Ever since being an adult (after college) and living in a house, I have been slowly but surely learning how to handle trick or treaters. Trust me, it comes with time. This is my second halloween and I have learnt a few no nos that left me shaking. 1. Not all kids like dogs... and not all kids like YOUR dog. Oops! Got a few tears here and there but got it under control eventually. 2. Kids are allergic to nuts - plan for it! 3. Mow your lawn and put up at least a pumpkin outside. Parents don't wants their kids to wander into a house that is not well maintained. 4. Have more candy! I ran out of candy and a few little girls didn't take the "sorry, I am out of candy" too well. 5. Do NOT give children candy made in house. Packaged candy is assurance to parents that you aren't going to drug their child. Definitely learnt that the hard way too. Anyway, the reason I am writing about my Trick or Treat experience is because I have been reading and learning about the bad effects of candy and sugar on children and its not a pretty picture. Child obesity is at an all time high and obesity in itself is considered to be a form of malnutrition!! Can you imagine?! When I hear the term malnutrition I think of hunger. I didn't want to be responsible for kids having sugar from me on Halloween and be a part of the already growing problem. Therefore, I decided to not give out candy but instead give out trail mix! Kids and their parents loved it! I got lots of "Thank yous" and "High Fives"! And I totally ran out of it because SO many kids came around. Here's what I gave out to the kids: You can find this trail mix on Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/Planters-Trail-Fruit-2-Ounce-Bags/dp/B001651282/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1414807855&sr=8-8&keywords=nuts+mini+bags
They were certainly expensive, but well worth my peace of mind. I can go to sleep now knowing that I didn't hand out harmful candy and unnecessary sugar to the kids. :-) Happy Halloween!!
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Our fourth and final day at glacier was bitter sweet. We managed to puncture our air mattress the night before and thankfully I had decided to pack our thermarest sleeping pads so we had something we could put underneath our sleeping bags and still be warm and comfy. On a side note, do not over fill your air mattress with air - it will pop. So we were looking forward to getting home to our memory foam mattress and our dog but also we were quite sad too leave GNP. The glaciers in the national park are disappearing at an alarming rate due to global warming and it's sad to think that the park will be different each time we return. We had only half a day to do a hike and needed to get back home before too late so I could head to work the next day. In reality, we ended up getting lost (and reaching home the following day lol) on the drive home thanks to lack of decent cell phone reception in Montana and the road construction obstructing any relevant signs. But at least we had the right idea! We decided to do the hike to the avalanche lake close to the east entrance of the park. After packing our stuff from Many Glacier, we went down across the Going to the Sun Road (saw some more mountain goats just along the road) and reached the trailhead to the avalanche lake. The beautiful river (above) and waterfall (below) were just gorgeous. The river flows along at least half of the hike and is very clear and beautiful to hike along Justin standing on top of the waterfall along the hike Like most glacier hikes, this too started in the tropical alpine further winding along a beautiful crystal clear river and waterfall. Both Justin and I were in love with this aspect of glacier that the water was so clear that you could see 6 feet in. Breathtaking! The hike is short with 6 miles roundtrip distance and minimal elevation change. It's pretty easy and very beautiful the entire way. At the end of the hike, you get to a lake called the Avalanche Lake (duh!) and it's seemingly formed from waterfalls coming down from various glaciers. Just simply amazing. The lake water was freezing but also very clear as this lake eventually forms the river and waterfall we hiked along. Me posing by the beautiful Avalanche lake (above) and panorama of the lake and waterfalls forming the lake (below) As I said before, the crystal clear water surrounded by lush green tall trees was wonderful and we spent extra time walking around this as the bottom of the hike. This was a perfect way to end our trip to glacier. We had an amazing time and can't wait to return.
