A lazy day at Glacier.

The day started slow. Slow to wake. Slow to eat. Slow to dress. Slow to get in the car.

Jason and I had discussed going on the Apgar Lookout trail on Thursday night. It was a longer trail at three and a half miles one direction, but we had walked far more than 7 miles in a day before, so why not just on one trail? Let me tell you why. In the morning I looked at the trail guide and noticed the the elevation gain was 1850 plus feet. We did Harney Peak last year and that ascent was around 1000 feet in the the same distance. You may have heard about my disdain for Harney Peak. If not, suffice it to say I did not have a good time. I did not feel like repeating that expierence again. Ever. We discussed this calmly and rationally as we approached the trail head. Well we discussed it. Calm and rational we were not. The three boys and I were adamant that Jason would not be living his hiking dream. At least not with us. However there were horses at the foot of the trail and the boys and I really wanted to ride. We could even ride to the lookout if we wanted to fork over a small fortune. Jason gave in and we approached the horse joint. The sign said 7 and over. We hoped they'd bend the rules and allow a six and a half year old, who thought he was ten, ride. No such luck. Apparently the age you think you are has no bearing on whether you ride or not.

Well poo. Now, here we were, each of our hopes for the day dashed. The only thing I could think of was that I needed to mail a letter. So we went into Apgar Village to find a mailbox. We were quickly pointed in the right direction and our day was wide open. I got a coffee to try and bolster my post-horse-let-down mood.

Then, In the village I noticed signs for boat rentals. I pointed the boats out to the boys and knew what at least part of our day would consist of. We grabbed our lunches and set out on a small motor boat on Lake McDonald. The lake was choppy and cool. But still beautiful. At one point Jason turned to me and remarked "can you believe this lake is four hundred feet deep?". Uh, can I get my life-jacket please?

We motored out to where the forest had been marred by a forest fire and stopped for lunch on the boat. Samus was looking a little green. He was sea sick. If there is a thing that someone can feel, you can count on poor Samus to experience it. I cleared out the grape baggie and it became the barf bag. After everyone ate their sandwiches, except their crusts, we started off back along the shoreline. Here we could see the bottom for most of the ride. Towards the end of our journey we began passing cabins and I began dreaming of summers on Lake McDonald.

With our boat ride behind us, we took one last ditch attempt at hiking and did a trail that we had spotted from the lake. It was an easy hike. Marcus and I made up a song called Beautiful Lake. It was very descriptive and didn't always have the same words or tune.

Back at camp we enjoyed some rest, a fire, whittling, potatoes over the fire, and a failed attempt at going to a ranger-led talk. Jason and I read the sign wrong and the talks were at two others amphitheater not ours. No matter. We needed to get to bed for the long haul to Seattle tomorrow.

Just a lazy day at Glacier.