Blair Lake Trailhead

Tonight was another example of listening to the spirit. ChaRee (my clerk at work) had told me that she and her family hiked in to Blair Lake last week and that the flowers were spectacular. I've always wanted to do that hike, but haven't had time. Gary (ChaRee's husband) called me after she had left for the day and told me that I needed to take my camera and go up the Blair Lake trailhead road and take pictures of the flowers. He told me that if I didn't want to take my car I could borrow his truck. Of course, last week, Anne Marie Miller had come in and told me the flowers up there were absolutely gorgeous and that she managed to drive up the road in her little car. I wanted to drive up there this evening, but I had done some extra things for work and it was getting late. At about 7:15 I decided I would go up anyway. It was cloudy and I knew it wouldn't be great for taking pictures, especially since I had gotten started so late. As I was driving up the road I watched the multitude of flowers blowing in the wind, and knew I would never be able to get a good picture. There were fields of indian paintbrush, from light orange to bright crimson. The segoe lilies were still in bloom and tons of other flowers that I don't know the names of. The road was rough (that is putting it mildly). I was heading down this really steep part and scraped bottom. My first thought was that I should just turn around and head back home. Impossible on that slope, so I just kept going. I stopped a couple of times, wondering just how far it was to the trailhead. For some reason I headed on, even when I passed two or three good places to turn around. I finally saw the trailhead about 1/4 mile ahead. I drove down to a good place to turn around and got Blew out so that she could run around a bit. I took several pictures (none turned out very good) and walked to where the signs were planted that tell you vehicles can go no further. As I turned around, I saw people walking down the hill. Now, I hadn't passed anyone on the drive in, so my heart accelerated a little bit. When I got closer, I saw it was a couple of hikers. They looked dirty and tired. They told me that there was supposed to be water there and that it was at a galvanized cistern. I hadn't seen anything, but was sure wishing I had thrown some water in the car so that I could give it to them. They started searching the area for the cistern, and Blew and I headed back to the car and started back up the hill. About an 1/8th of a mile away from the trailhead, I looked out across the valley at Island Park Reservoir. As my eyes traveled back to the flowers alongside the car, I noticed a pipe sticking up out of some grass. I stopped the car, pulled on the parking break and took Blew over to explore. Sure enough, it was the galvanized cistern. I tried calling to the couple, but the wind just blew my words away. I backed down the hill and walked to where the girl was setting up their tent. The guy was off down the hill, still searching for the water. I showed the girl where the cistern was located and talked to her a little more. She said the last water they had was 11 miles back. That made me feel doubly bad about not throwing any water in my car, but I am so glad that I listened to the spirit and continued on up to the trailhead even when I thought I should turn back. If I hadn't, who knows if that couple would have found the water before dark.