Day 3, July 2: Reynold’s Creek to Red Eagle Lake

Mile 49.6 to 64.2
14.6 miles

I leave camp for my first “real day” on the CDT! All the plants along the trail are soaking wet, and the trail is mostly a stream of water. At least when you get wet first thing, you don’t have to spend any time worrying about getting wet. You just accept it.

Sunshine and Rotem left camp a little before me, and when I almost catch them I hear Sunshine shout, “Indy! There’s a bear!” I speed up my pace to try to see where he’s pointing. I catch up with them and Sunshine says, “He just went behind that hill.” “Did you see what kind of bear it was?” I ask. “No,” he says, “but I think maybe it was a black bear. But I’m not certain.” We’re so on edge about seeing a grizzly bear, but also oddly excited. We definitely want it to be a grizzly. It makes for a better story.

One the walk uphill to Virginia falls, a guy sees me and says, “Wow! You’re so strong!” “I don’t know,” I say, “I don’t feel very strong right now.” “You wear that backpack everywhere?” he asks. I say, “Well, I’m walking from Canada to Mexico. I just started.” “Wow, all the way to Mexico? And then what? You travel the world?” “No no,” I say, “After that I rest. I’ll take a break.” He says, “Maybe I’ll see you in Taipei! Maybe the Himalayas!” I laugh and say, “Yeah, maybe!” He doesn’t know it but I have plans to go to both those places next year. It’s uncannily prophetic and leaves me with a feeling I can’t pinpoint.

In another miracle, there’s a pit toilet right at Virginia falls. Yes! I was just thinking about how much I regretted not going at the campsite this morning. As I’m wrapping up at the privy, a day hiker walks up. I say, “It’s all yours!” She says, “I was so glad to see this here.” I ask her if she has any toilet paper. She says, “Oh no, I don’t!” I give her some TP and she asks if she can help me put my pack back on. I say, “I’m good, but thank you!” It’s only 8:00 a.m. but I’ve been having so many pleasant interactions this morning. And I’m in a beautiful National Park at the start of a long hike! I decide to ride the high and make today a good day.

As soon as I leave the popular Virginia Falls area, the trail is actually pretty rough. I come across a downed tree that obscures the trail so much I check my map to see if I took a wrong turn. Nope, just need to climb through a tree. And then bushwack through wet cow parsnip and thimbleberry for the rest of the morning. Wouldn’t have the CDT any other way.

Something that’s striking me is that I’m not as afraid of grizzlies out here as I assumed I would be. It was one of my main concerns for the CDT. I’m shouting “hey YO!” every few minutes like I’m supposed to, but I’m not anxiously looking over my shoulder. Maybe it’s because I’m hiking with a group instead of starting alone, but I take the small win.

The trail finally opens up into an old burn scar, hot and exposed but teeming with wildflowers. Paintbrush and lupine are everywhere here. I catch everyone at Red Eagle Creek and we take a long lunch break by the bridge. It’s still only a 14.6 mile day, and we have so much time to kill.

We make our way to Red Eagle Lake, where my permit group is supposed to camp at the head of the lake. Marilyn Monroe and I find a spot to pitch our tents next to a large downed tree. The campground is oddly exposed. The official “food area” is in full sun so we have our dinners down at the lake. Sunshine and Rotem show up and chat with me. I ask Sunshine what trails he has on his bucket list, and to my surprise he lists the Great Himalayan Trail! He’s considering hiking it next year. The floodgates are opened and I tell him everything he wants to know about it. The thru-hiking community is such a small world.

Day 4, July 3: Triple Divide Pass

Mile 64.2 to 74.8
10.6 miles

We have another very short day lined up. 10.6 miles until our designated campsite. I think it’s a blessing in disguise. We’re forced to slow down during the first week on trail when our bodies are most prone to injury. We have no choice but to ease in. At least today we get to finally go over Triple Divide Pass, the first pass of the CDT for us!

I walk behind Jimbo Poppins, who puts in headphones to listen to an ancient iPod. I’m pretty sure he just found it somewhere. In any case he didn’t put the music on it. It gets him hyped up and he speeds down the trail shouting “WOOOO!!!” like he’s at a metal concert. It’s excellent bear prevention, and I don’t have to shout at all when he’s in the area.

We have a steep climb up through brushy woods. I hear Jimbo from far ahead shouting to me. I think he’s saying, “I saw a goose!” I shout back, “WHAT?” “I SAW A MOOSE!” Oh shit! I run up but once again, I just miss it. The moose has run off into the woods. Jimbo says it scared the shit out of him. He’s never seen a moose before and they are HUGE. I’m bummed that I missed it, but I’ve seen plenty of them in Colorado and I’m sure I’ll see more on this trail.

The trail to Triple Divide Pass is lined with fields of bright yellow glacier lilies, their heads turned downwards. I walk across one tame patch of snow. The snow conditions are really mild now that it’s July, and I probably didn’t even need to bring my microspikes. I’m happy I made the last minute decision to leave my ice axe at the hostel.

The view from Triple Divide is stunning. It’s one of those lucky passes where the view on the other side is completely different from what you’ve been climbing up. A pass with a surprise! The south side is a massive curved wall, I think maybe ‘cirque’ is the word for it. Snowmelt cascades down in long waterfalls and the trail down from the pass traverses a sheer cliff. This is seriously epic hiking.

We’re at camp at 2:00. We’re really pushing the limits of how long we can spend eating and talking at the food area. I pull out a common puffball I found earlier today. It’s an edible fungi I’ve foraged many times, easy to ID and found everywhere. I show everyone how the inside is pure solid white, a good way to differentiate it from toxic species. I chop it up, boil the pieces, and then give them a quick sauté in some oil and salt from Mountain Doc. The texture is like soft tofu, or maybe a fresh mozzarella. Jimbo carries a packet of smokey powdered hot sauce that goes surprisingly well with the puffball! For some reason, everyone trusts my ID and tries some. I personally wouldn’t trust any random person, so either I seem like I know what I’m doing or this group likes to gamble with their lives. Who can say.

