The MK Adventures, parts 2 & 3

Kendall and I hang out all the time at home and around town, and we had our hiking adventure on Eagle Cliff Mountain earlier this summer. Unfortunately, after the first couple of weeks, our schedules have been opposite so that our days off don't line up. We decided we didn't care and wanted to try going for a hike again last week, so we chose last Wednesday, when I got off work at 5:30pm. By the time we got a parking pass and headed to Glacier Gorge Junction for the trailhead to Black Lake, it was 6:30pm when we hit the trail.

We made it back the 5 miles without running into too many people. We were the ONLY ones heading into the backcountry, but passed about three or four parties coming out. At one point, we passed a family of four (mom, dad, and two sons about our ages), and the older son exclaimed, "It's about time we saw some pretty ladies on the trail!" which definitely made our night. We continued back to where we hit Mills Lake and found an illegal camper right on the side of the lake.

Since we weren't in uniform, I felt uncomfortable confronting the man. He looked like the stereotypical climber--long hair, scruffy face, strong build--kind of that mountain-man, rugged look. I went up to him anyway though, starting by asking him how his day had gone and if he had been climbing that day. After talking for a few minutes, I explained that I was a ranger in the park, and even though I was off duty, there were a few things I just wanted to make him aware of. I educated him about our policies and procedures, and he seemed to really not have any prior notice about what those were. After letting him know I only wanted to raise awareness and wasn't going to call an LE Ranger (mainly because I had no cell coverage or a radio), Kendall and I headed down on the race to the lake before the sun set.

We reached the five mile mark aka Black Lake right as the sun had gone down. The colors on the peaks around us were amazing, but we didn't spend too much time there because we had the five mile return in the dark ahead of us. We made it the first half mile back before we decided to turn our headlamps and flashlights back on--trust me, we looked cool. Snoopy would have been jealous. We began to get nervous about animals, particularly bears and mountain lions, so I set the quick pace in the front while looking for bears while Kendall kept looking back every so often in case of a lion attack. Of course, we sang and talked the ENTIRE way down so that we wouldn't be a surprise to any animals around the corner and finally made it back to the car a little before midnight. Needless to say, we didn't go to Wednesday night bowling afterwards.

During our night hike, I noticed how limited our views were when the lights were turned on. With a flashlight or headlamp lighting the way, our eyes adjusted to the beam and everything surrounding us was completely black. When we would get to areas outside of the trees, we turned the lights off. When we reached a boulderfield, we turned them off and looked up into the stars. After just a few minutes of our eyes adjusting, we could see all around us without any problem. It's strange how limited our focus can be with those beams. Just like in real life, if you focus on one specific area, the outer reaches of your vision are extremely limited. That leads to the question of whether it's good to look more at the big picture or the more specific area. Is one better than the other or should it be a mixture of both? I know hiking, it was nice to switch back and forth, but basically impossible to do both at the same time because the bright light shone so much on that focused area.

Our third hiking adventure took place the night after I got back from Longs Peak. After returning to the BCO completely soaked (both myself and my pack), I took a hot shower to try and warm up and then we hit the trail for Andrew's Glacier. As soon as we got the first mile down the trail towards the site that was 3.6 miles away, the hail started without letting up. We made it another mile before reevaluating what our options were--keep going in the pouring rain/hail with my pack already soaked completely through.

At this point, we had less than a mile to go, but I couldn't handle it. I was hiking in jeans because the pants I wanted to wear were already drenched, and I knew these were not going to be fun to sleep in if they were soaked. We made the decision to turn around, and saw a rainbow immediately after doing so--we took that as a good sign!

When we got back home, we set up the tent in the living room without the fly on. We got snacks and climbed in for a night of watching The Office through our tent. Man, we're classy!!