Day 4, July 22: Lake Inez/Seeley Lake/Morrell Falls

Day 4, July 22: Lake Inez/Seeley Lake/Morrell Falls

I started the morning with a big shot of, “aren’t I self-sufficient” and have let that feeling follow me all through the day.

I awoke needing a shower in the worst way, so I went straight to the car and headed for the town of Seeley Lake, about 9 miles away. I looked down, and low and behold, my low tire light was on. It had come on yesterday briefly, but had gone back off and the tires looked just fine to me. So I pulled over and checked them again. Again, they passed my technical visual inspection. However, I heard Jesse’s voice in my ear, telling me to check the damn tires. That’s why I have a tire gauge in my car, right?

Morrell Falls

So after getting my coffee, finding out where the showers were, eating a breakfast burrito and browsing on line for a little while, I asked the clerk on my way out if they had air. They did and it was free (a rare thing these days) and she directed me to where it was located. I pulled out the trusty gauge and found out that both my front tires were a bit low. So I filled them, rechecked for proper inflation, and drove away, patting myself on the back! This seems a small feat, I know, for those who are used to taking care of things like this themselves, but for one who’s always relied on the men in her life or Tires Tires Tires or the Walmart Tire Center (last resort), this gives me a great sense of satisfaction and independence.

On my way back to camp, I checked out the various hikes in the area at the Ranger’s Station and selected Morrell Falls. (These rangers are my new best friends, by the way. Haven’t met a bad one yet.) The hike was about 2.5 miles in to the falls, so five miles round trip. However, there is an option to add another mile and a half by continuing up the mountain to be above the falls and see a few other falls. I chose to incorporate that additional hiking, and the effort was well worth it. After a steep climb up (coming down on loose rock was a challenge),the views were amazing. So I got a good six and a half miles in. The water fall was spectacular. Not what I expected at all.

Looking down from the top of the falls

Climbing above the falls to the source

There, I met a few lovely couples, one in particular I felt a kinship with. They were from New Jersey and in their late fifties. He had taken up Judo at 51 and is a black belt after just a few years. She is a teacher. Both are active and in wonderful physical condition, and we could have visited all day, but we respected each other’s need for solitude while we were there – we balanced it nicely. When they left, Kathy said, “Good luck on your travels. I would love to be a fellow adventurer with you.” And I you, Kathy. And I you.

I realized, as I began the hike, that it has been a few weeks since I hiked very far with my pack loaded. And this was just my day pack, so it’s about 15 – 20 pounds lighter than my big pack, and after about 30 minutes I could feel it in my back. I decided to ignore the aches I was experiencing and keep hiking. In a while, I realized it didn’t hurt any more. And I suddenly wondered if what we experience as pain, sometimes, is simply a new sensation. We label it “painful” but in fact it’s just our bodies adjusting to the new circumstances thrust upon it. But because we label this new sensation as “pain,” it becomes just that – something to escape or fight. But sometimes, maybe if we just experience what we experience without labeling it, it loses its power to be a negative force in our lives.

Deer on the trail

Byron Katie talks some about pain and the “unpleasant” experiences in life, and says just that same thing. It’s not the events that cause the pain or the unpleasantness, it’s the thoughts we have about those events. Of course there are some physical pains that we experience, but if we don’t label those sensations as negative, who knows how we would experience them. I’ve tried this with smells. When driving by a cattle feedlot, I’m tempted to think, “Man that stinks.” But instead, of late, I stop, take a deep whiff, and allow the experience to happen without judgment. It’s not unpleasant at all when I choose to experience it that way.  And that attitude has certainly made using the numerous “vault toilets” I find at campground more palatable (maybe that’s the wrong choice of words here . . .).

Sundown at Lake Inez

All of life seems to be a reflection of the thoughts we have about it. If I could only remember that when I’m thinking things are all wrong. And on those occasions that I do remember to challenge my thinking, I’m always relieved of the suffering I’ve inflicted upon myself.

Tomorrow I leave for Glacier. Who knows what adventures await me, but I know I’ll appreciate them more fully if I can leave the expectation and judgment behind and just be.