Denver made us some rather extraordinary pour over coffee this morning, and I DID sit on the couch enjoying the coffee, the view, and the conversation.  It was lovely.

While I would have loved to just hang out on the couch all day, drinking coffee and enjoying the view, we had chores to do and errands to run.  We first sorted the resupply (my Illinois squad sent me letters !!!! I’m going to wait to open them until we get to the border), and then we left the house.  Erica and Denver graciously lent us their Land Cruiser, so we drove to Kalispell for their REI (new shoes), drove into Whitefish so Nick could exchange some Darn Tough Socks at a store there (they wouldn’t do it at REI), and then we drove an hour to West Glacier to get camping permits for the rest of the trip.

Nick had called the Glacier backcountry office earlier and tried to get the permits over the phone, but the woman he spoke to told him we had to do it in person.  She also told him we couldn’t get into the park without a reservation until after 4pm.  Well.  We finished our errands a little early and decided to drive up there anyway.  Happily, everyone was nice and let us in without a reservation since we were going to the backcountry office and not the Going-To-The-Sun Road.  Things seemed promising.

At the backcountry office, however, we learned that our trip there was in vain.  They can only issue walk-up permits a day before your first night in the park.  This wouldn’t have been a problem because we planned to stay in Two Medicine on the 10th.  Unfortunately for us, Two Medicine is closed because of a carcass (stupid carcasses).  So, since they couldn’t issue us a permit for Two Medicine and start our trip, they couldn’t issue us a permit for anything after that because it would be too early.  Sigh.  

At least it was a pleasant drive with beautiful views along the way.  Before we left the park we decided to get some ice cream and enjoy the view on Lake McDonald.  I was tempted to drive along the  Going-To-The-Sun Road just because, but we both really wanted to get back to the house and just relax.

Back at the house, we discovered yet another challenge.  Our last resupply stop is in Many Glacier, but, since we’ll be getting there after everything is closed, a guy who works there said he’d collect our package for us.  Well, we just found out this guy had to leave for a funeral and probably won’t be up there to get us our package.  Obviously, our resupply should be the least of his worries and I’d much rather have to deal with this very minor inconvenience than a death of someone I know and love, but it is something else for us to figure out.  Which we will, I’m sure.  I’m just crabby because it’s been a long day and I didn’t even get to take a nap.  :)

On the bright side, dinner was wagyu tomahawk streaks (that Erica cooked PERFECTLY) with broccoli and sweet potatoes.  I suppose that more than makes up for the unnecessary drive we made to the park today.