church on Saturday eve and before you know it the day is gone.

We slept in on Sunday, read the paper and watched Sunday Morning. Penny needed some stuff from Beall’s out in Destin so we headed out there. Since we had gone that far we decided to use another gift card and had lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Sandestin. Their burger of the day was a Cubano burger. It was good and it came with sweet potato chips. We checked out some stores at the outlets—got some stuff for Karen and Christy and Sophie, stopped by PetsMart to get food for Brie and headed home. That pretty much shot the day since it was already 4PM.

We checked out how our teams were doing in fantasy football. This morning when I checked my team I found that I was playing Christian. He had a player in that was questionable to play due to an injury. I called Christian and told him. When we now checked the scores I found that the player Christian put in to replace the questionable one had scored more than 13 points. This evening after all my players have played I am leading C by just under 10 points. He has 1 player left to play tomorrow, Chris Chambers, who could score 10 points. When I called Christian this morning he said, “You know you’re supposed to try to beat me, don’t you?” Yes, I know, but as Penny says telling him was the right thing to do. I did the same thing with Tim last year except it wasn’t a week when I played him. Is it OK for me to want Chris Chambers to have a bad night tomorrow?

I had a strange dream this morning that I can’t figure out. I was watching some sort of training film, the point of which was to explain that you can’t play the tuba when you are wearing lipstick. I just thought I’d pass that revelation along to you.

Thus ends my good but not very productive weekend. Tomorrow more serious trip preparation begins and maybe I’ll find that SDHC card.

KITTY UPDATE—2 cats last night: Meredith and Velcro. 3 cats tonight: Buzz joined the group. Meredith has been showing up around 5 PM and hanging around all evening. Marmalade has gone off to her other place for the weekdays.

Apollo Revisited

Karen said rereading my Apollo 11 blog of 2-years ago made her want to see the picture I had of the Apollo 11 launch vehicle on the pad with me walking out of the picture in the foreground. I’ve been meaning to make an electronic copy of the snapshot so since I knew where it was and got the reminder from Karen I finally did it.

Yes, that’s me in the standard NASA dress code of white shirt and tie. The Saturn V launch vehicle is in the center background. You can get an idea of the great view we had by this next shot of the liftoff.

From Turkey Creek to Okaloosa Island

My exercise today was paddling down Turkey Creek. This was the first time I tried this and I found out I didn’t know where the north part of the park was where I would take the kayak out.. This is where Penny would leave my car—so we had to get it right. Penny saved the day by asking the right guy the right question. In the process I wasted an hour of her time trying to find the place.

I took the short Turkey Creek run—only 3.5 miles. There is a longer run that adds about 2 miles to the run. Penny dropped me off at the creek just above where Rt 123 meets hwy 85. I thought I was in for a pleasant “float” down the creek because the water level was high and the current was swift (3-5 mph). This is the first time I’ve had the kayak in a long flowing body of water and I quickly found that the mechanics of navigating and steering are vastly different than cruising on the bayou. I found myself consistently drifting sidelong into the low hanging branches and bushes along the creek bank. Even when I got the kayak pointed in the direction I wanted to go the current would override my steering and push me to the bank. I gradually learned how to make the kayak go where I wanted most of the time but it took a lot of work—especially on the “s” turns. I ended up getting a good upper body workout.

There were only short periods on long straight runs where I could actually rest and just drift. I had to pay attention every moment anticipating which direction the current up ahead was going to send the kayak. Taking pictures was not easy. The distraction of lifting the camera and taking a shot usually meant I would drift into branches or ram a tree stump because I gave up control to the creek. I couldn’t sit back and enjoy the view. It reminded me of the way Penny has to hike, watching her feet all the time instead of enjoying the scenery.

I managed to get a few decent pictures but pictures were not the priority. By the time I had gone about 2 miles I was finally getting the drift (pun intended) about handling the kayak. The creek had widened a little by this time because several smaller creeks had joined the flow. That helped some because there was a little more room to maneuver.

The bottom line—I did not have a relaxing float. Instead I got a more exciting workout trying to thread my way down the creek. It still was enjoyable and probably good for me. Once again I gave my shoulders a good workout and they came through fine.

Once I took the kayak out of the creek I had to carry it 900 ft to the car. If there is a next time I’m going to continue another mile or so into Rocky Bayou and take out the kayak at a public park on the south side of hwy 20 where I can park closer.

