After travelling for an hour up the coast, we then went inland back into the mountains. More pine forests, but with firs and aspens this time. A very scenic journey, but it wasn't long before we were asleep again.
24th Sunday
Up in time to see the sun rise! We were now climbing high up into the Rock Mountains, reaching the continental divide around 9.40am, and East Glacier station about 15 minutes later.
East Glacier Park
We dumped our packs at the backpackers in EG, and took the shuttle to Two Medicine Lake (actually the middle of three lakes called Two Medicine Lake). After a light lunch, we hiked up one side of the lake, tramping up to see one of the waterfalls in the area along the way. Carol stayed at the base of Aspen Falls, while Kent took the trail up to the top of the falls and right up to the tree line to take some photos (about 600 feet up and just under a mile one way – oh dear, three weeks and already reverted to imperial!).
It was a very pleasant hike, although Carol's ankles were causing her pain again, and she was also a little worried about running into a bear, which (un)fortunately we saw hide nor hair of. The only wildlife we did see were chipmunks and squirrels. We saw plenty of different berry bushes along the way, but were unsure if they were safe to eat. We found out later that most were edible, and in fact one particular berry that looked similar to a raspberry was delicious (thimbleberries!) We arrived at the other end of the lake a little after 5pm and caught a boat back to where we started our hike from.
Shuttle back to EGP, a quick raid of the trading post (probably the oldest building in the village, it predated the railway station) for supplies, then back to the backpackers for food and rest. We had the two dorm rooms ('Girls' & 'Boys') to ourselves, there didn't appear to be anyone else staying here.
