At least “not rainy” weather.  We mess up the alarm so are not up super early but still early enough to start ahead of the crowds.  We have a quick breakfast and load up the backpack for a full day out on the trail.  We load up lots of clothes too, its 42 when we head out the door.  Our destination? Bowman Lake in the north west corner of the park.  The thermometer dips to 36 as we make our way further into the back country. The truck has a pretty good heater though and we stay toasty warm.  Our route includes Outside North Fork Road past Polebridge, the one Carol and I drove last week.  It isn’t any smoother today!  Wild life viewing is pretty good though.  A bevy of ptarmigan scratch and poke along the road’s edge and three elk cows graze peacefully in a roadside meadow.  One crosses not far in front of us as they gradually make their way toward the tree line.

The Open sign at Polebridge Mercantile calls to us, we can’t resist the stop and choose one fresh cinnamon roll and one of those yummy sticky buns.  As we turn to head for Bowman Lake trailhead a paper sign on the Mercantile door catches my eye.  It reads “9/19 to 10/7 bridge over the Flathead closed” “No access to Bowman Lake”.  Surely not, we think as we enjoy our baked treats.  Once finished, we drive the mile or so to the expected crossing.  Sure enough, there stands a flagger and she confirms that there is no access beyond the river.  We (and all the other folks who couldn’t/didn’t believe the sign) make a U-turn and ponder on what to do now.  We decide to drive a bit further north hoping that our wild life viewing luck will continue.   It does not.  We reverse course and bump our way back to Apgar.  The day is still young and we need gas for future wanderings so we head for Hungry Horse where prices are a bit more reasonable, $4.24 vs around $5 in West Glacier.  It is a chance to stop at The Huckleberry Patch too.  Folks in the grocery pointed Carol and I that way for the best locally produced huckleberry treats.  Kent and I split a huckleberry shake.  Didn’t need the sweets but hey, we might not get back this way!

Back home we relax a bit and finalize campgrounds for our move down to Vegas.  It is burgers for dinner and just at dusk we watch a mule deer browse her way across the center of our campground loop.