Trail Head
This backpacking trip started out like many others. I was excitedly hiking along trying to adjust my pack so it didn’t give me blisters, looking at new scenery, and letting my imagination run wild. It did not take long for this trip to take on a new dimension. At lunch some other hikers notified us that there was a black bear with her cub about a quarter mile ahead. I was so excited! I had my camera holstered as if I were an outlaw whose life depended on a quick draw. This excitement was quickly met with a twinge of fear; the under growth in Glacier Nation Park is so thick in places that it resembles the rain forest. While burrowing through this prime bear feeding ground, I suddenly felt like I was not on the top of the food chain anymore. The bear spray we were forced to bring seemed like a dash of seasoning to go with a self-delivered meal. It was exhilarating, humbling, and terrifying all at once. When we had hiked well over a mile, we figured the bear had moved on, so we continued to our campground at the end of Upper Kintla Lake. The sunset at our first night’s stay was not overwhelmingly colorful but I found myself taking as many photos as I could to try and capture its transcendent beauty. This is a problem in nature photography. I see a sunset with my eyes, interpret it with my imagination, and then let it soak into my soul. That is really, really hard to capture with a camera. The lake was so smooth that to skip a rock across it could be viewed as blasphemy, yet the loons who dared to disturb its serenity, aided its un-interpretable beauty.