{"id":664,"date":"2016-09-23T15:50:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T15:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=664"},"modified":"2017-07-25T17:09:32","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T17:09:32","slug":"saturday-september-17-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/09\/23\/saturday-september-17-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, September 17 Canada, eh!"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>The wind howled all night, and this morning the clouds were moving in fast, looking nastier by the hour.\u00a0 Before 7 am, we were on the road, headed for Canada,\u00a0walking against\u00a0a stiff headwind.\u00a0 Finally the road dropped down enough to be out of the wind, whew!\u00a0\u00a0 And at 9:05, we walked up to the US side of the border.\u00a0 It was no problem then walking over to the Canadian side for pictures and some cheering!\u00a0 (Getting back across was harder, though–the USA border officials gave us a bit of a bad time)<\/p>\n

The long hike is DONE.\u00a0 Worth it?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 We got to see God’s loving care firsthand almost every day on this hike, in ways only He could manage, ways we never even dreamed were possible.<\/p>\n

Two songs were running through my head as we hiked in the early morning wind and clouds–one a Christian song and the other a sea chantey.\u00a0 I did change the words a bit….<\/p>\n

“Bless the Lord, oh my soul” was a song that I sang to myself on the very first day of our hike, as we were on our way to the CDT beginning at Crazy Cook monument, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

“The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning–it’s time to sing Your song again.\u00a0\u00a0 Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me, Let me be singing when the evening comes, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, He loves and cares for me<\/em>, Sing like never before, oh my soul,\u00a0 My Father walks with me.”<\/em><\/p>\n

And then there is the sea chantey, “Home, Dearie, Home.”\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s my version to celebrate reaching Canada:\u00a0 “Oh it’s home, dearie, home, My tops’ls are hoisted, and I’m bound to sea.\u00a0 The birch and the larch and the bonny aspen tree are all turning gold in this north country<\/em>, and it’s home, dearie, home.”<\/p>\n

DETAILS:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 The wind howled and blew all night, but it wasn’t too cold, and clouds started to fill the sky.\u00a0 We ate our last CDT “trail” breakfast in the tent while it was still dark (yum, it was good!) and headed back to the Parkway for the final walk to Chief Mountain border station.\u00a0 We were walking as fast as we could, hoping to be there when the station opened at 9:00 am.<\/p>\n

But the wind seemed determined to give us a hard time.\u00a0 We were walking straight into a very strong headwind that slowed us down.\u00a0 All around us the aspens were a glorious gold color, and in the sky, the increasingly menacing clouds glowed red.\u00a0 We looked at those clouds and said to each other, “Wow, it’s a good thing we’re almost done!”\u00a0\u00a0 We kept fighting the wind and kept walking, till finally the road dropped down a bit and we were more protected.\u00a0 Whew, what a relief!<\/p>\n

We reached the National Park border and cheered–kept on walking, peering hopefully around every bend for our first sight of the Border station.\u00a0 Finally, there it was!\u00a0 We walked past the line of cars waiting to enter Canada, and asked the guard if we could walk over to the big “International Peace Park” sign where the American and Canadian flags fly side by side, and take a few pictures to celebrate our CDT finish line,\u00a0 then come back.\u00a0 He said, “Sure!\u00a0 Just let me have a look at your passports first.”\u00a0 A quick glance, and he handed them back.\u00a0 “Congratulations!”<\/p>\n

So we walked over to the sign to get some pictures.\u00a0 I took pictures of Bill with the Canadian flag, and he was starting to take some pictures of me, when a car pulled up and a lady hopped out.\u00a0 “Would you like me to take of picture of you two, together?” she asked.\u00a0 Oh yes!\u00a0 I was so grateful to her for stopping.<\/p>\n

Then we walked back past the Canadian border guard.\u00a0 We could see Terry, the guy we’d met at the St. Mary’s restaurant, waiting for us.\u00a0 At that point, we could have simply walked back on the left side of the road, then cut over to where Terry was.\u00a0 But we thought, “We don’t want the US border guards to think we’re trying to sneak in.\u00a0 We’d better go through on the right side.”\u00a0 Big mistake!\u00a0\u00a0 We politely crossed over the road (still on the Canada side of the border) and walked up to the US border station, just as we had walked up to the Canadian one.\u00a0 But to our complete astonishment, one of the border people (a lady) started yelling at us very fiercely and acted rather threatening.\u00a0 We were amazed.\u00a0 What on earth had we done?\u00a0 Well, we finally deciphered what all her yelling was about.\u00a0 Apparently, if you WALK in, there is a special pathway you are supposed to follow, and we weren’t on it.\u00a0 OK, what pathway?\u00a0 We had seen no sign or indication of it.\u00a0 So as politely as I could, I said, “We are so sorry.\u00a0 We didn’t know.\u00a0 Where would you like us to go?”\u00a0 She pointed to an orange cone back down the road a bit and said, “Go there, and wait until I tell you that you may come in!”<\/p>\n

