There were about 10 of us sleeping on the floor last night and it’s always a little awkward when people start getting up. Luckily it seemed like we were all waking up around the same time.
I packed up my bag and we headed out to breakfast at the Glacier Park Lodge. Just like Yellowstone, they had an all you can eat breakfast buffet and we took advantage of it.
From East Glacier, it was 11 miles to the Two Medicine ranger station where we could get our backcountry permits. The trail started off on forest roads but entered the park and turned into some beautiful trail. We went up over a pass and could see the visitor center and campground below us. It was a really awesome intro to the park.
This area had a lot of bighorn sheep. I saw a few in Colorado, but they were always far away. This time I got to see them very close.
We went into the ranger station to get camping permits and the ranger wasn’t there! We went over to the store to get some drinks and wait, but the store had closed for the season! We missed it by 45 minutes. It was really frustrating.
When we went back, the ranger helped us put together a schedule and we got almost all the sites we wanted. It will work out really well for finishing when I want to.
From Two Medecine we had to go up and over Pitamakin Pass to get to our campsite. It was stunning.
At the top I met the thru hiking family with their 5 kids. They were headed to the same place as us.
When I hiked out this morning, me and a few other hikers grouped up for our permits. I got pretty far ahead of the other guys so I stopped at one of the other campsites to make dinner. The campsites here all have dedicated cooking and food storage areas. I sat down with a nice couple and cooked while I waited for everyone else.
They passed while I was finishing dinner so I had to catch up a little. I caught Snergle pretty quickly and we saw two huge bull moose.
We both sorta startled each other but otherwise the moose didn’t care much. We got to the campsite just before dark and saw the family cooking dinner. The logistics of their hike are pretty unbelievable. I can barely manage my own and they have FIVE kids. One can’t even walk!
The next few days should be fun. I’ll be camping with the same people, some of them I just met yesterday. The days should be a little shorter than normal so I can really enjoy this time in the park.