Our family vacation to Glacier National Park featured hiking, like so many of our other vacations. After a full day of trekking, I felt as though I had seen every rock, tree, and flower there ever was to be seen. So the next morning when my dad announced that we were going on an 8 mile round trip to Trout Lake, I was exhausted just by the thought. I dragged myself into the car and slept as we swerved down the mountain side.

When we reached the trailhead, I immediately noticed that there was an unusual amount of treacherous rocks jutting out of the ground, just waiting to trip someone. I flopped out of the car and lumbered up the trail. After 20 minutes of walking, I was wide-awake and ready for anything. At least I thought I was ready for anything until a man with an ax appeared. Not quite believing the sight before me, I blinked my eyes. No, it was definitely a man with an ax. At first, we were able to travel at the same pace as the ranger, but he vanished just as quickly as he appeared.

An hour later, a man with a shovel appeared. We gave no attempt to keep up with him as it was clear from the determination in his stride and steely look in his eyes that he was a man on a mission.

By the time a man with a pack of mules walked past us, we weren’t quite too sure what we had gotten ourselves into. It seemed that the only people who took this trail were rangers and my family.

Finally after 3 hours, we reached Trout Lake. All I can say is, it was worth it. All around us was pristine nature untouched by humans. The only sound we could hear was birds harmoniously chirping and the sweet smell of pine needles filled the air. Not only was it beautiful, but it lived up to its name. We caught tons of tiny trout.

On our way down, we were so motivated to get home that we thought we would make up time by running down the switchbacks. It probably wasn’t the safest thing to do, but at the time we really didn’t care. In order to make sure we knew where everyone was we created a family battle cry consisting of birdlike cries sounding something like, WOOOT! WOOOT! It was such an energizing experience to run down that mountain with the wind at my back.

Although I never wanted to go on this hike, I’m glad I did. At the time, it seemed awful, but now whenever I think of our journey to Trout Lake, I can’t help but laugh.