We woke up at around 6:30am. The damn watch stopped working. It reset instead of alarming at 6am. So the time on the watch is 5 hours behind. It’s probably the battery. Anyway, I guess we need to get a good sport watch. 7am in the morning, cold and wet. We broiled some water to make chocolate milk and had some cereal. It was kinda painful, wet everywhere, no place to sit down. We broke camp and started off at around 8:30am. Glacier Meadows is 2.3 miles from Elk Lake. But this section is not as easy. It is rocky and steep. The rain made the trail very slippery. I frequently had to stop and wipe the fogged glasses too. It almost took us two hours to get up to the meadows. There is a ranger station, which looks like a big tent. We met two rangers there, a guy and a girl. They told us the Blue Glacier is only about 1 mile up and suggested us leave the gears. We left the pack in the emergency shelter and all our foods up on the bear wire. After a snack break, we took off with the small pack with some water and a camera. The small pack is attached to my Osprey Cresent 75 backpack. I can detach it and use it as a separate pack. It proved to be very useful under such situations.

The last section was even harder. There is basically no trail. One has to make their way on the gravel and rocks. But it was almost snow free. It really amazed me that there is even a dumpster near the top of the ridge. We took a break and had some water near the dumpster and met a couple coming down. They told us we were only several yards away from the top. When we made it to the top of the ridge, it was very foggy and cloudy. But we were able to have a gimpse of the glacier! We stayed about half an hour and the clouds come and go. There was a window of about 2-3 minutes when we can clearly view the whole glacier. We were totally astonished by the view! The glacier is only several hundreds of feet away, down the ridge. It looks like an ocean, only it’s still. We can clearly see how the glacier crushed the rocks, formed the gravels and shaped the mountains. We can clearly see big cracks on the mountain carved by the glacier. We sat there, listening to the glacier river flowing underneath the ice and the sound of cracking ice. The cracking sound was so close, it sounded like thunderstorms, echoing in the valley. I guess this isn’t something you can see and hear in everyday life. We have witnessed the ice that has not melt for millions of years. That thought really thrilled me. How small human beings are compared to the grandeur of the nature! We were so excited and satisfied. That 2 minutes were worth the whole trip! We finally made it to the top! I wasn’t able to get a very clear shot of the glacier though, it was really foggy. But again, nothing really captures the beauty of the nature, who cares about good pictures?

On our way down, we met the two rangers who were doing some gardening :). They looked very happy and enjoying. We casually chatted for a couple of minutes. We told them we were heading OGS that day and the girl told us she was heading there too. But we didn’t meet her later that day. We left the Glacier Meadows at around 1pm. As usual, downhill is always painful. There is a very steep section with very loose dirt and gravel. It was such a pain going down. The pack raises the center of weight dramatically and shifts it to the back. It makes it so hard to balance.

About 10 minutes after taking off from the Glacier Meadows, while we were walking on a flat section, Yinan suddenly stopped in front of me after a sharp turn. I can’t see ahead since it’s a turn. So I asked her if there was some people coming toward us and she was trying to make way for them. “No, it’s a bear”, replied her. I thought she was kidding and laughed. “No, I am serious, look there”. I followed the direction she was pointing to a creek about 50 meters away. Geez, it WAS a black bear! A big one. I hesitated for one second trying to recall what one should do when seeing a bear. I felt my adrenaline rushing to the throat. Then we decided we should keep talking loud. So we did. The bear turned around and we had an eye contact. That look was scary. I guess he was as surprised as we were and he freaked too. He then quickly ran away along the creek. We checked again and made sure he was not in sight. Then I led the way and approached the creek carefully. We tried to ford the creek as quickly as possible. This is the creek where we decided to get water from. The bear incident of course resulted in our being low on water. We always bring more water than needed though, so it was not really a serious problem. For one second, I thought of taking out my camera and shoot, but the bear was very quick and I can’t possibly catch it. It takes a lot of effort to get the 45 pound pack down and take out my Canon Digital Rebel and mount the lens. We were amazed how agile the bear was. He was definitely not like any bear we have seen in the zoo. I now realized how important it is to keep a point-n-shoot lightweight camera handy. A Canon S is probably a good choice.

We got back to Elk Lake and took a lunch break. It was about 3:30 when we left Elk Lake and we were quite confident we can make it to OGS before dark. Downhill was still painful. When we passed the Hoh river bridge at 13.1, we stopped and took several pictures.  

We were tired and legs were sore at this point. But we knew the rest of the trail would be a lot easier. It would be just a matter of time. We rushed a little bit and finally arrived OGS at around 6:30. We met a group of young people there chatting with the ranger whom we met the previous day at the visitor center. He pointed us the camp sites and off we went. It was not too late so we were able to grab a site on the river bank, with a very good view and easy access to water.

It had been a tough day. We took off the boots and put on slippers and sat down on a big log, enjoying the river view and warm breeze. It felt like heaven. No 5-star hotel is comparable. After I was able to get up and walk around again, we set up the tent and began cooking. When Yinan was preparing cooking stuffs, I managed to make a camp fire. The twigs were not easily flammable. But we came up with a good idea. We tore a paper towel and poured some oil from the canned fish. The fish was very oily and we didn’t want the oil anyway. It turned out to be very effective. We were able to set the twigs on fire. We huddled around the fire and took time cooking. Suddenly life is so enjoyable! While we were having dinner, the ranger came to check out all the campers. We chatted for a while. It was a pleasant conversation. He was very nice and friendly. He would tell us all about the park and the wild lives. We told him about the bear and he was obviously glad to hear about our story. They are also supposed to record such incidents to keep track of bear activities in the park. I always wonder how the lives of the park rangers would be. They often have to go so many miles into the wilderness on such rough trails, clear the logs, maintain the trail and clean the ranger station. What kind of passion and determination does it take to keep doing all these for years?! Their lives are simple and natural and I believe their souls are free. They enjoy the gifts from the nature more than any of us does.

I quickly fell asleep after one day’s hike. I was woken up by the thirst and got out of the tent. It was a clear sky up there and the milky way was so clear. This was the most beautiful star sky I had ever seen. The Deneb (alpha Cyg, 织女) and Altair (alpha Aquila, 牛郎) were so bright, separated by the milky way.