8/20/21
Today after work a group of people chose to play some board games. What we didn't realize was that we would remain playing board games for 8 hours! I got off of work and made a phone call about a potential job opportunity and then once Amos got off we all gathered in the Dungeon, staffing basement, and started playing Rail Baron. It came close to ending after about 5 hours but another player in the game stopped the person from winning so the game continued for another hour. We then played the game Secret Hitler for 3 hours. There were lots of laughs and interesting game experiences. It was an awesome afternoon/evening, especially since it was raining all day. Tomorrow I am working because my manager is out of town, so it will be my first Saturday on the job since I started in June.
8/21/21
This morning there was an older gentleman that came in and starting charging his camera battery in the lobby. Once he set it up he came up to the front desk and started talking to me. I had the typical guest service thought of, this guy likes talking so I will entertain him since he is older. However, he ended up sharing his life story about his family, jobs, life experiences, and a lot of information about snowmobiles. He shared about how his family has basically fallen apart and that he isn't welcome by anyone in his immediate or extended family. He is from Kalispell, at 80 years old, and I assumed he was in his late 60s. I eventually asked if he was religious at all and he shared that he had been to church once as a kid and only knew of Jesus and had seen a cross but didn't know anything about Christianity. So I prompted to briefly cover the idea of Jesus and invited him to our service the following day. I also exchanged numbers with him and hope to stay in touch.
After work I went with Amos, Ryan, and Alex to Grinnell Lake, one of the final places for me to visit in the Many Glacier valley. It had been raining all day so we were prepared to get wet on the hike. It was only 3.5 miles so we made it to the lake fairly quickly and then enjoyed the view. We then noticed an animal trail along the shore heading towards the waterfall in the middle picture below. We decided to take the trail to see if we could make it to the waterfall. It was pretty extreme bushwhacking and I was fairly certain the trail we were following was a bear trail, due to bear scat, the size of the trail, and the way the brush was broken and trampled. It took us 30 minutes to make it half a mile but then we had a nice view of the lake. We ended up getting to the top of the point in the middle photo an started hooping and hollering to hear the echo. Amos was so loud that people on a distant trail started hooting and hollering back. We weren't able to make it to the waterfall because the brush got thicker and covered a bunch of loose rock. It was a fun little adventure and then we started on our way back to Swiftcurrent. Before we took the direct route home we detoured at Hidden Falls to enjoy the quite beautiful waterfall cascading in a hidden ravine. We finally made it back soaking wet from the bushwhacking and my boots squished and squashed with every step.
8/22/21
This morning started out fairly wet. It was lightly raining right up until the service started so my guitar got a little wet. Sadly, the guy that I had talked to and invited to the service ended up not showing up. Molly was the one giving the message and it was a great time to be reminded to think back on how God has impacted our lives and the ways that we have experienced God at work in our lives. Since it started draining after the service, Amos, Molly, and I decided to watch some movies for the afternoon. we ended up watching 8-Mile and Tarzan. It was a nice relaxing afternoon and after the evening service we all dashed off to do a photo shoot at Logan Pass with the ACMNP team.
8/23/21
Today was another check off of the list with Grinnell Point being a long time goal of mine since coming to the valley. Amos, Michaela, and I were the group making this adventure. We started at 9am and I was the main guide for the way up. We bushwhacked for a bit until we found the ridge line leading up to the cliff base further up the mountain side. We finally hit the cliff edge and then followed a goat trail around tot he next section of vertical movement. We also made sure to stop and check out the mine that was on he side of the mountain. I hadn't been in an actual mine since my family vacation out West back in 4th grade so it was pretty cool exploring it. There were three main passages and each one eventually lead to a dead end after a few minutes of walking. There was a lot of water, maybe 4 inches deep, so we had to step on the rail and rocks to get around without soaking our feet. The mine marked the half way point so we continued on our way up the mountain. We worked our way around rocky sections to follow a faint trail. We also me across and mountain goat following the same trail we were so we gave it some distance and then continued on the path. The goat eventually split from the path and we continued further up the mountain. After about 4 hours we finally made it to the point. It was a great view of Swiftcurrent and the Many Glacier hotel. We took some photos and then sat down to rest and enjoy some food. We ha been sitting or about 5 minutes before we noticed some dark clouds moving quickly towards us from the South West and decided to start heading down so we wouldn't get caught in a storm. After a few minutes descending the mountain it started SNOWING! It was a crazy experience in the later part of August to be experiencing snow. Thankfully the snow stopped after a few minutes so the rocks weren't slippery at all. We kept making our way down, with Amos in the lead, and finally reached the tree line back to the trail. As a group we decided to take the most direct path tot he trail cause we were fairly tired so we did the most intense bushwhacking that I have ever done and finally reached the trail. We made it back just in time too because it started raining heavily about 20 minutes after we got to Swiftcurrent.
