Posted by 25.7 miles
Town day! And a rest day tomorrow… sort of.
It was a very straight forward day into East Glacier today, initially taking an alternate route to stay low on the valley floor and avoid unnecessary elevation gain. But taking this alternate did mean around 10 river crossings. Too many and too wide with rocky bottoms to continually take shoes off and on I was prelared to get shoes wet this morning.
Part way along the alternate I had one of those moments…. when you gotta go, you gotta go. It came on so quickly I barely had time to get off trail and dig a cat hole. Lucky no one was around as I didn’t make it far off the trail. Just enough privacy behind a pile of downed trees. My body is basically processing all foods super fast, extracting every calorie and expunging the rest. Sometimes there is no holding back when the urge arises. Readjusting back in to society will be interesting with respect to bladder control. I won’t be able to just stop where I am and go for a whiz or start digging a he.
The early morning went fast and it feels like I’m at peak performance just as the trail is ending, easily managing a 3 miles Town pace. I soon found myself out at Highway 2 and busy traffic. Stopping brief at the Forest Service Summit Camp to top up water it was time to play frogger across the road and rail line. The rail is well used with freight. East Glacier even has an Amtrack station.
The remaining 14 miles into town also happened pretty quick. It seems the closer I get towards towns and the prospects of a hot shower the harder I push myself.
I’d made it town just after 4pm heading for the Looking Glass hostel a right of passage for CDT hikers to stay at and use as a base of operations for the final preparations through to Canada. It is affectionately known as Luna’s Place in the hiker community.
On arrival the owners, Luna and Will, were no where to be found but plenty of signage around the place basically said welcome, make yourself right at home. Signs pointed me in the right direction for everything I needed and I was able to check in through a former hiker, Legs, who was assisting running the place while Luna was away.
There are a couple of options available: a cabin for $55/night (ones with bunks the prive can be split between other hikers; camp inside on the floor in the common room for $20; or pitch your tent outside on the lawn.
I was able to score a cabin with a double bed for two nights. Everything was provided for: towels for a shower and all the products one needs to wash; loaner clothes for when you do the laundry; loaner bikes to get around town for food and resupply; and self check-in.
I’ll be staying for two nights, taking tomorrow off as a final ‘rest day’ before completing the last section. I will have to hitch into Two Medicine tomorrow to secure backcountry permits from the National Parks Service in person.
In the late afternoon I ran into Bluejay and Guardian who are staying in a bunk cabin next door and later Redline who has a hotel room down the road. They had all just returned from Two Medicine after obtaining their permits.
We all had a delicious final town dinner together at a food truck just down the road called Island Thyme. They had been smoking jerk chicken and pulled pork all day with the smell too good to pass up.
Mick Beckers 