Glacier National Park

After many hours of driving, sitting in the Backcountry Office figuring out our permits, picking up maps at the Post Office, making sure I had enough food, checking snow conditions over the many passes ahead, and generally just getting super anxious.... myself, Bearclaw, Dirtmonger, and Papi Chulo were at the Chief Mountain Border crossing last thursday at 8 pm with 6 miles ahead of us. Lucky for us it gets dark at ten.  As we got closer to our destination we all gawked at the mountains ahead, even got caught in a massive hail storm and was thankful we were in a car.

As we hiked up glacial valleys and climbed over multiple high mountain passes we all just kept looking around in disbelief... this was clearly the best days of our lives!!!  Our legs pumping, lungs heaving, and hiker hunger returns: this is what it feals like to be a thru-hiker.  Most of the passes, Papi Chulo and I seemed to be the first people over the pass this spring.  There was lots of animal tracks (Grizzley, Black Bear, Wolf, Coyote) but no shoe marks.  There was definitly a few bits of snow left still melting but we strolled over them singing our own song "Not Post Holing, la dee dah!" The whole time we felt like kids in a candy store.  Surrounded by massive cliffs down to tiny alpine flowers: truely a magical place.

This park was created back in 1910 primarily by the Great Northern Railroad as a "See America First" Campain.  In no time they built an entire network of Lodges and Chalets throughout the park that were a day's horseback ride apart.  Visitors would get off the train in East Glacier and then explore the park by horseback and boat.  By 1925 there were 1,000 horses carrying 10,000 visitors annually.  Many of these mountain lodges are still here and a huge part of the history.  We had the pleasure of walking by Many Glacier Lodge, Two Medicine Chalet, and later today I plan to curl up in front of the fire at the East Glacier Lodge.  What a treat!

The trail goes through East Glacier Park (town) and we are resting up for our nest section, the BOB!  The Bob Marshal Wilderness is tauted as some of the most wild mountain country we go through.  I didnt have the pleasure of seeing a Grizzley in Glacier but my chances are supposedly much higher in the Bob, I'm stoked!!!  It is also out longest section without roads or cell service.  We are lucky that there is a Ranch that lets hikers send resupply packages so that we dont actually have to carry 200 miles worth of food all at once.

My plan from here is to try and keep it simple, hike south.  This will have me finishing the trail in northern NM in the San Juan Mtns.  Not quite what I had planned but it has been a great exercise in adapting to what Mother Nature throws at you.  Despite major set-backs, I'm still confident that I have enough time to finish the trail this summer.  For now, I'm just enjoying the moment.

Happy Trails!
~beads

Wonderer (from Japan), me, and Papi Chulo enjoying a fire at Two Medicine Lodge