Exchange students run the Middle Fork

Sunny skies and warm weather greeted students from the Rotary Youth Exchange as they stumbled off the morning train into West Glacier on June 22.

The crew of 32 high school students from 15 different countries then slid into some rafts and headed down the river.

It was the fifth stop on their 13-city, 32-day USA train tour that started in Los Angeles and will end in New Orleans.

"It's one opportunity in your life to travel around the United States with people your own age," said Nicolas Villarreal, a 17-year-old Italian who spent the year with a family in Southern California. "You're not going to get another opportunity like this."

Glacier Outdoor Center guides took the students down a whitewater section of the Middle Fork, from Moccasin Creek to the Glacier National Park entrance. For the past 14 years, the raft company has worked with the founders of the tour, Melody and Paul St. John, to host international students.

The St. Johns said they started the program because they had a student from Argentina staying with them in Los Angeles and felt that he needed to see the rest of the United States. More than 800 students have participated since then, just before they headed home at the end of their year of exchange.

After being in the city, the students can't believe there is an area like Glacier Park, Melody St. John said. "This is one of our favorite places," she said.

The students usually take a red bus tour over Going-to-the-Sun Road, but with snow delaying opening of the road to Logan Pass, they instead will hike a loop close to Apgar. After their two-day Glacier Park hiatus, they will board a bus and head to Minneapolis.