This trail has been the most challenging logistical adventure we have ever been on and I’m happy to say that our first “finish” on the trail is complete.
-we have three parts on this trail. Part one = the northern terminus in Waterton Village, Canada. Part two = finishing the 288 mile section of Colorado that was on fire when we were here earlier this summer and had to skip. Lastly, part three = the 230 mile section Julie skipped in northern Colorado when she was quitting the trail.
-part one is by far the longest. I have now covered over 2700 of the 3018 miles of this trail.
-Montana/Idaho are huge! We spent over 1000 miles and five weeks here.
-Glacier national park is one of the jewels of America and I recommend you see it if you can. The big mountain passes and lakes are picturesque and amazing.
-there are grizzy bears there too, and we finally saw one! Joe talks all day and on our last 39 miles of the trail we had to split with him because he was finishing in another spot due to not having his passport. Within an hour of leaving him I hear something big in the brush. I yelled back to Raiains to get up with us. A young grizz pops out, looks at us, and headed off into some trees. Whew, right. We cautiously continued on and out comes the bear barreling out of the woods, paralleling us on the trail. Bear spray drawn now, safety off. Raisins has his camera out. Then the bear runs at me and I think, “this is real and I’m going to actually use this $60 bear spray I’ve been lugging around for 2 months.” Then last minute he veers from me, hits the trail, and continues on his way. Exactly the encounter I had hoped for!
-we saw two moose that morning as well along with another bear from far away.
-we ate loads of huckleberries. They were finally in season where we were, and we got a good patch of them before the bears did.
-Julie still has achy shins but pushed on. We did some things once we finished that will hopefully help her for the remaining miles.
-after our Canadian finish we met some really good people that picked us up hitch hiking and took us to a place to get a rental car. Thank you Michael and Amy and thank you Brian and Carol. I hope our paths cross again.
-we ran into some hikers we passed earlier in the trail as they were heading into Glacier and had fun sharing stories from the past month. Really good community of people out here on the trail.
-we then got a rental car, dropped Raisins off at the airport, and drove 17.5 hours straight through the night and are now back in Colorado to start part two of this ridiculous adventure.
-we are currently in South Fork being treated to some amazing hospitality and trail magic forms our friends Mark and Karla who we met earlier in the trail when they helped get us past the fires. Super generous and thoughtful people, we are amazingly fortunate. Thank you.
So now it’s back to the trail. We are clean, well fed, and rested. We are also ready to finish the next part of this thing, and hopefully without too many more logistical challenges.