Day 155: Tragedy on the Trail!

September 22: Since I had another particularly short hiking day due to my permit, I slept in late and didn't get on the trail hiking until about 8:30am. The strong winds still ruled the terrain, but the morning was considerably warmer than the previous few mornings, so that much was an improvement.

 

A couple of hours into the day's hike, the trail veered around the south side of St. Marys Lake, which I followed near for much of the day. The views were often spectacular, but near the start of that section, I noticed a few buildings and the Going-to-the-Sun road on the other side of the lake and tried checking for a cell phone signal. I didn't really expect to get one, so I was surprised to discover that it actually worked! I got a signal!

I went ahead and stopped to check emails and messages while I could. With less than 15 miles to hike, I had plenty of time. May as well!

A bit further down the trail, I found a can of bear spray laying on the ground. I had no doubt that it fell off the pack of a hiker heading down the trail, and I wondered how long it took before they realized it was missing. I went ahead and picked it up. I wasn't particularly optimistic that I'd find the owner, but I could always shoot it off somewhere if nobody else was nearby. Or give it to someone if they were in need of it. Or... I didn't know. At the very least, I could put it in a hiker box back in East Glacier and either a CDT or PNT hiker next spring could use it and save the money rather than buy a fresh one.

Don't mess with me, bears! I've got two bear sprays now!

The trail was completely empty of people until I reached Virginia Falls at which point they were everywhere! Day hikers! Dozens of them! It wasn't super far from a trailhead parking lot and I had to admit, Virginia Falls was pretty darned scenic. I could see why so many day hikers would come out to enjoy it.

Have to admit, there's a good reason so many day hikers hoof it out to Virginia Falls. *nodding*

Then, not far beyond that, the trail passed by St. Marys Falls, which was also quite nice.

But so... many... people! Ugh!

St. Marys Falls

It was somewhat of a relief when I turned off the main trail that led to the parking lot to continue onward to Reynolds Creek Camp where I'd stop for the night. There were a few day hikers along this trail as well, but nowhere near the numbers that the route to Virginia Falls got.

At the campsite, nobody else was around. Not yet, at least. There was still time for additional hikers to arrive, but it meant that I got my choice of the available sites at the campground. I picked my preferred option and set up camp.

My campsite for the night. Tonight, I decided to cowboy camp. Mostly because tomorrow I had to hike about 26 miles to my next campsite and I didn't want to take time in the morning to break down a tarp. I'd need to hike pretty much from sunrise to sunset if I wanted to reach camp before dark! And breaking down a tarp in the morning would just slow me down. And, since no rain was in the forecast, I decided to cowboy camp.

 

That was when I realized.... my tiara was missing! It must have fallen out of my pack at some point! Nooo!!!! Not only did I litter somewhere along the trail, but now I had absolutely no props for the end of the trail! I hit myself in the head in frustration. How could I have lost my tiara?! Argh!

It was starting to look like I might have the entire campground to myself, but around sunset, Reality Check dropped in. Where did she come from?! She had done something like a 25-mile day and was doing much bigger miles than me through the park, quickly catching up. She had left East Glacier the day after did!

We spent the rest of the evening chatting around the non-existent campfire. I asked her if she happened to spot a tiara on the trail, and she had. It was located maybe five miles back, but she didn't pick it up because... why would she want to carry a tiara on the trail?

"So you could give it back to me!" Duh. *rolling eyes*

In any case, I had no intention of backtracking 5 miles to get the tiara, but I still mourned its loss. I never even got a photo of it. I figured I'd take all the photos at the end of the trail. It never occurred to me that I'd lose the darned thing before reaching the end! In hindsight, I wished I had at least taken a photo of my tiara to share with everyone, even if it wound up not working out. A true tragedy. *nodding*

And thus ended another day on the trail.

I'd follow near the south shore of St. Marys Lake for much of the afternoon.

Some of the viewpoints were awesome!

Found these antlers along the trail!

I think I lost my tiara when I stopped here for a snack break.

It was a bit of a challenge to get photos of Virginia Falls without people getting into it!

I prepare to pull my food bags up onto the bear pole.

