Aaron Unscripted A blog about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings…

East Glacier Round 2, and Out the Next Day

Spent the majority of the day relaxing, after pulling out all my wet gear to dry, and cleaning up other articles. Freefall and I split a room for the night, it was a little more private, and we were able to set out our gear.

We had dinner at Serrono's Mexican Restaurant. We had been advised to check this place out a number of times. We where not disappointed. The food was very good. It was a bit of a goodby dinner, Gazelle and Marlow where not feeling the CDT and had decided to take their vacation else where. The where catching the train that night. I hadn't really gotten a chance to meet or get to know them very well, but I wish them the best in their future endeavors

It was nice to wake up late, sleeping in a bed and all. We spent most of the day doing laundry, and packing up for the next stretch. The plan was to get out that afternoon, and get 14 miles done.  We ended up getting a really late start after making a pit stop at the PO to ship off our bounce boxes, and send home our ice axes.

I took an opportunity to grab the last piece of porcilin (the toilet) before finding the trail and I found myself looking for the trail by myself.  I thought I was on the right track until I heard the train go by, not far from where I was. Checking the map I found that I had managed to not find the right trail, and was close to the highway, a paved way to our camp at Summit Campground. I decided to just bush-wack to the road, rather then backtrack the 2-3 miles I had just walked. I walked the road for several miles, and stopped at a roadside diner for dinner. After dinner I walked the road for another hour or so before a couple pulled over and asked if I was interested in a ride, I couldn't resist. Road walking isn't much fun, and the sun was setting. A few minutes later I spotted Chance and George finishing up supper under a monument for the Continental Divide. They had set off much earlier then Luna, So-Far, Freefall, and I. After learning how late we started we decided to camp in the car campground, to give the others an easy place to find us. Heading into the campground we ran into Jim Bean, and Rain Queen, they had also started out earlier in the day, and had gotten a campground already. Invited, we crashed thier site. A  couple hours later and the rest of the crew rolled into camp. Turned out I didn't miss much on the trail, and that they had spent a little time trying to figure out where I had gone, leaving me clues as to where the trail was. Unfortunately I missed them all.

Most Scenic Day(6) Yet!

I forgot the day today. It's a nice revelation when you forget the date, or even the name of what day it is, it is a sign of a good vacation. Also, today we hiked on the actual Continental Divide, an alternative route (Mt. Morgan) highly recommended on the Ley Maps.

The day started out fairly nice. We headed up the pass slowly. Soon it turned to snowy fields again, but the going wasn't as rough, and I felt very comfortable reading my Ley maps, and guiding myself through the area mostly by terrain association. Freefall had his GPS out, but I felt pretty confident with out the support.  It was a pretty good climb up out of the snow fields, but the trail was easily made. We where up and off to the top of the pass in no time.

At the pass we took off on the alternative route. There was a bit of snow as we climbed and skirted around the mountain, but after that we where walking the divide. High and mighty, walking along shallow shelves with cliffs falling far bellow. The view's were spectacular. I even managed to get cell service (and made a quick random Facebook blurp) on one of the balled passes before making our descent down into Two Medicine. By far some of the best sites I have ever seen.

As we where walking the divide we where paying attention to the clouds, as they started to flirt with the mountains and look menacing. I pushed it for the remaining miles, excited by the thoughts of Hotdogs and a chance to get some flip flops. Sure enough after just arriving into Two Medicine the rain began to poor. We huddled into the store, and ate and drank hoping for a break in the weather. No Luck, soon the store closed, and we shuffled off to the backcountry camp site. The rain was relentless, and it was difficult to stay dry.

Day 7

Morning came, and the rain was still going strong. Freefall had gotten up in the middle of the night, soaked, and made the road walk into East Glacier. Chance and Luna, also fairing poorly in the rain made off early. So-Far and George where finishing packing and where deciding on hiking the trail to East Glacier. I decided that it wasn't worth the hassle of doing another pass out to East Glacier, with wet feet and all, and went for the road walk. Three miles down the road, with wet feet and a poor outlook, I decided to grab a hitch into East Glacier. My feet thanked me.

Finding My Hiker Legs? Day 5

Today was a much improved day from the previous. I had decided to take my time, and not to push myself too greatly. A nice slow tortoise pace.

I was suspecting that having wet feet was being the biggest culprit to my problems. Sure enough one of our first challenges for the day was a ford of Red Eagle Creek. The water was particularly cold, but had the side benefit of numbing my feet. On the other side I took a bit of a break, removed my shoes and rung out my socks and insoles as I let the pruning of my feet dissipate. Turns out this little ritual of stopping and ringing the water out of my socks and insoles whenever my feet would get wet from water or snow became a life saver, and my feet thanked me greatly.

As for the Pass, the going was only moderately difficult, and I was feeling pretty solid when I reached the top. When I got there George had already started up Triple Divide Mountain. He has a bit of climbing experience and wanted to bag this one, but not necessarily for just that reason alone. We rooted him on as he reached the top and disappeared. He managed to urinate on three watersheds, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Hudson Bay, before coming back down. The rest of the day I was on cruise control, all the way into Atlantic Creek Campground.

Tomorrow we get into Two Medicine, another little Car Camp area with General store. I can taste the hot dogs.

Emotional Rollercoaster, Day 4

Today was a welcome shorter 11+ mile day, but a large part of me believed it wasn't short enough.

I must have woken with the sleeping bag zipper on the wrong side. Today I spent a bit of time in my head not really enjoying myself. My feet where not pleased with me, and the rest of my body was getting tired of taking up the slack. I'm not use to pushing through pain for such extended periods of time. I'm only use to pushing it until the end of my workout, or the short span that it takes to get something done. The drudgery of going all day is wearing on me today. My body nags at me, my brain screams "OVERUSE INJURY".

