It was our slow morning. I really wanted to go out and find another hike to do but when I looked the day before there wasn’t anything that was “easy” that my mom could do with me. Straight up, huge elevation? No thanks.
So when my eyes popped open at 6am… I read a bit and then got out of bed around 6:45am.
Had one call having to do with Russia for work at 730am. I couldn’t put it off. Well I could if I actually had something to do (like a hike!) but I knew that everyone would be sleeping anyway. Did my call. Realized that if they just did what they asked a full month ago we would be so much farther ahead. Sigh. Anyway.
Saw my HR rep had prepped my 360 review questions and holy shit that’s gonna freak me out but… oh well. WILL MY BOSS SEND IT WHILE I’M GONE? Or will he wait for me to babysit him and sit next to him while he copies and pastes the text from HR? Ugh. That promotion is a lot of money that I want in my bank account ASAP. Moving on. I can worry about that later.
Since we were doing a white water rafting trip in the afternoon which would be quite an arm workout, I decided to go exploring around the house on a jog/walk. Did a 3 mile run, average 14m mile! Start of my walk. A little boring but beautiful. No cars so I took this in the middle of the road.
Dang that was good. It was completely flat beyond the huge hill I had to go down (and then UP at the end, eek).
Ran into a pond:
There has been a lot of talk about bears around here. And towards the end of my jog, there were two German Shepherds at the house across the street that started violently barking at me as I jogged past. I sped up because they started racing down their driveway.
I could NEVER outrun a bear. Nope!
Luckily they stopped at a tree halfway down the property and I’m hoping it was an electric fence that stopped them. haha
This was the dirt road beyond the pond, I circled it twice.
Was glad I brought my inhaler on the trip as I powered up the steep hill! Hi lungs, can you please support me a little bit more?
The rest of the group went on a slow walk while I got ready. My Mama came back and Gregg with her and the three of us went grocery shopping.
I wanted to drive around “downtown” Columbia Falls to see if I wanted to go there for dinner. I decided that it was not a super fantastic place and we would try to look around at others.
Hit the Super 1 Foods again. Bought too much stuff. Gregg didn’t buy what we needed him to buy (more bandages for his hands to replace the ones in our first aid kit) so Mom went back. LOL. When will he learn it’s just easier to do what we ask him to do the first time?
We headed home and got ready for WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!
Sam was so nervous. Gregg wasn’t sure he wanted to go after falling and his hands so scraped up but ultimately decided to go.
Long story short, we got on the bus, and into the raft with our guide Carson! We were with another couple. Kurt and SueAnn, and Kurt wanted to be up in front with G!
We floated for 4 miles which was delightful. All my family was happy that I had arranged it/told them I was doing it for myself because it was awesome. Of course AFTER I said I was going, they all decided that they wanted to try it. Ugh. So annoying.
At some point, Carson had J and I switch spots. With Gregg not really paddling on his side, they needed more “power”. J was seriously feeling like he was being targeted as the weak link and I had to tell him to stop because OUR side was weaker so it was probably me! Anyway.
We hit the first rapids.
Then, on the 2nd rapids, Carson said this was picture time! And not to look but someone would be taking our photo.
He screamed something like “Forward 3!” as he was doing the whole time and Kurt was NOT PADDLING!!
See proof. Kurt sitting in the front right, paddle in the air. LOL
Side note; Sam and I look EXACTLY ALIKE with helmets on our heads and making the same laughing face. I see the resemblance!! haha
I think I actually kinda punched Kurt and yelled at him to paddle at this point. Looking better now, although what in the world is Griffin doing?
Okay, looking more like Vikings! As Carson would say…
Go us! Except for Gregg. Gregg was sleeping in the back (left). His hand is not even on his paddle! You can’t even see Truck in these (back right).
But Gregg didn’t have his hearing aids in and we told Carson he would not be doing much. Honestly, at one point, I think he was taking a nap.
Anyway lots of fun. Truck did fall out backwards though as he was getting out. Fully submerged. I was really worried for a bit, I think he was in shock. He was having problems walking back and J was walking in front of him and I was walking behind him and I thought he was going to stumble into traffic.
