If one is on a Summer Blog Break and one has a blogworthy adventure, what does one do?? One must blog about it I say! :) So yes, I am still on a break, but bring you an adventure story so I'll have a record of it and so you can be entertained.
We just got back from a lovely Summer trip to OR and MT. We went to Glacier National Park as part of our trip this year. If you've never been there, you really should try to go - it's simply stunning. Majestic mountains like no other. The pictures are great but don't even begin to do it justice. I am blessed to have grown up in the state of MT and visited Glacier Park many times over the years.
My hubs, son and I were on a trail called Trail of the Cedars near Avalanche Creek on the West side of the park. It's an easy, lovely 1-mile level trail through the cedars. As we were on it, we got to the head of the Avalanche Lake trail which is a 2-mile trail that climbs waaaayyy up to a beautiful hidden lake. I wasn't planning on hiking that trail since the last time I had done it was before adding *ahem* MANY pounds to my body and MANY years to my age - LOL! But I decided to be brave and go for it as I wanted hubs and son to see the fabulous view at the lake. Hubs had been rather paranoid about bears, having heard several tales of grizzly attacks from various relatives of mine over the last few days, but he decided that this trail would be fine as it was heavily traveled in both directions - plenty of people smells and noises to keep the bears away.
So all the way down that trail, we made plenty of noise and kept a close eye on both sides of the trail. Nerve-wracking! We made it to the bottom just fine and then found a Ranger so we could make an official report of the bear-sighting. He confirmed that a Mama grizzly bear and cubs were up in that general area, but that they hadn't ever been that close to the trail. He also said that we were lucky because she must be tolerant of people or she would have charged us. In fact, that trail was closed twice last Summer because of bears charging hikers (just charges to scare the hikers away from cubs - no fatalities or anything like that!) We are so thankful that the Lord protected us that day!
Now I am not trying to scare you from hiking on trails in bear country! This won't stop us from taking hikes - though we are not the types to go too far off the beaten path. Bears usually want to stay far away from people. Use common sense, follow all precautions given, make noise, have something for protection (bear pepper spray, gun, etc), and know how to best protect yourself if indeed you are charged by a bear.
So what do you think? Was that blogworthy? Have you ever seen a bear? Would you still hike that trail?
I hope you all are having as much fun as I am! LOL! Enjoy the rest of your Summer!
































