2023 CDT - Day 37 - Moving Day

Today I moved from Glacier Meadows to St. Mary KOA

Glacier NP to the west from highway 89.

I slept pretty well knowing Runningbird was safe and comfortable and the worst of her hiking for this adventure was about done. I had already topped off the fresh water tank in the T@B so after walking Beau, having coffee and a light breakfast, I hooked up the trailer to the truck and headed over to the dump station before getting on the highway. I went back east to the town of Browning which had a fairly decent grocery store to pick up some more greens and a few other things before getting back on highway 89 north to St Mary and the KOA just outside the National Park where I had a reservation.

St. Mary / East Clacier KOA, MT.

I am fairly used to boondocking so getting a site in an RV park with power and water is pretty fancy to me. Stepping up to a KOA, at least most of them, is really going fancy. This particular KOA is pretty darn nice. In 2022 it received the KOA President's Award AND the Founder's Award. It has a pool, hot tub, cabins, beautiful scenery all around, a large 24/7 laundry, showers, complimentary bicycles, a lake with kayaks you can use, game areas scattered about, and WIFi that has antennas all over the place and seems to work consistently well from anywhere in the facility. They also have pizza each night from 4-9PM but at $24 for a 12-inch, I'm out.

St. Mary/ / East Glacier KOA Site L5.

After registering at the front entrance, a staff member in a cute little John Deere cart escorted me back several "streets" to our designated site at "L5". It was a nice little back-in spot, fairly level, with a picnic bench on a concrete pad, and bordered on two sides by bushes. After checking to see if I wanted help backing in, the staff member zipped off in his green and yellow cart to assist other guests. If I were to screw up backing in, I really didn't want any witnesses. Although the T@B is quite a bit smaller than my old trailer, I'm still getting used to the single axle and how quickly it starts to swing on a turn. After a bit of jockeying I had her nicely tucked into our little cove.

This is one of about eight WiFi relay antennas in the KOA.

Beau and I went exploring a bit more in the afternoon and found the dog area which he enjoyed thoroughly. So much so that he probably got more good exercise there in an hour than he had gotten all week. I also came to realize how really big this park is. An awful lot of the sites in the park with full hookups were pull-through and right next to each other with no grass, no privacy, ugly. Although my site did not have "full" hookups, just water and electricity, it was actually a very nice spot. There were other areas designated just for tents and they seemed nice and private with trees and bushes. Hopefully there won't be any brightly lit displays of political preference distorting the night sky here!

Pool, picnic facilities, horse shoes, bean-bag toss, and other activities at the KOA.

Late in the afternoon the wind really kicked up and storm clouds moved in dropped a bit of rain. It was kinda nice and the temperatures still remained warm. Kinda like a cloud burst in Hawaii. After my dinner of Cesar salad and a chicken sandwich I took the beast out for a last walk before hunkering down for the night. I checked to see that Runningbird was getting close to the lake where her permit assigned her a campground site. She had hiked the two mile length of the lake to the north end and crossed the bridge to the campground. After a bit I noticed she had continued on across the top and was now moving back down the other side of the lake. I was confused. Oh...No! I zoomed further in on my map app and found that there was another campground on the southern end of the lake that could only be reached by going up over the top. So, two more miles added on. And in the morning, there would be two more miles back up to get back on the main trail. what a drag; four miles added on to get to an assigned permit site. It was just on to 10PM now. Long day.