The Even Bigger Picture

9/9/2003

In my last entry I asked a question, and it seems that the vast majority of you figured out that, yes indeed, I jumped into the lake.

That got me to thinking that perhaps you either know me too well, or perhaps not so well after all. I'm not one of those that posts surveys and stuff like that, so the amount of personal information that is known about me is probably not that significant.

So I though I'd give you a bit of perspective and a look at the bigger picture.

As a matter of fact, today's panorama is so large I shrunk it just for those who might not have a high speed connection. If you've got the time or a high speed connection.

Anyway, on day two of my adventures in Glacier National Park I took a day hike up to what is known as upper Grinell lake, just below the Grinnell Glacier. The entire hike covered a little over 12.6 miles and took about 8 hours from start to finish.

Just after I arrived at this lake I ran into the group that had started out with the ranger about a half an hour before me that morning. She had an electronic temperature probe and placed a couple of wires into the water and then asked the group to guess the temperature of the water.

I guessed 38 degrees, and it came in at what I would consider a bone chilling 36 degrees.

Now here's something you may not know about me. I hate to be cold. I just hate it. I cannot stand it when my core body temperature drops and I start to shiver.

Wait a minute, you ask.. what's with all skiing and such?

Simple, good gear keeps you warm.

I've got good gear, in fact, I've got some of the best, and if it's not good enough to keep me warm, all I have to do is add another layer of fleece or something like that.

You know what else though?

I hate to sweat. I think I hate sweating about as much as I hate shivering.

Fortunately, on this trip, and on both days, the humidity in the park was a whopping 10% so that kept the sweat down to a minimum.

Not the heat mind you.. but the sweat.

But you know, it was hot sitting there by the shore of that calm lake. It was hot and the air was still.

I confess, I did sit there and think about it.

Just about the time I was done thinking about it, 4 guys from North Carolina walked and started talking about "the bet." It seems that before the got to the lake one of them had boasted that he would climb onto an iceberg and then come on back to shore.

The bet was dinner.

We laughed as one of the group said... "You want to know what a Redneck's last words are?"

"Hey Yaall, Watch this!"

And sure enough.. off he went, out to the "mini-berg" that you can see near the shore on the right edge of the previous panorama.

He lived, but he sure did holler when he went under the water after climbing off the ice.

You know what else?

Frequently, I'm the second one to try....

And it was hot, really hot sitting there by the edge of the lake, and hey, I've rolled in the snow and then jumped into a hot tub, this would just be the reverse, right?

Wrong

This was cold, really really cold.

As someone said, breathless kind of cold.

I suppose you might consider this as some kind of "stress test," because if you come on out alive, your heart must be doing ok.

So yes.. you were all right - If you thought I jumped in.

And on another note, I don't think I'll never worry about fathering children again.

But if you think once was enough, you were wrong, I did it twice.