Week 12: Hopkins Lake, WA to Glacier National Park, MT

Total Weekly Mileage 108.4

“Cars, Trains and Rain”

I know what you’re thinking: “108 miles? What’s wrong with him? Is everything okay? Why is it half the normal mileage for the week?” Allow me to explain.

Once I tagged the PCT monument on the border, I had to hike 30 miles back to Hart’s Pass. From there, it was a one-hour ride on a pothole-filled dirt road down to Mazama. I arrived at 4:30. Now, I could have rolled the dice and tried to hitch the two-plus hours to Wenatchee and maybe make the train at 8 p.m., but I had a guaranteed ride the next day. Also, I was tired.

That was Saturday, and none of the 30 miles counts towards anything, just bonus miles. After spending the night at the hostel, hanging out with a German named Vampire (who pronounced it “Wampire”) and a newly ex-Jehovah’s Witness named Louis, the next day Kelley gave me a ride to the station. That’s Sunday—no miles.

The overnight ride to Glacier was fine, although I never sleep well on those—I’m too long for the seats. Arriving in Glacier the next day at 9:30 a.m., it was in the high 40s and pouring rain—not a good day to start. So I decided to take the day and wait out the bad weather.

At the hostel, I met Blindspot from New Zealand, Simple from Maryland, and Lucy from Australia. Lucy is an unusual case—she started hiking from Venezuela in 2017 with her dog Wombat, and her goal is to finish in Alaska. She had been at the hostel for a couple of weeks waiting for a “parcel,” as she put it. What kind of package would take someone out for a few weeks? Who knows.

Anyway, she had access to a car left by someone hiking in the park, so she’d been shuttling hikers around and offered to bring me up to the Ranger Station to get my permits for Glacier. The permitting here is different from other national parks. You can’t just walk in and camp around—you have to pick specific spots with limited sites, and, being the middle of summer, a lot of the campsites were full. It’s even harder for me because I’m trying to pick places spaced 30-plus miles apart to keep up my MPD average.

Once the spots were chosen, the ranger had to override the system because normally they only allow 15 hiking days. But I’m a special case. After that, a 15-minute safety video on bears and a $25 fee. Voilà—an hour later, we were headed back to town. We stopped at the store for a quick resupply and a frozen TV dinner, and then we were back at the hostel.

While I was enjoying my Hungry Man TV dinner, Luna (the owner) showed up with a platter of fresh vegetables and fruit and two salmon burgers for me—what a sweetheart! After stuffing my face, I still had to deal with getting to the border. It’s an hour and a half away. Last year, I paid $100 for a shuttle service. Luckily, this year there were Belgians staying at the hostel and they had a rental car, heading to Calgary the next morning. So, I hopped in with them.

It was raining pretty hard when we arrived at the border the next day, but I couldn’t take another zero. I thanked them and took off. The trail was a mud pit. Horses really tear up the trail, and with all the rain it was slick and messy. By 5 p.m., I had made it to Many Glacier after a detour through the Ptarmigan Tunnel, cutting out 14 miles. Given the conditions, I figured it was better to get warm and dry and make up the miles down the trail somewhere.

The hotel is huge, with a fire in the lobby. It was completely crowded with people drying out their things. I decided I’d have a hot meal and wait until the rain slowed down before pitching my tent across the parking lot. This was a temporary site behind the employee housing while construction was being done. Whatever—as long as I was inside and drying out.

I met some nice people in the restaurant—Neal and Dave and their family. We talked for a bit, and when I went to pay my bill, Neal had already picked it up. Thanks, buddy! I also met a couple of dudes from Alabama and saw them the next morning at the AYCE breakfast buffet. We took a picture together and then I headed out onto the deck to take in the views.

My next campsite was only 28 miles away at Red Eagle Lake, so I figured I’d linger around the hotel for a bit before taking off—I didn’t want to get to camp too early. I ran into Neal and his boys and thanked him for dinner, talked with them and a school teacher from Iowa for a bit.

At 10, I took off. It didn’t take long before the overgrowth car wash started—I was soaked within 15 minutes. But the sun was out, and it was going to be a nice day. Some spots were muddy still, but manageable without the rain. The park was packed, being the middle of July, and some sections of trail were crawling with people.

I thought for a moment about hiking beyond my designated spot and trying to get as many miles as I could—until a ranger stopped me and asked for my permit. I decided to scrap the idea and stopped at Red Eagle.

The next morning, I was out by 5:30 with a five-mile, 3,000-foot climb up to Triple Divide Pass. I reached it by 9. From there, a long downhill and cruise trail until heading back up for 2,000 feet to Pitamakan Pass, then down forever again and cruising to Two Medicine Campground—and finally back up a three-mile climb to a scenic point, then down and out to East Glacier again.

I dropped my bag at the hostel and ran down and ordered a large BBQ chicken pizza at Brownies Bakery. Hung out with Just Greg, Lucy (she was still waiting on her parcel), Blindspot, a foreign dude with a messed-up eye (I didn’t ask), and a Mainer named Friendly.

The next morning, after shaking the earwigs off my tent’s mesh door, I resupplied and took off at noon. I was ready to launch, and now I didn’t have any permitting issues until Yellowstone. I allocated three days of travel—anything quicker would’ve been gravy.

It’s on to the Bob now—and the spot where I blew out my shoulder a year ago. Excited to make it back!