2020 "Snaps" Around Glacier National Park

[PeteE]

Great shots Pete! Love that sunset.

11 more weeks until I'll be there again

Love the sunsets!

Sue and Jay:

Thanks for the compliments. Better to be lucky than good as I like to say.
I just happened to be in the right place at the right time!

Sorta like Tuesday night...
I won ~$280 in a 1$-2$ no limit Texas Holdem game at the Montana Nugget Casino.
Best hand I had was pocket kings on the button. I ended up going all in(~$180) winning best pot of the night--over $500.

pete

pete

[Sue Z]

Thanks for the compliments. Better to be lucky than good as I like to say.
I just happened to be in the right place at the right time!

Sorta like Tuesday night...
I won ~$280 in a 1$-2$ no limit Texas Holdem game at the Montana Nugget Casino.
Best hand I had was pocket kings on the button. I ended up going all in(~$180) winning best pot of the night--over $500.

pete

True, but you did make the effort to get your a$$ out there in the first place. That's the thing about hiking - sometimes you hit the jackpot and sometimes you don't, but you can't win if you're not in the game.

Love the Carlin quote, by the way.

[PeteE]

True, but you did make the effort to get your a$$ out there in the first place. That's the thing about hiking - sometimes you hit the jackpot and sometimes you don't, but you can't win if you're not in the game.

Love the Carlin quote, by the way.

Thanks Sue
I love George Carlin. He was a keen observer of people.
I wish he were alive today to comment on the sad state of our country.
I'm sure he wouldn't tolerate all the PC nonsense and would likely be banned from social media.

And yeah, I made the effort to get my a$$ out to the park once more yesterday.
Twas a pretty nice day albeit cold, down around 10-15F. A little breeze blowing down at the foot of the lake at the boatdock.
Yesterday, as the cold front blew through, it was ugly everywhere with 30-40mph winds, but not much snow.
I think the East side got hammered pretty good with more snow and higher winds.

Here's a few snaps from Sunday, March 15th


The wind had everything coated with ice here and it Lake McDonald's boat dock.
















Back down the lake at the Framing Tree beach.
We(another photographer and I) had to wait till some young guys finished skipping rocks in the lake before taking pictures.
The water settled down to an almost good reflection.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Glacier-Park ... 710m-L.jpg

Would have been a lot better if I hadn't chopped off the shoreline on the right side.


Ms Bonnie never gets much love from the camera so today she got a little bit.


I love it when she fluffs up her feathers. Birds do that to trap air to keep warmer. She turns her head to focus one eye on me for a more detailed look.


I finally got a decent shot of Bonnie making her "clocking" sound. She makes a clock-clock sound with an audible "snap" at the end.
In the past, I always seemed to catch her with her nictitating membranes closed.

[MarxMN]

Pete,

Those ice pictures are fascinating - especially the ice on the rocks. I am thinking about how the water was blown onto the rocks and then froze in place. It had to be really windy to get the water up there and then quite cold to freeze the water before it ran off the rocks.

And great to see pictures of Bonnie "performing".

Thanks

Bill

[teapot57]

Pete,

I love the ice photos. You have a great eye. And nice to see Bonnie looking well.

[PeteE]

Thanks Tina and Bill
I like the ice on the rocks too.
People sometimes look at me funny for wearing my microspikes---until they see how treacherous that ice is to walk on
And it was really slick that day. A lady took a hard fall walking out on the boat dock. She's lucky she' didn't slide right off the dock into the lake.
The spikes give super good traction. Walking on those rocks would be impossible without them.
I would have liked to have spent more time taking pictures but my hands were FREEZING!!
Gloves heavy enough to keep my hands warm are too thick to work the camera.

I know everyone is tired of seeing the same Lake McDonald scenes over and over.
So am I.

The "virus panic" has finally reached the Flathead Valley. The governor has closed up the schools.
Some cities/counties have closed, or are considering closing bars/casinos.
So if our joints are closed down, I'll have time to ride over to the East side to look around and takes some pictures.
Gotta do it soon because I want to switch out my tires asap. But...I want to have them on for the trip over there...just in case

pete

PS
I laughed at all the toilet paper stories.
I've been a "prepper" for years. I probably have 200+ rolls of Charmin and Kirkland toilet paper in storage.
And enough food and other necessities to last 6 months or more--and never have to go to a store.


EDIT ADD 3/19
https://www.foxnews.com/health/preppers ... utbreak-us

[PeteE]

It was too boring to stay at home.
Like most places, virtually everything in the county pertaining to "entertainment" is shut down.
The park had more visitors than I expected. Probably people like me who didn't want to stay home.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day.
I'm going to make an effort to leave early enough to catch the sunrise from Glacier View Ridge.



Without boat dock


This is from the first pull off east of the Sprague Creek CG.


Being a "dead tree" fan, I like this one better. I like the tree's reflection in the water.


The ice is gone from the rocks beside the Lake McDonald boat dock, just snow now.


