Leaving Glacier and the USA

It was finally time to say goodbye to Glacier. It was tough to leave such a great place, but we were really glad that we got to take our time and enjoy the park as much as we did. After we got camp packed back into the van, we loaded up a bag full of our signature granola and a couple of beers and set off our hike back up to Avalanche Lake to enjoy it

one more time before we left. After the 11 mile hike the day before, this 4 mile one was a breeze and it felt like we were to the lake

in no time. As we were coming up to our spot where we had planned to sit and enjoy our lunch, we came upon 3 deer right in the middle of our path. We stood and watched them for a bit before they passed on into the forest. We actually came across 3 more deer on the way back down the path. It could have been the same ones too, but I guess we'll never know. It was pretty awesome all the same. Anyway, we sat by the lake and ate our lunch. We both agreed that a dip in the lake was necessary to wash off some of the grime that we had accumulated over the past 4 days of no showering before we went back into civilization. While we were back in Butte, Katie sent out a bunch of messages on Couchsurfing to try and line up a place to stay

in Calgary. We had one positive response to our requests and we thought that it would be inappropriate to show up without cleaning up a tad. Our plan was to get to Calgary about 8 or so and see where the evening took us. We made a pit stop right outside of the park for a roadside hot dog which turned out to be a huge polish sausage that was really messy to eat while driving. So much for the lake bath huh... The road to Calgary took a little longer than expected. It was slow driving through the mountain hills and we had to make a couple more stops for gas and we also picked up a 6 pack of the Huckleberry beer that I had at Two Sisters the night before as a welcome gift for our generous hosts. After about 3 hours we made it to the border. As we approached, we knew that we would be getting pulled over. The back of the van was covered with all of our stuff and it was not packed nicely either since we hadn't slept in the van for a while. Anyway, there was only 4 cars at the entire border crossing, which is a big change to crossing the bridge to Windsor like I'm used to. There was a preliminary stop where a guard checked our trunk apparently for stowaways and then the real customs agent asked us a list of standard questions and we were on our way. It was great and saved us a lot of hassle by not having our van torn apart and all of our stuff looked through. Also, on the drive to Calgary, we came to a very hard decision. We officially named the van Calamity Jane, CJ for short. After much debate we agreed that we could not come up with anything better, so we bit the bullet and named her, hoping that this name will

not be a jinx on the van. Anyway, after we made the adjustment to the metric system and Celsius we made it into Calgary and to our hosts home. I parked the car and pulled out the six pack and headed for the door. We got inside and were about to head up in the elevator when the bottom fell out of the six pack and all save one, shattered on the floor! Katie went up with the survivor to the room and was greeted by Colin and Adam who came down with towels to help me clean up the mess. After we cleaned up and I pulled a glass shard out of my foot, Katie and I parked the car and picked up a few beers to replace the fallen soldiers. We spent the night drinking and getting to know one another and making a few plans for the days to come.