Return to Belly River

I got to spend my weekend in the Belly River Ranger Station. Once again, my weekend has proven that it helps to befriend people who live in cool places. Marc, the ranger in Belly River, let Mike and me stay in the historic ranger cabin, and he even cooked a meal for us on Saturday night.

Mike and I departed at the last possible minute from St. Mary. I had been waiting for a phone call from either Marc or one of the backcountry supervisors because there had been a murmur that they might like me to stay in the cabin overnight Sunday just to keep an eye on things since Marc would be leaving. Anyway, the point was that we started packing in St. Mary at 6:45 to depart at 7:05, hitting the trail at near 8:00 and reaching the ranger station before 10:00, a 6-mile hike/jog for us. We arrived just as it was getting too dark to see without a flashlight.

Aaaaaanyway, we spent the night there in the cabin and hung out for a while in the morning. Marc gave me some carrots and apples to feed the horses, which made me quick friends with the locals out there in the corral. Mike and I hiked to Elizabeth Lake for the afternoon, where he had planned to fish. Marc loaned me a fishing pole and all sorts of assorted equipment that I used to attempt to catch fish. I did catch one fish, an arctic grayling, which I devoured later in the evening. It was the only fish I actually hooked all day, about 6 hours of (pants-splitting) work.

We hiked back to the ranger station with backpacks full of bear bait in the "friscalating dusklight."* After we cooked and cleaned, we went outside to view the meteor shower, which was pretty nice because we weren't within 5 miles of anything that produced light.

*Reference to The Royal Tenenbaums, and if you didn't get it, you should really go watch that movie.