Thanks to our new-found friend, Jerry, we purposely drove the 25 miles north from our campsite in Glacier National Park to a town with no cell service, no Wi-Fi, and no pay phone. You can borrow their landline in emergencies. The town is Polebridge, Montana (pop. 26). We met Jerry in the Tetons of Wyoming, but when we told him we were headed to Glacier in northern Montana and would need to visit the best bakery in the area, he knew right where to direct us. Polebridge is closer to the Canadian border than it was to our campsite, has no electrical service separate from what it generates itself, and it lived up to Jerry’s praise.

As best we could tell, the retail district in Polebridge consists of the Mercantile, with its bakery, the Polebridge Produce Company fruit stand around back, the Northern Lights Saloon next door and the Sasquatch Grill on wheels wedged in between. The road out front was a combination of gravel and dirt and was where a few visitors could park. Google Maps says these establishments reside on the Polebridge Loop, not to be confused with the Loop in Chicago, but just as satisfying in its own way. Business was brisk, with the crowd funneling in and out of the “Merc” first.

We Found Our Huckleberry

The Merc serves as a general store and base camp/outfitter for the area and importantly for us, it houses a bakery. But this was no mere store front bakery, selling from the front door what it received in the back door. The store’s covered front porch was crowded on a hot afternoon, so we found an unused wooden bench in the shade against the side of the building. As we each ate a freshly baked chocolate-chip cookie, we watched several workers unload sack after sack of flour out of a van and pile them into a wheelbarrow to roll into the back of the store. This activity went on for some time. We wondered, but didn’t ask, how long it would take for them to transform all that flour into something delicious. From the looks of the steady stream of visitors walking through the front door, probably less time than we could imagine. If we had known at the time that the Merc is off the grid, powering its lights and ovens with solar panels and a diesel engine, we would have been astonished even more.

We left Polebridge with a couple of huckleberry-filled bear claws that were the best doughnuts we have ever had. The sweet, melt-in-your-mouth dough was interrupted only by the splurge of a splendiferous wild berry filling. Overly dramatic you say? Our taste buds beg to differ and craved more – a lot more. But our brains told us we needed to get plenty of exercise before returning for seconds. Sadly, we didn’t make it back to the Merc, even though we eventually hiked off the calories.

For those unfamiliar with huckleberries, they range from red to purplish-blue in color and grow abundantly in and around Glacier (and much of western Montana). If you visit Glacier, you are allowed to pick huckleberries along the trails. Just stay on the trails and look out for competing harvesters – the bears. They love these little sweet-tart berries.