When life gives you lemons (Part 1) Just smile and throw them at somebody with a citrus allergy

So, I had to onboard on a Friday and then start training on a Monday. Seems a little counterintuitive to have me sitting around all weekend waiting to start. On the plus side, I get to see what dorm life is like.

Now I haven’t stayed in a dorm since college well over 35 years ago. And here at Lake McDonald, it hasn’t really changed much. I do get a bathroom in my room that’s kind of nice not having to walk out in the hallway in my underwear. And it’s always fun meeting the new roommate who is established and used to living alone.

My roommate is a retired lawyer who runs the front desk. I always like it when I get a roommate older than me. Because it makes them the creepy old man working a seasonal job for reasons unknown, and not me. Yet a man with a lot of shoes….

Actually, it’s amazingly big. Easily twice the size of my room in college. And as I said that didn’t even have a bathroom. Of course, there are the classic fluorescent light fixtures that flickered just enough to make you think of a Quintin Tarantino movie.

The texture on the wall looks like somebody did it with a snow shovel. And the classic dark oak laminate fake wood is awesome. It is kind of nice to have a drawer dresser and stacked armoire large enough to be a makeshift coffin. You never know when you’ll need one as a seasonal parkie in Glacier.

Enough on that. Since I still have time to kill before actually starting work why not go on a hike? So today I went to an old favorite called the Huckleberry fire lookout. 12 miles round trip and about 2700′ a gain. That should help me get those lungs back.

On the plus side, I got to see the new Camas Road entry station that was replaced. People used this ungated road ALL the time last year to sneak into the park for FREE and without a Going to the Sun Road ticket. Of course, the inside isn’t finished so we will see how many people keep getting by for free.

The vault toilet was very nice. Hardly any turds. It had that new outhouse smell.

It was supposed to be light rain in the morning getting worse in the afternoon, so I got up early for a start before 7 AM. The sky gave me a touch of hope but was only teasing.

While gearing up at the trailhead I was thoroughly eaten by hungry mosquitoes. Ah, June in Glacier. The black flies trying to nest in my eyes and nose were pretty cool as well. A half mile into the hike the light rain started.

It was a Seattle rain. A 1/8th inch per hour heavy drizzle that soaks through every possible seam of your clothes regardless of if Gortex or not. Heavy but still too light to knock the mosquitoes out of the air. Just perfect for making you sweat under your rain gear even more than before.

I was fully prepped for the rain. So, it was just a matter of keeping my head down and my feet moving.

I started hitting the snow at about 5000′ and then it became constant at 5500′.

When I hit the 4-mile mark I could see that the next mile was on a steep hillside. The trail completely snowed over at a 45-degree angle.

Even with the aluminum crampons I packed, it would be way too dicey on the rain-slick snow. The rain-soaked grasses that had come up were even worse than the snow and I took several hard slips.

There were feral boot tracks in the snow going directly toward the summit. I knew if I followed it with crampons, I could make the top in another hour and a half. But with three hours invested already, the rain picking up and the wind blowing harder my prudence kicked in.

Time to take my loss like a man. There was no point in climbing mountains with no views on a hypothermic day solo. That is what I call a recipe for a body recovery effort. And back down I went.

On the way down I did chase one lone Ptarmigan down the trail for about 50′. I guess he didn’t want to go sliding off in the wet brush either. Then the bird was kind enough to provide a profile shot so I could salvage the day with a wildlife pic.

Amazingly enough, I still passed 8 people going up. None of them were prepared. One couple in cotton hoodies and tennis shoes. The rain had turned it up a notch and the mosquitoes would not relent as I fought my way to the car and wished them all the best of luck.

One of the saving graces of this misery was I wore my full-length Gortex gaiters and was able to hold off all the water coming from the brush. My feet stayed dry. But I was very proud of the drying rack I made for the rest of my soaked gear.

Back in the employee dining hall I was making myself a salad and bumped into my old roommate Don. It was his off day, and his big plans were just doing laundry.

We ended up talking for almost 3 hours getting caught up and bashing the National Park system for everything wrong in Glacier. A lot is going on under the covers this season. I’m already making notes for that post.