Hola and happy Wednesday, blerg. In blog time, we are still in the middle of last Saturday (National Camping with Dogs Day, mind you), about to hike another mile up to Glacier Lake with the high hopes that there will be some camping spots available.

Love this cute little meadow on the way to Glacier Lake. Doesn’t it look inviting?

After panting our way up to Glacier Lake, we arrive to find it just as crowded as Surprise Lake! Oooooh boy! We finally plunk down camp way way waaaaay too close to some other campers, but what else to do? Hike back to the car?

No way man. We had to make it work.

Imagine how gorgeous it would have looked had the sun been shining? Siiiiigh.

Mike standing on his special mat (no dogs allowed on the special mat).

Tired, worn-out dogs.

Meanwhile, your humble narrator was FREEZING HER ASS OFF. I actually lost my gloves for about 8 minutes (I left them on the ground when I took a pee) and had to stifle mild panic. At no point did my hands ever completely warm up.

“Why didn’t you build a fire?” you ask? Well, high fire danger in Washington State, mang! No fire for us! My husband later assured me that, had I gone into hypothermia, he would have built a fire. Real comforting.

Mike made me some instant coffee using his camp stove, and drinking that was the highlight of the evening. No, really!

It’s hard to pack for all weather conditions. I had flip-flops and a bikini, but only one thin pair of gloves. Thank goodness Josh thought to pack my obnoxious DIY fleece hat.

Josh and Mike blew up inflatable canoes and took off across Glacier Lake for some fly fishing. Josh caught a small fish and released it back to the lake.

This was the closest object to a heart-shaped rock I saw on this camping trip. You see? A sign!

In spite of the fact that we were surrounded by people, it was pretty quiet on the lake. Josh and Mike were the only people brave enough to get in the lake. Even Maggie stayed on shore. 

I wanted to take a trip around the lake too, but was concerned that it would make me colder, so I told Josh I would go out the next day (HA!).

Meanwhile, this is just the sort of book one wants to read when one is out in quiet nature. Really good. 

Mike stayed out longer than Josh. For a while, we couldn’t even see him.

Love this shot.

Josh and I feasted on freeze-fried beef stew, and I ended up crawling in the tent to read before 8 pm with the dogs, just to keep warm. Around 11 when I finally started drifting off to sleep, it started to rain. I had a pretty terrible restless night, tossing and turning with the ceiling of the pup tent dripping on my head. My feet never really warmed up.

Around eight in the morning, Josh woke me up. “Here’s some coffee, we’re packing up. It’s snowing!”

HAPPY LABOR DAY, SUCKERS, HERE’S SOME SNOW FOR YA!

 

Beautiful? Sure. But not to someone with Raynaud’s and no winter gear and no stinkin’ fire! We packed up in a hurry!

All of the other campers left around the same time as us. BOO, GLACIER LAKE. BOOOO.

My body decided right at that moment to start bleeding, too (my period always knows the most inconvenient time to hit, truly) and you should have seen me motor down that mountain! Mike asked twice if I was taking speed. NO SPEED, JUST HORMONES BUDDY.

Hey look, it’s Surprise Lake again! Surprise!

This dude taking it all in stride. Look, he’s not even wearing gloves. Sigh.

Walking down a mountain always beats walking up it. Apparently it took us 3 hours to get back to the car, but it didn’t seem that long.

Log-crossing with doggie lookouts.

Look at that Bear Cub fly!

I like these mushroom “cups”.

Back to the car again!

We stopped in a tiny town at a hole-in-the-wall pub and had a massive, greasy lunch, which was immensely satisfying. Nothing like greasy food after an arduous hike. I don’t WANT to believe that last weekend was our last camping trip this year so…I won’t! Ha!