Operation Giddy Up-Day 1

Ah! Day 1. May I just start by saying how achingly beautiful Montana is. Karen and I got a leisurely start after our Continental breakfast. We pulled out of the hotel about 10:15 with Apgar as our destination du jour. The ride was very pleasant. The perfect Carolina Blue sky, easy rolling countryside, huckleberry pie and ice cream, but I knew better. The mountains in front of us (behind me in photo) were going to have to be tackled on tomorrows ride, but that's tomorrow.
On today's ride we went through West Glacier. It's one of those cutesy, log cabiny, you're in moose, bear, coyote and anything else wild, kinda places. It reminded me so much of one of our many family trips across country. Yellowstone comes to mind. In West Glacier, Karen and I picked up breakfast and lunch for tomorrow's ride.

At the end of our day, this was the view from our hotel window. We were right on Lake McDonald, in Apgar, which is where the photo was taken. Now, I have found in my experience, landscape photos (at least mine), never give you the intense color or feeling as actually being there. This photo of Lake McDonald is no exception. From this vantage point I could see 12 other mountain peaks. I think my photo only shows 7. I could see the devastation caused by the wild fire from 2 years ago, I could also see my toes in the water when I was waist deep. We made it to "Fast Eddie's" for an early dinner. Karen took a long hike, and I opted to sit in front of Lake McDonald with my book. Life is good. Tomorrow is going to be a big day, stay tuned.