I drove to Glacier NP last Thursday, with no mishaps other than the occasional dusting of rain.
Got into the park and acquired huckleberry jam. #bestpb&jsever
Found out that most of the backcountry campsites were...under snow. That ruled out that option. They're serious about backcountry there. You have to apply for a permit and everything.
Spent 3 nights at the Sprague Creek campsite.
After getting there, paying for my site, and pitching my tent, I decided to spend some quality alone time in my tent.
After a while, I left to go to the bathroom.
Upon physically exiting my tent I was accosted by a large Indian man who, with a fairly decent accent, asked me to help him set up his tent.
I then realized it was July 4th weekend when he said he couldn't get a hotel and had to buy a tent, apparently one large enough to house his entire family. All... I don't know, like 8 of them?
This thing was like a castle. Made of fabric. Designed for 10 people. #theymakethose?
The directions were sewn onto the bag it came in (the INside of the bag) and were very... unintuitive. Probably the first time that word's been used not describing video game levels.
After about an hour, many Indians running around, arguing, sometimes in English, sometimes in ... whatever language that was, I have no idea, usually a combination of both in the same sentence, like my handwriting is both print and cursive, it was set up and everyone was on the same page.
And I finally got to go to the bathroom.
Getting back, they were driving off in their HUGE white SUV, stopping to ask my name, the man giving me his and his card. Ashish Patel, General Manager of Holiday Inn Suites in Lolo, MT.
"If you are ever in Lolo, my friend-- look me up."
After they drove away, I got into my car and had a 5-minute laughing fit over the inanity of it all.
-Next day-
Got up early~ish (like 8:30- actually sleeping in for me this trip xD) and went to a group ranger-led hike. I'd decided to plan out my time doing ranger programs rather than hiking solo, like in Yellowstone, for a few reasons.
1) They were already listed and planned out and stuff.
B) They have more bears in the park. As in, GLAC (the shorthand) is a fraction of Yellowstone's size, but has a resident population of ~300 grizzlies. ~750 or so for the surrounding area w/ GLAC. And 2-3 times that amount of black bears.
3) They have mountain lions, something Yellowstone doesn't.
The signage for warning against animal encounters and solo hiking were more prevalent and vehement than Yellowstone.
So I went on group hikes.
And hated it. Partially.
Because almost everyone there were people who probably were staying in RVs, campers, or hotels during park visits. They were the kind of people that bought brand new boots just for that hike, not wearing them beforehand. The kind of people that used two ski poles for hiking sticks. That wore a giant bucket hat for the sun (not the worst idea, pretty practical actually, but looks stupid and almost everyone but me had one). The kind of people that wore fanny packs or carried nothing but a single water bottle for a 6-8 mile hike with 500-1000 foot elevation gains. The kind of people who only were wearing a tshirt and shorts (a few with sandals- no socks though) at 8 in the morning (when it was still 40F, max) because "it'll warm up". The people whose idea of camping is with fully cooked meals and air conditioning.
Not everyone on these things, grant you. But most of them.
They were ..... tourists.
Then again, I am fulfilling my role as a human in being a hypocrite, as technically I'm a tourist, but... no. Not like these people.
Additionally, people hike so slow. You won't get anywhere if your steps are only 1 1/2 feet at a time.
I was also the only person on these hikes with a backpack larger than a grade school book bag. Not to mention with an external frame. Even on a 12-miler. "Old school" as one ranger put it- though she was thinking of the ones that have the metal frame, not plastic like John's.
Btw bro there's a broken support but it was broken before the trip and before I got it from Alexander. Mother Dearest knows about it. #notmyfault
Speaking of that, Madre, the fixative stuff has cracked but the frame is still holding it solidly in place like you said it would.
Avalanche Lake was a pretty place to hike to though. 3 1/2 hour hike up (with the group), 1 hour hike back down (without). That trail was like a highway, even discounting the ranger group. It was ridiculous.
Ranger-led hikes are slower because
1) they don't out pace anyone if they can help it (and they can)
2) they stop to give talks every 15 minutes or so. These can range from 5 minutes to 20.
3) SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE GROUP
IMO, the faster you get up an uphill section of trail the better. Going super slow wastes energy, hurts your joints more, and takes so much longer.
All this ranting aside, I met some really nice people, like Ron, a microbiologist from Florida, and his wife Julie, who were (staying in a heated cabin thing and took a helicopter tour- something the park doesn't like but can't do anything against because, as it discovered several years ago, it doesn't own the air space above the land) a delight to converse with.
In the mid-late afternoons, after lunch, I had a tendency to read/play Pokemon sitting in my car, and mid-thingy go into a nap. I stayed in the car because
1) it wasn't windy
2) it was cozily warm
3) no mosquitoes.
And no, apparently #1 didn't cancel out #3.
After 3 nights, I packed up and headed to the northeast side of the park (Sunday), via Route 2 around the bottom of the park as the only road going across it (Going-to-the-Sun Road) was closed due to 50-70 foot drifts of snow.
Final note: on my hikes I mused internally rather than vocally, as I am wont to do when I am alone (and sometimes lonely). [Ok Go: "you don't have to be alone to be lonely"]
Something my thoughts stumbled across were that there were 3 kinds of people who went out to parks like this.
1) Those who have hands solely to operate digital cameras, who were only there to take pictures of things.
2) Those who came out to "see it sometime before I die" so they can tell people about it.
3) Those of us who come out to breathe the land, to know it, to live it.
See what I did there?