I heard Bonnie, Clyde's faithful lookout, make her "alarm" squawk--three high pitched calls--as I made my way up the hill near the circular drive.
It's really amazing how they know me by sight since there were other people around.
I'd left my window down and Clyde had snagged my homemade banana bread I had brought for a snack.
It was down on the floor of the passenger side next to my tools.

[tibber]

love the first two where you can see the rocks in the water. great photos as always.

[indiana hiker]

I think the first one with the dock is my favorite. Beautiful, still water. Great shots again Pete.

[PeteE]

Hi all:
Obviously, I haven't been doing too much outside recently due to the covid-19 problem.
Many of the places I would like to go are either closed due to the virus, like GNP, or inaccessible due to spring snow conditions.
The good news is the Governor is finally beginning to ease the restrictions on businesses. Maybe the park will follow suit.
I sure hope so. I realize the covid-19 problem is a BIG deal in some places, but not here in NW Montana.

Anyway, I was able to get out a little bit. Staying cooped up in my apartment sucks.
Here's a couple short video clips and a few pics from two different days.
Not many pictures since the primary purpose on these two days was checking out some of my firearms.
There's a place one can shoot legally between Great Northern Flats and the Big Creek CG.
Good thing since my 9mm Browning HiPower had some problems and is now in the shop being fixed.
My S&W Model 19-3 .357 mag. and short barrel Mossberg .12g pump gun checked out good.

A U.S. Forest Service LEO stopped by to chat while I was getting my snowshoes on.
I double checked with him about shooting and he said it was fine with him--"go for it".
I also saw two U.S. Border Patrol guys and gave them a wave.
I think they were as bored as I was

Y'all stay safe out there. Let's hope this covid-19 problem gets resolved asap.
Lots of folks are out of work including me--the first time in my life.
Cheers

pete

These are from April 8th.
runs 3 minutes
https://photos.smugmug.com/Glacier-Park ... k-1920.mp4

Jaybird is parked upper right. The snow turned out to be really sketchy to walk on. Someplaces it was hard as a rock; other places were treacherous.Several times I would take a step and sink to my calf or knee. So I would "stab" the snow with my sticks trying to locate soft spots before stepping ahead--and it didn't always work


Two of the holes I dropped in. In retrospect, I'm lucky I didn't get hurt.



The river was just beginning to rise and so was still nice and clear. I saw 6-7 people fishing in different places.
The water was up and getting pretty ugly a few days ago when I was up there shooting.


Looking up river. The southern end of Great Northern Flats is dead center frame in the distance.


Same viewe zoomed in


************************************************************************************************************************

This picture and 2 minute video clip are from April 17th.
The video clip explains why I cut the day off very early on.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Glacier-Park ... 9-1920.mp4

I did get one decent picture before getting the hell off that %@%$ing ridge

[Ear Mountain]

Nice shots of the river, Pete. Thanks for posting them. BTW, I'm with you on the feeling about ticks!

[Carol Lynn]

I love the river photos, especially the third one which is an excellent composition. I'm glad you were able to get out a bit and look forward to when you can get back into the park. Stay well.

[PeteE]

Nice shots of the river, Pete. Thanks for posting them. BTW, I'm with you on the feeling about ticks!

I love the river photos, especially the third one which is an excellent composition. I'm glad you were able to get out a bit and look forward to when you can get back into the park. Stay well.

Thank you Ralph and Carol. You both are both good photographers and good folks.
I always appreciate your comments and advice.

All my recent pictures were taken with my new backup camera, a Sony a6000 I bought last fall.
The a6000 will also be my choice for backpacking trips as well as some day hikes.
It's far lighter than my a77mkII at just over a 1lb. The a6000 has the same 24meg sensor that the a77 has.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... dcd4f49e19
I'm going to use some of my "free" stimulus money to get a better quality zoom lens. The a6000 uses eMount lenses so I can't use my a77 aMount lenses without an adapter--not something I want to do.

As for the ticks. My "outdoor" friends have all talked about how bad the ticks are this year.
I began taking 1500mg garlic oil capsules three times a day, sometimes a couple extra, last week.
I'm also going to treat two or three complete outfits, sox, pants, underwear, undershirts, long sleeve shirts and hats with permethrin
I buy it by the gallon on Amazon since it's much cheaper that way.

Tomorrow, IF I can haul myself out of bed early enough , I'm going to drive to the East side for a few pictures.
Nothing is open but depending on conditions, I've gotten some decent images from US 89 above St Mary.
Beats staying at home.
Plus this will be the last week I have off due toicovid-19.
Casinos will be allowed to open May4th.
later

pete

[PeteE]

Well, scratch the East side trip.
The Blackfeet Reservation is effectively closed to non-tribal members.

http://blackfeetfishandwildlife.net/


pete

[Jay w]

Pete,

The shot of the dock with the ice is exciting just because it looks like a swim about to happen. And then someone tried going out there without spikes. Not the brightest bulb on the tree.

I like the shot with all the dead trees in the foreground.

So, if you ride a bike into the park, is it a can of whoop-ass waiting to happen? So would the LEOs be pissed?

Just trying to keep up with life here and not gain too much weight.

Jay