St. Olaf College for a year: Interrail American Style

We stayed at a really expensive, but great, hotel the first night because we didn’t plan our stay that well before we got there. The first hours of our first day in Montana therefore had to go to finding a new place to stay. We found a really cheap motel right across the street from the train station, and after moving all of our luggage we were finally ready to check out what West Glacier had to offer.

We had read some stuff about bears and also talked to some people during breakfast that worked in the park about it, and we soon came to realize that bears in that area is very probable and that one should take precautions. I’m talking about black bears but also grizzlys. They were not that common before in that area, but have increasingly taken over and started hunting the black bears too. Hikers in the park therefore has to bring a bear spray, an upgraded pepper spray but for bears, to deter them if they come close to you. We were luckily able to borrow one for free from our motel – a new one would be 50 bucks.

We walked to Apgar Village, a village 3.5 miles away from our village, to check out the different trails for hiking. We soon discovered that there is not too much to do if you do not have a car, a bike or staying in the high season. They then offer buses to take hikers into the park. There was only one proper trail we could walk and it was too late that day to start it. We therefore just chilled, walked around the village and the lake there before going home. In the evening we dined at the finest restaurant in town (very expensive, my account was empty, had to call my mom in Norway and ask her to transfer money, it was 5 a.m. for her….oops :) . The night ended in bed while watching Mean Girls.