US West Inland Northwest Glacier Trip

[PapaDave]

July 10-12th we are getting glacial!

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[PapaDave]

Inland Northwest Glacier Trip​

July 10-12th we are getting glacial​

This is our annual glacier trip which historically has been one of our most fun trips we do all year! We will be heading to Montana to visit Blue Lake, Polebridge, and camp along the Flathead River just north of Polebridge and the Northfork Glacier NP entrance. We will head east on a southern route over the mountains east of Libby MT and then return home west on a more northernly route skirting the Ten Lakes Wilderness and popping out at Eureka MT. Then we will head home through the Yaak and have an optional stop at the Swinging Bridge Falls.

Friday night and Saturday night will be on the banks of the Flathead River which is BLM dispersed camping, and on the other side of the river is Glacier NP. The Northfork entrance is a couple miles south and folks are free to do day trips into that section of the park to visit Bowman Lake and Kintla Lake. If you have not been this portion of the park this is how a national park should be, dirt roads heading out to long slender glacial lakes. Please know that you cannot access the rest of the part from this entrance as they have a number of old bridges that have given out that have not been repaired. This location along the flathead river is perfect for fly fishing, setting your camp chair in the edge of the river, and hanging out. Day trips are optional and self-guided. As always, we will have one large fire each night to hang out and talk.

Polebridge is an off grid community that has a charming Mercantile store where you can purchase merchandise as well as amazing Huckleberry bearclaw pastries.

Please plan on bringing at least one bundle of firewood, a pooper to be able to deal with your Dookie’s, and as always we never know what the weather will be like so be prepared. We usually stop and get milkshakes in Eureka on the way home or at the swinging bridge Falls snack shop.

Please ensure that your vehicle has amber lights mounted high up on the rear of your vehicle, they don’t need to be fancy just visible. There are a number of affordable options on Amazon that can be simple set ups that plug into a cigarette lighter, but amber lights are the best defense against dust and rear ending one another when we are headed through the mountains together.

We will be using GMRS channel 17, again if you need recommendations on affordable radios let me know and you can get them off of Amazon very easily. This trip is more of sightseeing and easy driving, there are not very many sections that are difficult or require sliders. The most difficult aspect of the trail is from North Fork Rd. to the river bank, it changes every year and it might be tight for longer trailers.

For those that want to travel in the convoy, we will leave 8 AM Friday morning and we should arrive around 5 PM or so to our camp. Otherwise Riggs can meet us there. Please see the attached GPX file and download it onto your device. If the app is not working well for you, you can always use the web based version of Overland Bound to save your file.

If you would like to go, be sure to RSVP.

GPX viewer