Pictures of Hiking through Glacier National Park

Day 45 end of a journey

I had 25 miles to the end of the trail at chief mountain customs and I decided I would make the decision on whether to finish the trail today or not as I hiked. It's no surprise I decided to go for it and complete the trail in my personal goal of 45 days. I was given coffee by a guided backpacking trip at goat haunt shelter before I started the day and it put me in the perfect mood to enjoy the bipolar weather. It stormed all night long and I was very lucky to have a shelter over my head to avoid the rain. I set off and hiked up and over stony Indian pass which was nothing short of amazing. In glacier national park everything is other worldly. It's impossible to out it into words. On the other side of the pass I got to hike down the canyon surrounded by waterfalls. This is where I met many hikers exploring the park. I hiked around glen lake and Cosley lake and began the walk along the belly river towards the end of the trail at chief mountain customs. The miles flew by and nothing was going to stop me from finishing although a large bull moose did slow me down a bit. The last 6 miles I was more of a robot than a person just waiting to finish my long journey. I passed a couple guys and a ranger. Throughout the day I received many congratulations which made me even more motivated to finish. I made it to the end and it was a strange feeling, one I couldn't comprehend. I'm sure it will sink in during the coming days. The road down to civilization was very quiet and it took quite a while to get a ride. I had to plea with other hikers to give me a ride but thankfully I got down and into a small town called st Mary's and instead of springing for an expensive touristy cabin I slept behind the bar in my tent. The next couple days I will explore the national park and take the train back on the 17th. I will post pictures on here where I get a chance and a trip video within the week but other than that my journey is complete. Thanks to everyone I met on the way and helped me complete this adventure!

Day 44- Glacier National Park

Glacier national park is beautiful. Today I woke up early at the hostel, packed up and went through the tiny place they call Polebridge to see if the bakery was open. I was in luck and got a coffee and enough day old donuts (1/2 off) to feed an army. I was then told that the ranger station that I could get my permit at opened at 8. Turns out this was wrong and they actually didn't open until 9. Even with this inconvenience I made the most of it and found an outlet (that I was unable to find in town) to charge my phone. Once the station opened I went in with the 2 places in mind that I wanted to camp at but they were full. It turned out they were all full except for goat haunt shelters. This was 29 miles in. I told her that's where I wanted to go my first night and she did not think it was a good idea. I set her straight by telling her how many miles I can do in a day and reassuring her that the mileage was no problem, and it turned out not to be. I made it to camp by 7pm. The day was amazing. After walking the road up to bowman lake I was greeted with something out of a fairy tale. The lake was amazing with mountains on all sides. I walked all the way around the lake and then up over browns pass and into the mountains. I went down the other side through a tremendous canyon with lakes all down it and finally got to the Waterton river which was quite wide. It had a cable bridge across that swayed a good 3 feet with every step and started bouncing all over the place after the rhythm of a few steps. I crossed and made it to the goat haunt shelters which are just like a 3 sided garage with a cement floor. I ate and settled in and noticed a boat of tourists came down waterton lake. Apparently there is a shuttle that comes to the visitors center and ranger station here. This area of the national park is jointly managed by the USA and Canada. Even though I could finish the trail tomorrow without much difficulty I decided to go ahead and get a permit for tomorrow night. It will only be a 13 mile day but I should be able to fish and explore the park. Even though I will finish one day later than my 45 day goal, it is much more important to me to see more of the park than trying to rush through the last 25 miles.

Day 43- polebridge hostel

I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and swarms of mosquitos. That meant once I had started packing up I couldn't stop or else I would get eaten alive. So I packed up quick and set off to put in a big day. I hiked the whitefish divide and got both some great views and some great huckleberries. The ridges I hiked on were very dry and I ran out of water many times. It was not terrible as I was never out of water for too long. In the beginning I met a nice guy clearing the trail and he was my first human interaction since eureka. I have noticed I have become very content and easily entertained by myself. I made it in to polebridge in the late evening. I got a burger and a beer at the cafe along with a slice of amazing huckleberry pie. Then I checked in to the hostel. Polebridge is a tiny town that is for tourists. It is set up similar to an old mining town. There is no power or internet except from solar power. This made it impossible to charge my electronics. I will be on the lookout for a place to charge up before I set our into the wilderness tomorrow. I will leave tomorrow morning and go to the ranger station to get my permit to camp with the grizzlies in glacier national park.

