Camping is not always fun, particularly when you are not prepared. Today I have excellent camping equipment, but in 1978, in my low-income taxi driving days, I had next to none. Dennis had a tent, but it wasn't good enough to survive a night-long downpour.

I had long wanted to hike the Gunsight Pass Trail. Dennis and I set out to do it, but September in Glacier National Park, close to the Canadian Border, is late in the season. We started on the western end of the trail, hiking up 3,500 feet from McDonald Lodge on Lake McDonald to the Sperry Chalet Campground (another one of the chalets since closed). The trail begins in evergreen rain forest on the shore of the lake, and climbs up through mixed hardwood and evergreen forest until nearly at the treeline at the campground.

The weather held for the hike up, but it poured down rain all night. In the morning we were cold and soaked. We abandoned the attempt at the pass and hiked back out.