Logan Pass --> Hidden Lake

My mentor's been gone a lot the last few days so instead of doing work on monday, I got to go out and hike. Nate, Jeannie (the other girl working with the same mentor as I) headed up to Glacier and drove up to Logan Pass, which is the steep valley through which the road goes to get from the west side of the park to the east. it only opened up on last friday, because they had to clear out all the snow and deal with flooding from runoff, so it was exciting to drive up through there. we parked at the logan pass visitor's center and took a trail from there to a little lake called hidden lake. in the first mile of the trail, there's lots of people because at this time of the year there's still snow covering everything. tons of people went walking by in shorts and tanks toting their telemark skis and snowboards as well, trekking up to the top of the slopes. it was pretty exciting to hike through snow, especially since i've been pretty deprived the last year. we saw lots of mountain goats along the way, and even a kid. the peaks around us were so majestic and still snow-capped. it's sad though.. i was just reading that only 35 glaciers still exist in the park, down from 150 when it was first explored back in the mid 19th century.. all thanks to climate warming in the area. we hiked down a steep slope to the lake, which was still mostly covered in ice and relaxed for a bit. we ran into a one-horned goat that people had warned us was pretty mean, but he didnt seem too bad. we hiked back out towards our car and did some serious sliding down the snow in our shorts on the way, providing entertainment for all the people still on the trail. when we arrived at our car, we found a big ole bighorn sheep waiting to greet us. all in all.. pretty awesome.