The Burly Unknown!

The Highline Trail begins at a place called The Loop on Going to the Sun Road (follow the link - pretty interesting story). It is 11.6 miles and is populated by deer, rams, goats, sheep, marmots, and the most spectacular of all of mother nature’s creations: ridiculous outdoorsy people.

My dad and I started our day at about 5:30 am at the Super 8 Hotel in Columbia Falls (which is where I’m currently writing and posting from – it truly is super). We hopped in our red Mustang convertible (of freaking course we did), popped the top, threw on some REO Speedwagon, and headed toward the park.

An hour and a half of extremely scenic driving brought us to the trailhead at the Loop. After fumbling around in the trunk for 20 minutes, making sure we had all of our rad gear (water bottles, hackey sacks, etc.), we set off on the trail to find adventure. Not 100 yards into our journey, we stumbled upon a deer taking its leisure in the middle of the trail. I immediately drew my boot knife and proceeded to bound after my quarry, my blood lust only to be satiated by a feast of deer flesh.

What I mean is that I calmly and methodically dropped my camera in a creek. The deer must not have thought I was much of a threat, because it merely rolled its eyes at me and continued to peruse that day’s Wall Street Journal. After snapping a few photos, my father and I continued on our merry way.

Glacier has had several fires over the past few years (their policy is to let them burn), so the area in which we began our hike was this beautiful burned out forest with white trunks of dead trees contrasting with green undergrowth.

Our hike continued up to the Granite Park Chalet. Here we stopped and ate our lunch of sandwiches and granola bars. We talked to one of the rangers there, and he told us about an optional side-hike to the Grinnell Glacier overlook. It was 0.8 miles and a climb of 1,600 feet. Those who are mathematically inclined will know that this is technically called “steeper than hell.” I don’t make these terms up*.

So my pops and I set out once again into the burly unknown. We eventually arrived at the point where the Grinnell Overlook Trail diverges from the Highline. My dad and I beat our chests and loudly proclaimed that we are all that is man and decided to head up to the overlook. About halfway up, my dad loudly proclaimed that he is all that is man and that his manliness is located at the bottom of the trail. I benignly agreed, but continued upwards.

The top of the pass was breathtaking. To the east I’m overlooking the Grinnell Glacier and the area called Many Glacier, and to the west, I’m seeing the rest of Glacier National Park and Lake MacDonald.

I spend a little time up there toying with the gusting winds (60 mph!) before I descend to catch up with my father, who I’m convinced is going to try to beat me to the end of the trail at Logan’s Pass. I stomped down the trail and set our after him.

At this point, my left knee starts to hurt. I’ve encountered this sort of pain before training for a marathon, but never up in a mountain with 5 hours of hiking ahead of me. Also, my knee brace is traveling ahead of me in my dad’s backpack. I decided to make an all out effort to reach him as soon as possible, so I set out at a pretty brisk pace. It didn’t take me long to realize that this gait was unsustainable, and that I was going to be having a hard time of it for a while. I was conflicted at this point; I wanted to enjoy the hike and take my time, but I also wanted to catch my dad so I could get my knee brace. I ultimately decided that I would regret not enjoying the hike and taking pictures more that I would remember the pain, so I slowed it down and ignored my knee.

After a few hours of incredible scenery and beautiful pain, my other knee, which had been taking up the slack for my bum knee, decided that it felt left out, and thus began to loudly proclaim its importance in an acutely exquisite throbbing of its own.

So here we had little old David, hobbling down the trail, getting passed by geriatrics who were hurtling insults at me for my slowness.

Well, eventually, I caught up with my father and put my knee braces on and took some Advil. I felt infinitely better.

As I was limping down to the area where the trail let out, doing my best Forrest Gump impression, people began pointing in my direction and talking to one another. I guess they thought I was handicapped or something, because they all started clapping amidst cries of “You did it!” and “He’s so brave!” I basked in their adulation and was carried down the mountain upon the shoulders of my adoring masses**.

Three cheers for me.

*Yes I do.

**No, this did not actually happen

Ok. So I’ve drawn a few comics over the past few months. Most of them are stick figure comics that I just threw together because I thought of some standalone, non-cohesive type of idea that I thought was funny. However, for some reason this idea stuck to me and has kind of captured my imagination until a butterfly flutters along and…ohhh butterflyyyyyyyy.

The premise: Roger is an architect that lives in Seattle (or some other trendy equivalent). He’s an up-and-coming architect at a prestigious architect firm or wherever the hell architects work. Proceed.

As I am your typical organized, put together type of guy, I made the conscious decision to accidentally leave my camera cord in Atlanta. This strategic decision of mine prevents me from putting pictures up that I’ve taken whilst traveling. As Glacier is primarily a visual place (the marmots here are lousy conversationalists), I will be writing my posts, but foregoing the publishing until I get home and can put the pictures up alongside the brilliant and witty commentary. Until then, most excellent readers, I leave you with a comic I drew sometime back. Be excellent unto one another.