Monster Day in Glacier

Array of mountains beside us

The second day was our longest day in the park, it was probably 16km or so. It was pretty tough coming after the cold night before. Some people really suffered on this day. I didn't know this, but if you don't drink enough water then you can really feel the effects of the cold. I guess because I have always associated dehydration with hot weather that I have never experienced the chronic coldness you can get. But on this trip you are walking all day, and even though it is not hot you are still sweating a lot and need to replenish your fluids. Some of the group were drinking like half a litre a day, I was doing 2-3L. And at the end of that first day they just got so cold!

Big landscapes

This day was probably the worst in terms of the weather, it just rained all day and was super windy. At some points people were being picked up by the wind and pushed against the side of the mountain, it was pretty full on. So not many photos from this day, we also didn't see much wildlife, I guess because the weather was so wet the animals didn't really want to come out either.

The rain just wasn't letting up

We were staying at fifty mountain campsite that night, right underneath Mt Kipp. This was apparently a bear campsite, in that lots of people had told us there was a bear that would come into camp looking for food. We didn't hear a thing that night though, I think that's a good thing. It would have been super scary to hear a bear snuffling around the tent.

The way we had come

When we went to bed, this was not an attractive looking campsite, the clouds were low, it was constantly raining, all very depressing. When we woke up though we had the best weather the whole trip. Blue skies, warm, the campsite looked completely different, when you could actually see the fifty mountains it was named for.

Just over that ridge are a whole bunch of lakes and glaciers