DAY 23
Week 4
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK (Montana, USA) to BILLINGS (Montana, USA)
Thursday July 13th, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 445 miles or 716 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 2611 miles or 4202 kilometres
I headed into Southern Montana today, cowboy up dude and dudettes.
I shoved off early from Apgar Campground and due to a 21 foot length, 8 foot width and 10 foot height restrictions on all vehicles traveling the Going-to-the-Sun road, I had to travel a bit further by heading down I2 through Great Falls (Montana) and into Billings (Montana). For the record, the Man Pad measures in at 34 feet long, 10 feet wide and 12 feet high and averages 6.12 mpg so far.
I'm starting to think that I'm getting pretty good at this rescuing vehicles by now. The Man Pad, my tow dolly, Gump's Hobbi Cat boat and now a new Harley Davidson softtail - which had lost it's clutch housing cover. No big deal on a car, but on a Harley you lose your transmission oil. I pulled over about 25 miles out of Great Falls (Montana) as a group of riders from Alberta (Canada) we on the side of the road, obviously looking for something.
They told me they'd been looking for the clutch cover for over ½ an hour. So I took one of my plastic dinner plates and fashioned it into a cover and with the aid of a roll of electrical tape and cable ties, had them back on the road. I just meandered through Great Falls and saw the group at the Harley dealer, so they made it just fine.
As I don't have any pictures today, please indulge me as I share a few of my observations on my visit to Glacier National Park.
The park is high, wide and handsome. I can't stress enough that if you're ever even close by, say - like even in the same country, stop by for a couple of days.
The terrain and vegetation is completely different on either side of the Continental Divide.
I didn't find any "V" shaped valleys. They all appear to be "U" shaped.
Unlike the populations general perception that bears are the major killers in the park ......
#1 killer in the park is drowning. Most of them occur on the Avalanche Creek with people coming back from Avalanche Lake.
#2 is rock climbing accidents.
#3 is heart attacks.
#4 is motor vehicle accidents, mainly with bicyclists.
#5 is bear attacks.
Bear "bells" do work extremely well, it let's the bears know where and when dinner is ready!!! 
There are over 700 miles of trails in the Park and 99.99 percent of them do not allow bicycles. Stupid!!! Open up more paths for push bikes and people will want to explore more. Not all of us want to hike 20 miles everyday, which brings me to my next point.
Last year the Park surveyed over 2 million visitors as to how many used the trails. 115,000 responded that they did. That's 17% for those of you keeping score.
The major campgrounds that accommodate RV's, tent campers and the like should have hot showers. I've had a couple of tent campers asking if they could borrow my shower. Sorry to all you full bearded Grizzly Adams type campers out there who think that showers have something to do with rain squalls, no way I'm sharing my shower with you. I could however soften my stance for a 90 pound, 5 foot eight inch, insert hair colour here (i.e. blonde, brunette, red head), nymphomaniac that owns a pub!
For my mind Glacier is one of the premier National Parks of the United States, along with Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon but YOU'LL never never know if you never never go!!!
Check ya later.