A house divided can not stand, said Lincoln. The continental divide has been there for a REAL long time Linlcon. Get your shit straight.

I am not dead yet. This trip is saving my life. Be sure to READ everything that is here before you make my life harder right now than it already is. Read the header to Magical Wonderfulness to try and understand for yourselves what is happening here. I am trying to be upbeat, excited and amazed at what I am seeing out here, and I am trying to share that with others. Rocky Mountain National Park is amazing, and a park ranger knowing my name worries me, and complicates things, and gets my mind back onto what I am getting away from! SO STOP. You will hopefully understand more as time goes on. As will I. You can meet Randy and some elk when you read further.

Of all the things behind a McDonald's, this has to be one of the prettiest and less gross.

As soon as I got onto the Andrew's Glacier trail I started noticing florescent orange markers. If you are one to know anything about me, you know that this was amazing for me. OH, that amazing scenery with the surprising dash of the most artificial color. Yes. And this made me think of something I'll go into further.

There was anywhere from 3-17 inches of snow on the ground the whole way. The glacier I was heading to was nestled on top of the continental divide.

It was a blistering 45 degrees when I got to the trail-head and I was bundled up even more than yesterday after learning my lesson on cold and wind. Well I was hot and ended up taking my hat off and opening my coat. A survival lesson to be learned in the cold is to NEVER sweat. Sweat happens to col your body and that is very bad when it is already very cold outside, hypothermia can set in if you're not careful. Thanks "Survivor Man" for teaching me this and other wonderful insights that I hope to use one day. It's on the Discovery Channel, but a similar show called Man vs. Wild is terrible in comparison. That jackass just goes around doing stupid shit to get him in danger while always having a medical team on hand and Survivorman is alone and tapes all of his stuff and just spends a week showing what you need to do to survive in different areas.

Markers everywhere for a long while. Great.

the camera doesn/t even show the intensity of the color.

The ridge up to the glacier was spectacular.

Ope! Beautiful.

The trail was heavily traveled and every Aspen had carvings from ground level to head high.

The rock in this gorge was so shear and foreboding.

The view above was altered by an airplane that had passed some time ago.

I love you.

Casey Roberts, what trees do you use in your work? These Aspen remind me of the lines that your trees have. Just let me know, tell no one else.

Two feet of snow on the ground and beautiful snow covered pines...spruce...?

Such straight, tall trunks.

So I finally got near the glacier. The wind kicking down the mountain was fierce and made the trail hard to find. These tracks I made were covered when I cam back 10 minutes later.

The wind raced across the lake with frightening speed. It was hard to stand and take pictures.

This was similarly what the snow cover looked like once I got to this lake. The trail was completely covered. The black is thin ice and water. My foot went through and the sole of my boot touched ice water. Needless to say I was standing scared shitless of what was water or solid ground. There was no trail left to see anywhere except where I had come from and I was watching that disappear.

The dip in the ridge above was the glacier and I had come so far and was so close. I had to turn back, I wasn't about to walk back 7 miles with a wet foot. And the wind was whipping through two layers of gloves and both of my hats. My eyes being exposed felt like they were being sandblasted.

I really wanted to see the glacier before it was gone forever...turn off lights you're not using and don't drive when you don't have to damn it. Plant a tree.

I failed to mention the wildlife before. I didn't catch a picture of squirrels or a PIKA yesterday. (As in Pikachu's name sake, they aren't yellow or electricity though.) This squirrel species is very tiny. It is so gratifying to not know anything about the flora or fauna, I want to learn. This squirrel is so small, its defense is to yelp like a cross between a squirrel and a bird, to let you know JUST where to find the damn thing. Then, if it is on a branch or something, it violently shakes and looks like its is frightened to death. I don't know if this was to attract others or scare me, but it was cute and looked like i scared the crap out of it. Oh, and they straighten their arms out and look as if they are throwing out gang signs. DENVER, WHAT!? STRAIGHT OUT OF RMNP. WHAT!? So cute.

Sadly this trail doubled back on itself and I just had to look the opposite direction instead of see more diverse conditions. The difference was the sun was setting.



This species of tree has purple bark, super green needles, and the needles come in balls. My kind of beautifully weird tree.

I got back to my car and since there was still light I wanted to go over the cintinental divide and see the scenery.

On top of the mountains, overlooking more mountains, yes please.

When I got to a spot to stop the car and get out and look a nice Park Ranger named Randy wanted to make sure I knew that this area was mainly for enjoyment during the day. I said I was about to leave and it came up that I was from Indiana. "Is your name Shane?" Randy asked, "...UH, ya, how do you know that?" I replied. He was on the lookout for a Shane driving a white car. Wow. Ok, so people are worried about me and I know why. I am here because I wanted to get away from what was happening in my life and not have to think about the things that were wrong. I have no way of contacting people except through facebook and this blog, as I do not have a cellphone and payphones are almost extinct. I have plenty of money for a payphone, but the only one I have come across was in Kansas City and it was broken, then I saw that Delorean. I knew Randy knew what I had told Ani, and he had a concerned look trying to avoid asking me the big question. I told him I was fine, and that this journey was to try and save my life, and to find peace. He went on to say how he and a friend came west back in the day and ended up running out of money and starting a new life in San Diego. He was nice and I explained that I had bought an "America the Beautiful Pass" (that lets me get into all national parks for free within the year) and was on my way to see Arches, Death Valley, Sequoia and others. He used to work at Death Valley NP and said this was a great time to visit, and said the Grand Canyon was always good, but Zion National Park was a gem and that I should go there.

Right before I left he pulled up beside my car and warned me that there were 3 or 4 bull elk down the road and to watch out, or it would ruin everyone's day. Boy was he right. I was on my way out of the park and when the road bent my eyes grew ten-fold to see a humongous bull elk in another cars headlights. Holy crap these guys were huge. They were just chilling in and near the road, eating grasses and...something in the middle of the road, I couldn't tell what.

It was so dark I had to get the most horrible pictures, but I stood outside my car and watched them for a while.

And the elk said unto me... I love you all, do not worry about me or make my trip anymore complicated, please. If I had stayed everyone would be at a loss for a son, friend, mentally distraut ex-boyfriend, and all around great artist. I have Borderline Personality Disorder, depression, and a co-dependency. For those of you that have expressed that I care too much about what others think, you can learn why: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/borderline-personality-disorder-fact-sheet/index.shtml