He sometimes gets irritated if he thinks we are trying to manage him and I know he wouldn’t have stood for J walking behind him but he knew he wasn’t going to argue me out of it.
But we made it.
We decided to go back to downtown Columbia Falls and went to Three Forks Grille after we were all cleaned up. It was actually REALLY GOOD. Best fish, definitely! Griffin is now in love with fettuccine alfredo with shrimp and they had it as a special.
We had to wait 15m and we got a bottle of champagne and sat at a picnic table outside. Really fun!
We then went up the street for ice cream. Ugh, bad decision. I shared some with Sam and ate WAY too much. Then heard live music down the street and listened for a bit.
The next morning was June 16…
We got up early and went over to West Glacier to hit up Avalanche Lake Trailhead!
Slight adventure. Again, getting 8 people out the door… Sigh.
And when we got into the park they said YOU MUST TAKE BEAR SPRAY. I heard Apgar Village, J thought we could go to the Apgar info center.
It was not at the info center. Although, I hopped out of the car and ran in so by the time I ran out they were just getting out of the car and I waved them all back in.
And then it was a discussion on how many to get. 1 per person? Anyway. I got 5. That was not what J wanted but it was what I wanted. We had to watch a video. Sign a form. That was another 20m.
And we were off. We found parking! Minor miracle. But we were early.
LOOK at my super sexy bear spray holster!!
Sam was not a fan and said she would just attach herself to someone who had bear spray. So she did not get one.
The hike was JUST beautiful. Sharon and T stayed behind and made it very slowly to what they felt they were capable of.
It was fairly packed but we had a lot of space between groups.
The river was amazing, walking next to it.
We thought it was 6 miles but it was “only” 4. Gregg only asked when we would be there about 15 times. haha
But we saw 5 waterfalls! The cloud cover was crazy and the wind was HOWLING right at the lake! So cold. Actually not super cold but after 10 minutes I was like, are we walking further or going back because I don’t want to stand here! The rest of the hike was perfect.
This was actually before, I think. I’m too lazy to organize the photos.
We were walking to the lake and there was the deer! Mule deer? Some type of deer. Sam got a selfie. I look scary here.
Haha, Griffin forgot his hat on the trip and refuses to buy a new one… “it’s too expensive” (who is paying for this hat!?) so he gets my 2nd hat.
READ A BOOK!
Ahh well.
Hi deer!
Meta… I was talking a photo and Sam took a photo of me.
On the way down, there was this cute spot with the river so enthusiastic.
G did a photo shoot. So GQ.
My cuties.
After, we headed into Apgar village to return the bear spray and have lunch. I brought my food but everyone enjoyed the rest. I actually got a cappuccino because I had horrible sleep and felt like I was going to die. Or just sleep.
It was a bad decision, I didn’t sleep again but whatever.
I got a cute shirt, and two postcards.
We skipped rocks on Lake McDonald.
GORGEOUS!!!
We went home and rested for two hours. Then drove into Whitefish.
There was a Farmers Market every Tuesday. I wanted to leave by 5. It was 5:10.
Then, ZOMG, the traffic. The wind.
We saw this deer chilling. But Whitefish was so upscale (compared to where we were) and busy, that we drove around for 10m and I said, no, let’s just drive back to Columbia Falls to the dinner place J wanted to go to (and we had a ressy) and not even get out of the car.
The elders had S’s handicap placard and got a parking spot and didn’t even want to get out of the car. haha
So off to Meadows Lake Bar and Grille (golf course!) it was! They were playing soccer on the big screen and we enjoyed it.
I was so tired.
Continued to sleep terribly. Up at 415 again. Finally got up and ran at 6am.
This is how sunny it was at 6 (well, 630 at this point)! Look at the steam coming off the lake!
And then I had to make it up the hill again. That’s a fairly steep hill!
But it was off to West Yellowstone. We packed up and did the 6 hour drive – Really 8 hours. We left at 8:50! (told G 8:30 because we wanted to leave by 9!) and made it by 5pm.
I’m at the ZOMG I’M SO TIRED PHASE.
