The whole point of this blog post is actually to pass on some tips about working from home, entertaining yourself at home, and staying healthy, since I know it’s not a normal way of living for most people in the U.S. and I want to encourage everyone to do everything they can to keep from spreading this virus. People’s lives depend on it.
Here are my top ten lessons learned on how to work from home, stay productive, stay healthy, stay entertained, stay mentally fit, and happy while working, playing, and living at home.
Glacier National Park: A Hike to Cobalt Lake
The first time I hiked to Cobalt Lake was 24 years ago. I was working at East Glacier Lodge, making salads, and hiked any time I could. My fellow cold prep chef, Karis, who sometimes sang musicals with me to pass the morning hours assembling potato, or macaroni, or fruit salad, went with me to Two Medicine to hike the 5.7 miles up to the lake.
I remember the plants on the trail being so wet with rain that my pants were completely soaked and it was so foggy that we could barely see the lake when we got there. Still, it was beautiful, and we were in the wilderness, and it was one of my favorite memories of the summer.
Bear Grass smells like honey along the trail to Cobalt Lake.
I’ve since been to Cobalt Lake, or on the trail to Cobalt Lake, at least a dozen times. D. and I usually hike 4 miles up to a scenic lookout we call Anniversary Point and sometimes turn back from there, or other times hike up the remaining 1.7 miles, which are steep, and can be snow packed.
Rockwell Falls
The first 2.5 miles of the trail are a very easy, gradual uphill in the forest next to Two Medicine Lake. You’ll pass by a turnoff to Paradise Point on the lake, beaver ponds, open meadows, and a trail that leads to Aster Falls. Keep going unless you want a side tour. The signage at Aster Falls is somewhat confusing and we literally asked a blind man and his companion for directions once. Chalk that up to most embarrassing ask for directions ever, but he kindly gave them to us.
The beginning stretch of the trail which can be accessed from the visitor’s parking lot at Two Medicine Lake, near the boat ramp, is quite popular, but about 2.5 miles in as the trail reaches the very end of the lake and you have the option to turn and go left towards Cobalt Lake and Rockwell Falls, the crowds thin and you’ll have a lot of the trail to yourself.
Along the trail to Cobalt Lake
It’s 11.7 miles roundtrip and took us 6 hours to complete with about an hour at the top to sit and enjoy the scenery and enjoy a picnic. Make sure you avoid feeding the marmots and the squirrels at the lakes. This marmot took one of my hiking poles off into the brush with him when i wasn’t looking and had a good nibble!
Montana: A Photo Tour of the Marias River, Town of Conrad, and Gallup City
The Marias River near Shelby, Montana
You know how you can live somewhere your whole life and not see the things people travel to your home town to see? Well, on Friday, I took the day off work to join my mother’s Shutterbug trip to see the things I haven’t seen within 30 miles of where I live.
My mom organizes a trip once a year for amateur and professional photographers to take photos and learn about a new area of Montana. This year we went to see the Marias River near Shelby, Montana that was named by Captain Meriwether Lewis for his cousin Maria when the Corps of Discovery was trying to decipher whether the Marias was the Missouri or not.
The Marias River has been tamed by Tiber Dam, but it’s getting a re-wilding by grizzly bears moving south and east from the mountains as their populations grow. This particular section, just north of Shelby has one of the highest concentrations of grizzly bears in the area. On Shelby’s golf course, they say, you can see both a grizzly bear and a rattlesnake in one day.
From the Marias we traveled 20 miles or so south on the Interstate to Conrad, Montana, a farming town founded in the late 1800’s by William Conrad, who made his fortune in real estate, mining, and cattle. We did a historical tour of the main street in town, hosted by the local museum.
A mural in downtown Conrad at Ed’s Tavern
A few things stood out to me. Conrad is home to the longest continuously running soda fountain in the United States. You can still get an ice cream soda, or just plain ice cream at Olson’s drug store in Conrad. And the Orpheum Theatre has been re-done, and shows both movies and live theatre and music shows. You can also get gluten-free, allergy-friendly food at Joe’s Steakhouse in Conrad, which makes its own gluten-free batter. Hello onion rings!
The oldest continuously running soda fountain in the United States, still open at Olson’s Drug in Conrad, Montana.
After exploring Conrad we headed to the historical remains of what once was an oil field boomtown called Gallup City. The town was only up and running for only six years, between 1927 - 1933. It was named for a Montana Governor, Hugo Aronson, who was originally born in Sweden and who owned an oil rig that he advertised under the name of the “Galloping Swede.”
An abandoned oil rig at Gallup City
The area produced approximately 400 million barrels of oil in its first 60 years of operation and we toured at least one place that was still pumping oil. Nearly 1,000 people once lived there, and now it’s turned back to grass and prickly pear cactus.
