Day 8

Day 8: 6/26/10

Start and end in Glacier National Park

Today's miles: 0
Total miles: 1,722

Miles hiked: 12
Total miles hiked: 30.75

Marriage status: Actually really good!

Today's notes:

Today was an awesome but tiring day. We got up this morning and made a quick breakfast and got our day packs and walked down to the Grinnell Galcier trailhead. That trail took us along a beautiful emerald lake and then a steady climb towards the glacier. We passed multiple waterfalls along the way and had a lot of great views of the glacier as well as Grinnell Lake. Then we got about a mile and a half away from the glacier and the trial became "a little harry". We got to a place nobody else had crossed yet that day (we know because there were no fresh footprints in the snow), and we kept going. It was pretty high adventure but still safe as long as you took your time and didn't take another step until your polls and at least one foot were firmly set in the snow. Finally we got to a point on the trail that really would not have been safe for us to proceed without real mountaineering gear. There was a group of mountaineers with the right equipment that went further, but even they paused and shoveled a path in the snow at the point where we stopped. I'm not really saying this because it's cool, more like this was stupid, don't do it. But I did feel like we stopped at the point where you could not minimize the risk enough just by being careful. So then we turned around and headed back down the trail.

On our way down we were informed by other hikers that once again we narrowly missed a bear on the trail, so once again I was pissed. After getting back down to the lake we took a little side trail that connected to the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) and went down that for a few miles. Up until this point the hike was very pleasant, challenging, and fun, but this section of the CDT sucked. Not because it was difficult, but because it was also used a a "horse highway" for tourists staying at the park's hotel at the end of the lake. The trail was completely torn up by the horses, and all the shit left behind attracted a ton of bugs. This was a miserable couple of miles, but luckily toward the end of our hike we got to finish the day out on a much nicer trail that followed along the other side of the lake.

At that point we headed back to the campsite and immedialty took off our boots covered in horse crap and rested for a bit in our hammocks. Then we took some well deserved showers and ate some well deserved dinner. After dinner we planned to go to a program the park rangers were having an our campground about wolverines, but on our way there we saw a campsite of this other motorcyclists we noticed taking off this morning and coming back tonight. So of course we stopped to talk to him. We noticed he had a Pikes Peak sticker on his bike and found out he was from Colorado Springs too. He was riding a Sasuki VStrom which is in a similar class as Tomme 's bike. So we sat there and talked about bikes with him for the next two hours and missed the program the rangers were having, but it was well worth it.

After visiting with him we went back to our campsite, started a fire, and sipped wine while we rested in our hammocks. It was a very good day.

Wildlife siting: Big horn sheep and mountain goats, but still no bear.

Mediocre tip: Try to avoid trails used frequently by horses at all costs. They suck.

Mediocre tip: if you think something might be beyond your ability, it is. Stop, turn around, and live another day to try again.


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