The first day we arrived at Apgar Village Lily’s eyes lit up with excitement when she saw bikes for rent. That day and each day since Lily has asked over and over again to rent a bike. Each time we passed the rental store her longing to ride grew stronger (and her requesting got louder). Now that she knew this was our last day here she made it abundantly clear she could not bear it if she did not get to ride a bike. We could deny her no longer.
Even though it was August it was quite chilly, so first things first. When we got to Apgar Village we stopped at Eddie’s Café window. Adam and I got coffee and the girls got hot chocolate. We walked down to Lake McDonald to enjoy our drinks.
Adam finished his drink and went back to The Cedar Tree (the store with bike rentals) to inquire. For some reason there was only one pair of training wheels in the entire park (there were a few bike rentals in Glacier). Even though Ella rides without training wheels, in this kind of setting it would be best for her to have them also. Plus there was the small issue of my lack of ability to ride a bike. For some reason when I was younger I never wanted to learn nor was I ever pushed to do so. So now at the ripe old age of 40 I still do not know how to ride a bike.
At first Ella didn’t think she wanted to ride. She and I went down to Lake McDonald while Lily and Adam went to start the rental process. As Ella thought about it more she started to change her mind. We went to find Adam to let him know. Ella tried some of the bikes without training wheels but as we expected none fit her just right so she had a hard time staying balanced. Since the rental was a four hour period and Lily had the only bike with training wheels we decided Adam would take the girls separately for two hours each. Lily went first since she could not wait a minute more to ride a bike.
Adam and Lily started off by biking from Apgar Village to the visitor center so they could fill Adam's camelbak. From there and back was about one mile on a nicely paved path. Lily did great except going around one tight bend she didn't slow down enough and tumbled right into the foliage. There were a few people around that gasped but she got right up, brushed herself off and hopped back on the bike.
When they returned to Apgar Village they picked up Apgar bike trail. This trail is about 3.5 miles round trip through the woods to the park headquarters on the outskirts of the west entrance. This was a tougher trail for Lily especially with training wheels because it was not paved very well, unevenly graded, mostly gravel and a number of potholes. The park headquarters at the end of the trail was an area with offices and residences for rangers and staff that live on site. Lily found it very surprising that many of the workers live in the park. She enjoyed looking at their houses and riding through the neighborhood. At one house there was a little girl about Lily's age playing outside alone. She came running over to ask Lily to play. They talked for a couple minutes but then Adam and Lily got back on their way. At the furthest most point the trail goes down a very steep hill to the banks of Middle Fork Flathead River and ends. Lily would have had a hard time so they skipped that hill and turned around. She did awesome with only a couple falls. Adam asked her to choose some music to listen to on the ride. She picked one of her favorite broadway soundtracks at the moment, Hamilton, and Adam played it on his iPhone. They were singing along for most of the ride. That certainly helped keep the bears away. In all they rode about 4.5 miles and returned back to Apgar Village in about 2 hours.
Ella and I went back to Lake McDonald while Adam and Lily were on their ride. It was so peaceful. There weren’t very many people around, the water was still and the view was spectacular. I could not think of a better place to be than right there with my yummy Montana Coffee in hand.
We sat on a bench and completed her Jr. Ranger work.
Then we went down to the water and tried our hand at skipping rocks again. We were not having the best luck with this. Instead we started picking different rocks and tossing them into the lake. We would examine the rocks to find the most interesting ones we could. Each time we would try to make a different guess. We tried to guess which would go the furthest, which would make the loudest sound, which would sound the quietest, which would make the coolest sound. Then we started to throw in a few at a time and would watch to see the way the water moved with each splash. We watched the different shapes the water formed with each throw. We were keeping a close eye for the biggest splash and the various sounds each made. We would discuss which sound we liked best. Before we knew it Adam and Lily were back. Lily was so eager to join in on the rock fun she did so without taking off her helmet.
The rental was for a limited time so Adam was ready to go right back onto the bike trail with Ella this time. Lily gave Ella the helmet and they got on their bikes. Just then Lily and I saw a beautiful dog come into the lake. We were enamored watching him in the water so we told them to get started and we would come to see them ride in at the end.
Adam and Ella repeated the same two trails except in reverse. Ella had a rough start, she hadn't been on a bike with training wheels in a while. This bike was also a little too small for her and she kept banging her knees against the handle bar. She took a fall after one training wheel snagged a pot hole. Within no time she adapted and mastered it.
Ella felt confident enough to take on the steep hill at the park headquarters near the end of the Apgar bike trail. This brought them to the bank of Middle Fork Flathead River right under a bridge. They decided to park their bikes and take a break. They enjoyed a snack, skipped a few rocks (the girls are addicted to this now), screamed to make some echos under the bridge and watched a few rafters float by.
While they were biking Lily and I tried to turn our attention to her Jr. Ranger work but spotted a grasshopper on the ground below the bench. Carefully Lily got it onto a stick and placed it on the bench so we could get a closer look at it. We looked very quickly and gently placed it back on the ground where we found it.
Next we finally got to work on Lily’s Jr. Ranger book and kept at it until she finished what was needed to earn her badge. We went back down to the water’s edge to play with the rocks again. Adam texted me when he and Ella were a few minutes away and we headed up to the bike trail to see them complete their ride. They were also right at the two hour mark.
Now that both girls were ready to receive their badges we went to see the Ranger in the Apgar Nature Center. The Ranger at the desk reviewed the work with them and swore them in.
Lily got caught up with the Huckleberry Theater in the Nature Center and tried their plethora of animal puppets representative of the wildlife in Glacier. She was having the best time with each one. We finally pried her away by telling her it was ice cream time.
We went back over to Eddie’s ice cream window. Adam, Lily and I shared the huckleberry and vanilla twist soft serve again. Ella got their chocolate ice cream this time.
Our new found love for Lake McDonald Lodge was calling us to visit again. On the drive over we spotted a sweet little deer crossing the road.
When we arrived we took the girl’s fishing poles down to the lake’s edge in back of the lodge and spent the rest of the day casting their lines in this serene setting. Unfortunately we did not have any luck. Lily started to get very disappointed wondering why none of the fish were interested in taking her bait.
Before we finished here the girls and Adam walked the rocks in the shallow water.
We were all feeling ready for dinner so Adam took the fishing poles back to the truck. I went to put our name on the list for the bar restaurant Lucke's Lounge. It didn’t take too long to get a table. Ella was happy to try their bison meatloaf and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Lily got the fishsticks and loved how they were shaped like fish.
As we were moving on tomorrow we were worried this would be our last opportunity for huckleberry everything so we had to share a piece of their huckleberry pie and the girls convinced us to order a scoop of their huckleberry ice cream too.
After we were finished we went back to the rocking chairs on the porch and sat while getting one last view of Lake McDonald.
As we were exiting West Glacier we stopped to get gas. When we pulled up to the tank we noticed the store next door had an enormous chair. The girls and I ran over for one last photo opp of the day while Adam pumped. And that would end our time at Glacier National Park.
