Arrival at Glacier!
Monday, June 23rd
So finally we have arrived at the so-called Whitefish staion. We actually arrived half an hour earlier at 4am instead of 4:30am! Perhaps it was because it was a weekend train that we arrived faster? After I arrived, I saw that the Hertz rental place had my car keys ready for me. I got a Hyundai Accent >:O. On the website it said Ford Focus or similar and I thought I would have a chance to choose the car like at an airport, but since this was 4am and the rental place was unstaffed, there was nothing I could do. I should have upgraded to the Intermediate car. The website says Toyota Corolla or similar but I think it would have been a Subaru Impreza. I don’t think the interior would have been better than the Accent, but I think the drive would have been better, especially since I would drive the whole way. I saw a couple of Imprezas in the Hertz rental “lot.” The “lot” was basically just a couple of stalls in front of the public parking lot of the train station.
It was still completely dark when I started driving towards West Glacier and Lake McDonald Lodge to meet Cassie and Erin. So I wasn’t able to see anything. The street lamps were extremely dark and almost useless. It was funny because another guy was trying to find his car and I was, too, so I saw his car lights turning on and off from the remote fob and he saw my car lights turning on and off from my remote fob, so we were like, why is this car not responding to my command? The 2014 Hyundai Accent only had 72 miles on it! I’ve never driven such a new car before! But when I got the car, it had less than a quarter tank of gas left. Fortunately, I called Hertz and they said that it was ok, because they’ll just mark my car as having left Hertz empty.
I took a couple of pictures on the way to Lake McDonald, and I got some pretty pictures, since it was the morning and the sun was just rising, but mostly I was driving fast to Lake McDonald Lodge. When I got there, it was around 6am, so I decided to sleep a little. At around 7am, I awoke because it was extremely cold. I don’t know why I didn’t do this earlier, but I decided to take my big Northface jacket on and wear it, as well as take out a long-sleeved shirt to use as pillow, to continue to sleep in the car.
At around 9am, I went around to cabin number 9, because that’s what Cassie told me they are staying in. However, when I went around to cabin number 9, I saw that there were 5 rooms in cabin number 9. Fortunately, Cassie and Erin were awake and were talking so I was able to find out that they were in cabin number 9-1. I took a shower at their cabin, brushed my teeth, and we went on our way.
I asked them what they did yesterday, and I was horrified at what they had to go through. Because they didn’t have a car, they decided to get off at West Glacier train station instead of Whitefish. However, West Glacier station was closed when they got off, so they were walking around anywhere in West Glacier trying to find a place where they could call Lake McDonald Lodge to come pick them up. Fortunately, their train was delayed by an hour so by the time they got to West Glacier, it was already 6am. It was fortunate because they didn’t have to wait as long in the cold for someone to pick them up. They decided to do a Red Bus tour first because they couldn’t check in, but were so tired that they slept for most of the tour. When they got back, they still couldn’t check in, because it was only 1pm after their lunch, so they went on a cruise.
Since Cassie and Erin were able to tour West Glacier yesterday, we decided to go directly to East Glacier today after lunch at Lake McDonald Lodge. I had the bison burger, which was filling, though bison meat isn’t really that tender or tasty. Then we went to buy some stuff at the gift shop. We also stopped by at Eddie’s ice cream to eat huckleberry ice cream, which was great!
While on the way to East Glacier, we took a wrong turn because of Erin’s “directions.” So we ended up going West instead of East. We only lost about 30 minutes, though. We weren’t able to drive the famous Going-To-the-Sun-Road because it snowed a lot on June 16th.
We were able to hike the St Mary’s Falls trail and the Virginia Falls trail, which were fantastic trails. Virginia Falls was especially spectacular, but the force of the waterfall was so strong that I got all wet from taking the picture. Roundtrip, this was about a 3.4 mile hike. It took us about 2 hours to finish. Since it was 8pm by the time we finished, we only had time to drive to the town of St Mary and eat at the St Mary Lodge, Cabins, and Motel. The food was surprisingly good! I had the Braised Pork Shank and it was delicious! We also got a pasta and a schnitzel, which were both good, but not as good as the braised pork shank.
We were able to get to Swiftcurrent Motel by 11pm, which was exactly the time that we said we would meet Cassie and Erin’s friend, Roesni. When I checked in, I discovered that my cabin was not cleaned by housecleaning. Since they couldn’t find a cabin room for me, they put me in the motel! This was a fantastic upgrade because in the cabin, we needed to use a public shower that needed a $2.5 token that gives you 8 minutes of shower, as well as a public restroom. In the motel, it was just like a regular room with private shower and restroom!
I took Cassie and Erin back to Mary Glacier Hotel and Roesni took a shower at my place since it was a better shower than even the employee showers. After I dropped Roesni off, I decided to park in front of the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn lobby in order to use their wifi. I discovered that the employee wifi was a lot faster than the guest wifi. However, I think because I didn’t park close enough, the wifi was a little bit inconsistent. I was still able to get the stuff I need but I had to hold the phone out in front of me.