July 18: Tour Day 3 Continued (to post more pics)

I decided before I set out that I was going to hike to Avalanche Lake. It took about 2 - 3 hours roundtrip. The weather was so perfect, upper 70s into the 80s, sunny, the perfect day. The sign in the pic is one of the first things you see before you get started on the trail, not the most pleasant of thoughts, but I guess they have to let you know. The trail was more crowded than I expected, which I guess is a good thing from a safety standpoint. The pic where I am in my hot pose in water is Avalanche Lake, and yes those are all waterfalls falling from the mountains surrounding the lake, I think there were 6 or 7 waterfalls there. The other pic with the chair is where I set up to eat lunch after the hike.

Once I finished eating and relaxing for few, I drove the rest of the way through the park. After taking a few turns, I found myself on a gravel road that had a sign that said “Canada 33 miles.” I was tempted, but there was so much more to do and see, and the road looked so rough, I felt bad for Lola. We turned around and headed back towards West Glacier. The town where I want to run Le Griz ultramarathon is 10 miles from West Glacier. I went there to see if I could find anyone who organizes the run or find the trail that we will be running. I couldn’t find anyone who organizes the run after asking about half the town, but I did find the dam that we run over near the end of the race. I really wanted to spend some time here to find the motivation to train for Le Griz. Now that I am back in Yellowstone, I don’t necessarily think it’s a lack of motivation as it is a lack of time and legs. I work all the time and am always on my feet, usually from 7am – midnight (with a couple hours off) now working in the warehouse and the restaurant. Its not easy to fit an ultramarathon training schedule in there. So, I moseyed around Hungry Horse Montana hoping something would motivate me beyond scheduling conflicts. I have worked doubles everyday since I have been back so I have not run, but we shall see…. After Hungry Horse, I drove around the outside of the park for an hour or so just to check it out. I was going to stay around Glacier NP that night, but the part I wanted to see was hours away now in totally the wrong direction, so I decided to head to Missoula to spend the night.....