C-5 to C-1

HD: The wait for weather and Glacier National Park permits was excruciating. We’re all set now with an early morning start for tomorrow. We met two sets of hikers who began the CDT 4 days ago and already quit; a winter storm over the past two days was debilitating. We have a good weather forecast and unknown conditions on the mountain passes. Hopefully things go smoothly, and we’re back in East Glacier for resupply in 6 days. Geaux Tigers.

MC: We have a permit for Glacier and it’s through luck and our own foresight that it ended up successful. 

My concerns were proven true regarding the permit for Glacier National Park, there was a sizable backup. We didn’t experience a line out the door, but we arrived to the permit issuing station 2 hours later than we wanted to, due to technical difficulties with our original shuttle. 

The weather forced everyone into a three day delay due to the winter weather warning that went across Glacier, and roughly 30 hikers all wanted to start the trail at or around 18/19 June. This left us with ambiguity regarding our desired itinerary.

What we did know was that Many Glacier Campground was a bottleneck location for hikers, and all hikers were reserving backcountry sites there; however, Many Glacier also has a robust traditional campground. We reserved a campsite at this location, which allowed our permit to accept this as a “place holder” location. Had this little detail not occurred, we would be forced to road walk the start of the trail because the next two campsites after “Many” were already full.

I would like to give the St. Mary’s Visitor Center backcountry permit issuing ladies a huge thank you. They’re doing the Lord’s work for the hiker community. 

Our itinerary starting tomorrow, 19 June:

Day 1: POI campground, 19.7 miles.

Day 2: Many Glacier Campground, 8.4 miles.

Day 3: St. Mary’s Campground (requires a 12 mile road walk) total of 27 miles.

Day 4: MOR campground, 23 miles.

Day 5: MOR to Two Medicine, 11 miles.

The mountain passes we have to cross are a concern and we will deal with them as we meet them. We have contingencies in place if we must resort to road walks, and that’s okay. After all, who’s got it better than us? Nobody!