gambling...

sometimes, when on the road, off the grid, or in the wild, you have to gamble a little bit. with proper planning you obviously hedge your bets, but at the end of the day, every decision has a bit of gambling in it, when the world around you is in far more control that you are.

are we going to have enough gas to make it to the next dot on the map? i think so. (PSA: not all montana towns have services...)

if i go down this trail, are there going to be elk/moose/bears? pocket knife: check. bear spray: check. healthy fear/respect of nature: check.

which route do i take to get where i'm going? are the roads closed? mountain passes impassable?

and the one the one that affected us most yesterday: do we leave the comfort of our great campsite on the East Side of Glacier (at the edge of a meadow, under the snow capped mountains, with the rushing of a river in the distance, mind you...) and travel to the West Side of Glacier for another type of experience? Two hours over winding, gravely, no-guardrail, beautiful mountain "highway" (barely paved road is more appropriate). Each way.

either we stay or we throw the chips in and gamble that it will be an equally awesome experience.... no coming back.

well...........i've had a lot of luck on the road in my traveling over the years.....yesterday was not one of those lucky times.

no sooner had we made the arduous journey to West Glacier, but angry clouds rolled in on us, and the bottom dropped out. middle of the day. middle of the summer. cold, angry, dark, dark skies. and we learned a valuable lesson. no campsite looks good when it's torrentially pouring rain.

sadly, the mountains, the lake, and all the glacial beauty was kind of darkened as well. but all was not lost. like most times, a little patience goes a long way.

the sun broke, the lake shimmered, the mountains glistened, and hope returned to our little world. we made our camp, took our pictures and picnic-ed down by the water's edge (at 9pm actually, which doesn't seem weird when it's light until 10:30pm), enjoying some warm food as the sun slipped behind the mountains across the lake. a perfect (salvaging) finish to our day.

we gambled our effort and experience, and for a while it was looking like a clear loss. we hung our heads for a bit. but all was not lost, and like many times on the road, when we looked for the silver lining, we weren't disappointed...