Setting the Pace

 After we left the North Cascades, we visited with some family for a couple days. We had a great time taking it slow for a bit -- quite literally as our car was up on blocks. It was planned for us to finally fix our car's bearings but it was much harder than expected. What was supposed to be a 4 hour fix turned into a three day job. After stalling out on that project we enjoyed making bread boards as we waited to get some help from our mechanic (Dad). Luckily our mechanic is really good and our bearings were finally fixed, a huge weight off our shoulders! We were sad to say goodbye to our family and missed out on visiting some others, but we eventually got on the road. 

This set back meant leaving for Glacier National Park a day late and only having one day to spend in the park. Definitely a bummer, but thankfully we had been there last August and already had a game plan: the high line trail. It was one of our favorite hikes from our previous trip and being 12 miles long we wanted a jumpstart into hiking longer distances again. 

And boy did we jumpstart! Well, sort of. We ended up sleeping in the latest we have the entire trip and with needing to take the shuttle to the trailhead we didn't get started until 12:30. Only problem? In order to get back to our car we needed to take a shuttle by 5pm to get on another shuttle by 7pm -- the last shuttle of the day. 

Thankfully despite being 12 miles the trail is also mostly down hill so we didn't have all the cards against us. We loved getting to see Glacier this way as we followed along mountains and had incredible views the entire time. Between the mountain goats, wildflowers and several waterfalls we couldn't stop looking every which way to get a glimpse. Only issue is we couldn't stop either. We had to keep trucking! 

After speedwalking most of the trail and running part of it, we made it to our first shuttle 30 minutes early. Some how we did the whole trail in under 4 hours, setting a personal record for our miles per hour! And we just barely beat the rain that started pouring as we got on our second shuttle. Phew! 

Although we didn't get to see as much of the park as on our last trip, it just makes us want to go back even more. We would love to meet up with our relatives in the area and get to see new aspects of the park. Plus, we've gained some serious confidence in our hiking abilities. Now we know that we can really get the job done when needed and are just generally much faster than in the past. After having taken it slow at the past couple parks, we were happy to set our new pace.