BRRRR – prologue

In last week’s episode (yesterday’s post), we left off with me stopped next to two police vehicles (at least!). Fifteen minutes before this took place, I was asleep. I woke, stretched, turned to wake Solomon and let him know a new day was here. He got in a quick prayer, and we pulled over here to look at the overwhelming beauty of the landscape.

I never know who he’s praying to, but I imagine it’s either Ra or any of the sun gods. Regardless, he’s probably praying that I’ll buy a spicy chicken sandwich, of which I give him a few small slivers (the only treat he’ll take).

Here’s that scenery. I can’t understate the awe that Highway 93 inspires. And this is just along the drive. Any hike or step off the road affords endless visual treasures. When I …

Oh right, the cops!

They were just parking there to catch speeders. I did think I was being trapped, but they hardly noticed I was there and when I asked what’s up, they smiled and said, “Catch you sleeping?” Then explained about the speed trap, so I slowly pulled away. Don’t worry, that wasn’t the drama. That’s now …

This was the first day on the trip where the weather in the daytime was nice enough to leave the boy in Hobox without melting him. I normally never leave him for more than two hours (I go to films sometimes after all), and I thought I could finally take a nice long hike for an hour or two.

Here’s where I picked. I’ll name it later. Right now, it’s The Glacier. The one on the left that is. I wanted to hike the one on the right.

Note that I took this photo after the battle, though I saw something like this view driving by. Before I knew The Glacier was the one that tourists flock to, I fell in love with the one on the right. It’s much smaller but the high cliffs made it irresistible to the mountaingoatlike climbing style of mine. Here’s another series of photos I took after the fact …

That middle photo is the view most people get when visiting this part of the world. It’s incredible and worthy (I say this trembling now. Obviously Solomon was praying to the God of Anti-Tourism Snobs not to kill his meal ticket). Even if I had seen any of these signs, I would have gone ahead with my “plan.”

My plan was simple. Park, make the boy comfy, go up and to the right.

Easy!

And then I came face to face with one of mankind’s greatest enemies …

…

NEXT UP:

FINK vs THE GLACIER – Round One