Probably the pretties view we got on our adventures- photos never do it justice, though.

Widows and wolves and moose- oh my!

Adminisk8or

08/27/2024

Well, I just had to go and get one more wild and crazy adventure in before the summer was over- and I think I succeeded.

It began Wednesday. Just after I got off work in the late afternoon, I picked up a few of my friends and we set out on a long and pleasant drive that would take us about 10 hours to get to Glacier National Park. It was mostly uneventful, with only a gas stop and a dinner stop on the way, plus switching drivers once or twice; but then there was the moment where, as I was driving late in the evening, I suddenly heard the back seat come alive, and a light shine. As I listened to the follow up explanation, my friend had felt a cobweb next to his face and went to brush it away. He succeeded in this, but also brushed away a more tangible object along with the web. As he shined his light at it, he discovered it was not only a live spider, but a black widow of all things. He was not slow in killing it and then taking a very fast self inventory of himself- which thankfully didn't end with any less-than-fun discoveries. So... that was a riveting start to our adventure.

And indeed, we drove all night and into the morning, until we arrived at the ranger station in that end of the park about 45 minutes before they opened. We casually strolled in and, to our very wavering luck, we managed to snag a campsite reservation for our planned hike the next day which we didn't even know we needed- and in good time, as it was the last one, and they had only opened three minutes prior! Ironically, you'll see this ended up not much mattering, but more on that soon. In the meantime, we thought to ourselves that, with having little to no sleep, and with little in the way of solid plans, we would find some short and interesting small trails and check those out. We ventured to a nearby one that was only a mile or two hike in to some pretty lakes and cascades, which we easily accomplished. But then we decided to keep following the trail. And we did- and we reached the valley's end. And then we followed up the switchbacks. And then we reached the saddle/peak. All said and done, we hiked about 16 miles on that trail with about a thousand or two elevation gain, with nothing more than next to no sleep, basic water which we refilled at a high elevation stream, and a little bit of trail mix.

And to add to the feeling of awesome accomplishment that gave us, along with the awesome views we got to take in, we also got to see some wildlife. The first one was a bear, on a mountainside a couple of miles away, which someone with a telescope had a really good view of. The second was a MUCH closer specimen; as we were nearing the end of the valley and getting to the switchbacks, we suddenly hear something emerge from the woods near the trail, and without warning, we are standing face to face with a BIG old bull moose! There was about 15 seconds of uncertainty as this magnificent and domineering creature stared us down, contemplated its options, and then quietly tramped on back into the woods in the opposite direction. If ever you want to gain a much deeper appreciation of the song "It's a small world after all", just go ahead and stand within 10-20 feet of a moose, and that should do it. And to add to the trifecta of sightings, as we got to the top of the pass where we turned around, I happened to spy what I thought was a deer at first on a stony mountainside about a half mile away, but which turned out to be a coy-wolf.

With all this feeling of accomplishment and luck the first day, we did foresee clouds on the horizon, though- and in a more literal sense than not, because our planned campsite on the next night was going to be in the eye of a very terrible thunderstorm, and all of us were contemplating the idea of enduring such a thing in a small 3-man and 1-man tent- especially playing Russian roulette with the lightening, since there's not much else in that area that sticks out aside from the tents we'd erect. As such, we abandoned our plans of camping that next night, and instead, we explored the west end of Glacier, and found another fun and much more reasonably short hike to do, there. And then we went back to crazy. We woke up at 3 AM (though two of us had gone out clubbing that night and didn't sleep at all) and took off to East Glacier to get into the park before fees began. Our plan was to hike the original route we planned, but this time with no camping in between; so, we soon set out on our trail and followed it to what was probably all of our favorite view- Cracker Lake. The bright and frankly surreal shade of blue in that water was almost like looking at something out of this world- even with the furious and pounding winds that blew all around the bowl area. And combined with this and our other hikes, in a matter of three days, we hiked 42 miles, gained and lost thousands of feet of elevation, and during those hikes, we only ran on basic snacks and usually very little or no sleep.

In retrospect, it's certainly not the craziest adventure I've had- just looking back at the last two years, our big annual hike has been quite a story to tell- from unexpectedly sheer cliffs where we had to climb rope, vehicles almost igniting and people nearly fainting in desert heat, to bushwhacking through mountainous and desolate back country, accidentally bear spraying my friend in the face, escaping creepy redneck communities and driving a straight and unexpected 13 hours homeward a day early- there hasn't been an adventure without at least one crazy story to tell!

And at the end of the day, I'm grateful for that. Life is a rough hewn canvas, ready to be filled in by your stories- and the more unusual and unexpected experiences you come across, the more colorful your canvas is. At least in my adventures, that's what I've found- and my friends have only made those experiences exponentially more memorable and enjoyable. It's kind of a nice reflective moment when I've heard stories from the likes of my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles which seem like legendary experiences the likes of which I could only imagine- and yet here I am in life, forging my own trail, creating memories that I will remember and cherish for years to come, and that I can tell to my children and their children.

In some vain hope, I could wish that this blog would last that long. If I'm being honest, I have a feeling it won't even be present in a decade- not because I plan on such a thing happening, but because I fear that the world will so greatly change by that time, that who knows what the world of information sharing will look like- in whatever facet it exists. But I write in this and my personal journal all the time in hopes that some stories will never really die- even if the way they are shared may be subject to change. But, then I suppose that goes right with the underlying source of the intrigue in all my stories- when plans went awry, and we had to improvise. So, I hope you too, reader, will ponder on what stories you want to share to your loved ones years down the road- maybe it's nothing insane like black widows or unintentional capsaicin attacks on close friends- but you have stories all your own, and they are well worth hearing!

Until next time, see ya!