Grouse Ridge - Day 1

We started down the trail at six pm. We only had to hike about three and one half miles so we had plenary if time before to sunset. Ha! It was just getting dark when we arrived at Glacier Lake. We met a number of people many of whom said, "you don't want to go to Glacier it's covered in snow." Well, they were telling mostly the truth because the lake is mostly covered with snow.

There is a delightful little stream of bubbling snow melt happily bouncing next to my tent down to the lake. I am listening to its soothing sound as I write this post. Today was a good day even though most of it was spent at work rather than hiking. I got a phenomenal amount of things accomplished today. Most than I anticipated, more even then I had faith for when I asked the small group I attend on Tuesday night to pray for my productivity. It is truly amazing to me how God answers prayer as I really don't know how I got everything done.

Anyway, back to hiking. As we wended our way though the trees we came around a corner and poof there was aan standing there. A silent man. He obviously had come from the other direction. It was eerie how quiet he was. He mouthed the words, "I climbed that mountain today," as he gesticulated vigorously towards a peak we could just barely see through the trees. 

Not a sound came from his mouth when we asked him, " you climbed that mountain?" He lipped "yes" as he nodded his head vigorously. We asked if there was a lot of snow and he mouthed, "yes" as he slipped off his pack and began rummaging through it, silent as a church mouse. It was the strangest thing.   

He dug around for a while and finally pulled out a device that he held to his throat. As he began to move his lips, suddenly as mechanical sounding sound began to form into words. He told his about his climb and the snow. He talked about a number of things I didn't quite follow. Something about breaking three shoulders. But as he spoke I noticed a hole about the size of a nickel in his throat. He was a strange guy telling a strange story with a strange device and a strange hole in his throat. Finally he said, "I gotta go" and he packed up his stuff and disappeared down the trail in the direction we came from. 

We finally made it here to Glacier lake, but we are not alone. There is a couple here with their two dogs. I think the dogs were happier to see us than the couple was. We moved do further towards to lake from their camp so as to not cramp their style. I had dinner while Eric sipped his tea, and afterwards I whipped up a batch of trail brownies while wi sipped the wine that Eric brought. Life is good, I am glad to be here. I hit the OK button on my Spot device. I'll be interested to see if the email I setup for Kelli was sent successfully. I will have to wait for that though. There is no cell coverage out here at all. It's way past hiker midnight so I will sign off for now, nighty night.