The Next Adventure Begins

 9/17/21

Today was my official leaving of the Many Glacier valley. I went through the property and took photos of the spaces that I have been active in for the summer. I included the photos below.

This is the "dungeon" where we would all hangout after work and play games or watch tv.

Also in the "dungeon" was the laundry for the employees. 

The interior of my cabin.

The view of Grinnell outside of my cabin that I saw each morning.

My cabin D4

My neighbor Amos in D3

The employee dining room where we shared meals. Normally we would eat outside on the benches or standing around. It was closed when I took this photo so it didn't normally look like this.

The kitchen that I walked through to work.

The dining room after they were done closing it down for the season.

The front desk after closing.

After leaving the valley I decided to finally see Virginia Falls,  a hike that most of my friends did at the beginning of the season. I also wanted to go for a run so I ran the 1.6 miles there to the falls. It was more uphill than I anticipated so I walked quite a bit but thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and hearing everyone's reactions. One lady even said jokingly, "Now you cut that out!"

St. Mary falls at the beginning of the run.

A random falls along the way.

Virginia Falls, for size comparison I am as tall as the small platform above where the water is pooling.

Once I made it to the west side I stopped by the post office to pick up a package that I had left. I met up with Megan and then went to the campsite that we were going to stay for the night. Once we got there we waited for the rest of the group to show up then we had dinner. We roasted some hotdogs and grabbed Chick-fil-a before heading to our friend Caleb's game. He is the QB coach for those who don't remember in my earlier post.

This was the fire that we had later that night.

9/18/21

Today Molly, Ryan, and I traveled down to the Grand Tetons. We had to stop at Wal-Mart so that Molly could get her oil changed. We ended up staying at the Wal-Mart for 4 hours because we had to wait for Molly to get there then we kept thinking of things that we needed and we sate lunch at the Subway in the Wal-Mart as well. We finally made it to the Grand Tetons later that night in the rain. We were too tired to set up any tents so we all just slept in the cars. Ryan and I shared the bed in my van and Molly in her her Honda Accord. The road was also extremely muddy so we were sliding around as we came up the road to the campsite.

9/19/21

Today we decided to explore Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was raining in the morning so we had to jerry rig up a tarp to cook breakfast and it worked out fairly well. When we made it to Jackson Hole it was a fairly nice morning. Cloudy and overcast but a great temperature to explore in. MY first task was finding a map. We went to a mountaineering store where I was struggling not to buy anything more than a map. We then walked all around downtown and took in the sights, smells, and sounds. We stopped for lunch at the famous Drugstore and sat outside, looking like homeless people, to eat lunch. I called my parents and in the midst of the Facetime it started to rain. We then decided to drive around the park to see where we wanted to go the next day. The drive was absolutely beautiful and we found a public restroom stop with a water refill station and firewood for sale. 

Downtown Jackson Hole

Antler arches from where Elk have shed them with the seasons.

Signal Mountain overlook.

The jerry rig tarp for cooking.

9/20/21

Last night was one of the coldest nights that I have ever experienced camping. I believe it got down into less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit and I wore 5 layers on my torso and 2 layers on my legs. I also wore a hat and gloves and covered my head with a blanket to stay warm. Today the sunrise was absolutely mind blowing. The mountains in the distance slowly gathered orange light on the peaks and then it cleared up a few minutes later. We decided to hike up to Cascade Canyon for the day. We started along Jenny Lake and then slowly climbed in elevation into the canyon. It was spectacular with the snow from the night before.

The Grand Tetons in the morning light.

A creek bed that we walked along for the hike.

A nice little spot for resting.

The mountains were unbelievable.

The colors are changing!

The mountain valley in Cascade Canyon.

An epic shot of Ryan.

The line of people that we came up to on the hike back.

The amount of people waiting for the boat to drive them back across the lake saving about 2 miles of walking. The wait time was about 20-30 minutes.

We decided to nap at the spot we found in the morning and enjoyed the sunlight.