Day 42 - Montana mountains

I woke up and was happy to see my food bag still hanging and in tack. I are breakfast and began hiking the ups and downs of these mountains just on the outside of glacier national park. Eventually, after going over mt wam I dropped down to a forest road which I walked for 4 miles then had to fight through the brush of another abandoned forest for 6 more miles before beginning the whitefish divide trail. From here I walked to the top of mt Locke where I am camped for a night and got to witness an amazing sunset. This area is truly amazing and I can imagine it is even more beautiful when there is snow around. There is nowhere to hang my food on the mountain so I am prepared to fight grizzlies. In this mountain time zone it is very awesome that it does not really get dark until almost ten. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to pole ridge where I can get my glacier national park permits and move on to the finish of this trail at chief mountain customs office. I have somewhere between eighty and 90 miles left. It's a good thing too because it seems that every day my gear has a new issue or at least a hole in it. I guess it was not rated for 4000 miles in 2 trips over 3 years.

Day 41- into real bear country

I am now closing in in the end of my adventure and also the most densely populated area of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states. It could get a little dicey. I woke up to dew all over my sleeping bag and other things that were out this morning, but since it climbed over 100 degrees it was not too much of an issue to dry my stuff out. From there I went in to Eureka and picked up my food from the post office and also did my laundry. Then of course I had to check out the place that claimed they had the best burgers. They were pretty good but I wouldn't say they were the best. From there I walked out of town in the scorching heat. Instead of going straight up the trail into the mountains I decided to go an extra halfmile or so to jump in glen lake. It was a wonderful way to spend the hottest part of the day. There were many people with their kids and jet boats enjoying the weather. From there I hiked 13 miles up into the mountains and decided I would once again hang my food because tonight I don't feel like fighting a grizzly, maybe tomorrow.

Montana

Day 40- Montana people

Today was a long hot day with a great ending. I woke up by the waterfall and began hiking through waist high grass covered in dew. This was tolerable but I must have walked through or got stung by some plant because my knees and shins began to burn. It was not a good sensation and really frustrated me. I climbed over the Purcell summit and continued to walk along the dry ridges of western Montana. I then climbed around Webb mountain and the long trail down to the kootenai river. Once I got to the river I had to road walk over the bridge and on towards my last town stop of eureka. If I didn't mention it before, Montana is on mountain time zone so I had to push my own internal clock back an hour. I walked and then met a nice guy Dave who told me to stay at his place a ways outside of town. It was hard to hear and I didn't pick up the entire conversation so when I got to his place I was surprised by the number of people. It was a good ole Montana Sunday get together. Apparently every Sunday during the good weather anywhere from 20-50 people get together outside of eureka and hang out. It was great. There was a table of food, people of all ages, and some music. I was even convinced to get in there and play some volleyball. I even got a shower in and am camped under the full moon. Tomorrow I will get my town stuff done and move on the the last 130 miles!

Day 39- turned creek

Today I woke up early and began the long walk down the mountain. As the trail began to twist and turn I slowly began to realize that I was not going the right way. Instead of standing confused and wasting time staring at my mediocre maps I continued down the trail to the first road I came to and from here I used my navigation skills to correctly turn up another logging road and regain the trail about halfway. About midway through this day long journey to refine the trail I ate some dehydrated apple crisp for a late breakfast and it may have been the best meal I have had in the last 39 days. From here I crossed the Yack river and traveled up another trail. I found a great waterfall at the end of the day to camp by and even got some fishing in. I hooked one fish and got multiple bites but the fish broke my line sadly and it was getting too dark to retie a fly on my line. Tonight is the 3rd day on the entire trail I have made the decision to hang my food in a tree which is always quite the hassle. I usually use my food as my pillow. Tomorrow I should get very close to Eureka where my last box of food is located. I have currently walked about 1050 trail miles with 150 to go.

Day 38-huckleberry pickers

If anyone is looking for a job that you can set your own hours at and work in the tranquility of the woods, huckleberry picking is the ticket. In this area if the Idaho panhandle and western Montana there seems to be a big industry of these pickers and I have seen many of them in the middle of nowhere. I left Feist creek early in the morning and spent most of the day climbing up into the mountains. Once up high I was treated to some amazing views with mountains all around me. I walked along a ridge similar to a knifes edge and got the exhilarating feeling of being on top of the world. The trail disappeared at many places along the way and I just continued to walk along the ridge. I am camped in a hole surrounded by giant huckleberrys. I have crossed Washington and Idaho off my list of states to walk across and now I only have about 200 miles left in Montana! In the past few days I have seen bears and heard even more. It is pretty eerie to hear a large animal crash through the brush and then look down the mountain only to see a large bear. My gear has been slowly failing but hopefully it will make it another week. Nearly everything has holes in it and my pack has a giant rip in the front.

