EDITED: OH *&(*&$ the trail was closed because Tom, who we were supposed to meet up with but couldn't find, was looking for us and was mauled by a grizzly bear. He's ok though just has a bunch of puncture wounds. And he forgot his bear spray. It sort of makes this blog post not so funny. . .

ANOTHER FABULOUS WEEKEND

our life is great

First and foremost, some pictures of the bookshelves Ted built all by himself. Tom loaned us his table saw and I think some other tool thingies and Ted built incredibly nice shelves. I'm so impressed. There's even a secret door that I can't open. Yay Ted!
Saturday I ran (ok hiked) up Columbia Mountain. I wasn't feeling very well and just couldn't do the 30 mile thing. So I did Columbia Mountain and decided I'd go as far as the trail was clear and turn around at snow. 5 miles, 4,000 feet later, I hit snow. It was surprising that I made it up to 7,000 feet before the trail was totally covered. A guy I'd seen earlier encouraged me to follow in his bootpacked footsteps and go all the way to the top, but I get nervous on slippery snow on top of mountains -- especially alone. So I ran back down the mountain and got some Taco Bell. I think it has been at least 5 years since I last ran for the border. It was salty fatty good.

Sunday Callie and I ran in the park (Glacier National Park). The high country is still socked in with snow but some of the lower atltitude trails are clear. We started at Lake McDonald Lodge and ran up this trail that's so incredibly soft and bouncy and carpeted with wonderful pine needles.
Then we took the Avalanche Lake trail to Avalanche Lake. I love that spot there where I'm standing. And when you go early and beat the masses it's even better.
On our way back though we discovered that they closed our trail -- that we had spent several hours on -- due to "bear danger." We did see black bear tracks but my spidey sense alerted me of no danger. I have no idea why they closed it. But I'm sort of glad we didn't find out I guess.
Luckily I had my bear spray. On Saturday I almost forgot bear spray and went back for it NOT because I was scared of bears but because the last thing I want is to get eaten by a bear and have the headline say "Bear Victim Ran Alone Without Bear Spray" (and then my friends would be quoted saying "she never had much sense.") No, I don't want to be "that girl" about whom people say "I mean it's sad but how foolish!"
After our run we had a quick recovery IPA at the Lake McDonald Lodge. Aaaaah. Perfection.