Last weekend we camped at Glacier National Park. Friday afternoon it was raining so hard that our street was a river, so we decided not to bring our bikes, but we still left. The drive (six and a half hours, a little longer than we thought) and putting up with a little wet, was definately worth it!
Saturday turned out to be really nice out and we hiked back to Avalanche Lake. This was one of the only things available to us. Going-To-The-Sun Road, the only road through the middle of the Park was still not finished being cleared of 50 feet of winter snow. So only about 14 miles were open to the public and you could drive South and around for about 2 hours. We didn't have that much time. But Avalanche Lake was not a disappointment at all.
The hike was posted at 6 miles and lots and lots of kids, fat people, old people and flip-flop-wearing people were doing just fine. But, somehow, we were tired. Ok, I was tired. It felt like about 16 miles. The territory is interesting but bleak. Until you get to the lake -- that was neat. The far side of the lake is a sloping, curved cliff of snow capped mountains (the glacier part). As winter is over the snow melts, but not just trickles down. The snow was coming down in waterfalls. The lake was freezing and the path around it was flooded so we went down to the rocky beach and kept going that way. I ended up with two wet feet and one pair of wet jeans.
That night at the camp site, I learned that deer do not go away when you yell "GO!" at them and snap fingers. This may work with more domesticated animals, but the wild ones have to work harder to get human food and deer come right through campsites (even occupied ones). Every morning we would see tracks in our fire pit.
Sunday we got up to rain and decided not to rent the little motor boats we wanted to -- I guess we'll have to wait til the next visit. I got the year National Parks Pass so we're good wherever we want to go.
All over the park are signs posted about Grizzly bears and brown and black bears. There are signs about how to avoid them and what to do if you meet one. And also very prominent are the signs announcing the minimum $50 fee if you get caught leaving anything relating to food out at your campsite. Food, dishes, stoves, pots, boxes, garbage, anything. You are even advised to wash your hands and face so that you, the person, don't smell like food and become attractive to bears as they pass through. We saw about 50 million deer and they were neat. But we wanted to see a bear. So we got in the car and drove about 50 miles on the most rustic dirt road I've ever seen -- trees just barely moved to the side, pot holes the size of small countries, and at one place I drove through a river. The current was actually flowing across the road! But apparently the "wild" is not the place to see wildlife at Glacier. It took about 3 hours and that whole time we saw exactly one deer. As opposed to the dozens running around our campsite. And, to make matters worse, the very hike we were on the day before did have a bear. We overheard in the gift shop that a bear was seen walking along the hiking trail for quite a distance.
Oh well. We drove on and found some mountain goats. Almost as interesting. When the explorers first saw mountain goats, they didn't know what they were and one guess was a new kind of polar bear. It was pouring rain at that point, but it's not every day you get to go to a place called The Goat Lick.
On the way home the weather broke a little bit and I decided that if I am ever filthy rich and I want to buy a cabin on a lake in the mountains, I'm going to Flathead Lake. I drove Rachel crazy saying "this is so pretty" about every 45 seconds.
We got home very late. So late, in fact, that we didn't get up in time to run on Monday. So we ran today even though it's a scheduled rest day. Things were not looking so good for our marathon the last two weeks, but we have dug out the schedules, built iPod play lists and our resolve is strengthened.
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