The Gallivanter: Day 34: Back on the Empire Builder!

Lazy day. Spent the morning of Day 34 hanging around the lounge at Brownies' Hostel working online and chatting with other travellers. Mostly I talked to a fellow known by the trail name of Guv'na who is stranded here because he was intending to walk the Continental Divide Trail, but there's a lot of snow this year, more than usual, and his hiking buddies withdrew. So he sits in a chair in the lounge waiting for more potential hiking buddies to happen along! In the meantime, he takes daily training hikes in the park to keep in shape.

Brownies' Hostel and Bakery, East Glacier Village

My bunk in the women's dorm

Guv'na installed in his place in the lounge

When everyone went off on their daily hike, I strolled over to the other side of the tracks in East Glacier Village to get some lunch. The Mexican restaurant only opens for dinner, so I got some fruit and cheese and crackers and had a picnic on the magnificent front lawn of Glacier Park Lodge. Halfway through my picnic it started raining - in fact, I was sitting right on the boundary between rain and sunshine, so that if I looked to the right I saw rain, to the left sun! But gusts of wind blew raindrops my way so I retreated into the teepee on the lawn.
It was so nice in there that I stayed in there for a while, just looking out the door watching the trains go by and the Red Jammer buses pulling in and out. Then I ventured into the lodge to see what it was like - a magnificent traditional national park lodge built in the 1920s to offer simple, rustic hospitality for park visitors arriving by train, built by the railroad company right across from the station.

Red Jammer Bus passing by "my" teepee

Glacier Park Lodge seen from the train station at my time of departure (6:45 pm)

The grand lobby at Glacier Park Lodge

I sat on the front porch of the lodge for a while talking to a lady I had met on the train out from Chicago who was also waiting for the evening train out of Glacier to Seattle. Then I went back to Brownies to pick up my backpack and headed over to the station. Miracle of miracles - the train was on time! Fantastic, because that meant we would be going through the Rockies by daylight! And on the longest day of the year! Couldn't have timed it better!

East Glacier National Park railway station

East Glacier National Park railway station has not changed much since 1932!

Here comes my train!

Once on board I headed straight for the lounge car to catch the evening view of the Rockies over Marias Pass and hear the commentary provided by the Trails and Rails guys. Though I ended up sitting at a table with some other passengers and spending as much time talking to them as listening to the guides! After their commentary ended, I went back to my own seat, where I had a good look at a black bear not far from the tracks, heading from the railway clearing into the brush at dusk.

Trails and Rails guys in the sightseeing lounge

Taking pictures in the sightseeing lounge

Though most photos taken out the train window end up looking like this!

These folks sure know how to travel. They packed a tablecloth, wineglasses, and bottle of bubbly!
And cheese and crackers to go with it!

Last fresh air stop of the night in Whitefish, Montana

The snazzy Whitefish railway station

Once again I managed to have two seats for myself and slept fairly well, waking up only when the train stopped in Spokane at 1:30 am to be broken into two parts, the rear end heading for Portland, Oregon and the front part for Seattle, Washington. So when I woke up in the Cascades I found that I was in the last car of the now-severed train and could take photos out the back window!