Back to the house I had lunch and put the kayak away. Penny came home from her lunch with Pam. I suggested we go out and try out Penny’s new camera. We had a cloudless evening and good sunset light to play with. We were going to do this yesterday but when we headed out it clouded up and cancelled our picture taking for lack of good light.

We went to the park on Okaloosa Island, strolled around and played with our cameras. It was a perfect evening. There was very little wind. Two wedding parties were there taking pictures. There was a nice arch of flowers all set up for one of the weddings. There was another professional photographer there taking family pictures in the sunset. Penny was pleased with her camera.

KITTY UPDATE—I had just about given up on seeing Meredith again. She hadn’t shown up for almost 2 weeks. In fact, the cats have only been showing up in 1’s and 2’s, when they did show up, ever since we came back from Montana. Marmalade, who usually shows up on Thursday through Sunday showed up on Monday this week and has been there each morning and evening since. Tonight, for the first time all 4 cats were back. Go Figure! Meredith acted as if she’s been here all the time.

Normal Tuesday.

I got to ride my bike again today. For one reason or another I haven’t used it in a while. I needed to top off the pressure in the tires and found my little compressor has trouble making it to the required psi. It can only make 60 psi and 80-90 is recommended. 60 felt plenty firm for the ride today. The weather did cool down this morning so I rode the big block around Mooney, Beal, and Racetrack Road. It was perfect weather for the ride.

The rest of the day was used to catch up on laundry and other stuff. There is always something that needs doing. In the process of doing the laundry I went through my suits to see what I could wear to the upcoming fraternity reunion. To my pleasure I found that the suits I’ve been wearing, like the one I wore at Sophie’s christening, were too big for me. I’m back into the smaller size I used to wear a few years ago. That was good news. It’s a trend I hope continues. I still have some smaller sized suits I could use if I get a little “thinner”.

For the first time yesterday I came up to a stoplight and there were side by side Priuses stopped at the light; A sign of the times?

Tomorrow, depending on weather and whether Penny runs off with Pam, I will kayak down Turkey Creek, ride the bike trail along 30A by Seaside with Penny or have a normal Wednesday and do house and yard stuff.

Mixed Monday

We are attempting to get in some daily exercise but our bodies are fighting us. Today Mother Nature joined in. Yesterday the bayou was too windy and wavy for us to kayak. Today we put on our walking shoes and headed out only to face a big dark threatening cloud. We turned around and headed home making a walk of less than a quarter mile. I put in my walking time on the treadmill.

Penny’s dizziness hasn’t settled down well since we put major physical stress on it during our trip to Montana. My right foot still hurts some but I think it is slowly fading. It is much improved from when I first got home.

Today was my brother Lou’s day. I joined him in Niceville for lunch and provided transportation for him to the ATM and grocery store. I also delivered a 4 place setting of dishes for him and some real glasses. We got the inexpensive dishes at Pottery Barn and told him he could leave them in his bungalow for the next tenant.

Lou appears to be doing well. He has limited his exploration of his neighborhood because he can’t take the heat and humidity. I told him that our hot weather is supposed to break tonight and it will be better for the rest of his stay. I also drove him down to the bayou that is close to his place. There is a nice little park there and it is only about ¾ mile from him. I loaned him a fishing rod last time I saw him. Maybe he will spend some time fishing.

We ate lunch at a place called “The Boat House”. It sits on the bayou and, of course, has seafood as its main component on the menu. Lou got Grouper parmesian and I had a flounder po-boy. This week it was Lou’s turn to buy. We are going to alternate.

I don’t know what is going on with the gas situation in your areas but here we have some stations that are out of gas and other raising the price to $3.99. We had a run on gas just before Ike went ashore in Texas. Somehow a rumor got started that the price was going up due to the storm. The stations that sold the cheapest gas had cars lined up waiting to fuel. Those are the stations that have no gas today.

The day was wrapped up with a little work for FOCCUS and some yard work.

Montana—Farewell and Homeward Bound

Sadly, we arrived at the day to depart Montana. The hotel check-out was easy. They slipped the receipt under our door overnight. If all was correct we just dropped the keys in a box in the lobby. This place had real keys. The locks were not very good either. Apparently theft is not an issue. My key even had a little squeeze LED light on it to help me find my way to the bathroom at night.