Day 154: A rough day in the snow

September 21: It was a cold and windy night, which led into a cold and windy morning. Since I only needed to hike about 15 miles, a distance forced on me by my permit, I took my time getting up. I definitely wasn't in a rush with a mere 15 miles to do, which is how I didn't end up on the trail and hiking until about 8:30am.

I hiked quickly just to warm up, but didn't really thaw out until climbing upward toward Triple Divide Pass where I got above tree line. Triple Divide Pass got its name since it's next to Triple Divide Peak, on which is the continental divide of the continental divide! Well, that's how I see it. If you check Wikipedia, you'll see it's technically called a hydrological apex, but basically, the water from this peak flows into three separate oceans. At least it does if you consider Hudson Bay a tributary of the Arctic Ocean. I imagine some people might disagree with that assessment. 

On the climb up, I passed a hiker who was heading down. He hadn't come from over the pass, but rather had hiked up and was now coming back down and wasn't carrying a pack. We stopped to chat for a few minutes and he noticed the tiara I had hanging off my pack.

"I like your tiara," he told me.

"Oh, yeah... that." I laughed. I imagine it must look pretty odd to anyone I came across. =) I explained about thru-hiking the CDT and about to complete the triple crown, but alas, I couldn't get my hands on a crown and settled for the tiara instead. He seemed to find the story funny. 

Anyhow, I pushed onward, and there was still a small bit of snow along the trail near the summit of the Triple Divide Pass, but when I went down the other side, it became positively wild! The snow itself generally wasn't too problematic on its own, but the powerful wind blasts pushed me over multiple times and on the steep slope, that was problematic. Then I reached an actual snow chute--I was stunned to realize that enough snow had fallen to create an actual snow chute! If I slipped on that, I could slide a long, long way down to my potential death. I had to cross it, though, so I dug my feet deep into the snow and slowly pushed my way across, all the while hoping a particularly heavy wind gust didn't blow me down the chute. 

I had heard rumors that someone actually died on this pass early in the hiking season when strong winds blew them "off the mountain", and I wondered if this was where it might have happened. I never checked the authenticity of the story, however, and didn't know any details. And knowing how rumors on the trail change like a game of telephone, it wouldn't surprise me if someone did die in the park but the details about where and how changed into something completely unrelated to the truth.

It was, however, definitely a dangerous stretch for me--especially across the snow chute!

I made it across okay, however, and continued down the trail. I soon passed another couple heading up the pass from the other direction and we stopped to shout at each other over the wind.

"Don't worry!" I shouted. "It's a lot easier on the other side of the pass! Just be particularly careful going over the snow chute!"

They shouted back that they had seen bear prints in the snow.

In the snow? Really? What the heck was a bear doing up here? The snow had only fallen two days earlier so the prints couldn't have been very old. I made a point to keep my eyes open for the bear prints. It never even occurred to me to look for bear prints in the snow.

We continued on in our separate directions, and eventually the trail descended below the snow level and once I got among the trees again, the wind died down as well. All was peaceful once again.

The north side of Triple Divide Pass was pretty sketchy between the snow and the wind gusts!

Safe and sound on the far side of the pass, I decided to take a lunch break. I sat down next to the trail, ate some snacks and read my Kindle for a bit. I had plenty of time to reach camp and didn't want to get there too early. I'd be bored out of my mind if I arrived too early.

I'd been sitting there for about 20 minutes when I heard a loud crashing sound coming through the woods in my direction. I couldn't tell what it was, but I shouted out and jumped up to get a better view through the trees. I saw a bear pop its head above the foliage, look at me, then immediately turned around and ran away. I didn't get a very good look at it, but I think it was a black bear, and it didn't seem to realize I was right there until I shouted out at it. I thought bears could smell you a mile away? Especially since I had my snacks out eating. This fellow was probably 30 feet away and didn't have a clue I was there until I shouted out at it. Sometimes, I think people overestimate a bear's ability to smell.

Anyhow, after the bear ran off, I sat back down by the trail and continued my break.

I eventually reached my campsite at the foot of Red Eagle Lake. When I arrived, there was a party of 3 hikers who had already set up their camp. They introduced themselves as Gary (a.k.a. Lovechild), Hana and Second Breakfast. Two of them had trailnames, but they weren't thru-hiking. They were just out for a week or so, enjoying the gorgeousness known as Glacier NP. 

