Seattle Bound

After packing up the contents of our cabin, we took a quick hike and Glacier National Park around Johns Lake and then headed for Seattle a day earlier than anticipated by our itinerary. The hike was nice but not as good as Avalanche Lake. We travelled from the road through the woods to a small mountain lake that did not have an accessible beach area like Avalanche did. We then walked some more through the woods and came out on the road a little way down from our car. We followed the along the McDonald river for a little bit and then crossed over the road again and headed back to the car. The hike was fairly uneventful aside from the highlight of Kate falling on her face about 45 seconds after telling me to be careful. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that.

We then started our trek to Seattle. As we drove through Lolo National Forest, Kate was doing the speed limit of 70 mph. Not 15 seconds after I uttered the dangerous words, "This is going to be an experience" as I looked across the terrain we were about to cross, ANOTHER FUCKING BEAR ran out into the road. Luckily for this little guy, though he didn't really seem concerned, Kate was able to slow down in time and not hit the bear. He casually strolled across the road and was gone before I was able to successfully obtain the camera. This, once again, tipped the scales in favor of the bears in the shower to bears seen ratio....3:2. This was an interesting drive all around. It was amazing the diversity of landscapes seen; how we were able to go from absolutely gorgeous to boring as hell in a matter of minutes. This drive took us through beautiful mountain landscapes as well as boring, dry rolling farm land. We drove byLake Coeur D'Alene in Idaho where my mom swears she is going to retire so I made sure to call her to gloat under the guise of checking on the dog. During this drive, we listened to the entirety of Holidays On Ice written by and read by David Sedaris. Around 7 pm, we arrived in Lynnwood, WA where we stayed with our friends Ross and Jessica who were good enough to put us up for two nights despite the fact that we initially told them that we would only burden them for one night. We watched Jeopardy and Spinal Tap (which by a gross oversight on someone's part Jessica had never seen) and were in bed by 10 pm. Ross and Jessica earned extra points by cooking hot dogs for us, providing us with an air mattress and aiding us in tipping the scales of the bear:shower ratio back in the right direction just as quickly as it had been tipped in the favor of the beasts.

The Columbia River Valley could double for Afghanistan.