Quinn Endicott/SWC
110 9th Street West
Columbia Falls, MT 59912
8/13/21
Today was another regular shift at Swiftcurrent. Although with it being Friday the 13th there was talk of having a movie night in the dungeon. The talk turned out to just be talk because when I got off of work at 8pm there was no movie happening. Also, we had two ranger friends come and stay the night for a huge hike that I am a part of for tomorrow called the Skyline Experience. We are planning on being on the trail at 5:30am and expect the trip to take between 12-14 hours. I ended up going to bed fairly early to try and get some rest in preparation.
8/14/21
What a crazy day it has been! So we ended up leaving for the trail head at 5:30am and then didn't get on the trail until 6:00am because of stretching, packing, and eating. The sun was barely up when we did start and we took off on the Cracker Lake trail. We hiked for about 4 miles until we started following a creek bed up the mountain side. This was my favorite part o the hike because the rock formations of the creek were exceptionally interesting and we were doing some slight rock climbing. This took us around 3 hours to get through until we came to the base of Wynn Mt. It was a nice open field surrounded by small pine trees with a scree field at the base of the mountain that we would be climbing up. It was only 1 mile to the peak but it took us over 2.5 hours to reach the peak. Multiple breaks were taken on the way up but we eventually made it at around 12pm. The smoke was so bad though that we couldn't see more than 5 miles in any direction even though we were at 8,700 feet! We stopped for a lunch break before starting the ridge walk over the the next 4 mountain peaks. The ridge walk is only 5.5 miles but it is a constant uphill or downhill most of the way. We hit a no named peak, then a peak called 9190 then on up to Cracker Mt. and finally over to Siyeh Mt.(pronounced sigh-ee) which is one of six peaks in the park over 10,000ft. I could say that we made it back without serious injury but it was a brutal journey. Around 9190 one of the guys in the group started having diarrhea and all of us were getting headaches from the smoke. The guy who started having diarrhea is also slightly terrified of heights and the further we went the more exposed the climbing became. So, on top of dealing with feeling awful he was also mentally fighting off the fear he was experiencing which in turn led to a few mental breakdowns and some emotional outbursts. The relief we all experienced at reaching the final peak is something that I won't be able to explain. I made it up there first because I was so frustrated with the ache of constantly climbing for 12 hours, the frustration of dealing with slower people, and the frustration of feeling ill prepared for this hike. My expectations were utterly destroyed and I was pushing myself harder to ignore that frustration. Eventually everyone made it up to Siyeh and we enjoyed what we could of the extremely smoky view. On one side of the peak was a sheer cliff dropping off 4,000ft below, so I was avoiding that side, and the other side of the peak was our way down. A long 5,000ft descent to the Piegan Pass trail. We all were in a better mood going down until we hit a point where on the members, who had gone up to Siyeh last year, felt that we needed to go to the left side of the mountain for the descent but the rest of the group wanted to continue on the trail that we were following. There was some debate, and honestly I believed both sides because it looked like both ways had a way down, until it seemed like neither side wanted to agree with the other so I went with the one member who felt we needed to go further left while the remainder of the group waited to see if we found anything. We eventually came across some rock stacks, which are called Cairns (pronounced Karens), and they led us down to a gulley carved out by water run off. Before we had reached the Cairns though I had waved for the other group to go their own way because I felt that we weren't going to find a path. So for about 30 minutes we were separated but I trusted the other group because the guy in the group has climbed hundreds of mountains and is an excellent guide with plenty of maps. Also the two girls that were with him have a decent amount of experience climbing. So I knew they would be all right. The guy I was with was the one afraid of heights and experiencing diarrhea so he was a little more on the scary side for descending the mountain and I wanted to keep him close in case he started to breakdown again. As we were coming down the middle of the gulley the other groups trail led them to the spot we were at so they quickly caught up to us and once they did they took over looking after the guy who was having a rough hike. I kept blazing down the mountain until I was basically at the bottom but I decided to wait for the rest of the group because we had been warned that bears frequented the area. I changed my socks, for the third time, thanks to my sweaty feet, and saw a bear about 1,000 feet down the mountain stroll across the rock field at the base. It took about 15 minutes for the rest of the group to reach the bottom but the guy having a rough day had some other rough things occur. Apparently he had fallen earlier and cut his hand, then right when he reached the spot I was at he stepped on to a loose rock and fell and rolled twice over the rocks while banging up his hip. He broke down because of all the emotional and physical strain and then had an incident with diarrhea before he could do anything so he had to clean himself up with what toilet paper I had left while me and the other guy waited for him and the two girls went ahead to give him some privacy. At this point it had been 14 hours on the trial and we still had around 5 miles left to hike. I felt God pulling on me to let the guy having a rough day know that this day didn't change how I saw him so I did. Immediately he broke down crying and hugged me thanking me for saying that and I held him for a bit, although he is a lot bigger than me, and then encouraged him onward as the night began to fall. We all took out our headlamps and sang/shouted to keep the bears away and all had our bear spray out. Luckily we didn't run in to any bears and made it back to the car at 10:30 pm, 16.5 hours after we had started and 18 miles of hiking. We bagged 5 peaks over that time span and shed much blood, sweat, and tears. It was the hardest hike I have ever done and close to the hardest thing I have ever accomplished. I took a lot but we made it through. We finally got back to Swiftcurrent at 11:30pm and I ended up going straight to bed.
