Hoerman's House

Hidden Lake and Highline Trail, Glacier National Park

Our third day at Glacier National Park, (09/21/26), we got up super early to make it to Logan’s Pass to find a parking space. We had been stalking watching the webcam daily and figured we should get there no later than 7:00am. We arrived around 6:30 and it was a good thing we did as the lot was filling up fast.

We hiked the trail to Hidden Lake first so we could watch the sunrise as we hiked up.

Getting to Hidden Lake is all up and half of the trail is boardwalk/steps. Thankfully, it is wide enough that you can stop and let others pass when you need to catch your breath or take pictures.

After Hidden Lake we decided we would hike roughly half of the Highline Trail – the easier half 😉 Mind you, it may have been “easier” but this trail is not for the faint of heart.

In all it was a spectacular day of hiking and we got in 11.16 miles.

Grinnell Lake, Glacier National Park

Our second day (092026) in Glacier National Park, we hiked to Ginnell Lake. This trail is out and back and rated as moderate on the All Trails app. The Many Glacier Hotel is located at the trailhead by Swift Current Lake, which is also very beautiful. To be honest, there isn’t a lake in the park that wasn’t beautiful.

This day was extra special for us because we finally got to see a moose. He was bedded down near the water so it was a little difficult to get a decent picture of him.

When we got back to Many Glacier Hotel and were heading out we spotted a black bear.

It was a fantastic day of hiking and we got in 9.7 miles, which is just shy of our 10 mile goal.

McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park

Hiking is our favorite thing to do while on vacation. So on our first full day at Glacier National Park (09/19/26) we hiked the Upper McDonald Creek Trail and part of the Johns Lake Loop Trail. Both trails are rated as easy on the All Trails app, which is exactly what we wanted on our first day of hiking. We got in 10.5 miles, which was great because our goal was to hit 10 miles per day.

There were some beautiful waterfalls along the way.

We saw a few deer…

The lakes in Glacier National Park are all stunning. This is McDonald Lake.

On our way back to our resort we decided to check out a winery and a brewery. First we stopped off at the White Raven Winery (https://whiteravenwinery.com/) to check out some of the local wines. One of the grapes they grow is the Marquette, which makes a nice medium body dry red wine. It was my first time tasting this varietal and it was delicious. Next we stopped at Backslope Brewery (https://backslopebrewing.com/) where we enjoyed a nice dinner and Glen sampled some of the beers. His favorites included an imperial stout called Blind Tiger, red sour ale called Mixed Metaphors, and a porter called Dr Randolph’s All Day Porter.

In all it was a fantastic first day!

Turns out it is cancer….which sucks

The vet called me yesterday with the pathology on Josie’s tumor. The tumor is a grade 1 cancer, which totally sucks, but I am thankful that it is only stage 1. The vet told me that this type of cancer is not aggressive in that it likely will not spread to her organs. However, it is aggressive in that it will grow back, so we will have to watch her. I figure a weekly overall check is good and she will love the attention.

Surgery for Josie

This is our squirrely girl, Josie.

This upcoming Monday, (September 14th), I will be taking her to the vet to have a sizeable lump removed from her left front leg. The lump doesn’t seem to be bothering her any, and she is eating/drinking like normal.

The vet will send it off to the lab to determine if it is cancer or benign. We are hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.