The day started out well, with beautiful views of several waterfalls. The terrain today was pretty mellow. We hiked the long length of St. Mary's Lake before hiking over a small ridge and working our way up another valley. As soon as we reached the valley over we walked into a forest fire area that had burned in 2006. It was recovering fairly well, but there was little overhead cover and the sun was peaking through adding a bit to my misery.

We arrived at our destination, Red Eagle Campground, in early afternoon, and it began to rain lightly as soon as I arrived. I hobbled around the burnt out grounds of our camp, set up my rain-fly, and dead and beat I laid down and took a nap to the sounds of the raindrops on nylon.

I woke up for dinner in better spirits. My feet where still a wreck, and I was still moving gingerly around camp. I finished my night losing my disheartening thoughts while being social, and played a game of cards.

Tomorrow was going to be another day, and our next challenge Triple Divide Pass.

Day 3, Walking on Trees

18 June

Today I woke with much higher spirits then I had gone to bed with, and my feet seemingly had forgiven me for the day before.

Today's goal was to concur Piegan Pass. We headed off up the creek basin as the mountains begin to wall us in, towering massively above us. The scenery was great, as the walls where spotted with long waterfalls. The morning was a bit cloudy and overcast, the nights rain clouds hadn't cleared yet. It was soon apparent that this valley didn't get much sun, as we started to see more and more snow. The trail coming and going, was soon gone, and we came upon a giant snow meadow with a waterfall in the distance. Freefall and I where soon detailing  our route up the mountain using our maps. Trail lost, we found ourselves ascending  our own steep snow chute right up the side of the mountain. At the top we found ourselves in an alpine medow, and could see the trail we had missed off in the distance. We chose a path down a small ridge that would run us back onto the right path, but first we had to get through some wicked alpine trees. I soon found it was easier to try and walk on the stunted trees then to try and push myself through the tough unforgiving limbs. 3-5 feet off the ground I kept my balance between treetops and stepped carefully across the small barrier. We where soon on the right path, and caught up with Chance, George, and So-Far.

The top of Piegan Pass was pretty chili so we didn't stop for too long. The other side of the pass turned into another field of snow. My feet became wet, and the going was slow. Slipping, sliding, and postholing became frustrating, and me feet where beginning to hate on me again. It was amazing how well we managed to descend, hardly a trail in site, yet time after time we would round a bend and come across a man made log crossing, as if we knew exactly where the trail was.

Soon the trail was hard underfoot, and we descended to Going-To-The-Sun Road, where we stopped for a break. Our break was made short, as the weather started to turn and rain began to fall. Reynalds Creek Camp was just over a mile away.

In camp I started fire and tried to dry my shoe's and socks out. Wet feet made for more blisters, but I was trying not to dwell on the grief my feet where giving me.

Other interesting notes for the day; So-Far's pack blew out this morning. He was squezing the air out of the dry-bag after putting his sleeping bag in, and the fabric split open. He spent the rest of the day trying other idea's he had concocted in his mind, and watching his tail to make sure he didn't drop anything.  Minor entertainment, and he seemed to take it all in stride.We also met another CDT couple Brian and Brenda.

Day 2, Red Gap Pass, CDT

Today absolutely BLEW. It was a 20-something mile day. It really showed me what I was getting into. My body, back, and legs where going strong, and felt pretty good, a sign of good preparation. However, my feet had, had enough. I managed to get a couple of blisters, but that was the least of my concern, the sinew and ligaments in my feet had not been prepared. It felt as if my bones where even aching. My last mile into Many Glacier was particularly brutal as I begin to develop a shuffle. As I persisted to just finish out the day it begin to poor down rain as well. I was beginning to get pretty down on myself, but then I came across a warm restaurant where I had a few beers and a buffalo pizza burger.  That brought my mood back up a bit.

The day had been pretty exciting, we had gone over Red Gap Pass. On the other side we glacaided (slide down on my butt) down a few snow fields. The sites where spectacular, and the weather had been great just up until it rained.

I hope I find my hiking feet soon.

Day 1, CDT

June 16th

The Morning was spent waiting for Gazelle, Marlow, and their ride Gesh, to show up from Whitefish to help carpool people up to the US-Canada boarder at Chief Mountain. Because of limited space in the vehicle Luna and Freefall managed to score a ride with the cook at the neighboring restaurant.

We all managed to make it to the boarder and trail head by early afternoon. We took some obligatory pictures at the boarder between the respected boarder stations where there where a couple of international boarder posts. There was also a nice blaze that ran down the side of the hill and acted as a distinct line between the two countries.

We hit the trail about 1:30 for a fairly tame day of less then 10 miles, into Elizabeth Lake. the trail seemed to go down a slow grade into the Belly River, that we meandered with up into the mountains of Glacier. The sites where spectacular, and the weather was great for hiking, sunny, partly cloudy at a moderate temperature with a cool breeze.

We stopped for a snack break at Belly River Campground, before heading up to Elizabeth Lake. On our way we came upon Dawn Mist Falls, a beautiful falls that could not have been  named anything other then.

Eventually we managed to make it to Elizabeth lake where we found the rest of our party, Chance and George, who had headed out the day before to check out Chief Mountain. Chance and George had a fairly exciting story about almost getting a citation for stealth camping and not being where the permit had them. The two had gotten into camp early, and George had made friends with some of the other campers. He borrowed a fishing pole and managed to catch a couple of trout. We pouched the fish in a pot, and passed it around for a delicious treat. I was impressed with Freefall's ability to de-bone the fish with such ease. I went to bed hoping the fish didn't attract any unwelcome visitors, like bear.