8/15/21
Ironically, today for the message at our service, Amos talked about expectations. He talked about how we all live our lives out of expectations, whether we realize it or not. Frustrations and difficult circumstances occur out of unmet expectations. He then tied this to our expectations of Jesus. He brought up how time and time again we continue to place and live by the expectations we put on Jesus. Yet when we take the risk to trust Him he blows our expectations away. He talked about the expectations of the disciples and the Jewish leaders of the day when it came to the messiah. They expected a king to overthrow the Roman rule and take back the city of Jerusalem. To lead the people with strength and unequivocal might. James and John asked if they could be Jesus' right and left hand men when He would meet their expectations. Jesus responded that they did not know what they asked. In the end through the arrest, beating, and finally the crucifixion of Jesus we see who was at his right and left when he was at his greatest place. A criminal was at either side of him in the place of humility taking on every sin of those who expectations he did not meet. The expectations of the disciples were utterly crushed when Jesus died. Yet, He had told them exactly what to expect in his ministry. He even told them multiple times that he would rise again, yet this seemed to have gone in one ear and out the other. Through these unmet "expectations" placed on Jesus, He was able to go above and beyond what the disciples imagined Him accomplishing. All this to say that the sermon directly applied to what had occurred the day before and is even applying to the experiences I am having out here in Montana.
Also totally random side not but the Colts won their pre-season game and Tottenham beat Man City for the first game of the season! I was also able to call an old friend and catch up with him this afternoon so that was nice as well!
8/16/21
Today I slept in until 10am and then went to work at noon. I had messaged a friend that I could call them after work so once 8pm hit I called them up and we were able to catch up. He had been at the Olympics in Japan and was an assistant for the media department at the Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts stadium. He told me the stories of watching these athletes live and seeing the skill they possessed. he was even able to take a photo with one of the Gold medal winners and shared the story of Gable Stevenson winning in the last second of his match. I watched the replay and at minute 4:50 of this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXPmihrX3c
you can see my friend in a grey shirt and khakis behind the camera man wearing a grey shirt and khakis as well. I then went and introduced Molly to the original Mulan movie and then we watched Tangled since neither of us had seen it in a while. It was a great day catching up with friends and ended with some fun nostalgic movies.
8/17/21
Today I didn't work until 3pm so I watched the movie Blow with Johnny Depp and journaled quite a bit. It was a nice relaxing morning and there was also a lot of rain. The rain that came through brought in a cold front so we are back down into the 50's and 40's at night. My shift was a little rough because the weather put most of the guests in a bad mood and they decided to take it out on me. Very few of them were patient and most of them we quite negative about everything. This put me in a negative mood so I probably didn't help the situation much. I have been looking at apartments and jobs in Lexington for when I go back for the winter and spring and potentially have a few interviews. Who knows what I will end up doing but thankfully there are lots of job opportunities out there. Also, I have been talking to some of my friends out here in Montana and I may have a few of them coming back to Kentucky that I may be able to room with.
8/18/21
Today I had a 10 hour shift because my manager is gone for the next 4 days. I came in at 12:45pm and am working until 11pm. I spent most of my time reading and looking at apartments because it was really dead in the lobby today. I also only had 11 people checking in o the Motor Inn which is about a 3rd of the usual amount. The rain wasn't as bad today so more people were in a better mood and I had some enjoyable conversation with a few of the guests. I just finished reading Into the Wild and now have started 1984. I also started a list of books about Afghanistan to catch up on the history of the country and the past 50 years. The Kite Runner peaked my interest in Afghanistan because it was written from a boy's perspective before and during the Russian invasion and the Taliban takeover. I am learning to appreciate reading more because o the multiple perspectives that you can look at. I am also enjoying not having to write a report or analyze a bunch of stuff for reading and am instead reading for interest.
8/19/21
Today was another cold and rainy day in Glacier National Park. It didn't start raining until this afternoon so most people were trying to enjoy the day before the rain hit. My shift wasn't too terribly long and I found some AirBnB's to possibly stay in with the group I am traveling with after the season ends. I ended up taking a nap after work from 3-5 pm and then ate my own food for dinner to try and start using it all up so I don't waste any when I head out in 4 weeks. After dinner I went to the employee hangout space and played cards with Amos and Nowell. Amos and I then went to his cabin and met some other people for a worship night. We sang songs, prayed, and talked for around 2 hours. It was a great space for challenging each other and calling out the good we have seen happen here at Swiftcurrent over the season. It was also a good reminder to not get so caught up in the future plans that we miss out on the people we are here with for another month. I am hoping to continue to build these relationships throughout my time here and to maintain a connection as we journey throughout the U.S. to different jobs and places.
P.S. We are having an escalation of Nerf wars and slingshot ducks
"Is there a gym or pool or anything here?" -young group of campers close to my age asking a serious question
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