MT Trip 2015 | Part 7: Highline Trail

On Tuesday, July 21, 2015,

we hiked on a much longer trail. 

Instead of a total of 4 miles (there and back)

at Mt. Oberlin,

we hiked a total of 9 miles (there and back)

at the Highline Trail. 

Hiking at Highline turned out to be 

much more strenuous than hiking Mt. Oberlin. 

Sarah walking on the path

Shaw family photo on a rock with gorgeous mountains in view

Once we reached our destination

(which was the top of the mountain),

our group of 18 persons split up into 3 teams,

1 team went to the top of the Butte,

1 team went a different, longer route to the hotel,

and 1 team walked back the way they came.

Of all the days to split up, this was the worst.

Why? Because something happened that shook our world

apart. Because something startled us all

and helped us refocus, count our blessings, and be thankful for them.

That something was a forest fire.

This forest fire started out being small,

but ended up destroying miles and miles of Glacier National Park.

Since my family was all together, 

I kept thanking God that the Shaw family was safe from the fire.

But, sadly, some families were split up into two different teams

in two different directions.

Glacier National Park rangers were sent out to all the trails

to warn all hikers about the fire and tell them to hike back home.

So, there was no way for us to go back to the trail we hiked.

All we could do was pray and trust God to do His plan

- whether that meant losing friends or not.

To make matters worse, the fire didn't seem to dwindling down.

In fact, it was getting bigger and bigger by the minute.

It was very sad to see smoke rise up from nowhere and spread everywhere

and wonder if your friends were safe.

Much to our relief, we found out that all 18 persons in our group made it

safely away from the fire. But that experience sure was scary.

Smoke from the fire that we can see out our car window

Our group of 18 people
Shaws, Tatjana, Gannons, Moles, Greens.
Our lodge is right behind us.