June 21st, 2024
Mike Marker: mixed up
Miles Hiked: 19
We woke up early this morning from the hostel around 6 AM and started getting ready. Our plan was to start hitching around 7 AM with hopes to get to Two Medicine trailhead early.
We decided the previous night that we would hitch a ride to Two Medicine and go northbound over Pitakamin and then take a side trail 4 miles to a campground that doesn’t require permits.
We decided to hitch in sets of two; Journey and I and Ross and Bob. Whatever decided to stay back and heel up his feet.
A few minutes after we split, Ross and Bob got a hitch and waved at us as they went on. Journey and I were itching for a ride and soon enough Wyatt passed by and we asked if he had any more room in his shuttle. He claimed his wife did and she would be by soon to take us, score!
We arrived at Two Medicine close to the trailhead and headed out. We figured Bob and Ross were up ahead and we moved to catch them.
I unfortunately felt pretty depleted on energy so moving felt slow going but we were still making good time. We made it up the first pass with a couple of snow traverses that I didn’t put microspikes on for. However, when crossing the ridge up top Journey pointed at a trail that had some serious looking traverses and I was not trying to do that.
I started to psych myself out but once we got to the trail sign we realized the higher ones were a different trail and we only had one snow traverse to go through. We put on microspikes and crossed relatively smoothly. We met YeeHaw on the other side who was going Southbound and able to catch up some about triple divide pass and asked if he saw Bob and Ross. He claimed he hadn’t so we were then confused as to where the boys were and didn’t have their contact to reach out.
We then continued on the descent and walked over a lot of snow that was mostly soft.
I found myself getting frustrated with the snow and sliding around. Snow makes hiking a lot slower than I would like. However it is quite beautiful.
We then stopped at a campground for lunch and I was so grateful when we spotted Bob and Ross coming down the trail.
I per usual feel so much better when there is more of us hiking together, it lets me relax while hiking since 4 of us are looking out.
They told us they got to the ranger station and waited for us for over an hour. Journey and I were shocked we didn’t see them and didn’t even notice a ranger station.
Definitely a miscommunication but we were happy we told people on trail to let them know we were ahead of them.
We hiked together for the second half of the hike at a quick pace. All 3 men are over 6 feet, meaning they take 1 step to my 3. Whewww.
The trail was gorgeous today and even though it’s not fun doing extra miles, we will finally be able to close out Glacier National Park tomorrow.
Hopefully then we can continue the trek south for good.
We got to our campsite that was first come first serve and 4 other CDT hikers joined us. One of the couple has done a lot of bike touring in different countries and hiked the Colorado Trail. Pretty awesome.
We have a nice camp setup and I’m hoping for some good sleep.
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 