Days 26-31: The Moose is Loose

MC: This section of hiking provided a roller coaster of emotions for us. 

Excitement: Our first night we camped at a beautiful lakeside campsite at Storm Lake, and in the morning we were greeted by a mother moose and her calf. I would say this interaction was the highlight of the trip so far, as the two were less than 20 feet from the tent, and we had been discussing how much we wanted to see a moose in the wild. We got our wish!

Sadness: for this purpose of this story, the hiker in question we will call Joe, but that’s not his real name. We met Joe at the border of the US and Canada the day we started our hike. He is a 22 year old well accomplished thru hiker, having completed the AT twice and the PCT once. His mom came with him to wish him luck at the start, so we met her and we all took pictures together at the international border. Joe is over 6ft tall and walks incredibly fast, he hiked with us for about two minutes and then left us in the dust. We were however, staying at the same campground in Glacier with him that night, so we saw him later that evening. He finished his hiking day 2.5 hours ahead of us. We continued to see Joe through our month of hiking at random intervals, and really the only reason we didn’t lose him to speed was because he contracted a virus that forced him to stop hiking for several days. When we saw him and learned of this, we felt bad for him because he seemed quite distressed about missing those several days of hiking. The virus he contracted dehydrated him, but he continued to hike after the couple days of break, claiming he was rested enough. During this section of hiking, we came across two other hikers we befriended and were informed that Joe was no longer on trail. The virus he got dehydrated him so much and in conjunction with the trail conditions he was forced into the ER. He developed a condition called Rhabdomyolysis, where his muscles began to break down and affect the functioning of his kidneys due to the lack of water in his body. We were shocked. How could an accomplished thru hiker like this find himself with a life threatening condition and be forced to remove himself from the trail? We keep thinking about him and feeling sadness that this happened. The trail keeps punching us in the face each day, but it hasn’t broken us like it did Joe. We have to keep thinking ahead, knowing if we make a mistake with our planning, we could find ourselves in a bad spot.

Frustration: this section looked like a bunch of triangles all lined up together. You walk up the mountain, you see the pretty view, you walk down the mountain, and then repeat. Over and over. It was exhausting, and an area of the trail I was happy to have completed and to be done with.

Thankfulness: when HD and I arrived in town, we got dinner at a local bar and befriended an 87 year old woman who sat next to us. She learned of our chores the next day and invited us to her house to do laundry. Then she drove us to the post office and grocery store. She was an inspiration, quick witted, a wonderful conversationalist, and kind. She also has a dog addiction, she’s owned like 30 dogs in her life, all large breeds, and we got to meet two of them, a three legged 15 year old black lab and a 14 year old black lab.

HD: This was a section of animals and people. The rest of the details would sound a lot like a composite of the previous month’s hiking, which we passed through the 500 mile mark at some point. To its credit, the alpine lakes of the Anaconda range were different and wonderful. Otherwise….  it was up-down-up-down, over blowdowns and through burn zones, and rugged terrain that really tested our patience.

While our lake campsites were the best of the trip so far, the last night’s campsite on this section was in a burn zone. There are many such areas along the trail; this one was unique in that it was only two years old. The ground, the trees, and the trail were all still charcoal and burnt dirt. The baby pine trees reforesting this moonscape were all only an inch tall, and they looked more like tiny tufts of grass than future western white pines and firs. We were filthy after this section; I looked like a coal miner and MC a chimney sweep. The burn zones are haunting.

Regarding animals… our first night camping was at storm lake, a beautiful alpine gem with a killer

 view. MC turned the knob to deflate her mattress in the morning, and a mama and baby moose crashed through the woods to investigate. We spent the next 15 minutes as captives of our tent as the two ate grass, played in the water, and generally had a good time while keeping an eye on the human trespassers, all from 20 feet away. It was all quite amazing.

We also watched alpine marmots battling on the open summits and a giant mule deer (with a comically large rack) up close on the last morning who was chasing a doe, also generally uninterested in us.

We had some memorable trail magic as well; after a 30 minute wait for a hitch into our resupply town, Darby, a kind and interesting couple (thanks James and Sarah!) picked us up and whisked us into town. I’ll leave the details to a minimum, but James is an actor/stuntman with close ties to the actors filming the series “Yellowstone” at the Dutton Ranch near Darby. Drinks are on us the next time you visit North Carolina, friends!

We caught up to several of our little hiking bubble in town as well, and shared meals at the local restaurants with them. One couple in particular, Lip Balm and Gallery, hike with such joy and energy that it’s almost contagious. Almost. We are both still generally tired and working hard to maintain motivation through this section of trail.

Up next is a difficult 6 day pull to Leadore. We’ll head south again – this time into the Bitterroot Mountains along the Idaho/Montana border. We’re trying our best to not look ahead to Yellowstone NP as there are 400 miles of difficult hiking between here and there. New shoes and lighter sleeping quilts from our badass moms through resupply at the post office should help!