A Bear Went Over the Mountain

Daily Mileage= 60miles; Total trip=6708
Today we did a hike to Avalanche Lake (4 miles round trip). It wasn’t too difficult but they kept telling you that you were entering “grisly bear” country and you were on your own. Well, I didn’t really like that too much. Rich was a little more at ease with the notion so I kept making noise by clapping my hands while we walked the 2 miles+ out to the lake. We were on a pretty well traveled route but didn’t see anyone else until almost the end.
I have also come to realize that I’m probably the only one who actually reads the warnings and does anything about it, like make noise before you encounter the bear! In my heart, I somewhat felt that if there were any bears they would run away from the humans but, I know the humans and they can be rather stupid! Hence the bears might actually come and check them/us out.
Needless to say we went for 2 miles and 500feet up and down through very thick forest and wild running rivers because of the snow melt. It was gorgeous and once we got there, it was really worth it. The view was stupendous. On the way back so many more people were on the trail that I knew we would be safe. (Too many other humans to get before me!) Here’s another interesting fact that I’ve noticed about a lot of campers. They don’t exactly rise at the crack of dawn and head out for the trails. We were coming back by noon and people were just starting out. I guess it doesn’t matter but somehow I feel you should be on your trail(s) before noon?!?







Again, the views were stupendous and the end result of your effort is the reward of a pretty crystal clear lake filled by huge waterfalls, surrounded by snow capped peaks. We have photos of all and once again, they do not do justice to what we saw in person.

This trail is on the infamous Road to the Sun. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful highways in the world (and the parts we’ve seen so far are pretty nice). It transverses the Continental Divide in the park and is about 50 miles long. Well, it’s not really open until July when all the snow melts so it was closed. In fact, we heard that they had some major road damage so who knows when the entire road will be passable. We did the part we could do from this, the western side of the park; tomorrow we will be staying on the Eastern side of the park and will do what we can from over there.
During the summer you can go the entire route through Logan’s Pass but you will be doing it with the other million visitors that come to the park then. We’d rather be here now. It’s starting to get crowded but no where near what it will be like in another month. The scenery is still beautiful and I think there’s actually a plus to seeing the snow still on the mountain peaks. It gives it more texture and you can see them better. By the way, these are the Rocky Mountains we’re talking about.

After the hike we did a short Cedar Groves one which was only a mile. We seemed exhausted after the 6 miles we walked this morning and we think it’s because of the altitude difference we are experiencing once again (or the wine we had last night or probably a combination of the two). We keep going in and out of the high altitude and you do feel it. (Also, as a side note, our backs have been doing relatively good with all driving and hiking but there’s something wrong with my knee! It seems to do well with the Ibuprofen I'm eating like candy!) I told Rich, as long as I can get through the next few weeks, I’m not doing anything about it until I get home!! We’ll see how it goes.
OK enough of the health issues. We spent the afternoon driving around McDonald Lake into the forest ridge that was burned by a fire in 2003. You can see where new life has begun but it’s just a devastated area in which trees are scorched and stripped, some still standing and some not. It’s rather depressing but it actually has an eerie beauty about it. (Don't think the detail is in this photo but most of the trees in the distance are scorched.)



We started to go to Polebridge (a cute town out in the middle of no where) but decided that the “unpaved” road was not what we wanted to put the GEO through. It was a washboard and we just said no. (We actually did an unpaved road out in Olympia and knew we didn’t want to go through that again!) After all, we need to use this car to go back 3,000+miles!





Once again we had Rich pose with a friend. This one is in the fabulous lodge lobby of the hotel we're staying at. It is so comfy that you actually don’t mind the animal trophy heads around you. Instead it reminds you of a different time and place when people actually hunted and lived off the land.
So today was another wonderful day surrounded in beauty. Tomorrow will be more of the same.
We bid you a good night and love & joy, Mare & Rich