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The Olympians weren’t the only ones breaking records this month – we also managed to visit Montana four consecutive months – May, June, July and August! (But September’s off the table.) We made the most of this half planned / half last minute trip with boating, hiking, bike-running (more on that later), kayaking and heli-touring!

We decided to kick things up a notch (or five) by spending our first full day in Glacier National Park hiking about 13 miles to and from Grinnell Glacier. The first couple of miles or so found us peacefully walking around the south shores of Lakes Swiftcurrent and Josephine. Although we didn’t see any bears, we did come across two moose! Once we rounded the lake we started heading up…. and up…. and up…. for 1800+ feet of elevation gain in three and half miles. When we finally made to the top, we found another surprise – icebergs floating in Upper Grinnell Lake!

The next day Max flat-out refused to do anything that even resembled hiking and instead demanded a water adventure… so we grabbed our kayaks and headed from the south shore of Lake McDonald to Rocky Point. We had a bit of a time crunch so we paddled as fast as we could (of course Max’s paddle went from slightly broken to all broken midway) to be able to chill at the point for a little while before heading back.

We had great plans for a helicopter ride the following day but it was gloom-gloom-gloomy, very overcast with high winds…. but it’s an ill wind indeed that blows nobody any good and Kristan finally felt at home enough to go running after four days of nasty sunshine. Max grabbed the bear spray, hopped on a bike, and made sure she had 6.5 miles of bear-free running, all the while collecting a few Pokémon from the wilds of Montana. And the weather cleared up early enough the next day that we were still able to head out on that helicopter ride before going home. Seeing Grinnell Glacier from above just a few days after hiking to it made the ride an especially satisfying way to end the trip!

Comments

  1. SO beautiful; glaciers melting?? KEEP POSITIVE for our nature/climate–got to keep it for all generations.

    xoxo grandma

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