Month: October 2020

On our way home from teaching seminary today, Pepper mused,

You know, sometimes seminary feels like Thanksgiving. You spend hours preparing a huge feast, and it looks amazing, and then everyone sits down and they’re done eating in 20 minutes.

To which I added,

And some of them complain that they don’t like cranberries or potatoes, or that they’re just not very hungry that day.

It’s been a little over 18 months since I retired, so clearly it was time to start another business. I officially incorporated a new company, and I’m in the process of setting up bank accounts and legal structures and all that fun administrative stuff.

The company? Turret Games LLC, named (by Pepper) for the turret on the back of our house. I’ll use the company for my latest hobby, board game design. The first one will be Hexteria, which is in the early stages of play-testing. I’d say it’s at a “beta” level now– it’s a solid game which could use some minor tweaks. I’ve hired a designer to help with the graphics and overall look, and in the coming weeks I hope to create the first real “print run”. It’ll be a (very) limited edition of the game: just a handful that I can send to friends and play-testers to get feedback.

After that? Well, many new games are born on Kickstarter, where their creators get support and funding to get them to a wider audience. Right now I’m thinking of targeting a launch with 100 games (meaning 100 customers willing to actually hand over some money). That means marketing materials, branding, a web site, and learning a lot more about the process. It’s slowly coming together.

Will Turret Games be successful? Will Hexteria be a hit? Stay tuned.

We enjoyed the first few miles of Glacier’s Highline Trail last week, so we decided to hike the full length today. The fall weather around here continues to be amazing, so we need to take advantage of it! After teaching seminary, we drove up to Glacier. As we climbed ever higher on the road to Logan Pass, we could see fog down in the valley. The sun was just peeking over the mountains to the east, making for an incredible scene:

The clouds had settled into the valley, nestled amongst the huge mountains.

It was cool to watch the fog drift slowly across the trees, causing the green pines and firs and the yellow aspen and larch to slowly appear from the mist.

As we started at the trailhead, the weather was a bit challenging. A 30mph wind was blowing and the temperature was in the high 30’s– not a good combination. We were in shorts and long-sleeved shirts, so it was chilly. But they say “always start hiking cold, and you’ll warm up”. We did, although it helped when the wind died and the sun warmed up everything a bit. It proved to be a gorgeous day for hiking: sunny with temperatures in the 50’s.

The Highline Trail winds along mountainsides, occasionally dropping down in a gradual slope, and at other times rising through switchbacks up a slope. The views along the trail are unparalleled.

Pepper has grown fond of wearing brightly-colored shirts while hiking (witness the bright pink one from last week). Not to be outdone, I chose a neon orange shirt.

The fall colors were even more pronounced than last week– it’s surprising what only a few days can do as the trees continue to turn. Here’s a cool aspen alongside the trail:

We stopped for lunch at Granite Peak Chalet, an old (historic landmark) building near Swiftcurrent Mountain. The chalet overlooks much of Glacier National Park, so despite the wind at the summit, it was awesome to eat while watching the sun and clouds moving across the distant peaks.

Twelve miles and five hours later, we found ourselves at the far end of the trail. What a hike! I can see why it’s considered one of the top ten hikes in North America. Some have compared it with the Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali Coast of Kauai– I haven’t done the latter, but hope to in the next year or so. I’ll report back.

I snapped a few pictures of a little creek near the trailhead.

Today marks our tenth visit to Glacier this year– quite a pace! Every time we go, there’s something different and magical we find. We’ll be back.

We had a chance to talk with Zaque, aka Elder Schroeder, today via a video chat. It was fun to catch up with him and hear some stories about his missionary experiences.

During the call, he pulled out his ukelele and proceeded to show us how well he plays.

He’s entirely self-taught and admitted that he simply learned a handful of chords, and then figured out a few ways to strum. It actually sounds pretty good. Chalk up one more talent for a man of many talents!

Here’s a shot of me hiking, courtesy of Julian:

I can only hope I don’t normally look like that…

It’s been two whole weeks since we were last in Glacier, and as fall comes on, we felt like we should go back to see the trees changing color. Boy, did we make the right call– the aspen was spectacular, and we couldn’t have asked for a prettier day: sunny and in the 60’s. We headed up to Logan Pass, at the summit of Going-to-the-Sun Road, where Mount Logan towers over everything:

At the pass, we loaded our packs and headed out on the Highline Trail. This is a twelve-mile trail that winds along the mountainsides, with a couple of branches that lead to Haystack Peak and Glacier Peak Chalet. We were under a bit of a time crunch today, so we couldn’t do the full trail, but we put in about five miles.

It starts out along a sheer rock wall, with a drop of several hundred feet to the highway below. Here’s Pepper as we headed out:

And coming back, where it’s a little more clear how the trail drops straight down to the road. Way cool.

Here’s another view, further down the trail, looking down to the winding highway and, below that, the valley.

So yeah, it’s not for the faint of heart, but the views are incredible. Here’s the valley:

And a view of lines of mountains, ending in Heaven’s Peak (the snow-capped one in the distance):

The colors were breathtaking. I love aspen and larch in the fall.

After we’d covered about 2.5 miles, we had a snack and turned around. We agreed to do it again– this time the full trail— next week.

But you can’t just leave Glacier after only five miles of hiking! So we spent some time along McDonald Creek, which (not surprisingly) has only a fraction of the water it did in the summer. It’s like an entirely different place! Here’s a view upstream to a small waterfall:

We decided to test the glacial meltwater, so we took off our shoes and dipped our feet into the stream. Wow. I think the water was probably 40 degrees.

I just love the crystal-clear glacier water, and the gorgeous green tint. I also love my gorgeous wife.

Looking downstream:

A bit further along is Sacred Dancing Cascade, which was incredible at low water.

Naturally we had to stop near the southern end of Lake McDonald and skip some stones (now becoming a little tradition of ours every time we visit). Like two weeks ago, the water was incredibly still. Unlike two weeks ago, we could actually see things in the distance now that the smoke has cleared.

Yep, another incredible day at one of my favorite places on earth. On the drive home, there was a beautiful sunset over Flathead Lake.

Life is good.