Adventurers Return - July 29

Morning Routines

I awoke restless today and found it difficult to get organized; I spent an inordinate amount of time searching for my glasses. I left them by the creek the night before and this fact annoys me.

Glen and I are becoming accustomed to this place. While I have enjoyed the relaxing pace of the trip so far, I am getting anxious to leave. Glen, however, has settled into life at the creek; he busies himself with routines such as cleaning the canoe of sand, collecting firewood and doing laundry.

Glen and I prepared breakfast of oatmeal and double-smoked bacon. It was raining for the early part of the morning, but now the sky is clearing. Typical for the days that we have been here, rain clouds encircle the mountain tops and clear sky streams down the river valley. Whoever said that the area around Glacier Lake is a weather magnet was right.

After breakfast today I spent personal time doing some reading, meditating and GPS mapping. We expect our traveling partners to return today and in the mid-afternoon their canoe appears up river across from the campsite.

The Return

Alex, Andrew and Tania have arrived back safely from their climb to the Cirque. Glen and I are very glad to see them and hug each one of them in turn. They are quite happy with their accomplishment and the five of us share stories of our experiences of the past few days over tea.

Andrew tells us that at the Cirque they met quite a few Europeans from France, Belgium and other countries. He stated that these people come to the Nahanni area with the goal of climbing a peak they call the "Lotus". Much of the interest in the Cirque of the Unclimbables has been generated by George Bell. People are helicoptered into the site and often wait for two weeks or more to make the climb. The climb can only be done when the slope is dry and because of the water cycle that results in daily rainfall, this seldom is the case. We all agree that climbers are a strange breed indeed!

I make a call home on the Sat phone to let my family know that I'm okay and Glen and I prepare supper this evening giving the others a chance to recuperate. After a dinner of Beef Stroganoff and blueberry crumble, made with blueberries collected on the trail by our comrades, we finish off a bag of red wine. Under the mosquito netting we play a game of "Oh Heck" and talk about the plans to leave camp in the morning.