Our plan was to have breakfast at the Park Café when they opened at 7AM. Our 7-day pass to GNP expired overnight. Since we had to leave the park on the hotel road we could either pay the entry fee and use the Going to the Sun Road across the park to get to Kalispell or avoid the fee and drive around the southern end of the park. Since we hadn’t seen the territory to the South that is what we chose. The weather was grey and threatening.

But first—breakfast. We got to the café just before they opened the door. We were amazed when we entered at how organized the place was. Our experience through the week wasn’t one of organization. The first day our server wasn’t sure if the onion rings she was delivering were for us or somebody else. They weren’t for us. We also found that we usually had to ask for silverware. When we got coffe we usually had to ask for spoons. When we walked in this morning, however, all the tables were set and ready to go. We figured that service went downhill as the day progressed and they got real busy.

The menu at the café was full of Montana flavor. Penny got the Montana breakfast of an egg, a pancake and a slab of ham. I say slab because when it came it was big enough for her to give me half and still provide her with plenty. The ham had a different smoky flavor from the ham I was used to but it was good. The menu had pancakes on it. One pancake or two pancakes. This was followed by the warning that they would make you 3 pancakes if you wanted but you had better be hungry! I ordered 1 huckleberry pancake. When it came I understood the warning. The pancake was the size of a dinner plate and about ¾ inch thick. Of course, it was made out of whole grain Montana flour. The pancake was light, flavorful and was full of huckleberries. It also came with a thick huckleberry syrup (compote?) . No need for additional syrup here. It was very good and plenty to fill me up (don’t forget I also had half a slab of ham to eat also).

Again, with heavy heart, we bid farewell to the Park Café. We enjoyed our visits here.

The high point of our drive around the park came early with an extended encounter with rainbows. We now have more pictures of rainbows than we know what to do with but coming from FL we don’t get to see rainbows in front of mountains often.

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The rest of the drive was made in rain. The scenery looked nice but the gray and rain obscured much of it. Our rental car return and trip to the airport were uneventful. The Montana folks were all friendly and helpful.

We didn’t know that our trip back to Florida was going to involve spending the night at Atlanta’s airport. I’m not going to include any details of the trip home. Instead I’ll end this with nothing but good words for the people of Montana. It seemed that everywhere we went we met people who liked being there, enjoyed their jobs and their lives in Big Sky Country. Almost everyone was friendly and helpful. I know we were tourists and came into limited contact with the real Montana but what we saw we liked—a lot.

Montana – The Garden Wall

I took my last hike in Glacier National Park by myself. The Garden Wall provides a unique hiking experience. It is an experience Penny didn’t want me to miss but one she couldn’t share with me. The trail is a narrow ledge high above the Going to the Sun Road. The ledge follows a steep mountain wall, so it is like walking along a ledge with a tall wall on one side and a steep drop-off on the other. Penny definitely couldn’t handle this trail.

Penny was gracious in pushing me to go. I would have been upset not to have taken this once in a lifetime opportunity to hike this trail. It was actually exciting to walk it.

The trail starts in a small meadow with an easy downhill switchback. There were lots of ground squirrels here fattening themselves for the winter. I met a park volunteer here and chatted a while. He went on ahead of me and I stopped to take some pictures.

After about a quarter-mile the dirt trail ends and the rock ledge begins. For the cautious hikers the park has run a steel cable along the inside wall of the trail so they can hang onto something reassuring. There was also a stiff gusty wind blowing making the trail even more exciting. The wind kept threatening to blow my hat off. Once again I was surprised to find myself somewhere where a little stumble could be deadly. I walked a trail at the West Rim of the Grand Canyon that had a similar drop off. It was nothing like this, however. This one just went on and on.

This first ledge goes on for another quarter mile or so. The path finally broadens a little and opens onto a fantastic view of the valley. Here I met the young volunteer again. I was wrapped up in the beauty of the sight in front of me and trying to capture it in a picture when the volunteer said, “don’t miss the mountain goats behind you”. I turned around and there on a bench of rock about 5 feet from me were 2 goats, a mother and child. They just lay there. I was shocked that I could pass so close to them and not be aware of them. The volunteer was making sure hikers didn’t bother them. They looked like they didn’t care that we were there.

