Artificially Sweetened

According to the trail guide, the ascent alongside the babbling brook was so gradual - and the view so beautiful - as to be hardly noticable. Although the brook was lovely, the ascent was decidely noticable. Especially given that everytime we stopped to catch our breath and admire the view we were besieged by gnats determined to explore our mucous membranes.

(Note to gnats: You can pick your friends. And apparently you’ve picked me. You can pick your nose (do gnats have noses? gnoses?). But you cannot pick your friend’s nose. Please keep this in mind for my next hike. Thank you.)

The trail continued on past several impressive beaver ponds, so that when we reached the pondlet on the left hand side of this picture, we were not sure whether we had reached our intermediate goal - the lake shown here - or just another beaver pond.

We were hungry. We were ready to be at the lake and stop for lunch. The question “don’t you think you should test?” had been advanced with increasing degrees of certainty on Pili’s part, met by increasing degrees of irritation on my part. The map and the trail description did not match. We continued on the trail, looking for the side trail that would supposedly lead us down to the lake lunch. The trail ascended, steeply.

Screw this, we decided. We don’t care if it’s a beaver pond. We’re eating lunch there. We turned around. And found the trail.

Looking down from above, it’s clear that, as we discovered when we strolled down the trail, the little pondlet we came on at first is part of a bigger lake.

With two adoption agency interviews under our belts, I’m feeling a little less overwhelmed by the trail in front of us. A little more convinced that this will, someday, somehow, lead to a child.

The rest of the story:

I tested (101, thank you) ate lunch, and we headed up the mountain. These mountains, they do not mess around. Knowing what “gradual ascent” meant to the writers of the trail guide, we were not suprised that “rugged and steep” translated to “rocky and just short of a 90 degree angle.”

On the way back down, Pili decided that she would go for a nice refreshing dip in the lake. We hadn’t seen anyone else on the trail all day. Fortunately, I decided not to go in, after dipping one toe in the glacial water. She had just waded in, in all her natural glory, when I heard someone the ranger coming down the trail. (Aside: Does anyone know why it’s called skinny-dipping? And is it still skinny-dipping if you’re not skinny?)

We got back to the campground and discovered our friends had come up to camp as well, bringing lobster and corn to grill, along with smores fixings. All in all, a very relaxing and much needed trip.

Tomorrow: When smokey sings…