Mom was very bad today. It was her last day, so she decided to go off and have an adventure of her own while I went to work. She couldn't come with me, unfortunately, because I had my maximum allotted number of guests and I wasn't allowed to bring anyone else. I should have brought her anyway........
Since I drove the bus today for the tour, I had to walk back to the bus parking lot to get it for the end of the tour. On my way, I encountered another guide that said "Hey, I saw your mom on the bridge back there on the East Trail!" I was rather surprised to hear that. I looked around for her a bit, but couldn't find her. I continued to the parking lot only to find that my car was parked next to the bus! This was not good. The car should not have been in the bus lot to begin with. But my main concern was that it was 7:20 and the gate is closed and locked by 7:30 each evening. Wherever mom was, she wasn't going to be able to get home. I ripped a page out from the VIR (vehicle inspection report) book and wrote a note to her on the back of it, including the combination to the lock on the gate, and stuck it under the windshield wiper. I couldn't find her to tell her that the gate would be locked, and I couldn't call her because she doesn't have a phone. The note would have to do.
I got back in the bus and drove it to the Visitor Center to pick up the other guide and our guests so we could finish the tour. Afterwards, mom wasn't at the office. She was supposed to pick me up.. she must have been stuck in the parking lot, I thought.
The other guide was kind enough to drive me back to the glacier to look for her. Sure enough, she had rounded up a good group of strangers that were gathered around the car and had opened up the gate. She had been stuck there for over an hour and had just discovered my note. Someone had placed a note on top of mine telling her to call the police to get out of the gate, so she never found it. Ugh!
Mom had quite an adventure. Looking at some of her pictures, I was able to recreate her route through the trails. Boy was she lost! She was alone and wasn't carrying any bear spray, and encountered bears! She started out on a forbidden trail that has been closed due to high bear activity. If caught disobeying the signs and wandering on the trail, one is subject to a hefty fine. She didn't realize where she was until she saw the locked gate with the sign that said CLOSED on the other side of it. Being on the wrong side, she jumped over it and continued on her way.
Here is a picture she took at the beginning of her ordeal. Just one look was all I needed to know where she started. There is an access point to the closed trail from the bus parking lot.
Yup, this is definitely the Moraine Ecology Trail. No doubt about it. Just look at all that glacial silt.
Next, she wandered through the bridges over the salmon streams on the Steep Creek Trail. I guess she encountered a bear here. That's how it appears from the pictures.
After that, she wandered around outside the Visitor Center. It's been raining a LOT, so Mendenhall Lake and the surrounding areas are very flooded. Maybe this was a good thing. It kept her from wandering off the path.. too much anyway.
Next, she hopped onto the Trail of Time. I can tell from these pictures that she went the opposite way that we normally do on our tours. Maybe that's why she didn't recognize it??
This is where it gets a little confusing. After this, she says she looped around to the beginning of the same trail again. Whatever the path, she ended up getting on the East Glacier Trail, which is almost 4 miles long. We reserve 3.5 hours to do this trail on a hiking tour.
Here is a picture she took off the path of some dead fish remains.. from bears.
This is a picture from the "scenic viewpoint" that I never take people to. That's the glacier hiding behind some trees. Not much of a view anymore since the ice has receded so much. This is already several miles away from the last picture she had taken. She had hiked pretty far! This is at the top of the 200+ steps, a 600 ft elevation gain. not even halfway. The rest of the trail is all downhill from here.
It started to get dark on the way back down, so she really had to hurry.. Unfortunately, there was an extremely flooded area of the trail just before the kettle pond. It was so dark that she couldn't see in order to find a way around the water. She had to go through it. I can hardly make out what in the world these are pictures of, but I suppose it's the flooded area she had to wade through. Not being able to see the trail while wading through almost knee-high water.. not the best feeling, I suppose.
After all of that, she started back down the car and forgot where the bus lot was! Easily mistakable, however, since it's about a 10 min walk from the Visitor Center to the bus lot, and she's never made this walk. I usually walk alone and let my guests wait for me in the parking lot by the Visitor Center instead. She got confused, and since it was getting dark and very few people were around, she started asking for help. She tried to get someone to call me, but they dialed my number wrong. Being impatient, they left. She found some other people that helped her to the lot.. and that's when the discovered that the gate was locked. If only they had found my note, they would have had the combination and wouldn't have had to get the police involved!
Four different trails, a black bear, a huge flood, two locked gates, and one police call later, she finally got home! To make a long story short, never let your mother wander alone in a rainforest filled with wild black bears while it's raining and the sun is setting. Could be a bad thing. Just let her go on your tour.
