Day 3 and a lot of random baloney

Day 3

So, it begins, September 11 a day that will forever live in infamy.

I will never forget that day in 2001 as most of us can say.
But, I was taking care of my dying father when the planes hit the World Trade Centers and I sat there and watched the whole event, glued to my television.

It’s a day that will forever live in my memory in more ways than one, obviously.

The reason I bring that up is that I often think of my father in the woods. He knew every plant that ever grew and I see so many new plants that I am curious about but I don’t carry the books around with me so I remain curious but uninformed.
If only he were here with me to be asked and I think that every time I got out into the woods.

But, at the time, he frustrated the living snot out of me. I wanted to hike and see the big picture and not the little details. I wanted to see what was around the corner, to see what was around the bend, to see what was over the hill.

Now, it’s only myself that is over the hill.
My energy levels were off the charts, but now that I am older I want to stop and smell the roses. I want to learn every detail that I can. Oh, I still want to se what is ahead and to see the big picture, but the little details are more and more interesting to me.
There is nobody here to ask and I miss that. My favorite memories of my dad were in later years when we hiked.

The first couple of nights here have been very enjoyable. We stayed at the Glacier Raft Company’s cabins. They are equipped with everything and have fantastic views from the West Entrance of Glacier Mountain National Park. Last night, I perused the Glacier National Park guide book and saw for the first time that the owners of the raft company were technical advisors for the movie a River Wild starring Meryl Streep.
She is a fantastic actress and the movie is enjoyable because of her and the fantastic scenery.
I would like to come back some day and run the river with these guys, but there is so much to see in this world and I doubt I make it back this way, unfortunately.
The cabins are rustic, but nice. They are amusing in some ways because nearly everything in the cabin has some kind of typed out sign right beside it with detailed instructions.

I think of my own father in the woods, but when I see signs on light switches or toilets, I think of Lynette’s daddy.
Like my own father, he was frustrating at times, but later on you learn to appreciate. Every time I see a note attached to something with info that should be obvious, I think of him and chuckle a bit.
I miss the old guy.
One of my favorite signs, and the most obvious, was on some of our rental properties.

In lovely West Texas, there are no basements to speak of. A one story building is a one story building. Mr. Hill, Lynette’s daddy, had a sign made up stating ‘ground level, nice’. This particular rental unit was a one bedroom in a really flat building and it couldn’t have been more obvious that the unit was on the first floor. Today, nearly 20 years later, we still laugh about that sign.
The signs may be obvious, but a lot of people need obvious instructions and I don’t blame the sign placers for their frustrations with people not being able to do the smallest things.

I will never be a sign placer or an all plant knower, but I have learned to appreciate the old ones and their ways.
No matter what we think of them, their hearts were in the right place.

I can relate to Lynette’s daddy in a few more ways now than I can my own dad. He moved off to California and started a business. He had investors. The business failed and he failed and had to answer up to his investors.

His wife suffered greatly through the process.
But, he kept his head up and restarted his life instead of laying down and quitting and he died a successful man.
He is an inspiration for those that have tried and failed. Keep your head up and keep churning away and success will come.

If you never try anything, you will never fail. But, at the same time, you will never get anywhere. Life is full of people that never try anything and I don’t want to be that guy.
A person should do what they set out to do, but a person has to set out to do something first.

It’s off to the mountains.

We got an early start this morning, about an hour earlier than yesterday.
There is construction on the Going to the Sun highway and we were first in line. The signal flag lady said we could get out and stretch our legs and we could look around.

When we left for the park in the morning, I was determined I was going to see a mountain goat.
Sure enough, right there above us were several of them just climbing around on the cliffs.
What a beautiful sight and it made my day.

Plenty more delights would be in store.

It was on to Logan’s Pass.

At Logan’s Pass we hit a hiking trail.
We are in horrible physical shape and that was clear early on. But, I didn’t feel too badly since everyone else going up was huffing and puffing, too.
We climbed only 400 feet on a trail to Hidden Lake overlook. The hike was only a couple of miles round trip, but it made us plenty tired.
Along the way, we saw about 7 more mountain goats.
Mountain goats just climbed up my list of favorite mammals. They are incredible and fascinating to watch. Some of the places they go, only a mountain goat or a few select other animals can go.
We watched them with great fascination as they hopped around nearly straight up and down cliffs like it was nothing.
One of them stood out on the edge of the cliff and was hit by direct sunlight illuminating it into an almost ghostlike appearance.

There fur is thick and very white which makes them very easy to spot.
Lynette took lots of pictures and I hope they are visible but they were very high above us and I am not sure how clear.
The destination of our hike was Hidden Lake. What an incredibly beautiful sight that was. We hung out there for quite a while talking to others but mostly just taking it all in. The lake is glacier water and as clear as anything I have ever seen with a slight blue tint. The word incredible as a description really doesn’t do much justice for it.

Above us, a few mountain goats just sat there on a ledge just chilling. Below us, was one of the more beautiful little lakes that I have ever had the pleasure to see.

After coming down from Logan’s Pass, we came by Saint Mary lake again. It was beautiful yesterday, but even more so today. The water is so blue, and there was not a single ripple on it. Everything reflected off the water even tiny little clouds that calmly floated by. There was a tiny waterfall on the mountain across from us which was barely visible. It reflected off of the water almost as clearly as the real waterfall.
Amazing sight, and Saint Mary might be the prettiest of all the lakes.

We made it through our hike and came to our next destination for the night, the small community of Saint Mary.
It’s not quite as scenic here as West Glacier, but it is still in the mountains and you can clearly see the high up mountains that are the bulk of the park.
We are trying to get our room in the lodge at Saint Mary.

On the downside of our trip is fire damage to the park. Some of the scenery has been temporarily ruined by the fire of 2003.
However, fire is necessary for the health of the forest. It is just too bad that many, many acres of trees were dead because of the fire.
The downside is minimal compared to all the grandeur around us. There is fire damage on both the west side and the east side of the park.
I don’t see, judging from the lack of rain we have seen, how the forests will recover in our lifetimes.

As I already wrote, once you get to Saint Mary, the scenery drops off in quality dramatically. It is the end of the beautiful mountains and the beginning of the Great Plains.
Saint Mary has little to offer other than a rip-off hotel and a small grocery store. However, there is a little dive that serves great hamburgers and pie.

Hard to beat hamburgers and pie. :)

Especially after an amazing day in one of America's amazing places.




9-11-2009 has been a much better day than the one we had in 2001.