I should have worried less about the bear poo and more about my own!

Well quite a bit has happened since I last put an entry on the blog. First of all the consensus from the rangers about the poo is that a grizzly was most likely awakened by the warmer weather and was cruising around. Now on to current events. I was almost pulled out of Many Glacier last week because of some ongoing plumbing problems that have been plaguing my poor little cabin. I knew Heidi would keep all of you up on the bathroom situation so I was waiting to figure out what the problem was until I blogged about it so we aren't sounding redundant. Last Thursday my bosses Paul and Troy came out on quads to see if they could figure out and fix the septic backup. Now that sounds all well and good but I want you all to understand how many hoops have to be jumped through to have the park service allow motorized vehicles to travel the road during a time of the year when it is strictly prohibited. This was the first time in many years that G.P.I. had had to ask this of the park service and they were very understanding of the predicament. With this said we couldn't fix the problem so we had to ask the park if they could come back out on Monday with a longer pipe snake, they reluctantly obliged with the understanding that if it wasn't fixed I was to come out on the quads with my boss and my winter here would be done. Well, we couldn't fix my cabin but we were able to get the jammer dorm next door up and running(no water but the toilets flush with a little help) so my restroom is now 200ft away but I am still here and very happy about that. Now I have been able to come up with a system; Step 1- wash dishes,brush teeth, cook, etc. and put the waste water in a 5 gallon bucket. Step 2- Take the bucket to the jammer dorm and dump it in the tanks of the 2 toilets, now I can flush(yeah :)). Now that my drains are clear of water I can wait a couple of days and then take about a 6 minute shower and then wait for the very slow drain to empty again. Sorry to bore you with all this but I took a shower today for the first time in 18 days and it was an exciting moment for me. The weather has been just ridiculous, with an average temperature of about 44 degrees the snow is disappearing quickly and the lake has lost a couple inches of ice. The plus side is that I have been wandering around outside under the full moon and it is one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. I tried to take a picture for you to see but as you can tell it does no justice to what it really looks like. The wildlife seems to be enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Mt. Altyn rises up directly next to the cabin and the other day I saw 45 bighorn and 5 goats on its slopes! It has been nice to see the bighorns down on my doorstep again as well. The picture is of a couple large males that were playfully wrestling around right next to my front porch, they would just lock horns and tug back and forth. The grayjays have also been chilling on my stoop and their friendly demeanor has been a welcome addition to the neighborhood. There was a golden eagle cruising overhead yesterday so that scared the grayjays off but they will be back soon. Sumio Harada is out here now camping up at the winter camping area and he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. If any of you have the chance you should check out his website, he is a very talented(not to mention award winning) photographer. photorocky.com. I wish you all well and I am glad I get to stay out here to share this unique experience.
Jeff