Hiker Sets Off Bear Mace Inside Hostel

This morning I woke up around 7am at our campsite in Many Glacier. I was absolutely exhausted, but I knew that we had to have a pretty early start to the day. We have to figure out how to get a ride back to East Glacier from here today so that we can resume walking south from there.

Surprisingly, my body wasn’t that sore even though I really brought it to the edge yesterday. I’m just glad that I didn’t injure myself. I got up and got ready in the campground bathroom which was right by our tents. Then I packed up my camp and got ready to go. All of us walked over to the Many Glacier Lodge once again to try to figure out a ride from there.

9 Lives walking up ahead. We went from the campground back over to the lodge to try and find a ride.

Another hiker named Dirty camped next to us last night as well. He left some thing at the hostel in East glacier and is probably going to get a ride back there with us to get it. It was a mile from the campground back to the lodge, but because the sun was out this time around the views were really beautiful. I’m so glad that we didn’t have to do this walk last night between the lodge and the campground at 11pm. Thank God for those glacier employees who gave us a ride down the road last night.

Views of the lake and mountain in the distance by Many Glacier. It sure looked a lot different last night at 10pm!

The first thing we did when we got to the lodge was ask about shuttle services between many glacier and East glacier. There is a $14 shuttle that goes from many glacier to Saint Mary, which is super affordable. But then it cost $50 per person to get a ride from St. Mary to East glacier. At that point we’re just better off trying to hitchhike.

Once we got everything figured out with the ride, we went to grab something to eat. I got an egg salad sandwich, a breakfast corndog, and an iced latte. When I was up in Canada hiking the international Appalachian trail I was absolutely obsessed with egg salad sandwiches. I can’t explain why and I also can’t explain why my obsession ended as soon as I came back to the states. But I’ve had a few in the time that we’ve been in Montana and they’ve all hit well.

After we grabbed food, we waited for the shuttle to arrive to bring us to St. Mary. It wound up just being the five of us in the shuttle with the driver. The guy who drove us was super funny, so it was an entertaining ride to St. Mary. And our shuttle driver dropped us off right at the turn where the highway picks up in town. That way we didn’t have to walk far to attempt to start hitching. But the hitch from St. Mary to East glacier now is still about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how the person drives. The roads are super windy and steep so some people could get there faster and for some people it’s going to take more time.

There was a gas station right by where we were going to hitch from, so I went inside to get a piece of cardboard to make a sign. Sometimes having a sign makes it much more easy to get a ride. If the person who’s driving knows exactly what you’re doing and what your plan is then it can be comforting to them. But of course, my sharpie had very little ink so the sign was super hard to read.

The wind has been absolutely crazy and was whipping sand all around as we tried to hitch. Every now and then a super strong gust would go by and it would whip little rocks and sand all across our legs and arms. The five of us were joking around and dancing on the side of the road as we tried to get a ride. Even if no one was going to pick us up, we were still going to have a good time trying.

Everybody fooling around as we tried to hitch from St. Mary to East Glacier.

Within the first 15 minutes a guy pulled over into the gas station and at first it looked like he definitely wanted to give us a ride. But he actually just stopped to get gas and he didn’t say anything to us. But on his way out, he walked over to ask us what we were doing and offered to take three of us. That meant that two of us had to stay behind and wait for the next ride. Obviously everyone wanted to go so we decided to do a five person rock paper scissor shoot game in order to see who had the right to get in the car. Dirty was out right away and then it was between 9 Lives and I. Lucky for me I won that round, which meant that Tripod, Giggles, and I got to get in the first ride to East glacier. Hopefully everybody else gets picked up very soon as well.

The guy who picked us up was super nice and had an adorable dog in the car. The dogs name was Gus and he was apparently a mix of 30 different breeds. Two of the biggest breeds were husky and blue heeler. He was super cute. The guy who picked us up had actually just completed the Te Aurora in New Zealand this past winter. It was really interesting to talk to him about that because a lot of people that I know from other trails also were out on the TA this past winter. And apparently his girlfriend had attempted the continental divide Trail a couple of years ago as well. It was really nice to talk to him as he drove us to town.

Gus, the dog in our hitch.

On trail I often get super nauseous in cars especially on winding roads. Normally it depends how the person drives, but not always. We’ve gone down this road about six times at this point and half the time I feel nauseous and half the time I don’t. Sadly, this was just one of those moments. But I’m wasn’t really surprised considering how uneasy my stomach already was this morning. I didn’t eat nearly enough on our big day yesterday.

