Friday, June 09, 2006

HIKING in the GRIZZLY COUNTRY

"HIKING is supposed to be a relaxing sport ... no rush ... you take your pace ... you have to enjoy the beauties around you" ... this is what I learned growing up when my dad introduced me to the HIKING ... and it really works pretty much like this back in EUROPE ... what I have learned here in USA ... especially in the GLACIER NP ... is that most of the time you are stepping in someone else "home" during your hikes ... you are stepping into a GRIZZLY COUNTRY ... this is the sign that I found in the parking lot of the NUMA LOOKOUT HIKE where I left my car (which was the only car there) ...
... of course when you see this LANDSCAPE and you know that you are going to HIKE UP to those mountains ...
... you don't care and you go for it ... :D ... the doubts start again, though, when you see this "informative flier" after 10 minutes hiking ...
I started getting REALLY SCARED when after 1/2 hour hike (out of 7 hours) ... I heard a very loud ROARING comig from the forest ... to me only a BEAR ... a REALLY BIG BEAR ... can do that noise ... at that point I thought seriously to go back ... but again ... becaue I am basically STUPID I continued ... but following the RANGER suggestions heard the previous day at the PARK ENTRANCE ... I tried to make NOISE ... CLAPPING MY HANDS ... and I continue all the way up ... a CLAP every 5 steps ... and believe me ... it is a lot of CLAPPING when you HIKE UP more than 4 hours ... but I got even more conviced that I was doing the right thing when I saw these FOOTPRINTS on the TRAIL ...

... SCARY, aren't they!? To me they were ... and still they are looking at them now ... bottom line I clap my hands as much as I could ... and this was the first hike where I got my hands more sore than my legs ... :O ... but of course as soon as I got to the top of the mountain ... at the NUMA LOOKOUT ...
... I forgot everyting and I just enjoyed the wonderful scenery ...

... and also a squirell came to visit me ...

... and I managed to take a nice picture of this flower ...
... the way back has been more relaxed ... not sure why ... probably because the upcoming rain made me run all the way down and not think too much about to the fact that I was in a GRIZZLY COUNTRY ... I got to the car safely ... only slightly wet for the rain to the car ... got into the car ... and start driving back ... and while I was driving back I got into a real adventure ... a very funny story ... but I will write about it in an other post ... :D

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

beautiful beautiful beautiful pictures and great story

Andrea said...

Glad that you guys liked it ... it was a nice hike ... :) ... and the pictures are pretty neat ... but let's check out what happened to me driving back home ... I home I will manage about it tonight. CIAO! XA

 
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