Hope you enjoy your glacier trip very much!! On our third day in glacier national park, we were greeted with sunny skies and temperatures in the gorgeous 60s. Waking up to tall trees in our campground surrounded by breathtaking cliffs is enough motivation to get out of your tent and get on with the hike...except, we didn't. We were too lazy and we slept in our tent warmed by the shining sun till almost noon and missed our scheduled boat to the start of start of the Grinnell Glacier hike. This wasn't a problem in the least. Many glacier is located in the middle of several awesome hikes and we had planned another hike that we decided to go for. While searching for the hikes to do a few days in advance of this trip, Justin stumbled across this totally insane yet totally cool hike called The Ahern Pass Goat Trail hike. Had we not started our hike at noon, we would have totally done the goat trail but this will have to be left till next time. We did decide to follow the directions to the trail and take pictures where we thought this trail would start because it's really hard to find. The directions available online for this trail were also not very intuitive. Anyway, this goat trail starts off of the popular hike Ptarmigan Tunnel which is also totally awesome. Start of the hike! Look at the lush green trees!! There were gorgeous views all through the hike! The hike is about 10 miles roundtrip and doesn't have significant elevation change from the start of the hike to the final point. Don't get me wrong, it does get steep every now and then but still not as bad as some of the more serious hikes you could do in the Teton national park. The views are GORGEOUS throughout the hike as you can see from our pictures. For the duration of the hike, you will walk through alpine tropics lined with lush green trees and coming across lovely waterfalls from time to time. The hike finally ends in some of the most beautiful vistas in the park. The tunnel that was built for horses to get around the mountains leads to another stunning view in the park. Gorgeous view from the Ptarmigan Tunnel (above)! You can cross the tunnel and walk 50-100 meters to another stunning vista in the park (below)! Ptarmigan Tunnel! We spent some extra time hanging out at the top of the hike and this turned out to be an awesommeeee decision! Right in front of our eyes we saw some badass mountain goats come down the steepest goat trail I have seen. There was 8 of them including goat babies and they were trotting across impossible terrain. After coming down this trail, they ended up on a ridge right above us only about 30-40 feet away! This was one of the coolest hiking experiences I have ever had. These mountain goats were soon followed by billy goats coming down the same way to get there grazing fix. Totally cool and I was left in awe. Look at those badass mountain goats!!! Can't believe they came down that almost vertical trail with their babies! They were soooo cute! And Billy goats and their babies!! It kept getting better! This hike was full of amazing views of nature and wildlife and we got to see mountain goats, billy goats, grizzly bear and moose. Since we are relatively fast hikers, it took us 4ish hours roundtrip to get the hike done. After we were done, there was still plenty of sunlight left so we could cook a nice camping meal before calling it a night. We did the right thing by not going down the goat trail that we had originally planned for because that side of the cliffs were not in the sun in the afternoon time anymore and the goal trail would have been another 5 miles making it total 15 miles after we started hiking at noon.
In any case, this was my favorite hike of the 4 days we spent in Glacier. I can't wait to get back and strap on my big balls to try the real Ahern Pass Goat Trail next time around! The next morning, we woke at 6:15 (VERY unlike us) and made it to the "Many Glacier Entrance" of the park. We literally had to race and beat 3 cars in line ahead of us so we could get to the campground and set up camp. It was a good plan and we got a great campsite to set up camp for the next 2 nights. In the process of racing though, when the cars behind us finally got to the campgrounds, they didn't hesitate to show us the finger! oops!. Well, I suppose when you want something, you've got to fight for it. Many Glacier part of the park is considered to be the heart of the park. In my opinion, the views are some of the best. There are several most popular hikes that start out in the Many Glacier region with access to glaciers, wildlife and lakes. If you're not up for hiking, the views are spectacular just from the Many Glacier hotel and you'll see amazing vistas just walking around Swiftcurrent Lake. Many Glacier Hotel at the Swiftcurrent Lake. This is a must see at sunset! We had planned to do a longer hike but we got too comfy in the tent and slept for 3 hours. Seriously, air mattress is the way to go! We went for a shorter hike since we still wanted to hiking somewhere and the clouds were looming above us. The perfect hike we chose was to Apikuni Falls and back. The hike itself was short with a distance of 2 miles round trip and elevation gain of 700 ft. The views were amazing and at the end, the falls were just awesome. The hike winds through the tropical alpine that GNP has abundance of and ends with stark views of the Glacier hills. Here's where the falls are located: Details of the hike: Hike: Apikuni Falls Hike Area: Many Glacier (at Glacier National Park Many Glacier Entrance) Distance: 2 miles round trip Elevation gain: 700 ft Difficulty: Easy - Moderate (kid friendly) Here are some of my favorite pictures from the hike! Top two are from the start of the hike. There were great views everywhere we looked! The waterfall was larger than life and totally epic. There is a stone below the falls and we walked almost right under the falls. Watch your step though! The hike was gorgeous and fast and there were lots of kids doing it. We were a happy couple! Gorgeous view opposite the waterfall! I am so glad we had an easy day and just enjoyed chilling around the Many Glacier region taking lots of pictures! It was a great way to warm up our legs and do a short hike in the park!
Stick around for details of the next two days!! :-) |
MahimaNuclear Engineer, Product and Strategy expert, Vegetarian, Adventurer. Categories
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