Joe and Ann Decker are close friends of the Dunkley's. They're retired; he from the Park Service and she as a schoolteacher. He worked as a ranger in Canyonlands and Arches before coming up to Glacier. They have us all over for lunch, Chicago-style hot dogs, buffalo burgers, strawberry pie... Joe suggests that the Mt. Brown Lookout trail would be a good one to do.
That evening, Mary and I plus her parents went to see BeauSoleil at a small concert hall in Whitefish. The lead guy, Michael Doucet, gave neat little intros to each song. They play Cajun music. Although nearly all of the songs were in French, the music was great. He told a few jokes. One starts out with "We have a mountain in Louisiana too." (I'm thinking, "What? No way!"). It ends with "It's 339 feet tall; used to be 342 but people kept walking on it!"
I start out early to do the Mt. Brown Lookout hike. Glacierhikers.com lists it as Brutal, one step above Strenuous. I'm a little apprehensive, not for that reason, but because it's my first solo hike in Glacier, and encountering a bear is always a possibility. If I had to use the bear spray (a little can of very strong pepper spray, meant to discourage a charging bear), could I do it without freaking out?
Heading up the highway, I put the Foo Fighters on random, and, ironically, some of the lyrics that come up on the drive are "I'm alone and an easy target" and "what I need now is a little resolve...."
I park at Lake McDonald Lodge and take a few photos of the interior, then start over to the trailhead. Coincidentally, there's a group of five college-age girls starting out at the same time. We chat a bit on the trail; they're heading up to Sperry Chalet and back for something like a 20-mile day hike, so our paths diverge.
