At that point, we had only reached Hagerstown, so this was not a huge crisis. We were still within turn around distance, but we were hesitant to do so because we had managed to get an early start and the turn around would have cost us that advantage. I phoned my mom who formed two plans right away. Option A was that she would meet us halfway back and hand them over to us. Option B was she would mail them to us on the trip.
Many long distance hikers have family and friends mail packages to them. Before a trip, hikers will pre-pack boxes to be mailed to them at specific spots along their route. These packages are addressed to their person as general delivery and are mailed out by their friends or family at predetermined intervals based on past hikers' rate of progress on the trail. When a hiker gets to one of these predetermined locations, they will leave the trail, and hike into town to pick up their box. Contents of these boxes are usually mundane, food restock, candy bars, clean shirts, new socks, new book, etc. It works out well because hikers simply cannot carry everything in their pack that they will need for an entire journey. I truly believed that George and I were quite a few more years out from receiving something "general delivery". We've discussed hiking the Appalachain Trail and more recently, the Pacific Crest Trail, but at the moment, those are dreams and nowhere close to reality. So, tickled pink, I danced into the post office in Columbia Falls to get our package. We waited our turn in line and then, my big moment. I provided my license and explained our purpose, the lady went in the back to look. She returned EMPTY HANDED!
Ah yes, the quandary of general delivery. Many a hiker has arrived at a pick up point only to find that their package isn't there to meet them. And so they wait. (And so I panicked and called both my parents.) Smart them -- the package was sent with delivery confirmation and therefore, it had a tracking number. But it would be about 30 minutes before they could get home to give it to me. Hmmm... After further discussion, a revelation! The package was also addressed to George! We approached the counter again and used his ID this time. Lo and behold, there it was. My name was on line one, his on line two. Somehow, the lady missed it, but I was so relieved, I was past caring. We danced out into the bright Montana sunshine with our passports that will get us into Canada in hand.
We spent the rest of the day getting to know the western side of the Glacier National Park and (what else?) hiking. We enjoyed skipping rocks at Lake McDonald Lodge and dipping our feet in Lake McDonald while we watched nearby fly fishermen at work. We stood in 18 inches of water and it really is as clear as the above photo.
Today's trail was two part; we began on Trail of Cedars, an easy 0.7 miles on a raised boardwalk loop through a stunning example of a hemlock and cedar forest. At the far end of the loop, we could continue on a 2.0 out and back trail to Avalanche Lake. The windy, hilly trail only gained 500 feet in elevation by the time we reached the lake. There were so many people on the trail, I was thrilled! There were even more than the popular trails at Yellowstone. But of the 200+ people we passed going each way, less than 10 had any bear spray visible. If they had it secreted in their packs, a fat lot of good that will do -- spray only saves you if you have it readily accessible. A few even went so far as to tell us to put it away. I will never understand why people hiking alone or hiking with small children will take the risk of hiking without it. I know that I am the worrier of the pair of us. I was concerned that George thought I was overreacting or being overly cautious. He was emphatic that we were doing what was right for us and he agreed with me 100%. And to show that you can never be too cautious, as we walked the last 200 feet of trail to the gravel beach at the lake's edge, we were greeted by people asking if we had seen the bears. We just missed a black bear sow and her cub, trampling through the underbrush. On our return trip, we were 500 feet from the boardwalk when we ran into our campground neighbors from California. Back at the site later this evening, we were cooking dinner when they returned, elated that after we parted ways on the trail they had seen a black bear sow and her cub crossing the trail. Is it possible that they were the same bear? I suppose. Are our bear bells serving as attractants like a dinner bell? I hope not!
The lake itself was cold. We shucked our boots and socks and sat on a rock and dunked our feet and ankles for a few seconds at a time. The water was quite clear. We deliberately had brought along an empty plastic bottle and we filled it with lake water. The lake is fed by the runoff from glacial melt. So, when we get home and boil this water (to kill bacteria) we can drink it and say that we drank water that was millions of years old. Technically, all water is billions of years old, but this bottle's worth was trapped in a glacier for the last few millennia! As we sat, we could see the numerous waterfalls spilling down the mountainsides. There were chipmunks darting around and a Steller's Jay that hopped from branch to branch. It really was pretty cool. We made it back to the car around 6 PM and headed back to camp for dinner and showers.
Oh, those showers. Where do I begin? You have to have a token to operate them. You only get one token per day per person IF you ask for them. One token gets you five minutes of water. That's right, just five minutes. Not hot water, but liquid to bathe in. Even an abbreviated shower with a chilly temperature was divine at the end of another busy day.
No comments:
Post a Comment