day 21

Babb to Banff

Got up with the sun to get the car packed up - had to make sure there was space for Emily and Ariel! I had also agreed to give a ride to the campsite owner’s mother-in-law - a lovely Ukrainian woman named Valentina.

Got over the border, made a stop at Tim Horton’s, and parked at the airport to pick up the girls. What a treat! We had a quick hour and a half long drive to get into Banff.

We got to the Juniper Hotel, dropped our stuff off, and walked into Banff downtown Banff to explore. We stopped for a quick bite (happy hour hot dog, truffle fries, chicken caesar salad) at Park and walked around. On a whim we stopped at Last Temptation Vintage where we all found a lil somethin’

We walked back to the hotel, took some chill time, and headed downstairs for dinner in the hotel Bistro. Our server was a delightful man from Denmark named Clay. We shared a tomato and sourdough salad, brussels sprouts with birch syrup and sunflower seeds, roasted fingerling potatoes with leek puree, half a roasted chicken, and a pistachio cake.

After dinner we moseyed right upstairs to bed.

day 20

A whole heckin’ day in Babb

Woke up and hightailed it over to Glacier National Park! Checked in at the ranger’s station to figure out my plan for the day - a 7ish mile hike to Grinnell Lake. I was feeling low energy so I went to the lodge to grab a cup of coffee. The woman at the coffee shop was so sweet, I expressed feeling not excited about my day and she totally hyped me up.

Thank goodness she did because this hike did not disappoint! There was a fork in the trail - one to continue to Grinnell Lake, and one to Grinnell Glacier. The Glacier trail was about 10 miles and was mostly uphill, I decided to give it a shot. Only one day in Glacier, gotta go for it!

At one point I had to stop because there were some big horn sheep crossing the trail. They had been hanging out for a while so there were a lot of people waiting above. I kept my distance but they decided to cross the trail right next to me. One of them stopped about 10 feet in front of me and didn’t move for a few minutes - just stared at me. I was standing so still and breathing so shakily, so nervous that he would suddenly find me a threat and send me sailing down the mountain. Eventually he moseyed up the mountain and I was able to keep going.

I was doing pretty good, but about a mile before the top the trail started getting too steep for me. I am so afraid of heights! There was a small waterfall that ran over the trail that required going up a sort of stone staircase with a very long drop off to the side. I went up it feeling very shaky but made it. I kept walking and saw that things were only going to get sketchier as I walked up - something that would be very difficult for me coming down. I decided it would be best for me to turn around - can’t navigate down hip-height steps and gravel with shaky knees (especially alone)! When I approached the waterfall I went down on my butt, getting completely soaked in the process (worth it). There was a man waiting for me, who told me to take my time. At one point I stood up and started getting really nervous and he grabbed my hand and helped me down. I was sooooo grateful. Here are the views were I decided to turn around and the waterfall (which doesn’t look very intimidating in the photos).

The rest of the hike down was beautiful. Ran into some more big horn sheep, but was able to give them a lot of space. Chatted with a woman on the way down who was on her way up. She was from Montana and had gone up to the glacier many times. She said that while the glacier is beautiful, the last mile of the hike was much steeper and more narrow, and that I did the right thing. She also told me a crazy story of a bear encounter she had where she and her boyfriend were charged from behind and had to use two entire cans of bear spray to get it to back down. Yikes!

When I was almost at the bottom, someone had to wait for me to pass them in a narrow spot. I apologized for taking so long and expressed that I was totally beat from the hike. They looked at me and said “I’m just proud of you.” I responded, smiling, that I really needed to hear that because I hadn’t made it to the top and they said “Whatever you did was enough.”

Made my way back to my car, found a spot at Swiftcurrent lake to jump in, and drove back to my campsite feeling really accomplished.

When I got back to the campsite, I went swimming, took a super hot shower, made myself some dehydrated dinner - chicken and dumplings - and crawled into bed.

day 19

Helena to Babb

Took my time waking up, made myself some yogurt and coffee in the big kitchen and read my book for a while. I ended up talking to the owner of the AirBnb and another woman who works on the property for a while. She gave me a more in depth tour of the hostel sharing that Jeanette Rankin, the first female congresswoman, used to hold meetings in the front room (very cool).

I called the shop, who still didn’t know if the part had come in so I would have to wait and be patient. Went for a run at the big track/football field down the street. I did a Chappell Roan (so good) walk + run and it was TOUGH at 4000 feet, but did my best.

I got back and was about to hop in the shower when the mechanic called and said my car was ready!!!!! I walked right over to the shop, picked ‘er up, and headed back. I ate my left over curry, packed up the car and hit the heckin’ road.

The drive to my next stop was about 3.5 hours. I finished listening to Slow Horses while I packed up the car so I started Page Boy and listened to Sasami. Had to have the windows down quite a bit because while I have a new A/C compressor it still needs to be charged.

The drive was short with lots of heavy downpour, but overall I was just so excited to be on my way.

I arrived at the campground in Babb to a man and his wife buzzing around on an ATV - Abby and Anna. They showed me where to park my car and helped me get all set up. The campsite was beautiful - right on Duck Lake, equipped with a really nice super hot shower. I took a shower, made myself a sandwich, read a bit, and got in my car while the sun was going down because it was very cold! I finished Assassin’s Quest and passed the heck out.