Setting out
I woke up around 5AM in Brownie’s Hostel in East Glacier. I knew I was too excited to fall back asleep, and the sun was already coming up, so I packed my backpack, messaged my loved ones, and set off.
My plan for the next 10 days was to take my time hiking the Continental Divide Trail north 100 miles through Glacier to the PNT trailhead, where I would meet Peter (a.k.a. the Hobbes to my Calvin) and begin hiking the PNT proper. The first step was a 10-mile hike to the Two Medicine ranger station, where I would get my permit and travel plan for the park.
The trail leading into the park from East Glacier in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation was barely marked. I think no one really uses it except for CDT hikers, because most people drive into the park.
I slowly made my way up the 2000-foot climb into the park, getting more excited and anxious as I climbed. Everything seemed new and strange. I had never been in mountains like this before. The rocks were different. The plants and funguses were different. The air was so dry that the skin on my lips started peeling.
At the top of the ridge, I ran into a pack of longhorn sheep. I sat down for my first snack break to watch them for a while, just basking in the pure amazement of being in this place. A brief snow traversal gave me my first chance to try on my micro-spikes. I got a grand view of the valley where I would spend the next day and a half.
When I made it down to the ranger station, a pickup truck pulled up and three beautiful, tan, muscular CDT hikers with tiny ultralight backpacks jumped out of the back. They asked me if I was a CDT hiker, and I squeaked, “no…. PNT, but i haven’t gotten to the trailhead yet.” I suddenly felt totally inadequate and unprepared.
I wasn’t the only person trying to get a permit for thru-hiking. Colorado had a really heavy snow year, so a lot of Northbound CDT hikers flipped up to Canada to hike the rest of the trail southbound and wait for the snow to melt. The park wasn’t used to that much hiker traffic, so their permit system was kind of slammed.
Compared to many other hikers I talked to, though, I was able to get my permit fairly quickly. The CDT hikers and I sat through a brief video on grizzly bear and mountain lion safety, including fabulous lines such as: “If the mountain lion is trying to eat you, fight back”.
I camped that night at the Two Medicine Campground with two friendly and far-less-intimidating CDT hikers, but they had horror stories to tell me about getting lost in a 1-mile-long snow traversal over Pitamakan pass that day. That didn’t help the anxiety I was already feeling about snow traversals.