Day 5, July 4: The Dawson Pass Alternate

Mile 74.8 to 90
16.6 miles

I have a choice to make. Pitamaken Pass or the Dawson Pass alternate. I’ve heard that Dawson is incredible, but I’ve also heard there might be some lingering snow and I’m not sure how comfortable I am with that. If it’s high angle and sketchy, I don’t want to risk it. I figure I’ll see how it looks and decide when I get there.

I make it to Pitamaken Lake, and from there I can see the little snow traverse  above me on the alternate. It looks steep from here. It’s a small patch, so an ice axe wouldn’t help me if I fell (if I had one, which I don’t). Mayyyybe today isn’t the day for alternates. No need to put my life in danger for no reason.

Isabel from Belgium catches me during my break at the lake, and we climb up the snowy trail to Pitamaken Pass. As we get closer, she sees me looking at the snow and says, “You’re thinking about it still!” Yeah, I am. It doesn’t look like it’s actually that steep now that we’re close to it. “You know what,” I say, “I think I’m just going to go for it. What the hell. You should do it, too! It’s supposed to have amazing views!” Extremely last minute, Isabel decides to tag along.

Now a duo on an adventure, we head up towards Dawson Pass. We get to the little snow traverse, put on our microspikes and make our way across. We’re glad to have the traction since it’s a no-fall zone, but we feel stable and safe. A group of day hiker guys approach the pass behind us. They must have gotten spooked by the snow and turned back because we never see them again.

I feel like an invincible badass. It feels empowering to do something hard by choice. And the alternate is rewarding. We turn the corner to massive views of the glacier carved valley below, snow still decorating the high peaks. The rest of our high trail is clear of snow, and it’s some of the wildest trail construction I’ve ever seen. It snakes along the side of a sheer cliff, passing right under the pyramid of Flinsch Peak. We walk on a narrow spine as the wind tries to push us off the trail.

We’re both so glad we took this route. We say we finally feel like we’re really hiking the CDT. We walk into Two Medicine, excited for town food. “Someone on FarOut says you can get a grilled cheese for $2.75, isn’t that crazy?” I say. Isabel doesn’t know what a grilled cheese is, and I tell her she has to try one.

In the General Store, I have two grilled cheeses and a tallboy of huckleberry cider. I feel like I’ve earned it. It’s July 4th, and families are dressed in their red, white and blue. A Park employee in the store starts up the Happy Birthday song, for America of course. There are maybe 10 people in the store and the effect is underwhelming and oddly funny. Happy 250th Birthday, America.

Day 6, July 5: Back in East Glacier

Mile 90 to 99.5
9.7 miles

Today, I’m walking back into East Glacier. Where I started my journey at the Looking Glass Hostel is actually right off the trail. It’s less than 10 miles to get there, and then another 15 to Marias Pass where I’m planning on hitching, once again, back to East Glacier. Like the Hotel California, it feels like I never really leave.

Climbing out of the temporary CDT campground at Two Medicine, I leave the woods and head back into the alpine. The final trees are skeletons of Whitebark Pines, trees that can live for over 1,000 years but weren’t able to hang on here. The rounded slopes of tundra in this part of Glacier remind me of parts of Colorado.

After a long descent, I leave the National Park and enter the Blackfeet Reservation for a short stretch of trail. Before I started the CDT, I purchased a recreation permit online to go through here. I don’t think the permit is well advertised or enforced, but it seemed only fair since we hikers already give Glacier National Park money for every night of our stay there.

I make it back to East Glacier in time for lunch, and find Marilyn Monroe and Isabel sitting in front of the cafe at Brownies hostel. I tell them my plans to keep hiking to Marias Pass and take a day off tomorrow to do town chores before going into the Bob Marshall Wilderness for a full seven days. Isabel tells me she’s about to put in a load of laundry that we could all share, so why don’t I just hike those 15 miles tomorrow? We can slackpack and still have time to finish our resupplies tomorrow. It’s a good argument, and it doesn’t take much to twist my arm. Ok, I’ll stay in town.

Day 7, July 6: Slackpack to Marias Pass

Mile 99.5 to 114.8
15.1 miles

With only snacks and layers in my pack, I walk straight out of East Glacier for my slackpack to Marias Pass. The “trail” follows dirt roads for a while, something I should probably get used to on the CDT. I leave the Blackfeet Reservation and am back in Glacier National Park.

The CDT splits off into single track and it’s ridiculously muddy and overgrown. I push myself through fields of cow parsnip, thimbleberry, and corn lilies. My legs get scratched up by sharp sticks. Walking through this hurts, and I’m hyper aware of every time I brush against the cow parsnip in particular. It causes a skin reaction when the cut plant touches the skin and is exposed to light, and I’m outside in the light all day. My legs are already turning red.

I stop for a break from the bushwacking, and Marilyn walks up! He headed out today to walk straight from Marias Pass into the Bob Marshall section, and I thought he’d be ahead of me. He says he isn’t planning on going that far past the highway, he just wanted to get out of town and back on trail. Understandable. I hope I can catch up to him in the Bob.

I actually have a couple other things in my pack today, my ice axe and microspikes. Not because I’m planning on using them, but because I need to send them home and I don’t want to walk back to the hostel before going to the Post Office a whole mile away. Isabel and I get a hitch back to East Glacier, finish sorting out our resupplies and postage and head back to the Looking Glass hostel one more time. Tomorrow morning we head into one of the most intimidating sections of the CDT, 160 miles through the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wildernesses.