So we dutifully turned and walked back to the orange cone and stood there waiting.\u00a0 Terry, who was on the US side of the border, was watching all this, equally amazed.\u00a0 Finally the fierce lady gestured to us that we could come across the border.\u00a0 She checked our passports and snarled at us some more and finally let us go.\u00a0\u00a0 Terry hurried up to us and said, “Whoa!\u00a0 That was bad!”<\/p>\n

We hopped into Terry’s car, and headed back towards his place, stopping off for a second breakfast along the way, and then Terry took us to his place in St. Mary’s, where we were able to do laundry and take showers and have a snack and watch some of the amazing videos and photos that Terry has done.\u00a0 He likes to hang out with the grizzlies and make videos of them!\u00a0 He said “If you meet a grizz, just sit down on a log or a rock or something and TALK to it.”\u00a0 He said that’s what the Native Americans do.\u00a0\u00a0 Outside, it was beginning to rain, and clouds covered the mountains.<\/p>\n

Then Terry gave us a ride back to East Glacier.\u00a0 Fixit and I were amazed as the car sped along.\u00a0 We were thinking, “Did we really walk all this way in just the last couple of days??”\u00a0 But for me it was a bit of a tough ride because I was in the back seat, the road was very winding, and I haven’t ridden in a car all summer.\u00a0 So I was battling car sickness the whole way.\u00a0 Fortunately, Terry kept stopping to take pictures.\u00a0 “You guys are really lucky!” he said.\u00a0 “The aspens are at their peak.”\u00a0 Every time he stopped to take pictures, I would get out and walk around in the cold wind and rain drips, trying to breathe deeply to calm my poor stomach down.\u00a0 (I heard later from Stop N Go that when he got his ride back from the border, he also got horribly carsick!)<\/p>\n

On the drive, Terry told us about his adventures in wildlife photography, and also about how the Native Americans live around here.\u00a0 He is a friend to many of them and has learned a lot about how they think and see things.\u00a0 Turns out that he makes a living as a swimming pool expert, particularly in the area of pool chemistry.\u00a0 He said you CAN have a clean pool without using all the horrible chemicals (like chlorine, etc.).\u00a0\u00a0 Terry is a man of many interests and talents, he has no “home base”, really, but is constantly travelling, staying in one place for a little while before moving on.\u00a0 Actually, he was planning to “move on” tomorrow, so we were really blessed to meet him when we did.<\/p>\n

Back at last in East Glacier, we gratefully thanked Terry.\u00a0 He headed back to St. Mary’s, and Fixit wanted to head for some lunch, but I still felt so carsick that I could not yet face eating anything.\u00a0 So we went and got our “CDT Finish Celebration” T-shirts.\u00a0 Fixit got a specifically CDT shirt, while I got one of a hiker out in a remote mountain area that said, “Not all who wander are lost.”\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 No kidding!<\/p>\n

Finally I felt well enough to face eating a late lunch, and then we went to the Amtrak station to get our train tickets for Portland.\u00a0 We needed to wait a couple of hours, so we used that time to go through our packs and get rid of anything we didn’t need anymore.\u00a0 And the train station itself is actually sort of a museum, with a lot of very interesting exhibits about the history of East Glacier, the Park, and the train.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile outside, it was getting colder and colder.\u00a0 The wind was gusting, and the rain really started to come down.\u00a0 The clouds were low–we could not see the Glacier Park mountains at all.\u00a0 Fixit and I looked at that and said, “Thank you, Lord, that we are not up there!\u00a0 Please take care of our friends who ARE up there!”\u00a0\u00a0 Just before the train was due, Stop N Go came tearing in, and he was able to get a ticket, too.\u00a0 Whew!<\/p>\n

We shivered through the cold and rain on the platform, and it felt so good to sit down and be able to just look out a window at the gray skies and pouring rain.\u00a0 The train pulled out of the station, and it was “Goodbye, Glacier, we’re homeward bound!”\u00a0 I stayed glued to the train window until it was too dark to see anymore, and then we went and got dinner at the dining car before curling up on our seats to catch a bit of sleep as the train headed for Portland.<\/p>\n

Again, words cannot express how grateful we are to God for all He has done for us.\u00a0 Every step of the way, He has been with us.\u00a0 If you are reading this and you do not yet know Him, reconsider.\u00a0 He loves you, He can change your life, and He has made the way to come to Him, by letting go of “me do” and trusting in what Jesus did FOR you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 The wind howled all night, and this morning the clouds were moving in fast, looking nastier by the hour.\u00a0 Before 7 am, we were on the road, headed for Canada,\u00a0walking against\u00a0a stiff headwind.\u00a0 Finally the road dropped down enough to be out of the wind, whew!\u00a0\u00a0 And at 9:05, we walked up to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preparation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1105,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}