Glacier National Park, We Here!

June 12-14th, 2024

Mile Marker: 0

What a whirlwind it’s been the last few days. I’m laying on my air up mattress on the floor of a hostel and I am quite exhausted.

Let me rewind.

The journey started on June 12th as we woke up at 4:30 AM at my friend’s Molly’s house and headed to the airport. (Molly you are a true lifesaver, we are so grateful for you and taking us to the airport so early in the am!) I felt the nerves creeping in but held them off for as long as I could. Before I knew it we were boarding our flight to Seattle and took off around 6:50.

I felt relatively chill for the 3 and half hour flight until we had about 20 minutes to go. Suddenly I got that all too familiar feeling, a panic attack was encroaching. Normally I can calm myself down but this time my hands started curling in and going numb like they do and my heart rate shot into the high 90s, I could feel my heart pounding as if I was working out. Oh no, I thought and suddenly I felt my thoughts swirling and wanting to get off the plane and get some fresh air.

I told Journey what was happening and he asked how to help and I almost didn’t even know, it had been so long. I showed him my hands and he grabbed one and held it tight and continued to smooth them out as he comforted me. Then I let myself do what I had been trying to hold back.

I cried.

I cried because it had been a long couple of weeks with minimal rest, lack of healthy foods, and I was just so tired. I cried because I already missed my family more than I expected, it hurts my soul sometimes to be away from them. I cried because I was nervous for what was to come.

Then I felt my heart rate start to slow and I turned my music on and listened to a playlist my sister had made for the mornings; uplifting inspiring music.

It was going to be okay. It’s okay to be nervous, it’s okay to be sad, I had to remind myself that I have felt these feelings before and I just had to go through them to get over it.

We landed in Seattle and Jeff’s brother picked us up and we got busy with buying some cold weather gear and filling our resupplies.

Of course everything we did took longer than expected and we finished everything just in time for a wonderful dinner and sunset with Jeff’s family.

Sleeping that night was so needed. We slept well, spent Thursday finalizing gear, and then were dropped off at the train station to take a train from Seattle to East Glacier.

This was such an experience. We were lucky and put in a bid to go from the coach section to a bedroom section and got it! This meant we were able to actually have beds for the night.

We enjoyed the views, met new people during dinner, and realized very quickly that sleeping on a train is very difficult.

Halfway into the night the train stopped to add on more cars and they were not gentle about it. There was loud staff members and train cars running into each other, I was shocked.

We both woke up around 6 am ish feeling groggy and tired. We ate breakfast and then enjoyed the magnificent views that came from Glacier National Park.

We arrived at East Glacier around 10 AM and noticed a few other thru hikers getting off the train as well. We immediately walked down the road to the Looking Glass Hostel and met a few other thru hikers and met one who asked if we wanted to join on his permit as his friends didn’t make it.

Score!

This was ideally what we were looking for and felt lucky to have it. In order to hike through Glacier National Park you must have a permit and each night has to be planned out for where you plan to hike. The downside was that we couldn’t call the ranger station and have them add our names, we had to physically be there; a 45 minute car drive. It was so gorgeous though!!

We eventually got a hitch and got it sorted and then got a shuttle ride back from a woman who is from this area and is a member of the Blackfeet Nation. She shared so much history of their culture and how much the mountains mean to them. She told us that the trails we will be walking on are their ancestral trails and have been used for a very very long time. She claimed that if we feel energy while out there, that is why.

It made me have this sense of belonging and excitement, that this trail is more than just a trail. Its connection.

Even though I still feel nervous for hiking in snow and grizzlies, I feel overwhelmingly better about it all now after getting here and talking with other thru hikers.

That driver also let us know that the bears are aware of us and will frequently run away and that if we should worry about any animal it should be the moose. HA.

We ate dinner with new people on our permits and hung around the hostel. I’m now laying down and feeling excited to start this trek tomorrow no matter what the weather is doing in a couple days, we will always figure it out.

Here we go!

Iz