The CDT board back at Luna’s in East Glacier. So many more hikers have started the trail in the time since we first arrived here.

Eventually, we got to East glacier and got dropped off back at Looking Glass hostel. We said goodbye to our driver and his dog and headed into the hostel. When we got in, I was surprised that Nana Man and Gas Monkey weren’t there. Apparently they were going to go do a 15 mile slack pack. You can get a ride to a road 15 miles down and then just walk right back to the hostel which is cool. That was what we had originally planned to do today as well, but it’ll just have to depend on when everyone gets into town. My body is also super sore so I wouldn’t mind taking the day off today personally.

Back at the hostel we got to meet some new hikers who had just gotten in. And we got to see some hikers again that we hadn’t seen in a few days. I was still feeling super nauseous so I took a Dramamine. I will never go hiking without having Dramamine in my first aid kit. It’s fantastic for motion sickness and other types of nausea. All things that can be pretty common when you’re hiking.

Inside Luna’s aka Looking Glass Hostel. There are less hikers here now so we planned to sleep inside tonight.

About 30 minutes after we got to the hostel, Dirty and 9 Lives arrived. Apparently they had only waited about 20 more minutes after we got picked up before they also got a hitch. And they couldn’t say enough great things about the couple who had picked them up. That’s the magic of trail and hitchhiking. Not only do you always manage to get a perfect ride, you also get to meet some pretty incredible people while you’re doing it.

At this point, all of us were really hungry and also exhausted. We decided to all head into town to grab something to eat. The last few times we’ve been in East glacier we’ve gone to this pizza place on the main street. It’s super good and the lady who runs it is really nice. But when we arrived at the pizza place, it was tragically closed. So we tried something new and went to a small diner that was right next to the trading post in town. The place was actually super cute and all five of us got to sit side-by-side at their old style bar counter. I got a patty melt and tater tot’s. And probably drank 5 glasses of Dr Pepper. My body needed every last calorie that it could get at this point.

Nana Man in one of his many outfits.

Then we headed back to the hostel and got set up there. I was so tired that I laid down on my sleeping pad and wound up sleeping for hours. Eventually I woke up and decided I was going to go shower. But while I was still inside the hostel everyone suddenly started coughing randomly. Apparently a hiker had let off their bear spray and figured he didn’t have to mention it to anyone. He opened a door and hoped it would just “air out”. Everyone began coughing and my eyes were uncomfortable. We all cleared out of there real fast.

That was the most hilarious and dumb thing ever. I couldn’t believe it. But I also couldn’t stop laughing. After that I had to wash my contacts out with solution, but everyone was totally fine. I took a shower which helped and also woke me up. Then I went back inside once the coast was clear. For the next hour or so I got some writing and work done. Then I decided to go down the road to an artisan pizza shop which is ran out of a trailer! They have a whole pizza oven in the trailer.

Tripod, Giggles, High Profile, and I all went on the pizza run. I wound up getting a pepperoni pizza with lemon ricotta added to it. It was unbelievably good and like nothing I’d ever had before.

Nana Man and I at the Looking Glass Hostel.

I ate some of it and brought the rest back to the hostel for later. Then I was super productive for the next few hours doing some writing and work. There were loads of hikers hanging out outside while I did that. It was so tempting to just hang out with them. But I’ve been seeing all these lovely people a lot lately so I knew I wasn’t missing out on anything much.

In the evening Crigas got in to the hostel! He gave us a ride a few days ago from Many Glacier back to East Glacier when that snow storm was coming in. We met last year on the Appalachian trail. It was so nice to see him again and I’m excited to be hiking in the same bubble.

An avocado and a foam rolling ball. Can you tell the difference?

After working for a while I decided to eat the rest of my pizza and hang out with everybody. It’s been so dang nice being surrounded by hikers constantly. Part of my brain keeps forgetting that this is really happening again. I’m thru hiking once more. And on this trail which I assumed would be a lonely one, I’m actually surrounded by more friends than I could have ever imagined. What a dream this is.

Everyone called it a night pretty early at the hostel. Tomorrow we’re going to get up early and do the 15 mile slack pack near the hostel. Then we will probably be hiking out toward the Bob Marshall wilderness! It’s going to feel good to finally leave East Glacier for the final time. We sure have been here for a while.