8/4 Athabasca->Mistaya Lake

Today was shorter on the road -- 40mi. 

There's nothing like walking out of your campground and staring out across a mountainous glacier field. Real glaciers and real glacier valleys!:

We cashed out all the climbing we did yesterday, descending quickly back alongside the glacier water river.

Then it was an expensive touristy lunch followed by more descending and then a hard but not brutal climb. It sprinkled the last couple of kms before arriving at camp but thankfully stopped before we had to set up. We arrived at 4p, so walked along the Waterfowl and Mistaya Lakes. Beautiful:

We briefly talked about the need for conservation. For me, I think my care for the planet would be the same no matter how it looked. As beautiful and rugged as these landscapes are, Earth is my home because of humanity. It's true that who we are is born of this environment, but I would care for this world still even if it became an ugly overcrowded wasteland. It's all we have and know, after all. Our obligation to keep the planet clean runs deeply counter to the growing global population.  

I named our Instagram account Old Man and the Mountain as an obvious (I thought, anyway) reference to Hemingway's man vs. nature story. People challenge themselves by what's out there. The mountain changes so much more slowly than people do. It will be here after we're all gone, after all life is extinguished from the face of the earth. 

We managed, with much effort, to get the fire going. It's hard to enjoy, because it takes so long to get dark up here. 

9pm: