Date: July 14Mileage: 30.2
July mileage: 401.3
Temperature upon departure: 54
Inches of rain today: 0.08"
Saturdays are like Mondays to me, and this morning felt particularly bleak. I had planned to do a mountain bike ride regardless of the weather, but I wasn't feeling adventurous at all. I felt particularly unadventurous about the inevitable mud bath and the prospect of having to hose myself down before walking in the house to take a shower. I wanted to do something safe and mindless, something to accentuate the Monday-ness of the day. I wanted to do a two-hour ride out to the valley, a ride I have so permanently drilled into my routine that I don't even have to think out there any more.
I always take a short break at the Glacier Visitors Center, which has a real bathroom and an outdoor drinking fountain - a dream pit stop. It also has hordes of cruise ship tourists who are bused there in steady streams on any given day. The crowds used to bother me, but I have learned to move among them - clack clack clacking in my bike shoes as I shoulder for a spot at the glacier overlook, so I can take my requisite photo-of-the-day.
As I raised my camera to frame a shot I've captured dozens of times before, a lady in a plastic bag poncho walked up next to me and held up her camera.
"You don't see that every day," she said.
"No," I replied. "You really don't"
I like the low lying clouds in these shots.
ReplyDeleteThe water level in Mendenhall Lake seems rather high - do you happen to know what's caused this? (I noticed trees getting 'drowned' in the environs last fall, too, but bypassed the crowded visitors center to get one last hike in before leaving town.)
Another pair of excellent pictures! I still can't get over that gorgeous blue glacier ice, I was there a few years back and it's even more unbelievable in person!
ReplyDeleteRe: your fish, we had grilled salmon today, and pretty good if I do say so myself, but I really envy you your absolutely fresh supply.
This is a complete guess, but I suspect the water level is high right now because we had one of the highest snowfall years on record this past winter. Then, the past two weeks have been the rainiest part of the summer - melting snow and glacier ice at a faster rate. It is higher than I've seen it in a while and Nugget Falls are running at an intensity I have not seen before - so I assume it's all coming down from the mountains.
ReplyDeleteHey Jill -- the second shot there is very nice. You don't see that every day.
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