Glacier NP
Back in March, when we were still just dreaming about the CDT, we signed up for a lottery to win a spot in line for permits to camp in Glacier National Park. There are a lot of rules around backcountry permits in Glacier. You can't book sites more than 16 miles apart, you must pick them up in person the day of or day before, and if you don't win the lottery, you have to show up and just pray that the ranger can patch together an itinerary for you.
We won the lottery! We got a great time slot on the very first day bookings opened and mostly managed to get the itinerary we’d hoped for (they go fast!). We booked permits for four people (the maximum allowed), because we’d heard other folks sometimes get stuck without.
Thru-hiking is an exercise in flexibility. You make a plan. You change the plan. You make a new plan. You scrap that plan too. Then you basically just wing it and hope it all works out. And most of time, it does. You'll often hear hikers say, “The trail provides.” But I think it really means the community provides. We put in love and care to the hiking community and we get love and care out too. These first few days have reminded both of us how much we love this community.
When we arrived in Kalispell we were greeted by old friends (including a hiker Molly met on the AT) who gave us a cozy room in their hotel, made us dinner, and dropped us at the train station once we'd all caught up and swapped tales from our travels. (If you're ever planning a trip out here, go stay at Switchback Suites!! Joe and Katie are just the best).
We took the train over to East Glacier and arrived at Luna's (AKA Looking Glass Basecamp). Luna's is a hostel. For $20, CDT hikers get a place to sleep, a shower, town clothes (for doing laundry), a kitchen to cook in, a place to charge electronics, and an incredible resource to the whole trail community. Luna herself is a gem of a human. She's brash, disarmingly kind, and uproariously funny. She regaled us with tales of bear spray gone wrong, including cautioning us in all seriousness not to jump in a creek if we get sprayed in the face. “It washes down,” she said with raised eyebrows, “And it hurts worse in the bits than in the eyes.”
We slackpacked from Luna's two days before our permits began and started meeting all of the other hikers. With permits scarce, hikers were crisscrossing all over the Park, hitching and slackpacking, trying to cobble together a path through Glacier. We felt lucky to have planned ahead and soon found two other hikers who wanted the additional permits we'd purchased back in March. And so with Smokebeard and Shaun, we formed our merry crew for the trek north.
The crew headed out from Two Medicine and immediately climbed up and over Dawson Pass to Pitamakin Pass. The scenery was straight out of a fairytale and the weather was perfect.
As we descended from Pitamakin Pass we encountered about a mile of on-again, off-again snow. Usually, snow is heinous to thru hikers. It can be steep and treacherous. Or if it’s too soft, you might be post-holing up to your thigh. This snow, however, was mostly low angle. It held up to our hiking over it, and it was soft enough to slide across. This meant that we got to sort of cross-country ski/slide on it in our trail runners. As people who love skiing of all kinds, this brought ridiculous amounts of joy. It added an ease and playfulness to our descent that we relished. Between the weather, scenery, camaraderie, and “skiing” this day was one to be savored.
The next day, we climbed over Triple Divide Pass. The neighboring peak is the hydrological apex of North America: it separates watersheds that flow to the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay. How cool is that?!
After Triple Divide, we wandered down a lush valley overflowing with waterfalls.
Midday on the following day, we got some cell service near Saint Mary Lake and received a weather alert that up to 24” of snow were anticipated up in the high country. A winter snowstorm on the summer solstice. And a bit of a hitch in our plans, which would have taken us over another high pass the following day. We decided to head down to Saint Mary's and make a new plan.
At Saint Mary's, the rangers went out of their way to help us shift gears. Kristen and Todd made our day by pushing out our permits and helping us find a way to wait out the worst of the weather down low. Federal employees don't exactly have the easiest jobs right now, so we appreciated their efforts and expertise even more than usual.
Once the weather clears, we'll head up toward Piegan Pass and Many Glacier. We can't wait to explore more of this incredible park. Onwards to Canada!
