The Bakery

Monday, August 19, 2013

What a full day this was. We started out hopping in the Rubblemobile and headed up the outside road about 25 slow rough road miles to the Polebridge Ranger station. There was a stamp there, so we took our books along. As we came into Polebridge there was a Mercantile as almost the only building in the town. Town is very loosely used here because the mercantile is one of two buildings other than a few cabins the crew lives in.

First we went on about a mile to the ranger station. The ranger was very friendly and cautioned us the road ahead up to Bowman was very rough and he didn’t advise taking the camper in. We hadn’t planned to do that anyway, so went back to pastry paradise at the mercantile. Wilma had read that it was worth a stop for fresh pastries, and that is no understatement. There are a few probably college age kids that were doing quite a business. Everything made right there. There was the typical glass display case full of all kinds of cookies. Behind the counter they were plastic wrapping individual buns as soon as they were cool enough to do so. They had huckleberry bear claws, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, and about half a dozen varieties of savory rolls too, plus huckleberry and french bread. They also had some hot sandwiches available. We spent a small fortune having to try most of the flavors! Even the feta and olive roll was good. The AuGratin was excellent, and we have yet to try the ricotta rolls. I think there was a spinach and blue cheese roll that might have been the only one we didn’t try. Everything was moist and excellent flavors. The Jalapeno cheese was quite warm, but also excellent. We first bought just a couple of sweet rolls, then had to go back in again and once again!

On the way back toward the campground we had to stop for construction, so Betty hopped out and gave the flagger a cookie. She was most appreciative.

Continuing on, we saw a bear cub in the road, but he disappeared before we could get a picture. Barney could see him again and then the mother too in the rearview mirrors, but traffic the other direction made them disappear.

The next stop was at the Train Station in town. There was a stamp there, and many expired stamps too, so we had a stampathon. Also talked to the keeper of the station for a while. As we went back out to the vehicle, we passed a swallow nest, and momma was diving at Fred while he took a picture. She didn’t want us there at all.

We then proceeded on up the lower part of Going to the Sun road, to the turn around point for large vehicles. We finally found a parking spot and grabbed some of our fresh savory rolls along with carrots, cheese and cherries for a quick lunch, then walked the Trail of the Cedars.

That was less than a mile, but took a while with all the looking around. With several other stops along the way for sightseeing, that pretty much completed our day. We were tired!

We looked into riding a Red Bus, but it was fairly expensive and the shuttles are free, so you can guess what we will be taking.