8/24/21
It was 38 degrees this morning when I went to work. This summer feels like it has been the shortest one in my life, especially with the weather changing faster than I have ever experienced. At work I was checking my Instagram messages to see if anything important had come up and I was shocked to hear that a group of ACMNP people had gone hiking and 4 of the members of the group hadn't made it back last night. The group had split once they found the trail, they were doing a 19 mile hike with 7 miles of it off trail, and left the slower members of the group so they could get back before the cold set in. The lead group of 10 people made it back tot heir cars at 1am after starting the trek at 6am. The messages were quite frantic with people trying to figure out if the group of 4 still had their cars at the start and end points, which they did, and then calling National Park Service to try and locate them. After about an hour, where Amos came and talked to me at the front desk and we both ranted about the lack of preparation that the group had done and the lack of judgement/leadership with leaving the 4 people behind and only having one person with significant off-trail experience. After the conversation I got fed up enough to call NPS and see if I could learn anything. Thankfully they had found out that they 4 people had stayed at the Sperry Chalet along the trail they were on. The chalet is like a larger cabin/hotel for hikers. Even though we had found out they were ok I was still fairly ticked off a the people for leaving them behind on the trail.
Ironically, due to someone being left behind on a trail at Swiftcurrent, there is drama stirring up with a few co-workers. A group had gone hiking about a month and a half ago when a storm hit and two members of the group left the the 3 and ran back to Swifturrent. They left the other 3 behind on a fairly difficult trail and the ones who left were the ones leading the group. This left one particular member of the hike really hurt and upset and they are not the most mature, especially for an adult, so rather than confronting the other two people about the situation they have been seething in their frustration and it has eventually hit a boiling point. Since they have been holding in a lot of the frustration, and are a quite temperamental individual, most of the staff have been avoiding them because they don't want to cause the explosion of anger. So, they have felt left out from activities and again rather than bringing up their frustrations and confronting people about it, they have decided to seclude themselves and brood over everything. Thus, one of the greatest things I have learned over the past week is to NEVER EVER leave someone behind on he trail. Even if you will get soaked, even if you will be miserable, NEVER leave them behind.
On a positive note, I now officially have a roommate for Kentucky! Ryan, the security guard guy that I have mentioned quite a few times, is going to be coming to Lexington and we are going to live together. There is another guy, Nich the maintenance guy, who may join us and if so then we are going to try and get a house to rent. Adult hood is moving steadily along and I am enjoying the exploration of what opportunities are out there. I also went for a run today for the first time in a really long time and it felt absolutely amazing. I only ran 2.5 miles but I had forgotten how therapeutic running is for me.
8/25/21
Today I stayed a little later at work to make some extra money and then once I got off I watched 10 Cloverfield Lane. It was a very interesting movie and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an apocalyptic/mystery/thriller. I went to dinner and talked to a few people then decided to watch 12 Monkey's, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. It was a fairly confusing but fascinating movie concept. I also recommend the movie to anyone wanting to see Brad Pitt do one of his best performances. I watched these movies to wait for a large group of people to leave form Swiftcurrent and go to a nearby lake to try and see the Northern Lights. Tonight was predicted to be a good night of visibility for the lights but we stayed out there from 10:30mp-1:00am and didn't see anything so we all decided to head back. There ended up being about 30 people that showed up. I crawled in my sleeping bag and layed on the ground and actually fell asleep for a few minutes while listening to everyone talk. It was a wonderful time joking around and listening to the conversations. At one point me and two other guys, my potential roommates, crawled in our blankets and sleeping bags to scare a guy sitting a few feet from us. There was a guy that brought an industrial laser pointer as well so that was fun to watch in the night sky. Once we did decide to go back we were help up in construction for around 30 minutes and didn't make it back to our cabins until 2am!
8/26/21
This morning was fairly rough due to the 3 hours of sleep that I got. However, I am making it through the day. After work I joined Amos and our co-worker Olivia to do the final hike of the valley, Shangri La. It is an alternative route to Iceberg Lake that involves more climbing and seeing a hidden lake called Shangri La. It was a brutal start with much bushwhacking and a steep incline. We eventually hit a cliff section that had diagonal sections for easy steps to climb. After about an hour we made it to level ground and continued on a path that was more clear. We eventually came to the Shangri La lake and walked along the side until we had come to the western tip. We then ascended the last hill to overlook Iceberg Lake. The sun began to peek out of the clouds while we were enjoying the view so we had a beautiful beam of sunlight blazing in the sky. On our way back down to Shangri La Lake, Amos spotted a grizzly bear about 150 yards away digging near a bush. We stopped to see where the bear would go because he was directly on the path we needed to take. The bear eventually moved off of the trail but we kept our distance and went to through the trees to remain hidden and distanced. WE kept an eye on the bear as we made our way down to the lake and at one point it seemed to be following us but not acknowledging our presence. It was sniffing around and making lazy zig zags in our general direction so we picked up the pace until we rounded a large bend in the pond and could see the bear from the opposite side of the lake. We then made our way back to Swiftcurrent over the course of an hour and then shared some food in the EDR. It was a great hike and crazy to think about the mileage that I have covered in hiking this summer, probably close to 250-270 miles!
P.S. There is a disco party this Saturday!
P.P.S. A guest was feeding a bear on one of the trails in the park so the National Park Service had to shut down the trail and find and kill the bear because it now understood to find food from people. Many of the guests that visit have very little common sense and will go chasing a bear to get a photo. They have now literally caused the death of a bear.
"Is there a way to get my food to go from the restaurant?" -a random guest
"Yes ma'am, all of the restaurants in the park are to-go so they will have your food already bagged."
-Quinn
"So is there a way to get my food to go?" - the same random guest
"Yes ma'am, as I just mentioned all of the restaurants have their food to-go." - Quinn
"But can I get it to-go from the restaurant here?- the same guest
The above example shows some of the difficulty I have had with guests
Comments
Post a Comment