June 19th, 2024
Mile Marker: mixed up currently
Miles Hiked: 10
We started the day out with sleeping in until 8ish in our nice warm comfy bed. We then packed our bags for a 10 mile hike from Two Medicine campground up and over the last part of Glacier National Park and into East Glacier.
Walking outside our hotel room into sunshine and blue skies felt immediately better for my soul. We (Journey, I, and Ross) ate breakfast then hopped into the back of Pitch’s car for a ride up to the campground. Pitch is van living it right now so we all had to cram and lay down in the back with her dog. Typical hiker trash style, we loved it.
We then started out our climb of the day and within 10 minutes saw a mountain sheep and her baby walking up the trail. As we followed them to try and get a picture they led us to their group.
There stood a group of about 12 of them all looking at us quizzically. We took pictures and then expected them to move off trail but they were adamant to stay. So we decided to take a side trail down and around to avoid any chaos with them.
We climbed for the next 4 miles and had stunning views the whole way up and minimal snow at the top where I didn’t even need to put microspikes on for.
It was glorious and exactly what I needed to lift my spirits.
We took our time going down the mountain and ran into mountain goats. Once again keeping our space and trying to wave them on. This time they cleared the trail for us.
We then hiked through dense forest again for the last couple of miles before reaching East Glacier. Around the same time we all started getting weird feelings of something being present. Shortly after we noticed bear scratches on a tree and knew we were in its territory.
We said our typical hollers and continued on. It’s amazing to me that we all feel the feeling around the same time.
We arrived back in East Glacier around 3 and sat down to figure out a game plan for tomorrow. Eventually Bob and Whatever (he survived the solo camp! Yay!) joined us and came up with a plan to potentially finish out Glacier National Park. However, tomorrow we will head into the Bob Marshal wilderness for 15 to let more snow melt and then will consider going back in for the last hard pass. There are many stories about the Bob and I’m hoping we have it easy. We hear rumors about heavy bushwhacking, a lot of blow downs, and intense wildlife and have been told it’s better to hike in a group which most of us are in agreement about, thank goodness.
I’m taking it day by day.
We ended the night with dinner with Journey, Ross, Pitch, Yee-Haw, and I. Good food with good people.
Today was just the day I needed to mentally reset my spirits. I’m hoping this will continue on for this next section!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 