I was only going to go down this trail far enough to get the experience and hopefully get some good photos. I continued another quarter mile and came upon a narrow meadow that had some pine trees and tall grass and some room to maneuver and get some nice pictures.

The view was breathtaking and the danger in the hike to get here added to the satisfaction and enjoyment of the moment. I would guess I had traveled less than a mile on the trail when I decided to turn back. The complete Garden Wall hike is 3.5 miles in and then back for a total of 7 miles. Most of that hike is on mountain ledge. I was happy with my shorter hike.

I carefully hiked back on the rock ledge. The goats were gone when I passed the bench. The view in this direction was even scarier because I could see more of the road below and also get a good look at the trail I was about to travel. It was a long way down there. I vowed to do what Penny does when she hikes and looked down and watched where I set my foot on each step.

The return hike seemed to go faster and I found myself in that small meadow again. There seemed to be even more squirrels here now. I finished the hike, crossed the road and went to the car. I found Penny taking a nap in the back seat. My hiking experience at GNP was over.

Montana—Hidden Lake

For our last hike of the vacation I chose the Hidden Lake Trail. We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day with a deep blue sky . The trailhead for this hike is right behind the Logan Pass Visitor Center. Logan pass is the highest point on the Going To The Sun Road at 6,646 ft. We add another 500 ft of elevation in the 1.5 mile hike out to the Hidden Lake overlook.

This is the most popular hike in the park. 2,500-3,500 people visit Logan Pass each day in the summertime and a large percentage of them walk at least some of the trail. We saw hikers of every size and shape and type of attire on this trail—and a lot of them. There was no solitude to be found here.

The first quarter mile of this trail is actually paved. The next quarter mile is boardwalk consisting of many large different sized steps. It gave Penny problems both ways. The remaining mile of the trail is wide and well established. One area had a little bridge over a small rivulet. It had loose rocks and a drop off and Penny had some trouble there, too.



The trail begins with views of an alpine meadow. As you climb the boardwalk there are small pockets of flowers and gnarled fir trees. The environment is quite harsh up here—covered with snow for a good part of the year and what trees there are stunted. You also are surrounded by tall 8,000-9,000 ft mountains some with snow-capped peaks. The blue sky backdrop made it a perfect day for pictures. Did I mention we take a lot of pictures? The prominent mountain in front of us (I looked it up—Mount Oberlin, 8,180 ft) has water flowing from its slopes. The trail also passes over several rivulets. They provided excellent photo opportunities of water, rocks, snow and mountain backdrops.


I also took several pictures of all the wildflowers that bloomed along the way. I found myself whistling the Sound of Music theme as I did this. The area could have been used to make the movie. The mile walk from the top of the boardwalk to the lake overlook was full of hikers. We saw little wildlife on the way up to the overlook. Only a squirrel and a couple grouse in a rivulet.

The hidden Lake overlook is a wooden platform. The view of hidden lake is something my Mom would use the word “stunning” to describe.

Since we had reached our destination it was time for our energy snack and M&M reward. We sat off to the side of the platform, actually a spot where no one was took off our backpacks and—once again I looked up to see a young mountain goat standing about 15 feet from us at the top of the wooden stairs. He paid us no heed, just stopped looked around and decided to walk off down the path. We grabbed our stuff and followed.

We had planned on following the trail beyond the overlook anyway because that hiking book I had said that the best views are not at the platform but actually up the trail a few hundred feet beyond. It was right. After following the young goat a hiker we ran into said that there was also an adult goat in the area. We looked around and saw him too.


This area we were in was a grassy meadow full of flowers, deep grass and ground squirrels foraging. We also saw a marmot, a big, fat, toothy rodent that posed on a rock for us long enough for a picture.

We now found a nice rock to sit at and enjoy our snack and M&Ms. After eating We spent some more time in the meadow taking pictures and just enjoying the view. Penny chatted with a few hikers.

We headed back to the overlook and found it full of hikers. There was a small group of mountain goats grazing on the mountain slope in the distance. We took some pictures and continued our return hike to the car.

We ran into a couple that we had talked wit when we were at Virginia Falls and told them about the grazing goats. Then a little further up the trail we got up close and personal with another adult goat. It actually walked with us for a ways. At one point it walked right to me, looked at me and continued on its way. I talked to it as if it were a dog coming to say hi.

