Glacier National Park-Day 3 and Corrections on Day 2

Well as promised, or threatened, Dorene is taking a day off and I am posting this blog.

First, I must correct Dorene on our hike to Avalance Lake. I was all prepared for this hike. I had dressed the part with a backpack with lunch, water, flashlight, bear spray and rain coats enclosed. Also I had good hiking boots and hiking poles and a cool hat.

I had three different ways to start a fire, magnesium striker, matches in a waterproof container, and a cigarette lighter...and an absolute must, toilet paper! Man, was I prepared! I figured I was good for at least 15 miles today. Dorene said I looked like John Muir. I detected a hint of sarcasm but ignored it.

John (Don Foster) Muir ready to hike.

We were off on the first part of the hike. We went up a couple of switchbacks leaving the others in our dust. Well at least they did not catch up until they stopped taking pictures.


I told Dorene that this hike was going to be a cinch, we had just managed 100 feet of the total 385 feet of elevation gain.

Then we started downhill and gave back all of the 100 feet we had gained. We continued on moving up the hills with marvelous grace.

Soon the wind started huffing and puffing; my wind not nature's. As we started around one corner we heard noises like a running animal. I wondered if we would see bear.


I started to reach for the bear spay and my pocket knife ready to defend my bride of 25 years, when around the corner, a young father and his 10 year old daughter were racing UP the hill after a short rest. How demoralizing!

We continued on with our journey. I noticed how people were passing us and that we had not passed one single person going up the trail.

Finally nearing the top, (at least we thought we were nearing the top) people coming back down were saying comforting things like, "you are almost at the top of the plateau." ( I don't think that guy knew what a plateau was!) and, "You are almost there," or "Only another 15 minutes," or "It's worth the hike."

About this time I said to Dorene we must look pretty bad if people we have never met were giving us that much encouragement. I had thought I had pulled my tongue back in my mouth when they went by. Maybe not fast enough.

Finally we did reach the top and in the distance we could see the lake through the trees.

Just as we were congratulating ourselves on our major accomplishment of climbing this steep mountain with it's great elevation gain, around the corner, starting back down, was a young father in flip flops. He had his 4-6 year old kid on his back, mom with a 3 month baby strapped to her chest, and grandma bringing up the rear. They all looked very fresh.

Oh well, at least we made it. We had a great lunch on the edge of the lake, (peanut butter sandwiches) walked a little further on along the lakeside trail and then started back down.

Although the trip down was uneventful, the pain ramped up. First Dorene complained about her knees, my hips started hurting and we argued which was easier, when we went uphill or downhill.

Dorene had more trouble going downhill and I had more trouble going uphill. This was true until the downhill movement started to jam my toes into the front of my new hiking boots.

We finally made it back to the car, having fun telling those going up, that it was only 15 minutes or 45 minutes to the top.

We got back to camp and began to recover and tell each other lies about how well we did. We finally decided that we would take another hike in the morning.


I fell a sleep that night with thoughts of another adventure in the morning.

Day Three:

The alarm clock went off at 6:00 AM in the morning. I began to reminisce about trips I had taken with my Dad as a young teenager. He and I had gotten up early to be the first on the water fishing.

Sometimes we had to shake the ice off the line and the rods we were using. Other times we found that we were fishing in the middle of a stream with a rainstorm coming down, telling ourselves that this would help fishing.

As I slowly started to awaken I realized that Dorene had shut off the alarm rather quickly. I guessed that she had moved the alarm clock from across the bedroom to along side the bed so she could shut it off faster.

Dorene was not moving and the more I moved the more I found sore points on the old body. Finally, as any giving, loving husband would do, I softly said to Dorene that we did not have to go on the hike this morning if she did not feel like it.

After a few moments she said she did not really feel like going. I told her how disappointed I was not to be having another adventure in the wild and fell asleep dreaming of how once again I would save my lovely wife from the dangers of the wilds. Well, at least I fell asleep.

When we awoke it was raining and we decided to spend the day going through the shops in the little town of Bigfork on Flathead Lake. We could do that in the rain. Dorene could do that in a hurricane!

I finished my book "The Night of the Grizzly," and after reading the part where two different bears killed two 19 year-old girls on the same night in 1967, I thought that shopping could be a good thing after all.

Oh, the joys of shopping in the rain...

Tomorrow we take off the Waterton Lakes, (the Canadian half of Glacier National Park) and Dorene will be back at her post. At least now you have heard my version of what happened yesterday.

Don