Day 37- Feist creek

Today I slept in. At least enough to feel fully charged for the day. I was very low on water in the morning so I drank just enough to get me by and had a small breakfast that didn't require any water. It was not the best situation to be in but since it has been a dry hot summer with a very small snowpack (meaning few springs) I figured I should save my half bottle of water until I found some on the trail. Luckily only a half dozen miles in I found a questionable pond, but was desperate enough to grab a bottles worth. Thankfully a couple miles down the trail I found some clear, fresh, clean springs that I filled up at. From here I continued to walk a confusing array if trails and was often elated when I saw a sign that signified I was going in generally the correct direction. My maps show the trails and roads but they are often misnumbered which makes the whole adventure a guessing game. Eventually I made it to a small place called Feist creek resort in which there is a restaurant. I decide to make the trek 1/4 mile off the trail and found a place that I could not tell if it was open or not. I tried the door and found the most inviting environment I have seen on the entire trail. The people were great, the customers were great, the food was good, and the beer was cold. They even gave me a free shower (which I desperately needed). Overall it really made my day and since I am trying to slow myself down to get to Eureka, Montana on Monday instead of when the post office is closed on Sunday I figured it would be a great lawn to pitch my tent on. I will officially be in Montana tomorrow and definitely seeing this epic hike 2.0 with the end in sight.

Day 36- all you can eat

Before I get to my day I first have to say, "I HATE MOSQUITOS I HATE MOSQUITOS I HATE MOSQUITOS." After a day in town I walked a few miles and got eaten alive by the swarm of mosquitos that followed me, most likely from Brush Lake. It was very frustrating and uncomfortable to be bitten over and over again despite using the but spray that I carry but use extremely infrequently. Today I woke up right next to the road that would take me to Highway 95 and in to Bonners ferry where I could resupply and upgrade some gear. I walked over the kootenei river and hitchhiked into town where I satisfied my desire for a nice warm cup of coffee in the morning. Then I hit the library to take care of a few more chores. Then it was time to eat lunch and I had heard about an all you can eat pizza buffet. I may have set records. They also had an open salad bar which I took full advantage of. In fact I ate WAY too much. So much I could barely walk and had to lay in the grass to organize my pack and get over the large amount of food I had just consumed. To get out of town and back to the trail it took three different times hitchhiking as each car was only going a couple miles, and when I finally arrived back at the trail I was graciously greeted by the massive clouds if mosquitos. I now have a lightweight fishing pole with me that I hope to get some use out of in the next few days and I should be done with Idaho and into Montana in the next day or two. My pack is extremely heavy which means it's time to eat well for the next couple days. Next town stop is Eureka, MT.

Pictures

Day 35- Major bushwhacking

I woke up near a creek with no idea where the trail went except that it would follow the creek until another creek flowed into it and then from there I would be following that new creek up into the mountains for about 5 miles. I found the creek but a couple miles up into the mountains I could not find any semblance of trail so I decided to climb the tallest ridge in the hopes I would see the lake I would head to next. 2 hours of profuse sweating I made it to the top only to hear something large walking along the ridge breaking big branches as it moved. I never saw what it was but i would like to think it was a grizzly. On top of the ridge I realized I had crossed the ridge much too soon and I had to hop boulders and scramble a few miles in some instances where I had to navigate some rock faces and cliffs along the mountain ridges. About late afternoon I finally found where the trail started again around ball lake. From here I followed it all the way to the road which I am camped at with large rocks poking into my neck and back. I had to walk until 10 pm and into the night to camp here and I could not stop earlier because I ran out of water. Tomorrow I will make it into bonners ferry.

Day 34- Idaho hills

Today I awoke in a dark forest near a meadow. None of my stuff got wet the night before so I was not expecting any dew on the grass and flowers but once I got to the meadow nearby the trail basically disappeared and turned into waste high wet grass. After only a short wall my sox shoes and feet were all soaked. This made the rest of the walking until lunch a little more difficult and made it feel like my feet weighed 10 pounds each. I came out to the correct logging road and it reaffirmed that I had taken the correct path through the gauntlet of trails on the Washington Idaho border. I walked on and got some good views of priest lake where I could change my socks and let my feet dry out a bit. I also met Andy who was camping with a couple dozen of his family member and he was nice enough to offer me some food to compliment my lunch. It's always great to meet nice people. I walked on a few more miles and I am camped right about where the trail disappears. The first ten miles or so tomorrow will most likely be bushwhacking, which can be extremely slow and frustrating.