Food bags hanging form the bear poles at our campsite

We were seated around a fire ring, and thinking back, I couldn't remember a single campfire that I had enjoyed on the trail. Pretty much from the very beginning, campfires had not been allowed. They were either prohibited as a fire danger, or at high altitudes, the terrain was environmentally sensitive and therefore campfires weren't allowed. And in some desert areas, the risk of fire might not be very great, but there wasn't anything around to burn.

It seemed shocking to me that I'd been hiking over over 5 months now and never enjoyed a single campfire, and I happened to mention the fact.

Gary jumped up and said that that definitely had to change. I deserved at least one campfire on the trail, and that they were going to band together to create one!

Cool! =) I didn't want to leach off of all their hard work, however, so I did poke around looking for fallen wood that could be contributed to the campfire.

Shortly after arriving, a group of four women arrived hiking southbound and stopped to chat for a bit. They seemed a little starstruck at meeting a real thru-hiker and asked me all sorts of questions about it, and I answered the best I could. They also joked that they had tried to get this campsite but couldn't because the group of three had taken up all the available slots. Well, I don't think they were joking about that, but they were joking about how "angry" they were about it. 

Their campsite was on the other side of the lake, at the head of the lake. I had passed it on my way here and assured them it was a nice site and probably a little nicer than this one. This site was surrounded by a bad burn area while the other campsite had a lot more trees that survived the fire and seemed a little nicer by comparison.

This is taken from the campsite at the head of Red Eagle Lake, which actually had a few trees that survived the wildfire that had come through.

We shared each other's schedules. I told them that they would be passing Just Awesome tomorrow. I knew roughly where Just Awesome would be camping each night, and I described him in detail and told them it would be really funny if they pretended that they knew him. "Hey... wait a minute.... are you Just Awesome? Yeah? I knew it! We totally met on the PCT! Remember?"

I wasn't really sure if they'd do that or not, but it would be really funny, I thought, if they did. I'm so mean. =) The girls were also scheduled to finish their hike the same day that I finished at the Canadian border, and they said if they saw me trying hitch back to to East Glacier, they'd give me a lift! Cool! Already an offer of a ride! I wasn't too optimistic that the timing would work out, though. But theoretically, they might see me at St. Mary's or someplace trying to hitch a ride onward.

They eventually continued on to their own campsite, but about a half hour later, one of the girls returned to ask if she could get my phone number. They had been talking about me and were creating all sorts of other questions about thru-hiking that they wanted to ask. I gave her my phone number, and they said they'd try calling after they got off the trail. Maybe I'd have a signal and would still need a ride back to East Glacier. That would be great if it worked out!

My neighbors for the night eventually got a campfire started, and we chatted the rest of the evening around my first campfire of the trail. =)

This is Second Breakfast, and we're enjoying my first campfire of the CDT!

Shortly after leaving camp in the morning, I found this bear print on the trail. It looked pretty fresh! I wondered if it was wandering around the campground last night.... (If it did, I never heard or saw it.)

The views climbing up toward Triple Divide Pass were awesome!

The snow at the pass had not yet melted, however....

What was a bear doing playing in the snow?!

Day 153: Finally leaving East Glacier!

September 20: Upon waking up, I ate the rest of my leftover pizza from yesterday for breakfast, then headed over to the post office to pick up my packages. I was expecting two packages: a food package with some food items that I'd likely never find in such a small town otherwise, and that arrived just fine. My other package, however, the one with the laptop, had not arrived. What?!

I had to drop by the post office to pick up some packages.

Of course, I didn't want or need the laptop at this point. I was leaving town today, and I certainly had no intention of carrying my laptop into the backcountry. The box, however, did contain some other items like extra batteries and such that I could make use of. But, more importantly, it also included my crowns. I was about to complete the Triple Crown of hiking--one of the few people that will ever hike all three of the main long-distance hiking paths in the United States: the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. To celebrate the feat, Amanda had found some small, lightweight crowns that I could use as photo ops at the Canadian border. They were made of paper and could lay flat, but they were glittery and showy and perfect for a photo op to celebrate the end of the trail. Not wanting to carry them anymore than I needed to, however, I had shipped them here in my bounce box.

