Day 1: we came, we hiked, and we were soaked!
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To the east we flew, across myriad mountains. I laid my eyes on the Great Salt Lake for the first time. I marveled at all that multi-colored marsh ringed by snow capped mountains. At Salt Lake City Airport, I felt slightly singular among the many blue-eyed blond people...We arrived at Whitefish, Montana, where we were united with the rest of our crew: Emily, Rong, and John. Whitefish was a surprisingly lively town, with nice looking shops and restaurants.
The next morning we woke up to an ominous sky. As we drove towards Glacier National Park, it started to drizzle, and the drizzle turned to pouring rain! At Apgar we ran into our hotel (The Village Inn), which sits right in front of a lovely lake scene, but we could not check in until the afternoon. As the rain goes on and off, we browsed the selection of gift shops ("Mamma don't shop like crazy!" adviced Emily).
Rain or not, a hike was due, as we were in a national park. So we charged along Lake McDonald, checked out the historical lodge, and started on the trail to Avalanche Lake. In the driving rain, equipped to various degrees of waterproofness, we trudged along a beautiful lush gorge, with white glacier water rushing through. This trip was oddly reminiscent of the one we had in Juneau, Alaska -- another walk in the rain with the same folks, plus our parents. Why are we always going on wet hikes together? I wondered... I was exceedingly thankful for my bicycle poncho dating from way back, when I was still a highschool girl in Beijing; and especially for my big hiking boot which provided support and dryness on the soggy trail; my pants were completely soaked, but that was just minor detail. Matthew, who had a high tech poncho that made him look like a kungfu master, but very un-waterproof running shoes to match, wore a despondent look on his face, judging by which I concluded that wet legs must be a lot preferable than wet feet. Our companions from the lush Pacific Northwest seemed to fit into this rainy environment well enough: Rong looked hardly wet at all in her outfit of REI clothing --children's jacket with men's convertible pants (which gave me some ideas as to which department I'd go to on my next REI shopping trip); while both John's jacket and his pants soon looked transparant, he did not look awfully concerned; and Emily cheerfully predicted that though her pants were wet now, she would get dry in just one minute (which was true enough, another testament to REI children's clothing)!
After what seemed like miles of the soggy path, the promised lake was still nowhere in sight. Finally we came upon some other hikers coming from the other direction, who informed us it was still at least half an hour away and really not that spectacular. We needed no further discouragement and promptly turned around.
Back to our hotel, everyone was feeling groggy and had a much deserved nap. Alas, we slept away the only rainless hour of the day! As soon as we were ready to move again someone had pressed the "rain" button, and our next ambitious hiking project turned naturally into a drive on a dirt road... We went to bed hoping sunshine would return the next day...