The most difficult part of the return hike for Penny was the boardwalk stairs. Going down is usually easier than climbing up. For Penny going down is worse because of her balance issues.

We reached the visitor center, found a rock with a good view and ate our PBJs while watching the hikers on the first half-mile of the trail.

Penny encouraged me to hike the Garden Wall portion of the Highline Trail. The trailhead was across the street from the visitor center. She said she would go to the car and relax while I did it. The Garden Wall trail was one she couldn’t do because most of it was along a sheer cliff with a steep drop off. That hike will be my next Montana blog.

Montana—Bullhead Lake

Keeping to our easy trail hiking plan, today we hiked the trail to the lake head of Bullhead Lake. We could get an early start on this hike because the trailhead is at the end of the road our hotel is on. The Swiftcurrent Lodge is also there.

The trailhead sign reads “Swiftcurrent Pass” and the trail we took is 3.6 miles out to the head of Bullhead Lake. This trail is also the Continental Divide Trail, a National Scenic
Trail, that extends from Canada to Mexico. Sometimes this trail is closed for part of the summer because of the needs of the resident bears. It passes through prime Grizzly country and that fact added some excitement to the day.

The trail follows Swiftcurrent Creek with numerous cascades and waterfalls—the best being Redrock Falls—and 3 lakes. That description made it sound nice but this probably was the least picturesque trail we took. The trail rises and falls along the way but is not too taxing.

The first lake, Fishercap Lake, is on a side trail about 100 ft from the main trail. We went to the lakeshore and then continued our hike. We found out later that there was a cow Moose and calf at this lake later that morning. This time we were too early for the wildlife.

Grinnell Peak and Grinnell Mountain loom over Fishercap Lake. That’s where Grinnell Glacier is located, the destination of our first hike, that we fortunately failed to reach on that bad weather day. If you were wondering Fishercap Lake is shaped like a fisherman’s cap.

The trail now rises through pine and aspen forest and open areas that must have been gorgeous in springtime because of all the past-peak flowers we saw. We did find more thimbleberries on this hike—yum.

This part of the trail is at the base of what I later found out was a 9,300 ft mountain, Mount Wilbur. The Blackfeet had named this mountain Heavy Shield Mountain for obvious reasons.

At about the 2 mile mark we reached Redrock Lake. From this vantage point we could see and hear the Redrock Falls at the head of the lake. They would be our next picture spot on the hike.

The falls can’t all be seen from one point and reaching them meant squeezing along a narrow rocky trail. As I said earlier this was not the most picturesque hike and it was probably going to be our longest hike.

From here the trail up to Bullhead Lake had a number of streams to cross either on stepping stones or log bridges. The best crossing was a small suspension bridge with a sign saying the weight limit was 1 hiker. Penny, with her balance issues, handled it like a champ!

Penny looks down for most of the hikes watching where she puts her feet. Because of this she was the one who spotted a flock(?) of grouse foraging through the deep grass at the side of the trail.


No, Bullhead Lake is not shaped like a bull’s head.—I don’t know why it’s named that. This was our destination for the hike and where we found a nice lakeside rock with a good view to have lunch. I broke out the PBJ sandwiches and set mine down on the rock while I consulted the hiking book for some info. That’s when Penny yells, “he’s going to get you’re sandwich!” I turn to see a ground squirrel creeping toward my lunch. I waved the book at him and he just looked at me and came closer. The only thing that deterred him was when I made a loud raspberry sound. He didn’t like that. That didn’t stop him from making a 2nd pass. Later when we broke out the reward M&Ms he must have liked the smell because he came back and looked as if he would crawl up my leg to get food. We were good and did not feed him. I’m pretty sure, considering how aggressive he was, that not everyone obeys the no feed rule. He was cute, though.

The hike back was not eventful. We ran into many hikers, some wearing flimsy footwear, some decked out in serious gear.

We did see a couple Grizzlys on our drive back to the hotel. They were on the far side of the resevoir and we knew to look because of the bear jam in the road.

Our original plan for linner this day was for steak. The steakhouse was not open, however, so we defaulted to the Park Café again and got more razzleberry pie.

