Home Again

I am back in Montana. I returned last Thursday via Amtrak and arrived in Whitefish after 9 pm.

I ended up bringing a bunch of stuff back with me.   Since the Minot train station was being remodeled Amtrak had no checked luggage service.  So I had to lug all my luggage on the train with me.

I explained to the train car attendant that I had a lot of luggage so she put me on a train car with lots of room for luggage.  The reason for all the room for luggage was the car currently had no working bathrooms so most people were steered to the other three passenger cars.

It was no problem for me to walk to the next car to use the bathrooms so I got the advantage of sitting in a lightly populated car.

For the most part the car was quiet the entire journey.  An exception was when a couple and the woman's daughters boarded in Williston, N.D. and rode to Havre, MT and sat in the aisles across from me.  At one point the train was stopped and turned off while officials went around the train to check it out to find a disconnected hose.  When the train was turned off that meant the lights and air were also off.  One daughter was creeped out by how quiet it was.  I think we also were in an area where there was no cell service.

All across North Dakota and into eastern Montana I sat and looked out the window.  The Fall colors were in effect and while there aren't a lot of trees as what one thinks about seeing the Fall colors, the grasses, cattails, etc. had plenty of color and were quite pretty.  I think this is the best time to travel by train across North Dakota.  Unfortunately my photos didn't capture the colors.

With the North Dakota oil boom more people than usual got on the train at the Stanley and Williston stations.  And most of them were going back to Whitefish and the Flathead Valley.  I overheard several people talk comparing what they did for work and how they had to come to North Dakota to get a job.  Also a common talk was what they had found for a place to live.

The train was close to on time much of the way.  I think I left Minot ten minutes late and arrived in Whitefish close to on time.

Here are a few photos.  I shrank their size for this blog so the quality isn't 100%.  For more photos, and better versions of these, go to my Picassa site.

The following photos were taken in Montana.

At Havre, MT the stop was long enough that one can get out and walk around.  The weather was ideal: sunny, 70s, and no wind.  The man in black is the train engineer.

Those are the Sweetgrass Hills in the distance.

Crossing the river on the west side of Cutbank, MT.

Sunset near East Glacier, MT.

Little did I know when I took this photo from the train that on Saturday after I got back home I would climb to the top of Calf Robe Mountain.  This mountain is the one that goes from about the right third of the photo and to the right side.  From near where I took this photo I hiked to the mountain, climbed it and walked along the entire top.  Great views.