Another day in Glacier

A woeful incident occurred last Sunday on the road into Many Glacier, just outside the Park. An out-of-state family was pulling a large fold-out camper trailer with a Suburban. Sign on the vehicle said, "Glacier Park," and across the back of the trailer was hopefully scrawled, "Montana or Bust." That was prophetic! When Shannon and I came upon them, one side of the trailer was lying on the pavement because the axle had broken. A teenage girl told me, "Thanks for stopping but we have help on the way."

For all I knew Sunday night, they might still be there because when Shan and I came back that afternoon, a commercial towing truck from Browning had just arrived. With a collapsed two-wheeled trailer to retrieve, a tow truck alone is helpful as a screen door to a submarine. While going slowly past the scene, I could tell by the look on his face, the father was feeling miserable.

Still worried about those unfortunate folks as I wrote this column Monday morning, I took a chance and called Many Glacier Ranger Station. Luck was with me, got a report from knowledgeable Ranger "Liz" Makarawski. She said a ranger had found that family shortly after the accident and radioed for help. Cell phones can't get out of Many Glacier Valley. There were four teenagers and their parents.

A Glacier Park Red Bus gave the kids a ride up to Many, where they reserved a camp spot to wait. An employee of the Swan River horse concessionaire aided in loading the trailer onto a dolly which took the trailer to Cut Bank for repairs. Liz said rangers checked on the family several times during the day. It is routine practice to patrol that entry road outside the Park toward Babb.

The family had backpacks, sleeping bags and one small tent. The campground host loaned them a tent for use there, and the parents drove in from Cut Bank later, so things were looking a lot better by evening. Liz said they were planning hikes. The family was amazed at how many "wonderful folks" stopped to offer aid. Shan and I were certainly not alone. They had counted for a while but quit "around a hundred."

On the lighter side of Glacier Park events last Sunday, we had the "marmot rodeo" at Logan Pass parking lot. Rosie Olsen, Barbara Lawrence and Minister Chuck Shannon, from Central Christian Church in Kalispell, were taking the tour.

Somewhere at one the Garden Wall construction sites, a large marmot climbed up on the spare tire of a stopped vehicle near them, then when the cars got to the visitors center, the befuddled beast leaped off the tire and dived under Rosie's car. She discovered it was there by what she calls "terrible loud screeching." She tried to poke it out with her ski pole. Said, "It is difficult to herd a marmot from under a car with a ski pole."

Two rangers came along, and after about twenty minutes got the frightened alpine woodchuck out, but it zoomed under another car. It would huddle next to a tire, which made access with the ski pole more difficult. Short of calling in the National Guard, the rangers eventually did get it out of the lot and onto the snow. Hopefully, it will one day find another handy spare tire ride back down the Garden Wall to its worried family. Rosie did recover her ski pole.

This story reminds us of past incidents where Park marmots have hitchhiked many miles inside engine compartments. One I recall made it to a Kalispell home garage. Another one was found at Apgar and returned to the high country.

I talked to Ranger Liz about restrictions on National Park employees helping people because of liability possibilities. She said those problems do exist, but there are a lot of things they are allowed to do. Told her about my ranger son Shannon getting in trouble for putting a Band-Aid on a man in Yellowstone who had a cut finger; also, not being able to put on the spare for three older woman who had a flat tire. Liz said those two things do come under liability concerns.

Thankfully, it is OK for Glacier rangers coming to the rescue in most cases, even if they have some restrictions. Wonder what the rules are for using civilian ski poles to poke marmots?

G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.