Glacier Cont. The Belly River trail head is located about 300 ft. south of the US/Canada border. We double-checked our gear, threw our packs on and off we went. The hike was about 6.5 miles into where we were going to spend the next two nights. Our intentions were to get to the camping area, set up our camp, knock around for a bit and take it easy for the rest of the day. We would be camping right next to the river and I thought I might fish a bit in the afternoon. The next day we planned to hike up to one of the mountain lakes and see if I could catch some dinner. The initial part of the hike was nearly all down hill. About 750ft of descent into the river valley, and then it was pretty level for the remainder of the walk. It was a beautiful day, although the weather report indicated a small change of showers later in the day. We started off going through mostly pines and fir trees until we got into the river valley and the forest gave way to aspen, cottonwood and large open meadows. As we worked our way into the valley we were afforded wonderful views of the surrounding mountains. It really was spectacular. When we got down to the river side, we took a break, got a bite to eat, and Rachel took a short nap while I fished a little bit. The water was incredibly clear and the silence was total except for the sounds of the stream and the rustle of the aspen leaves. We saw deer and elk track and moose tracks down on the streamside. After forty-five minutes or so of playing around in the water we geared back up and hit the trail. We walked into the camping area about 4:15 and found two other groups there. One group of four guys and a party of five folks who were employees of the park service. They were park biologists who were there to do some inventory and monitoring collecting aquatic insects and doing water chemistry. This kind of base line data is important for documenting changes in the parks’ ecosystem. One fellow from the first group had a University of Dayton shirt and we found out he was from St. Mary’s Ohio. Small world. The temperature was probably in the mid seventies and we were both pretty hot and tired, so we threw up the tent and got the food hung up. The park service provides food poles to hang your supplies from. There is also a food prep and eating area that is several hundred yards away from the sleeping areas. The idea is to avoid any smell of food around your tent incase a bear should happen by. Rachel crawled in the tent to take a nap and I walked down to the stream En route I walked by a rail-fenced pasture and a remote ranger station. The park service and visitors use horses and pack animals alike in the back country and this remote ranger station was used as a staging area for various park operations. (For example we found that the biologists had their field gear brought in and out by pack mules.) The little log house, outbuildings and fenced pasture were incredibly picturesque. And the pasture afforded a great view of Mount Cleveland, which is the highest peak in the park. A little ways down the trail there was a neat suspension bridge across the river. While I was walking down to check it out, I passed a husband and wife from the biologist group who had been swimming I the river. They were a hardy bunch, as that water is coming right off the snowfields on the mountains. I made a comment about how beautiful the day was, and the fellow said something like, yeah that’s gonna change. He obviously knew something I didn't. There was a tiny little clouds working it’s way around one of the mountaintops, but I thought it looks benign enough. I went back to camp and grabbed our water filter and a couple bottles to go get some drinking water. This is where I had what could have been a very bad experience. While I was sitting on the bank assembling the cool little Katadin water purifier, I dropped one of the components into the stream, when I jumped up to get that, I dropped one of the two rubber tubes into the stream and it was instantly swept away. I cut the remaining tube in half and all was well, but that is exactly how trouble starts, some unexpected event that can set a chain reaction in motion. By the time I made the water, the little cloud had expanded into this complete blanket of heavy gray fog that obscured of all of the mountaintops. In a matter of minutes a cold rain began falling and I was scurrying back to our tent to get the rain fly on and get the rest of our gear stored. Rachel got up and helped me get things together and we dashed back to our food supplies, dropped them down and grabbed dinner… a power bar for each of us! The rain was increasing and we could hear what sounded like a high-pitched jet engine off in distance. It was wind coming through the mountaintops and cascading down into the valley. We nestled down in the tent as the rain settled down into a steady downpour. While some folks might think this was a horrible situation, it really was enjoyable. We were both tired from the hike and there was really nothing to do but enjoy the moment. We talked about most everything, the future, the past and most of all, the humorous elements of the trip! The funniest so far, which occurred on the first night that we had stayed in the tent. It was the process I went through when I had gotten up in the middle of the night to relieve myself. Remember that I had taken my ultra lite sleeping bag and wound up sleeping in a liner, the bag and also a fleece bag. I had tried to get up without making a big stir. The process of finding all the zippers and struggling out of the many layers I was sleeping in was too much. Then after getting out of my sleeping arrangement finding the right zippers on the tent, crawling out of the tent on tired wobbly legs and standing up only to catch the rain fly on my back. This subsequently released a torrent of icy cold water right down my neck causing me to release a number of explicative phrases. Rachel confessed she was awake for it all and was afraid to laugh out loud for fear I might punch her. She said she had wanted to cry out camping nerd alert. We talked and told stories to each other until we finally fell asleep well after dark. I was awakened during the night by intense lighting and thunder. The lightening was incredible. You could hear the lightening strikes, and then the thunder. The lightening was like explosions followed by the rumble of the thunder. Occasionally there was the sound of the jet engine and then a great blast of wind would come up through the valley and shake the tent so severely that I wasn’t sure it would remain standing up. In the middle of the night, actually early morning, I remember thinking great! At last it has stopped raining! There was however a slow plop, plop plopping going on and I realized that, yes it had stopped raining, the rain however had turned to snow and snow was falling off of the trees onto the tent. I got up and looked outside to discover that we had perhaps three of more inches of snow on the ground and it was snowing quite hard. When I started to get back into my bag Rachel said “Dad there is something going on with this side of the tent.” I told her I had debated waking her up to tell her it was snowing. The tent was actually collapsing under the weight of the snow. So we began knocking the snow off of the tent. We did that two or three more times before sunrise. Between the rain and snow there was some form of precipitation for a total of 16 hours. It was perhaps the best part of the trip!