days 57+58. kicking it in west glacier, mt.

my buddy ryan strolled into the living room where i was asleep on the couch and my other buddy, ryan was asleep on the floor. yup, 'the ryans' as they've been called. "time to go" he said. the clock displayed 6am and we staggered to the car under a steel-grey sky. even after a large coffee i still managed to sleep during the 2.5 hour drive to west glacier, mt.

i stood in front of a group of glacier rafting company guides as i was introduced and they received their daily rundown. after gallons of coffee i found myself dressed head to toe in neoprene. a wetsuit covered my skin and booties wrapped my feet. either i am the definition of pure weakness or I've lost all body fat because the slightest bit of cold made my legs shiver.

my buddy ryan was the guide and i was the single creepy guy on the raft trip. usually when folks go rafting they come in at least groups of two or more so when there is a single guy its easy to wonder 'what's his deal?' either way, river rafting is awesome even though it does make me a bit timid. i mean, water is one unforgiving force that can spoil lives just as easily as it can bring joy. and when its 38 degrees, even more so. after braving rapids just as a child would minus screams, i posted up in a warm room on a dry couch, turned on some hulu and relaxed the rest of the day.

as the evening rolled around as did a bus full of river folk. ryan was driving and the other ryan and i hopped aboard. the bus was going to big fork, mt for a community theatre performance of 'dirty rotten scoundrels.' it was actually pretty good despite the fact that im not the biggest fan of musicals. on the way back to west glacier, the bus ran out of gas and we pushed that thing a few hundred yards to the nearest station. well i pushed for a bit until i couldn't keep my pants up any longer. I'm currently using a shoelace to keep these things up as i didn't bring a belt due to weight. bottom line I'm just a bit too skinny to keep my usual drawers up. so i filmed them push their transport in.

the next morning i awoke and went on a ride into glacier national park with a new pal, caitlin. the ride was beautiful. thick, green forest lined the roadway. bright blue water rushed by over waterfalls and slicing gorges into the land. tall peaks towered in the distance and he best part, there was fresh asphalt which made for a fast, fun ride. after 40 miles we were chilling in a local restaurant chowing down.

the rest of the day consisted of relaxing and eating pizza. i thought of the next three weeks and the push into san francisco, roughly 1200 miles away. awesome.