Monday 26 February Day 6 - 24 hours at the Izaak Walton, Essex, MT
Written in downtown Kansas City Saturday 3 March
First, we are from Essex, that's the original Essex, England. A mainly flat but surprisingly pretty County (in the north) to the east of London and renown for centuries to breed political activists!
An unexpected large number of passengers get off at the Izaak Walton Halt/platform/station? It is after all Monday and they are supposed to be busy mainly at weekends. Appears to be the Glacier National Park is one of the few places in the US with good snow cover at the moment, at least according to our fellow IW guests some of whom had chased snow around the country.
Staff of IW had two vans sitting at the end of the platform waiting for the train to arrive, luggage loaded, people loaded and we are driven the 300 yards to the Inn.
The skiers and the IW staff talked a completely separate language to us non skiers, half of the vocabulary were words we had never heard before! or certainly not with any connection to snow. The log fire was there in the sitting room, ablaze and surrounded by 5 or 6 armchairs. The settings is idyllic but the armchairs were always occupied day and night which was slightly disappointing, although have to write there were a few vacant armchairs as we checked out the following morning...
That apart it was all we had hoped it would be. It felt like a lodge, looked like a lodge and catered for guests and visitors very well. It was quite atmospheric with it's subdued light level, a photo of our room below paints the picture.
The prepared cross country ski routes were in pristine condition according to the skiers, it meant we could walk them without snowshoes quite easily with good walking boots, that's what we did. In every direction the views were beautiful, the silence was intense and the skiers scattered all around the Inn so hardly a soul was seen.
Some of the views with trains and equipment in showed quite clearly what could happen if a lot of snow fell for a few days, they had of course had problems in this area up until we arrived.
One snippet of information we did understand about the snow conditions was they had had the most snow at the Inn since 1996, over twenty years! and just the previous evening 10" had fallen, weren't we the lucky ones.
During our day there the sun shone and later turned to light snow fall but still quite bright, we couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions, not at all like February in London.
Apparently one downside to all this snow may be the snow melt. Staff admitted they are a bit worried if it all melts suddenly, they know lots of places will flood.
After a great day we ate at the restaurant, nice meal, good service and even better pudding, bread pudding with Huckleberries. The server was very charming to everyone, we heard her warn some ladies not to wear pompom hats at night as nesting owls were swooping down and taking them.
Warm room, good bed and the gentle noise of the freight locomotives moving around and passing by slowly as they were obviously trying to catch up after the heavy snow falls. End of a memorable day.
Note for rail fans - We had room 10 on the second floor, it's at the far left corner of the building when looking from the track. I think it's called an Empire Builder room and it's advantage is the front window looks directly on to the track, the side window is overlooking the train maintenance yard.
Lots of snow
Written in downtown Kansas City Saturday 3 March
First, we are from Essex, that's the original Essex, England. A mainly flat but surprisingly pretty County (in the north) to the east of London and renown for centuries to breed political activists!
An unexpected large number of passengers get off at the Izaak Walton Halt/platform/station? It is after all Monday and they are supposed to be busy mainly at weekends. Appears to be the Glacier National Park is one of the few places in the US with good snow cover at the moment, at least according to our fellow IW guests some of whom had chased snow around the country.
Staff of IW had two vans sitting at the end of the platform waiting for the train to arrive, luggage loaded, people loaded and we are driven the 300 yards to the Inn.
The skiers and the IW staff talked a completely separate language to us non skiers, half of the vocabulary were words we had never heard before! or certainly not with any connection to snow. The log fire was there in the sitting room, ablaze and surrounded by 5 or 6 armchairs. The settings is idyllic but the armchairs were always occupied day and night which was slightly disappointing, although have to write there were a few vacant armchairs as we checked out the following morning...
That apart it was all we had hoped it would be. It felt like a lodge, looked like a lodge and catered for guests and visitors very well. It was quite atmospheric with it's subdued light level, a photo of our room below paints the picture.
The prepared cross country ski routes were in pristine condition according to the skiers, it meant we could walk them without snowshoes quite easily with good walking boots, that's what we did. In every direction the views were beautiful, the silence was intense and the skiers scattered all around the Inn so hardly a soul was seen.
Some of the views with trains and equipment in showed quite clearly what could happen if a lot of snow fell for a few days, they had of course had problems in this area up until we arrived.
One snippet of information we did understand about the snow conditions was they had had the most snow at the Inn since 1996, over twenty years! and just the previous evening 10" had fallen, weren't we the lucky ones.
During our day there the sun shone and later turned to light snow fall but still quite bright, we couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions, not at all like February in London.
Apparently one downside to all this snow may be the snow melt. Staff admitted they are a bit worried if it all melts suddenly, they know lots of places will flood.
After a great day we ate at the restaurant, nice meal, good service and even better pudding, bread pudding with Huckleberries. The server was very charming to everyone, we heard her warn some ladies not to wear pompom hats at night as nesting owls were swooping down and taking them.
Warm room, good bed and the gentle noise of the freight locomotives moving around and passing by slowly as they were obviously trying to catch up after the heavy snow falls. End of a memorable day.
Note for rail fans - We had room 10 on the second floor, it's at the far left corner of the building when looking from the track. I think it's called an Empire Builder room and it's advantage is the front window looks directly on to the track, the side window is overlooking the train maintenance yard.
Lots of snow
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