We woke up early to start our exploration of this area. Alex was in charge of coming up with a plan of what he wanted to do, as I wanted him to enjoy our time out west. Truthfully, it also gave me a respite from researching and allowed me to sit back a little. After picking him up from the lodge-looking airport complete with indoor fireplace and exposed wood, we spent last night game-planning our weekend together.
Today, we made our way to the trailhead of a 11.4 mile hike that led to two beautiful alpine lakes (the second with an elevation of 9160ft when we started around 7000ft). Just as we were finishing up our packed lunch at the second lake, we noticed a dark cloud rolling in. Shortly after, the thunder started followed by lightning and then rain. So our 5.7 mile hike down the mountain was quite different from the sunny and dry hike up. We made it down eventually with minimal slipping and maximum saturation. Despite the tree cover for some of it, we had no choice but to get wet or try to wait it out while the ground grew slipperier, muddier and puddlier.
Though 11.4 miles is a great feat, I must say we left feeling like our accomplishment was child's play. The majority of the people that we passed both going up or coming down were not fellow hikers but bikers and trailrunners. There we were, feeling the burn on the climb up, and a group of mountain bikers rode past us and they were NOT walking their bikes like I probably would have. Wow! We were so amazed at how ambitious these thrillseekers were. What really solidified our feelings of inadequacy were the number of people still biking up the mountain in the rain and increasingly muddier conditions. Congrats Montanians - you win.
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