But it never arrived, so I didn't have my crowns. =( Well, actually, I did have the letter A for A.T. That had fallen off the A.T. crown and when I reported it to Amanda, she sent me a new letter A to an earlier post office which I had been carrying ever since. But the glittery letter A was useless without the rest of the crown. Bah! Stupid post office!

In case you ever wanted to know, the world's largest purple spoon was in East Glacier.

 
Back at the hostel, I repacked all the food from the package I did get into my pack and I threw away the now-useless letter A. At the hostel, however, I did stumble on an old, broken tiara that somehow ended up there and I thought that would be my crown for the end of the trail! The tiara was shiny and a bit small for my head. I think it was meant for a child-sized person. It was also broken in half, but nothing a little duct tape couldn't fix. In fact, I think a little duct tape would give it just the right character for a thru-hiker. =)

Finally packed and ready to go, I left the hostel at around 11:00am. The air was cool and crisp, and the surrounding mountains showed a thin layer of snow. I hadn't been able to see the mountains through the clouds yesterday, but now that the weather had cleared, I could definitely see that the higher elevations had gotten some snow.

Starting my day's hike at Two Medicine

The first hitch took about 15 minutes. Two Canadian girls that easily could have passed themselves off as hippies stopped to pick me up. They were heading back to Canada, however, and not to Two Medicine in Glacier NP where I needed to pick up the trail. So I was only with them for 4 miles until they reached the junction with Two Medicine and dropped me off there.

The next hitch took considerably longer--I had to wait about 1.5 hours before someone pulled over to offer me a ride down the rest of the way. The traffic was moderately busy, but car after car passed by without picking me up. About a half hour in, what looked like a homeless guy searching the side of the road for aluminum cans wandered up to me and tried to chat me up. I tried to discourage him, though, fearful that someone who would pick me up might have second thoughts if they thought this guy was also looking for a ride as well. Go away! After about 10 minutes, he did go away, though, and I continued my solitary attempt at hitchhiking.

I finally got a ride and was back at Two Medicine by around 2:00pm. I only needed to do about 11 miles to reach my assigned campsite, though, so not a problem. I could knock out 11 miles before sunset. Definitely. *nodding*

The trail climbed steadily upward, eventually climbing up a pass overlooking Oldman Lake. The pass was covered by a few inches of snow, though, which annoyed me to no end. It was so miserably cold up there! And I had not wanted or expected to hike in snow. The pass was only located about 7700 feet above sea level, after all. *grumbling*

I had a bit of snow to hike through at the top of Pitamakan Pass.

I pushed onward. After the pass, the trail descended a couple of thousand feet leaving the snow behind me. I was grateful that I wouldn't have to camp in the snow, at least.

I didn't find anyone else at the campsite, but that didn't surprise me. I couldn't imagine why anyone would be traveling southbound this late in the season and I didn't see any footprints in the snow over the pass, so I knew nobody was immediately ahead of me. I also didn't know of any other hikers who planned to reach this point this evening. Just Awesome, I knew, was hiking the section from East Glacier to Two Medicine and would camp at the campground at Two Medicine. I was 11 miles ahead of him on the trail as of this evening, and would only extend the lead as the days went on.

So I wound up having the entire Morning Star Lake campground to myself. Although rain wasn't in the forecast, I went ahead and set up my tarp to help keep me marginally warmer during the night. Given how cold the day was, I had little doubt it was going to get uncomfortably cold during the night!

My campsite for the night would be at the Morning Star Lake CG.

This tunnel under the railroad was the only (legal) way to get between the two sides of East Glacier.

There was definitely some snow that fell at the higher elevations yesterday! Except for the pass, however, I didn't have to go through much of it.

Later in the afternoon, the clouds started rolling in. It wasn't raining, but it did make things even colder!

That's Oldman Lake down in the cirque.

Pitamakan Pass was where I had the heaviest snow to deal with, and it's coming up soon!

Pitamakan Lake

I found this old patch of snow a little creepy--it looked too much like a melting face to me! It was right over Morning Star Lake as well, so it watched over my campsite all night long!

There were designated spots within a campground where you were allowed to prep food. Bringing food into your campsite was not allowed!