Day 33- Idaho

Today was a tough one. I did not sleep well last night, so when I finally saw that it was light out I just decided to head out of town. It was much earlier than I usually start. I walked out of metaline falls before anything had even opened and began my slog through some very rugged logging roads and trails on my way to Idaho. Just when the scratches on my legs had begun to heal up I got a new batch of scratches. Overall, it could have been worse and I was able to put in enough miles to make it in to Idaho and be done with hiking in Washington after 900 miles. It is a good feeling. The huckleberries all day today were giant and great tasting. When I finally stopped for the night to set up my camp I got bombarded by mosquitoes. So after starting out nice and clean after going through a couple towns I now have cuts and bites but at least I'm finally in Idaho.

Abercrombie mountain

Day 32- Metaline falls

Today I woke up next to a gravel road that I had hiked into the night to get to and was not even completely sure it was the right one. But I decided to bet on it and continued down what I hoped was a forest service road that would give me a trail to get to the top of Abercrombie mountain. Luckily after a few miles there was a sign for trail #119 and that was exactly what I was looking for. From here it was going to get tricky. My maps said the creek next to me might be the only water for the next 23 miles until Metaline falls. This could be an issue since I only had three water bottles. So I forced down as much water as I could and filled up my bottles and began the hot uphill climb to the top of the second highest mountain in eastern Washington. I made it to the top around noon, so the true hot weather hadn't set in. As many of the climbs seem to go, I just went right down the other side and dropped all those hard feet of elevation that I had worked for. Eventually I got to a gravel road that would take me to the next road and on through metaline falls, but this is when I noticed the thunderheads rolling in. Within a few minutes of walking it started to sprinkle and then the true lightning started. It was truly amazing. I have walked right through the middle of two different lightning storms on this trip and have been more amazed than anything at the size and power of them. This storm didn't even let up through the entire walk so I decided I would stay in town and through some good story telling and networking if found someone willing to let me stay in their shop on a couch, dry and out of the elements. It was all I could hope for. Tomorrow I should inch closer to Idaho and cross the border in the next couple days. While walking today I saw some turkeys, chickens, grouse, and even a deer crossing the river on the bridge. My feet felt amazing due to my new shoes and my back could get used to a couch compared to sleeping on rocks nightly.

Day 31 - northport and gone

I woke up really early to the sound of cows and their cowbells. It was not the best alarm I could have imagined. Cows sure can MOO loud. I walked down the gravel road past sheep creek campground and onto the highway into northport. I crossed the Columbia river only a few miles from the Canadian border and was surprised to see that is only about a third the size that it is at my house in Vancouver. Once in northport I got my town things end which mostly included charging things up and collecting packages from the post office. Then I began to organize. It was perfect timing to get in to town around 10 am when I did because I bought a coffee and my friend Josalin sent me at least a couple dozen cookies and I called coffee and cookies my well balanced breakfast. As I began to organize and pack up my food I realized my pack might actually break under all that weight and there was no way I could eat it all in the coming 5 days so I mailed some of it ahead to my last stop in Eureka Montana. From here I had lunch in town and then really just felt more like getting on the road and getting miles in while it was a bit cooler that the previous days so I hiked on out of town and got in a few miles. In fact I think I got in enough miles to be able to get back on a real trail tomorrow. I am entering grizzly country pretty soon and my can of bear spray arrived. Other than my deadly fists that spray is my only weapon. It is basically strong pepper spray. In town I was also warned about the wolves but I am truly not worried about anything other than a charging momma grizzly.

850 mile shoes

Columbia river

Day 30 - cowbells

This morning I woke up and walked old logging roads around the kettle mountains and down to the kettle river. It was very nice that even on roads that were unsigned I managed to pick the right one to follow and my mistakes costs me only a few minutes. Most of the roads were really not roads, but cleared 6 foot wide paths for snowmobiles to use that had three foot tall weeds. When it got thick it was tough to wade through all the weeds. I made good progress and crossed the highway to Orient and continued to make progress. Then at a tricky road junction I met the daughter of the trail angel's (mamacita) house that I stayed at in nooksack. It was nice to talk to her for a while. Her trail name is cedar. From there I continued on and started hearing bells. I could not figure out what they could be from but then I finally passed a pasture and saw the cows with bells around their necks. It was unique for sure and now I am camped and surrounded by cowbells. Hopefully I get some sleep. Today I saw many rabbits, peacocks, grouse, and many cattle. Tomorrow I should get in to northport and hopefully get a shower and some laundry done and finally get to put on my new shoes!