The Path to Enlightenment Leads to the Holy Goat

Our epic journey began Wednesday evening in River Falls, WI as Shaun and I departed his apartment searching for true enlightenment. With over 1200 miles in front of us we knew it would be a long journey, luckily the further west you travel the faster you can drive. Apparently there seems to be a magical equation for Speed Limits. I haven't fully proofed my work yet but I think it works out something like this.


Speed Limit = (Corn proportions)^(Education Level) / (population density)


Actually I don't think these states really have the equation correct so Shaun and I took the liberty of adding another 10 to 15 miles an hour buffer to their speed limit. I still feel we may need to add state size to the equation for that little extra speed needed to cross in a timely manner. Of course Montana is so large that they cannot possibly patrol much of it, instead they throw in the random factor called the Jack Rabbit. Able to move at fast speeds and appear out of nowhere these "little" things, which are almost tall enough to look at you over the hood of you car, work like natures speed bump. They bump hard enough that I actually stopped to look for damage...


The locals obviously have adjusted to the local fauna and had even added them to their breakfast menu. As we walked into the local Casino / Diner it took me a few minutes to realize that Jack Flaps where actually pancakes and not those furry little speed bumps who have been causing my average speed to be lowered by 10 miles an hour.


About 5 hours later Shaun and I arrived at Glacier National Park earlier than expected which worked out well since we seemed to time it with Dan's arrival. We decided to make the most of it and headed out for a nice hike.


About halfway into the walk we noticed a thunderstorm pushing through the pass moving directly at us. Now most hikers would turn away, but after watching too many Scifi movies we figured this was nature trying to hide some secret treasure we were not supposed to view with our naked eyes.


So rather than being fooled by the threat we pushed on, let the weaklings turn around. We figured once we reached said "treasure" the lightning would work well as a natural flash for our cameras. When we reached our car again I am proud to say we were the only brave hikers to been seen anywhere on the pass. The other fools don't know what they missed!


The next day we broke down camp heading over the pass into Avalanche Creek campground. Expecting Kim and Owen later that day we grabbed two campsites next to each other.



Since it was still early in the day we took a great hike which lead to Avalanche Lake. The walk roams through an old forest with trees spaced wide apart and the ground is carpeted with a lush green moss.


When you finally come out to the lake the fist thing you notice is how the mountains form a natural bowl around the lake feeding it with a number of waterfalls.



Returning to camp we settled in, ate dinner, and enjoyed the fire with some tasty smores and beer while waiting for Kim and Owen to show up. Somewhere around midnight we decided to call it a night and hope they would show up before sunrise. The next morning their site was still empty so we decided to leave the park grounds seeking an area cellphone reception was possible. Around 10am we found out the transmission on the Possum Van had given out and they were stranded in a small town in Montana. We decided to continue on with our planned hike for the day and call Owen later that evening to see how his progress at the shop was going.


Around noon we arrived at the beginning of our hike. This 12.5 mile hike was truly the "Path to Enlightenment". Whether it was the low oxygen levels or a kind of enlightenment it didn't surprise us while walking on a path wide enough for one person about 3/4 of the way up the mountain when we ran into the "Holy Goat".


I cant tell you what was learned on that hike it really is something you just have to experience for yourself, but I can tell you it will leave you very sore but the pictures alone will be worth it. So if you are "brave of heart and strong of feet" you can experience this by simply searching out the highline trail.


One other note about this hike, somewhere along "The Path" my cellphone became MIA. It has been close to two weeks now and though I hope it is slowly hitchhiking its way back to Wisconsin I have a feeling I may have to change its status from MIA to POW or possibly Dead :(


Arriving back to camp we gave Owen another call this time with no success. As it turns out we reached him the next day. Owen had managed to bring the Possum van back from dead into a zombie like limp, at least enough to slowly make it back to Utah. We certainly were sad to lose the chance to see two other friends from college but figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

So we made the best of it and decided to risk the journey into Canada. Armed with only our drivers licenses we somehow fooled the "authorita" into letting us enter their country... "Fools" We signed ourselves up for a boat tour out of Watertown which actually crosses back into America where you where allowed to walk along the shore, however if you wished to hike had to go through customs again. We decided to temp fate and somehow were allowed entry back into our own country. The 2.5 mile hike led us to the beautiful Kootenai Lakes where a cow and bull moose where feeding out in the water. After enjoying the serenity of it all we headed back to catch the return boat.


After returning to our campsite that night, we realized we would have to eat for 5 after purchasing enough groceries before learning the fate of Kim and Owen. I don't know if it is something in the air there but you just cannot get bad food in Montana, we made fajita and even after reaching my limit and then having another two for the team it still tasted great.


We finished the rest of the groceries the next morning for breakfast and parted ways shortly after. Having great success testing our speed formula we decided to use it on the way home. However, as luck would have it we were not even two hours into the drive when a state trooper heading the opposite way spun a "U" turn behind us. Shaun looks over to me and says "I think we just earned our first speeding ticket" doing 80 in a 70 mph zone. I told him to quickly pull over before the police officer had a chance to catch up, he looked at me like I was insane but followed my advice. A minute or two later the officer caught up walked up to the window chuckling and told us that never in his career had someone pulled over before he had the chance to turn the lights on and for that he would give us a verbal warning.


So the moral of the story is... While seeking true enlightenment the higher path will lead you to your goal, but never try to reach it too fast unless you are ready to think quick and try something new. Or something like that :)

Check out the pictures from the trip here.