Our Montana Trip, Day 2

I can’t think of a better way to nurse the jet lag of a crazy 24-hour road trip than a slow breakfast morning. Slow breakfast mornings are the best, and even better when you’re camping. The temperatures were cool, the sun was shining, and it was nice to cuddle up in chairs and take our time after our long trip. We unpacked the Jetboils and made coffee hot chocolate to sip as we prepped our eggs and bacon. Bacon is a Kohler camping staple. You may remember seeing Neil’s dad cooking some up during our last camping trip in June. We were fortunate to come across some local, organic bacon back in Columbia and Neil was practically salivating over the package.

Tired but hungry!

Tip: Many campgrounds at State and National Parks have no hot water. To properly clean your dishes, always take the time to heat water whether on a stove or over a fire.

View Glacier National Park, MT 2010 Hikes in a larger map

After cleaning up we decided to trek the first easy trail recommended by the ranger. Avalanche Creek is located 6 miles up the Going-To-The-Sun-Road, the main road through the mountains. It’s a relatively easy hike, 2 miles (4 total) with a 500ft. climb. The hike is one of the more beautiful we’ve done, and the picture opportunities were endless! (Note: Zoom in to get a closer look at our hikes. You can also hit the TER button to see the elevation terrain.)

Neil configured the GPS to track our hike

Neil carried the Camelbak. Check out the knife and bear spray mounted to the back. Bear Grylls better watch out!

Look who’s checking Neil out!

Here is our first shot once we made it to the Falls. Pictures don’t do it justice. It’s that feeling of entering a huge stadium, only BIGGER! It was so green too. When I was editing photos, I tried to even it out a bit, so it wouldn’t look unbalanced,  but this is the best I could do. We were hiking at high sun, and it was just intense. The cool breeze still smells of snow!

A bachelorette party. What a cool idea!

We hiked back and took a few more shots of the streams along the trail. You can never get enough of the sound of water moving through the mountains. When we got back to the car we decided to pick up more brew and head back to camp. Neil picked out this brand, and was accosted by the clerk asking if he was sure he wanted to be seen with it. We were dumbfounded, what could be wrong with this beer? So we looked it up. Canadian beer don’t ya’ know.

Is it pronounced like Cocaine?

For dinner we decided to make Teriyaki Chicken and Rice Wraps, an easy camp meal that will also transcend to backpacking as its reasonably lightweight to store in a pack. You’ll need:

• 1 cup dry instant rice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 2 pgk honey
• 2-3 pkg soy sauce
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 can chicken (5 oz.)
• 2 whole-wheat tortillas

We cooked the rice in the Jetboil concurrently while churching up  the chicken a bit over the fire. Once the chicken started to boil and brown a bit, we added the rest of the ingredients and stirred together. I pre-made all the seasoning mixes at home and packed them in freezer bags. The liquid ingredients are condiment packets from our favorite restaurants that we saved for the trip. Nothing wrong with bringing a little gourmet to the backcountry right?

To see all of pictures check out our Flickr album here

Stay tuned for Day 3 of our trip tomorrow!