On our way back there was a group of rangers that came running up the trail from the boat dock. They turned off of the main trail and started climbing the mountain side at a run. Later along the hike we saw a helicopter fly into the canyon we had just come from. We then went back to camp and enjoyed dinner for the evening.

Our dinner set-up.

Molly making mac-n-cheese and hotdogs.

Ryan providing some nice background music.

9/21/21

Today we decided to hike to the number one recommended lake, Delta Lake. At the height of the trail there were two other lakes as well, Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake. There were 18 switchbacks up the mountain side and the snow got thicker the higher we climbed. Eventually we were walking through snow and ice at the top of the mountain and the reflections in the lake were amazing.

This was our typical morning with the land covered in frost.

The pink mountains from the sunrise...again indescribable

Eggs and hotdogs for breakfast

Mid hike snack...my beard is definitely getting longer.

Some artificial sugar should be good for me right...

The beginning of snow.

The thicker snow we eventually reached.

A cool photo of Ryan.

Molly's perfect snowball.

Surprise Lake

A cloud's reflection in the lake.

Ryan's rendition of Surprise Lake while Molly and I napped.

9/22/21

Today we traveled back up to Hungry Horse to camp for the night and meet up with Alex. It was an uneventful trip back and we made it with enough time to enjoyed the sunset at the campsite. We also saw the moon in the evening reflecting on the water.

9/23/21

Today we made our way all the way to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. The drive was absolutely beautiful with multiple sweeping mountains with trees changing leaves. When we got to the camp site we had to figure out some financial maneuvering with the parking and campsite. Once we got settled in we started a fire and had dinner while Ryan played some guitar. It was also strange being in a place where there was no concern for bears. We didn't have to package up anything or worry about bears breaking into food supplies so we just left it stored in our cooler and a container that I brought for the trip. I also highly recommend using a Coleman Propane Stove for any cooking you are hoping to do while camping.

Our campsite outside of Coeur D'Alene

9/24/21

Today the main goal was climbing. However, Ryan and I needed to get our oil changed in our vehicles so we went to a Valvoline and then waited in line for around 1.5 hours to make it all the way through. Once we made it through and had our oil changed we joined up with Molly and Alex in the Q'Emillan park parking lot. We all had grabbed out own lunches so that we could just meet up to go climbing. I lead them to the wall that we wanted to go to and then began my instruction class to teach them how to belay. We started out on a 5.5 climb then went to a 5.6 and eventually a 5.8. I had to lead climb all three and then had to climb them again to clean up the gear. It was a great time getting back on the wall and I was proud of how much they pushed themselves on the routes. Molly made it up all three and Alex made it up two of them. Ryan isn't really into heights so he just belayed. The day was absolutely beautiful weather and it was a fun change of pace in activity from hiking.

9/25/21

Today we all woke up and then pitched in to clean up camp. We have been getting creative with meals and started make pigs in a blanket by roasting dough wrapped around lil smokies over the fire. They are super delicious and I highly recommend them for a camping snack. We then drove all the way to the North Cascades. We stopped along the way to take some photos of the scenic route and to make some bathroom breaks. We went to a campsite that Amos had recommended and it looks like we are on the planet Endor from Star Wars. We made dinner and I was able to start a fire with just flint and steel! I was very proud to build that fire from just a simple spark.

9/26/21

Last night we had facetimed with Amos and talked about him joining us for a hike. He came over and joined us for breakfast, since he is staying in Seattle and has been slightly ahead of us this entire trip. We ended up hiking to Diablo Lake and made it back just in time to beat the rain. Amos's next hotel was south of Seattle and we all hadn't showered in 5 days so we decided to drive with him to the next hotel to take showers. I was able to talk with some friends over Facetime to hear about life updates and then was able to update the blog. I am pretty tired though so most of this is off the top of my head and fairly brief.

P.S. I didn't have time for photos this update but will try to have some next update.