Lethbridge and Montana

- August 01, 2014

After a couple of days in Whitecourt I headed on down to Lethbridge to spend time with Carmen, Sharon and their girls Kathryn and Jessie. 6.5 hour drive with the Stoney Trail bypass of Calgary now operational.

Hot sunny days on arrival - hope it keeps up.

Friday morning Kathryn headed off to her summer job at the YMCA as a youth camp leader. Carmen, Sharon and I headed off to meet Teles (a friend of the family) to head on to golf at Picture Butte. Not too hot, a light wind, great conditions for my first golf outing in a year. Score... not so good.

Saturday we joined up with friends of the family and headed out to Waterton National Park (Parks Canada - Waterton Lakes National Park - Waterton Lakes National Park) to hike the Bear's Hump trail. 45 minutes up the twisting path with uneven steps to reach the summit and great views out over Waterton and the lake and mountains. The climb up had us stepping over bear poo, and comments from descending hikers to watch out for the bear further up the trail. We never saw the bear but did have loads of curious chipmunks at the summit. Quicker route down and then a leisurely hotdog lunch, sitting on the rocky beach and strolling through town.

More golf: Cardston and Crowsnest Pass as well as a return visit to Pucture Butte. The weather continued to cooperate as did the insects (by staying away!). The most stunning for landscape definitely is Crowsnest Pass.

Also on the agenda was for Carmen and I to build to spec a window framed display with six interior picture frames. The idea is to look like a really old rustic divided window frame. Trial and error but I think the results will leave Sharon happy.

On Thursday we headed out to Whitefish, Montana. Travelled through the stunning mountains and valleys of Glacier National Park with loads of traffic as we meandered along the Going to the Sun Road and through Logan's Pass. Stop after stop, near any restaurant, had full parking so we carried on to a small village just before the park's exit. Onwards to the rental condo at the base of Whitefish's ski slopes.

Enjoyable and relaxing time in Whitefish. We did a bit of retail therapy, attended a couple of parties, wandered through the Huckleberry Art in the Park, and took the 15 minute chairlift followed by the 2 hour hike down Whitefish's mountain following the Donny On Trail (the mountain is most used by skiers in winter, but has bike and hiking trails as well). Absolutely a great walk down with other hikers going in both directions and quite a few stepping off trail to pick huckleberries, saskatoon berries, and blue berries. We finished the day with a BBQ and a dip in the hot tub....