Kata's Page

We said if we met cool people that we would feature them in our blog.
We met one. Kata is from Hungary and lives in New York State. She came to West Glacier Park for a vacation by herself. Kim and I were taking a shuttle bus to the trail head of a hike that we wanted to do. There were only three other people on the bus when it dropped us off at the Lake McDonald Lodge. We heard Kata speak a little back at the station and new she "twern't from around here". We took off in opposite directions to find the trail head and ended up meeting at a junction in the path where we found out that we were all going to the same lake. Kata thought we were on our first hike together and needed space, but I informed her that I was just along for the exercise on my wife's Thin the Fat Bastard Program. She joined us up to the lake and we had great conversation. She is a nanny back in New York. She came to Glacier after researching it on the internet. She had friends that were going to come with her, but they finked out at the last minute. We did the 9 mile round trip hike to Snyder Lake and then Kim dragged us up to Avalanche Lake where we met Steve. Steve was an engineer from Florida. He was on a two month trip through the west and was almost on the same path Kim and I had taken. We all hiked back to the trail head together where Kim, Kata and I all hopped on the shuttle bus back to camp. Kim and Kata made me feel like a heel when they asked if I had invited Steve to happy hour at the Lazy Daze bar (oddly enough they only serve rum and coke there). We got back to camp, hopped in the car and chased Steve down with flashing lights, horn honking and swerving, he must have thought we were absolutely nuts. We all had a few drinks together and stayed up until Kata's English started to waiver a little and we knew she was tired. She went back to her hotel with plans to meet Kim in the morning to tour the park some more. Kim and Kata toured Glacier while I fished for Cutthroat Trout in the Flathead River. We all drove over to East Glacier together the next day. It was beautiful. Kim didn't take Kata's big blisters on her heel or my general lethargy for an excuse and marched us up one of the most beautiful hikes I have been on. Grinnell Glacier is 5.5 miles almost straight up the mountain and is worth every step. The scenery gets better and better as you go until you are at the base of the glacier with ice bergs floating in a lake at its foundation. On the way down the mountain Kata tried to teach us some Hungarian words and promised to put us up in New York and make Chiken Parikash for us.
We took Kata back to East Glacier to catch the Amtrak train to Seattle for her flight home to New York.

We have made a good friend. Kata is a testament to "Just Do It". She came here to learn English and speaks very well. She is eager to learn every strange word that might come out of your mouth. She saves her hard earned money and travels the U.S. She is independent, but very friendly and we were sad to put her on the train, but happy to have made her acquaintance.

We miss you Kata. Talk to you soon.