Day 95 - The final stretch to Canada, Glacier National Park (22.8 miles)

August 12, 2021

Miles: 22.8 miles

Steps: 59,802

Got about 4 hours of sleep as it was probably close to midnight before I fell asleep. Not sure if it was from camping right next to the highway and/or train tracks or maybe just excited about entering into Glacier National Park.

I had no trouble waking up at 4am for some reason on so little sleep. Since I was doing the 11 mile road on the highway I figured the earlier the better. The CDT basically runs parallel to the highway but it’s about 3.5 mile longer and mostly in the woods with lots of overgrowth. The road walk did have a good size shoulder to walk on and I had better views.

With the cool temps and flat road I made the 11.2 mile hike in just around 3 hours.

I was very hungry as I just had 2 power bars for dinner last night and 1 this morning as that’s all the food I had left. I did not send myself enough food in my last box so I wanted food right away.

I went to the general store to get food to eat and resupply but they didn’t open for another 30 minutes so I went across the street to charge my electrics.

A little after 8am the store opened and I got a fresh made pecan cinnamon roll and chocolate milk. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of resupplying on an empty stomach.

After my stomach settled, even though that wasn’t much food, I did my last resupply to get me to Canada. Not that many options but made it work. I saw that they also made pizzas to order but figured too early so I went over to the lodge to use their WiFi to upload all my pictures from the last week.

I then went back to the store and ordered a 12 inch meat pizza. It was going to be a 20 minute wait so I got an ice cream cookie to hold me over along with a Dr Pepper.

Once I got my pizza I ate it a little fast so I was stuffed. Then I walked over to the hostel to take a shower and washing my clothes. It’s been 11 days since a shower and 12 days since I’ve been able to do laundry. I had done both in creeks since but you need soap to get all the funk off.

Then called home to see how things were going and give my final plans of hoping to be done by August 16.

The hostel also had a small store so got a little more to eat and update my blog while my clothes were drying.

By now it’s a little before 1pm and had about 10 miles to hike to Two Medicine Campground and the ranger station to get my permit set up.

The first 6 miles were all uphill and my stomach was hurting a little from that brownie and Dr Pepper but I powered through as the ranger station closes at 4:30pm everyday. Also I wanted to make it by 4pm when the general store closes as I really wanted something cold to drink as I was putting up a good sweat heading uphill.

I will say I had almost perfect weather. Blue skies all around with a cool breeze at times and it wasn’t too hot.

Once I made it to the top I got probably the best view on this hike. I felt like I was on a different planet. I for sure didn’t feel like I was still in the US.

I was pretty much running down to make that 4pm deadline for the store as I heard they don’t stay open a minute late. It was hard to keep moving as I kept wanting to take pictures.

Got down to the store at 4:01pm and the lady said they were closed but I could see some people paying so I had to sell how thirsty I was which wasn’t too far off of how I felt. I said I just wanted a cold drink and she let me in after making sure no one was looking. I ended up buying 3 different kinds of drinks, Powerade, Dr Pepper and orange juice.

Then went over to the ranger station to try to get my permit. Was a little nervous of not getting one as it was late in the day and it’s a popular time of year. The lady told me I can’t hike out today. She did say there was 1 spot open 25 miles down trail but not possible at 4pm. She also informed me I probably wouldn’t be able to hike out tomorrow either and would have to spend 2 nights in Two Medicine. I was just glad she didn’t say I had to go back to East Glacier. She told me to come back tomorrow morning before they open to get in line and said there could be some cancellations for tomorrow. This isn’t the worst spot to spend a full day of resting.

I then went down the road to the campground and found the hiker spot and set up with the other CDT hikers as there 2 of them along with a random guy who likes to talk. The other CDT hikers are in the same boat as me.

After eating a little I went down to lake to take a few pictures then back to my tent to lay around waiting to go to bed.

It still felt too early to go to bed so I ate a little more. I figured if I’m here another day I can head down to the general store to get more food. Then went back down to the lake to watch the sunset.