“Someone asked me why there weren’t any glaciers at Glacier National Park.”
“They’re at the higher elevations during the summer,” Grayson said.
“Exactly. If he wanted to hike that far, he would see them, since the snow had melted, revealing the glacier formations. Someone is waving me down to speak with me, but in the meantime, I’ll get the photos off to the press. They’ll love the story.”
“Thanks!”
They ended the call.
“I’m glad you suggested Patrick share the story with the press.”
“He’ll give it to one of our grizzly bear shifter reporters. He’s all over nature and human-interest stories. He’ll love it,” Kendra said.
They saw some other hikers and smiled to see they were on the right trail.
“See anything of interest?” the man asked.
“Birds and butterflies. You don’t want to run into bears. In fact, it’s getting late, and bears will be foraging for food even more now,” Grayson said.
“Same with early in the morning,” Kendra said. “We’re bear experts.”
“Oh, wow, cool. So it would be better to try this tomorrow, later in the day,” the woman said.
“Yeah, that would probably be safer,” Grayson said.
Then they wished them a great time there, but the family followed them back to the lodge area.
Grayson and Kendra finally reached their cabin and ran up the steps to their treetop abode. He was soon making their steaks and corn on the cob on the grill while Kendra started boiling potatoes and frying green brussel sprouts on the stovetop. While she waited for those to be done, she poured them glasses of red wine and took them out to the deck, where Grayson was cooking the steak and corn.
She quickly texted Amy to let her know they were back at their cabin. She kissed Grayson’s cheek. “Hmm, that smells good. I wonder if they ever have bears climb the stairs to come after the food in a lodge.”
The next day, Grayson and Kendra made coffee and sat on the deck while they watched the sun rise, the bright pink clouds reflecting off the water and highlighting the mountains. It was really beautiful, perfect for their stay.
Then they went down to have breakfast at the café. Grayson ordered the breakfast burrito of red potatoes, ham, bacon, scrambled eggs, plus cheddar cheese.
Kendra also had a burrito, but with bacon instead of ham, and hers included tomatoes and spinach. “I’m having the huckleberry iced tea also.”
“Yeah, I’ll have the sweet cream cold brew.”
After they finished breakfast, they began the rope climbing course. Kendra was glad they could do it at their own pace, which was faster than many other visitors, who were either afraid of heights or just found the climbing challenging. But for grizzly shifters, they had this covered. People of all ages were climbing the ropes, from five years old to over eighty.
Several teenage staff members were encouraging anyone stuck at various points on the ropes course.
But one kid, about 12 years old, started having a meltdown, crying and screaming, frozen in place, shaking. He was too far away from staff members or his dad, and Grayson easily made his way over to him. “Hey, what is your name?”
“Steven,” the boy said, choking on sobs, barely getting his name out. Tears were streaking down his face, and he looked miserable.
“You can do it,” Grayson said. “Believe me, when I was a kid, heights terrified me.”
Kendra got closer to the two of them, smiling, amused. No way was a grizzly shifter ever afraid of heights. They were fantastic climbers.
Grayson pointed to the boy’s safety harness protecting him. “That will keep you from falling. You’re safe up here.”
“Oh-okay.”
“Just move your foot into that rung. You can do it.”
Steven did what he was told.