No Walk Beach Walk

With hurricane Ike out in the gulf I thought it would be fun to take a beach walk and see what kind of surf he was kicking up. I drove out to Okaloosa Island intending to go to the isolated area of beach that I usually walk—I couldn’t get there. Sheriff’s Deputies had blocked off the East lanes of highway 98 because water was washing up on part of it..

All cars were turned back and I ended up parking at the Okaloosa Island boardwalk. When I finally got out to see the surf it was incredible. The waves were in the 10-ft range and since I was right next to the pier I had the bonus of watching the waves break on the pier supports.



I stayed about 45 minutes enjoying the show. The water was washing up underneath the boardwalk I was on. No one was allowed on the beach—because there essentially wasn’t one. The waves were washing in all the way to the dunes. No beach walk for me!

A number of people wandered through—most had cameras, others used their cell phones to record the sight. A few brave gulls high-stepped through the wash back.

It was not a day to go swimming. Considering the fact that Ike is a couple of hundred miles away and moving away we are seeing a testament to how much power is contained in the storm.

Montana Aug 23—More Falls

Our day began with breakfast (cereal) in bed. I selected a combination of 2 easy hikes for today from Sun Point on the East side of the park to Barrow, St Mary’s and Virginia Falls and back, a total of about 6.5 miles.

We saw no wildlife on the drive out of GNP. The Sun was out today and at this altitude with less atmosphere to diffuse its light it was blinding driving towards it. Sunglasses helped but it was still annoying and difficult to see.

After we re-entered the park on the Going to the Sun Road as we crossed a small bridge I saw a beautiful buck deer standing right beside the road on a small hill. He posed nicely for us. Penny discovered why he was standing there. Down in the grass right beside our car was a doe grazing. The male was waiting for her. We got some nice pictures.

The Sun Point Trail runs along St Mary’s Lake and on this beautiful sunny day we had wonderful views of the lake and mountains surrounding it. We got some of our best pictures on this hike. Barrow Falls turned out to be a relatively small one and not very picturesque.

From here it was 1.2 miles to the junction with the St Mary’s falls trail. This trail is not as popular as the others but surprisingly it was full of awesome views of the lake.

On the St Mary’s trail we were introduced to Thimbleberries. A wild berry that tastes like raspberries. They come off the plant in your fingers in the shape of a small thimble. It was neat eating wild berries all along the hike.

The trail to these falls is relatively short and it is very popular. There were hikers in sight almost all the way. St Mary’s falls are beautiful. There is a bridge in front of the falls and there are several nice picture spots.

We sat down on some sunny rocks to rest and have water and energy snacks. I looked up to see a deer come out of the woods and stroll up the path we had just come in on.

The hike from St Mary’s to Virginia Falls was interesting. The falls are not marked with signs. We knew we should have to go about 0.6 miles but after about 0.3 miles we came upon what looked like falls.

Many hikers assumed this was the destination, linger a while and head back. The hiking book I bought on Red Bus day came in handy here. It clearly described Virginia Falls and this was not it. Oh, I forgot. Shortly after leaving St Mary’s Falls we came upon a deer grazing in the path ahead of us. We stalked it for maybe a quarter mile. Interestingly, after leaving the false falls #1 we came upon another set of falls, again not our destination.

Finally after the expected 0.6 mile hike we first heard and then saw Virginia Falls. Beautiful! The path brings you right to the base of the falls, so close that you are rewarded with the cool air and spray of the falls. There was so much spray that you couldn’t get a picture that didn’t have spray on the lens.

Having reached our destination we rewarded ourselves with peanut M&Ms. I crawled around on the rocks taking pictures from various angles and vantage points. The best picture still turned out to be the ones taken in the spray at the base of the falls.

We retraced our steps back to Sun Point eating thimbleberries and taking more pictures from the opposite direction.

We reached the car tired and ready for linner at the Park Café. Once again we treated ourselves to razzleberry pie and coffee.

Instead of going to the hotel we drove past it to the end of the road at Swift Current Lodge to see if any wildlife had been spotted in the surrounding mountains. We found that park rangers had set up “bear scopes” and had them trained on a big grizzly way up on the mountain. It was only a small moving brown spot to the naked eye but the powerful bear scope telescope clearly showed the bear as it prowled the mountainside.

Back at the hotel we found some open chairs looking out over the lake from the lobby. I got a big cup of soft-serve huckleberry ice cream to finish off the day.