Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Gettin' There




Well Nick and I strolled into the U.S.A. on the morning of June 29th
We had been making final preparations and hanging out with my dad and brother in Waterton Lakes National Park north of the border.
We entered Glacier just a few hundred yards after customs. The trail descended through dense and buggy forest before opening up to low wildflower meadows along the Belly River. The first bare peaks of the Rockies loomed above us.
Day two brought us to Dawn Mist Falls, where the Belly River makes a thundering 60 foot drop. Next we soared over 2500 feet up to Red Gap Pass we we had our lunch in the company of molting mountain goats. A large chunk of blue-grey rock stood out against the red. Its surface was the smooth and serpentine texture of the 1.6 billion year-old Pacific seabed that was heaved up to become the peaks of the Rockies.
After camping at Poia Lake we made our way down into Many Glacier on day three. Nick's heels were shredded and bleeding; he was going to need more than a few days to recover. Fortunately my family was going to be hanging around and he could recouperate with them. I pressed on alone and did a 13 mile day up past Morning Eagle Falls and over Piegan Pass. By the time I made it to Going-To-The-Sun Road my right heel was giving me blister trouble!
I had to make a choice. Risk my heel getting worse and deal with the difficulty of staying motivated alone or accept temporary defeat and get off the trail or push on solo yet farther.
I decided to go for broke and try to make it over Triple Divide Pass and down to my resupply in Two Medicine.
Things were going well until I realized I was a day short on food. Then the Duct tape fell off of my heel. I had another choice to make. Try to stretch my food and deal with my foot or head for the road. I chose the road. Then another choice, two extra miles in to my reserved campsite and seven out the next day or five extra miles on top of the twelve I'd done already to make it out that day. The road won again and I made it a 17 mile day. I topped it off with my first hitchike, thanks for putting up with my stench Violet and Brian.
I made it into East Glacier Park just in time to find everyone sitting down to dinner at the Whistle Stop. Scince then, Nick and I have been lounging in luxury, enjoying restaraunt meals and Montana micro-brews, Moose-Drool is delicious. We are heading back out on the 9th to bag Triple Divide Pass and then its on The Bob.

1 comment:

  1. wow! mountain goats! hitchhiking! sorry nick, hope u feel better!

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