Glacier National Park, Hidden Lake and the Loop Trail

The day after Lauren's wedding we cruised on up to Glacier National Park with my parents and Lyndee.  Erik and I had never been there and my parents hadn't been since the 70's.  We knew it wouldn't do the park justice to only spend 5-6 hours there, but that was all we had.  This trip was kind of a blur driving from one event to the next, but still really fun.  Since we were with family and had limited time, so opted to do two short hikes.

First we hiked Hidden Lake from the Logan Pass visitors center.  There was tons of snow at the pass (SHOCKER! Story of our hiking season this year!) And there were actually a lot of people with skiis and snowboards hiking up peaks to ski down.  It looked like alot of fun. So we hiked the entire way on packed snow, Erik and I were really regretting wearing our chacos! Who hikes in the snow in Chacos?!?!?! Obviously we weren't prepared.

 Classic Monte moment

At the lake overlook we saw several mountain goats! That was my one major goal in my trip to Glacier was to see one, so I am pumped we did.  Naturally, my parents broke into song at the sight of a mountain goat singing the "yodalay-hee" song from sound of music. . . we didn't see too many goats after the singing. . .

After the hike to Hidden Lake, my family took off to continue their drive to Lewistown to visit the Ranch.  Erik and I decided to get as far as we could up the Loop trail in one hour before turning around.  We still had a long drive to Spokane that night and didn't want to we driving too late into the night. It was a really nice trail with views in every direction.  The only problem. . . we had no water.  We had planned to fill our packs with water at the trailhead. . . what national park trailhead doesn't have a drinking fountain?!?! Since there was none, we just went for it anyway. . . when were we going to make it back this far North to enjoy beauty like this?  Bad idea.  It was really hot and the trail was steep, and we were dying for water. There were running streams and rivers all around us, and it wasn't helping.  Our fear of giarrdia was still stronger than our thirst.  On our way down we found some water seeping out of a rock.  Apparently this is pretty safe to drink since it has been filtered through the rocks. . . so we drank enough to satisfy the cottonmouth. . . we were too scared to drink more than that.

We didn't quite make it to the pass before we had to turn around.  But we were both really thirsty and hungry, and frustrated at out lack of preparedness.  We are the Rasmussen's after all! We know how to prepare for a hike! Anyways, on the way down I sprained my ankle really bad.  I had sprained the same ankle less than 2 weeks before and it was just getting better! Needless to say I was pissed, hurt, hungry and thirsty, yet still the beauty of the park was enough to make it an enjoyable hike.  Erik carried my pack for me (Knight in shining armor).  I limped down a few miles and then iced my ankle in a chilling mountain stream before we got in the car to head back to Spokane.