Glacier NP - St Mary

Thur 22nd Sept: Today we woke to Grey skies and rain with the forecast not sounding promising for the rest of the day, so we decided to head to the visitor centre at St Mary. And luckily they had free WiFi, so got a chance to finally update Find Penguins. We then went to the St Mary's grocery store, as we needed bread and milk, only to walk in and find a nearly empty shop (still plenty of beer), they obviously about to close for the season, so only was trying to sell what's left. So after asking found Browning - 31 miles away - was the nearest town to restock on groceries, so we drove there. Don't want to be negative about a first nation town as it is Blackfeet Indian territory but what a ramshackle town. All the properties was neglected looking, a lot of the vehicles in a sad state and dogs roaming everywhere - looked quite 3rd world standard, remindered me of Peru. However the supermarket was very good and was well supplied so we had quite a good stock up. It was then back to St Mary. It was after 5pm and the weather was quite wild, mainly wind with threatening rain, but there was a small loop trail to a Beaver Pond, which we were told the best chance of seeing beaver or maybe Moose was early evening so with rain gear on we set off, however no luck with seeing any animals but it was a pleasant walk passing the old rangers hut that was build in 1913. Stats: 5.4 km, 1hr 05, elevation gain 124 m. Decided to stay in the carpark at the trailhead for the night. The wind is certainly rocking the van around but not much rain. Steps V 10346Les mer