They have some crazy tree squirrels here, little black-tinged ones. We've run across two at Two Medicine. The first set itself up in the tree over our campsite. It spent about an hour yesterday chewing small pine cones off the tree and dropping them on the roof of Speedy. A bit noisy, I can assure you. Most bounced off, but the roof is littered with cones and small tufts of needles. I hope they blow off when we leave; I'd hate to get stopped for removing park vegetation.
The other squirrel we met on today's hike. We walked the South Shore Trail along Two Medicine lake, up to the Aster Park Overlook and then on to the far end of the lake, where we caught the lake boat back to the campground. The trail rises along the shore, initially passing through open forest, some meadows and wetlands until it intersects the Aster Park Trail. We took the Aster Park Trail which goes up 500' in less than a mile to an overlook with great views of the lake and the mountains surrounding it.
After the first switchback, we came across another of these feisty little squirrels, right in the middle of the trail, chewing away a big pine cone, larger than it was. It was working furiously, spitting out bits of cone and was trying to pay no attention to us. But we were coming up the narrow path and it was in the middle. We got within about a foot before it grabbed the cone in its teeth and lugged it up the hill a few feet off the path.
As we passed by, he must have chewed through the middle of the cone as one part came tumbling down. When we looked at it we could understand why he was so posessive. The cone was filled with big seeds, probably two or three times the size of a pine nut. We left the piece on the path next to another cone which was also there. Both were gone when we came back down, just scattered cone bits spread over the trail and probably a fat and happy squirrel somewhere nearby.
We stopped at the top of overlook for lunch and had it to ourselves, aside from a grasshopper, who thought my pack a good place to rest. We enjoyed the view, searching for mountain goats, sheep and bears on the slopes in the distance ... none were spotted. As we finished up three more groups of hikers showed up, so it seemed a good time to leave. It was back down that 500', with a brief stop at yet another picturesque waterfall.
The rest of the trail wound up and down through the woods and huckleberry patches (fortunately, no hungry bears around), winding up with a long slog through waist-high bushes that practically covered the trail. We finished up at the boat dock, where quite a few other folks were waiting for the boat.
Like the other lakes, there is an historic tour boat that goes from one end to the other, lets off passengers who then take a short walk and return. The boat holds 48 passengers maximum and priority is to those with return tickets, with us walk-ons coming at the bottom of the queue. As the boat approached, the guide from the last trip out informed the 40-odd people waiting that this boat, the 3 PM sailing, usually had a fair number of passengers from a bus tour who only take the boat ride and don't get off.
Needless to say, we weren't going to get on this boat. The next scheduled boat wasn't for another two hours, but the guide went on. If they couldn't take everyone on this trip, the boat would immediately turn around and come back, within about 30 minutes. Yay!
So, we contented ourselves with a half-hour wait, rather than two hours (or a six-mile hike back on top of the seven we had just done), and settled down to watching a group of young men and boys skipping rocks across the water. Sure enough, the boat arrived as promised. We all got on and had a pleasant cruise along the length of Two Medicine Lake, topping it off with two cups of huckleberry soft-serve ice cream from the camp store next the boat dock.
After a bit of a rest, to digest the pre-dessert, we had a tasty dinner of couscous with sardines, tomatoes and avocado (a Mark Bittman "recipe" from 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less), followed by some Polebridge Mercantile cookies. It was off to a talk by a local Blackfeet elder about the relationship between the local tribe, the park and the animals in it.
Tomorrow, we start towards Yellowstone. It will probably take a couple of days, with our stop for bicycle repairs and internet access, we hope.
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