Micah's Visit

Well, Micah left on Saturday to go to the Assembly. As usual, it was difficult to see him go, but it was nice to get home and know that we’d be returning to a somewhat normal schedule—like we have one.

While Micah was here, we did quite a few things. One of the first things we did was go to Hungry Horse Dam. It was actually the first time that Rebekah and I had ever been there, so it was a neat experience.

After we ate, we all hiked out to what we believed was an island—that’s what it looked like from where we parked. Our idea was to hike out to the point and then swim across to the island, but when we got there we realized it was all connected. Rebekah and the children only made it part way and then the rockfall became too steep for her and the children, so they waited for us on a nearby trail.

Paul, Micah and myself hiked out the rest of the way, taking pictures as we went of ourselves being ourselves (some of you know what I mean). Each of us posed in our most masculine form as we balanced upon tree stumps and dangled from rock cliffs. [Rebekah put a link to some of these pictures in another section of the blog.]

The neat thing was that the cliffs dropped straight down under the water, since it was a man-made reservoir. That meant that the water was extremely deep and would have made for some awesome cliff-diving if a) I didn’t have some a problem with freefalls and b) the water wasn’t soooo cold.

Paul found a cool chalk-rock, which the three of us had some fun with. I got inspired to make some petraglyphs on the rocks, mainly of Indian-styled thunderbirds. Perhaps they will be discovered, one day, by some scientist and end up in National Geographic or something. Of course, the one that resembles a 2005 Ford Mustang might raise a bit of skepticism (as would the writing that says, “I love Gracie”).

The next day, the three of us hiked up to Avalanche Lake with Elijah and Alana. Micah took Alana in a backpack and Elijah walked. It rained more and more the further we hiked. Because of this, we weren’t up to taking a swim when we reached the lake, but it made for some cool pictures with all of the mist.

Thursday was Josiah’s birthday, and Rebekah decided to give him his first haircut. It was hard to see his baby locks stripped away. I was slightly frustrated with Rebekah, because I had gotten quite attached to him looking that way. Eventually, however, I warmed up to the new look. Just don’t tell Rebekah that admitted to it.

On Friday, I took the Micah and the rest of the family to Many Glaciers. It was a beautiful drive, and we passed some of the bluest waters that any of us had ever scene. What we did not see was glaciers, which was a slight betrayal of the name. We did, however, check out Jackson Glacier on the way back.

Oh, don’t ever stop at the Logan Pass visitors center in the middle of the day, during tourist season. All that you’ll do is drive around in circles, because there are no parking spaces unless you want to pretend to be a tour bus (which I finally did, so that I could get out and take my son to the bathroom). To get an actual parking space, you have to beat about twenty other vehicles, which are also circling the parking lot in hopes that someone will leave. The whole scene kind of resembles a flock of vultures waiting for sick antelope to drop dead. Then, when you get ready to leave, you can’t, because someone is usually blocking traffic since he is next in line behind a family of ten who are getting into their minivan and soon—at least, that’s what we hoped—to vacate their spot.

Before leaving the park, Micah and I had to try out a narrow trail that went across a long cliff ledge. We actually video-taped ourselves running along the pathway, jumping up on rocks and showing how insane people such as ourselves tend to act when given the opportunity.

I have to admit, however, I was outdone by my brother-in-law, who may well be descended from monkeys. He climbed up higher to get a better look and then leaped down from one rock to another until he realized that it might not be such a good idea. After one leap onto a seemingly secure bolder, I thought he was going to begin surfing down the cliff onto the road below. The rock only looked secure and began to move forward, the moment he landed upon it. We both got very religious as we prayed sincerely for the rock to stop its forward motion. Fortunately, it did not go far and Micah learned much from the experience.

On the following Monday, we headed up to Canada. We stopped at a really neat heritage town with buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s. There were some great old shops to peruse, as well as old hotels, schools and churches to explore. There was even an old train and fire tower. We didn’t take the train ride, because it cost more. We did, however, take lots of pictures, which made the whole trip worth while.

We also found out, while we were there, about an out-of-the-way hot springs that was uncapped. Most of the hot springs in that area have been capped and turned into big swimming pools with hot water. Hence, we decided to follow the one-lane gravel road up a canyon to White Swan Lake Provincial Park, where the hot springs were, and that is where we camped out that night. Since I brought only the spare blankets and forgot to grab sleeping bags, we got slightly cold during the night, but it was still great.

After dark, we went down to the hot springs and soaked for about an hour. Micah and the children played with his flashlight under the water. Micah got the brilliant idea to dam up the cold stream, which flowed past the hot springs, using rocks from the walls of the natural hot springs pools. Eventually, we all noticed that the hot springs were becoming quite chilled and began to question Micah as to why that was. Micah and Rebekah worked franticly to repair the damage by rebuilding the wall of the hot springs pool we were soaking in but continued to put more rocks into the bed of the cold stream as they did so. Once I pointed out that by doing so they were raising the water level of the stream and forcing the cold water over the wall, into the pool, they began removing rocks from the stream to make it deeper. After several minutes, our hot springs became a hot springs again. Micah was forbidden to work on science projects until we left the area, and I encouraged him to learn some basic physics in the area of geology.

The following day, we drove up toward Banff, but it rained the whole time, so we turned around at Radium and made our way back. Although the rain ruined our plans for hiking, we did make stops in Invermere and Kimberly to get a taste of the Bavarian culinary arts. In the process, we discovered that Kimberly is an ideal vacation spot, with few tourists, plenty of good hiking trails, a waterfall, a train ride up the mountain and some great Bavarian food. We’ll definitely return there sometime, when it’s not so rainy, since it is only a three-hour drive from Kokanee Bend.

Getting home was nice, since that meant sleeping in a real bed with sufficient blackest to keep icicles from forming between our toes. I spent the next few days catching up on work and getting ready for Elijah’s birthday party, which we had on Saturday before Micah left. During the party, we took Micah to the river one last time. We had been there on the previous week as well and had floated from the C-Falls bridge to Kokanee Bend on rafts, tubes or anything else we could inflate (which felt real good after several hours of putting away hay on the Koffman farm). Our Saturday excursion was to the float across to the big island across from the Bend. Josh and Tanner accompanied Micah and I, as we discovered how fast the current really flows through that channel, even after a substantial decrease in the water level. It was fun, but we had to make it short so that Micah could get to the airport on time.

We actually had time to play two hands of I-Buy at the airport before Micah’s flight left. I won’t say who won, but those last few buys did me in.

On Sunday, we enjoyed some good services and reflected on our obligation to pray for the General Assembly, which is where Micah is now. Paul is on his way there, as well. Have fun guys, but remember why you’re there—I hope. Remember, guys, six inches!