Songbird
Peter and I left camp and began the slow climb up to Brown Pass, chatting and updating each other on our lives. Peter explained everything they had learned in their last semester at UChicago, which was way more interesting than my blunt storytelling about my life in Pittsburgh.
The weather was getting a lot warmer, probably into the 70s in the daytime (compared to the 30s and 40s just a week and a half before). We came upon this beautiful glacier pond probably 500-1000 feet below the top of the pass, and I decided to take a dip.
This was the first time I had actually removed my leggings in about two weeks, and unfortunately my bit about being a Never-Nude died right then and there.
The sun was really beating down by the time we made it over the pass. We resolved to find a shady spot to eat lunch. Unfortunately, the other side of the pass was an old burn area, most of it totally exposed. We kept pushing onward, hoping to stumble on some tiny bit of shade, both of us getting crankier as we pressed down the steep, rocky descent on the other side of the pass.
We found a tiny aspen next to a stream, and it was just enough shade for both of us. We ate lunch there, filtered water, and recuperated for a bit.
That night at Bowman Lake Campgrond, we met a former AT hiker named Songbird, and her husband Jeff. We got to talking for a while, and we got on the topic of Peter’s falling-apart backpack. Songbird and Jeff offered to meet us at the road out of the park the next day and drive us to Kalispell, a larger town with an REI where we could find a new backpack for Peter.
We slept on the decision and took them up on their offer the next morning.
