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July 19th Flathead Lake

It was a little chilly this morning until the sun came over the mountains then we were sticky and hot within minutes. We had a hard time trying to figure out how to piece all of our stuff back together into the car. Cory made breakfast while I broke down camp. The kids ran around covered in mosquito bites. There were so many mosquitoes. Zelly got the worst of it. She got bit right by her eye and it's swollen up. She looks like she got in a fight at the saloon in Bannack. The poor gal. Isaak is itching his until they bleed. I finally put lavender and tea tree oil on them all and that helped. We bought this bug-spray without Deet since Zella is still too young to use Deet, but I don't think it was that effective obviously since we have about 20 bites a pieces. Hungry little mosquitoes. After two hours of arranging and rearranging we got everything and everyone back in the car, but we made a quick stop at the Ghost town to hike up to the cemetery and see a few more of the houses. It was so hot and busy. Chloe, Zelly and I spent some time sitting on the steps of the Meade Hotel being serenaded by a man with his guitar playing old mining songs and watching woman paint the town in the shade.  It felt so idyllic. It was one of the moments that made all that packing and worrying worth it.

On Top of Cemetary Hill in the sweltering heat

The Old Fashioned Merry-Go-Round
We didn't get on road until almost 1pm. We were heading towards Swan Lake to camp and swim. We drove and drove along the side of the beautiful Montana mountains reaching in to the sky with rivers snaking all around us. We stopped for lunch at a rest-stop that was incredibly busy and hot. It was so hot. We peed. We ate and we got out of town. We made it to Glacier valley. So far we had hardly seen any people. We felt like we were almost alone traveling in Montana....that is until we hit Glacier Valley. Oh boy the flood gates had been opened. Swan Lake Campground was full. We were sad because swan lake looked like the perfect place to swim and we'd been telling the kiddos all day long that we would swim. We quickly rerouted to Wayfarers campground on the north-side of Flathead Lake. On the way there Isaak said a prayer that we would find a camping space. We pulled up and saw the sign campground full. We tried anyway. The hosts were super super super nice and told us we could use a hike and bike campground. So unfortunately we had to haul all of our gear to a campsite about 50 yards which may not seem like a lot, but it was a lot of work in bear country where you can't leave any food out whatsoever. We quickly got unpacked and changed into our suits and ran down to the lake. It was so refreshing. I can still see the mountains all around us and the clear water swirling around our feet. Drift logs were all over and the kids spent the next couple of hours playing in the water and riding logs. Cory, Zella and I sat on a log in the water just watching them. It was so good to get wet after being so hot. 

Afterwards we chatted with some of the hiker/biker folks. A lot of them were doing the continental divide trail on their bikes. Super impressive. We felt bad when we cooked up our pork chops, sliced open our melon and fried up our veggies. I wished we had more because they kept saying....oh real food. Chloe and I ran back down to the lake and watched the sunset on the water. It was so beautiful. Chloe wanted to take picture after picture. We sat there on the edge of the water filled with gratitude for having found such a beautiful spot with flushing toilets no less. WE finally got the kids to bed around 11pm. The sun is up so late up here. Then Cory and I read by headlamp for a bit until we both felt so exhausted that we couldn't keep our eyes open.  Unfortunately I still didn't sleep well. I was nervous about what lay head. I had planned out the first part of our trip but due to forest fires we changed the whole thing right before we left and were embarking on a journey into the unknown. I felt nervous.

Swan Lake where the campground was full

Our log where Zella, Cory and I hung out
Look how clean the water is!!!
Riding the driftwood together



The kids friend named wormy. They hung out with him all night and he was there the next morning while we ate breakfast. Menu: grass-fed pork chops,tuscan melon, and green beans








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