Thursday, September 27, 2007
Matt's next installment of the trip. This was an episode when he went off by himself:
One night we returned from the back country and I left the family sleeping at
a campsite near the west gate of Glacier so that I could drive to a little town
called Polebridge, Montana, and play some tunes. Polebridge, which Paola and I
had passed through earlier, consists of a general store and a saloon, both run
by hippies. The general-store hippies play CDs of Punjabi music and bake
bread. The saloon hippies drink hooch and have a couple of tuned guitars with new
strings leaning against the wall. I was hoping to play those guitars with
someone, but, after arriving that night, wound up playing alone for new friends from
Utah who kept buying me drinks. The hour grew late. Someone fell off the front
porch and into the bushes and everybody laughed. Then someone else banged
through the swinging doors, raised his mug in a toast and announced that the Northern
Lights were visible.
The bar cleared out and everybody gathered on the dirt road as silently as
they had been rowdy. It was after midnight and there was no moon, and stars from
thousands of galaxies flickered overhead. Looking toward the northern horizon, I
saw a glow as if from a distant city, only emerald in color. The sight was
pretty but not dramatic. I asked a guy next to me if that glow was the Northern
Lights and he told me to just watch.
As we looked northward, the glow emitted a vague shaft of pale green light. It
looked like an illusion. Then other shafts rose from the earth¡¯s surface and
together they grew as strong and clear as beams. The northern sky was luminous
now as the phalanx of shafts reached upward toward Polaris. Some slowly faded
from sight while others emerged to take their place, giving the impression that
the emanations were dancing. This miracle filled the horizon for 45 minutes
and nobody spoke.
Eventually, the aurora faded and people talked about what we¡¯d seen.
Apparently, even that far north in Montana, the Northern Lights are visible only two
or three times a year. The man who had seen them first explained as best he
could what they were. ¡°There¡¯s nothing for three thousand miles in that
direction,¡± he said, nodding toward the lingering glow. (Calgary and Edmonton are
further west.) ¡°It has something to do with free electrons from the sun.¡±
(I later read that he was exactly right. The sun blows out streams of
particles called the Solar Wind. During a solar storm, these emissions are particularly
heavy. The particles reach the earth after three days of travel and glide down
the earth¡¯s magnetic field. When they reach the atmosphere, they knock
electrons loose from gasses in the air. Those free electrons eventually regroup into
atoms and release energy in the form of light, which continues moving
northward toward the pole. Why the light seems to climb up from the pole, I don¡¯t
know.)
I said good-night to my companions drove the borrowed Cherokee back toward the
campsite at two in the morning in a state of bliss. But the night was a little
spooky. There¡¯s not much humanity for a long way in any direction. It was
moonless and dark, and I had to pee but there were grizzlies out there. One of
them had walked through Polebridge that afternoon and all the dogs went nuts. For
distraction, I popped in a cassette that my brother-in-law, Tom, had left
jutting from the tape player. I was hoping for some Pink Floyd.
¡°Do you have any money?¡± asked a voice in Chinese.
¡°Do you have any money?¡± asked another voice in English. It was a Mandarin
study tape. As I listened, the series of interrogatives seemed to capture the
very soul of modern China.
¡°Do you have a lot of money?¡±
¡°Do you have any dollars?¡±
One night we returned from the back country and I left the family sleeping at
a campsite near the west gate of Glacier so that I could drive to a little town
called Polebridge, Montana, and play some tunes. Polebridge, which Paola and I
had passed through earlier, consists of a general store and a saloon, both run
by hippies. The general-store hippies play CDs of Punjabi music and bake
bread. The saloon hippies drink hooch and have a couple of tuned guitars with new
strings leaning against the wall. I was hoping to play those guitars with
someone, but, after arriving that night, wound up playing alone for new friends from
Utah who kept buying me drinks. The hour grew late. Someone fell off the front
porch and into the bushes and everybody laughed. Then someone else banged
through the swinging doors, raised his mug in a toast and announced that the Northern
Lights were visible.
The bar cleared out and everybody gathered on the dirt road as silently as
they had been rowdy. It was after midnight and there was no moon, and stars from
thousands of galaxies flickered overhead. Looking toward the northern horizon, I
saw a glow as if from a distant city, only emerald in color. The sight was
pretty but not dramatic. I asked a guy next to me if that glow was the Northern
Lights and he told me to just watch.
As we looked northward, the glow emitted a vague shaft of pale green light. It
looked like an illusion. Then other shafts rose from the earth¡¯s surface and
together they grew as strong and clear as beams. The northern sky was luminous
now as the phalanx of shafts reached upward toward Polaris. Some slowly faded
from sight while others emerged to take their place, giving the impression that
the emanations were dancing. This miracle filled the horizon for 45 minutes
and nobody spoke.
Eventually, the aurora faded and people talked about what we¡¯d seen.
Apparently, even that far north in Montana, the Northern Lights are visible only two
or three times a year. The man who had seen them first explained as best he
could what they were. ¡°There¡¯s nothing for three thousand miles in that
direction,¡± he said, nodding toward the lingering glow. (Calgary and Edmonton are
further west.) ¡°It has something to do with free electrons from the sun.¡±
(I later read that he was exactly right. The sun blows out streams of
particles called the Solar Wind. During a solar storm, these emissions are particularly
heavy. The particles reach the earth after three days of travel and glide down
the earth¡¯s magnetic field. When they reach the atmosphere, they knock
electrons loose from gasses in the air. Those free electrons eventually regroup into
atoms and release energy in the form of light, which continues moving
northward toward the pole. Why the light seems to climb up from the pole, I don¡¯t
know.)
I said good-night to my companions drove the borrowed Cherokee back toward the
campsite at two in the morning in a state of bliss. But the night was a little
spooky. There¡¯s not much humanity for a long way in any direction. It was
moonless and dark, and I had to pee but there were grizzlies out there. One of
them had walked through Polebridge that afternoon and all the dogs went nuts. For
distraction, I popped in a cassette that my brother-in-law, Tom, had left
jutting from the tape player. I was hoping for some Pink Floyd.
¡°Do you have any money?¡± asked a voice in Chinese.
¡°Do you have any money?¡± asked another voice in English. It was a Mandarin
study tape. As I listened, the series of interrogatives seemed to capture the
very soul of modern China.
¡°Do you have a lot of money?¡±
¡°Do you have any dollars?¡±
