CDT mile 2534.8, miles hiked 10.5
We made it to glacier just 100 miles to go
Ah, nothing like waking up in a bunk room with 11 other guys who snored and farted all night long. Actually, the excitement of finishing has kept me up the past few evenings and I woke before others and headed to the bathroom to get a hot shower before the water ran out. I snuck back in the room got my stuff and dragged it I to the common area to sort and pack.
Dark skies and rain
I made a call to my mom and dad, tomorrow my dad turns 75 and given my remote location it’s doubtful I can call him. We chatted for a long time he filled me in on his birthday plans and travels and I filled him in on my plans to finish. He is very proud of all I have done and that makes me happy to hear, I think he thought I was nuts when I left my job.
I finished packing and then we went for a nice breakfast next door. I had an omelet and then an order of French toast, guess I was hungry. As we sipped coffee we watched it rain outside, we talked about the weather and figured what the hell we were still going for it. We rolled back to the hostel for an hour and Cheesy, Johnny, and Emma came by to bid farewell and wish us luck. With packs on me and Tatu-Jo set off for the CDT and Canada.
We had a short day planned only 10.5 miles to two medicine lake to get our permits and relax some. We walked up out of town in a light drizzle that soon stopped and the sky even looked like it would clear some. We started going up and up and finally hit the park boundary, I reached into my hip pocket to take a photo with tiny, my little plastic hand that has been with me from Mexico and discovered he was gone. I was devastated, to say the least, we had gone a long way together I tried to remember the last time I saw him and where he was. I sent cheesy a text and she went and looked at the hostel but it wasn’t there. I thought to myself maybe he wound up in my bucket today when I was packing up and is back at the hostel or maybe he fell out in the rain on our way to town. Either way nothing I could do so I dealt with the loss and moved forward.
The town of East Glacier below
When we reached the top of the pass it was fogged in so thick we couldn’t see a thing, 5 minutes later though and the clouds lifted up and we had our first glimpse of Glacier, two medicine lake and the beauty we were about to walk through. I was blown away for weeks I was wondering if it was more hype than reality about the beauty of this place but I can tell you Glacier is unbelievable.
Glacier the crown jewel of the CDT
We enjoyed the views and the new warmer temps as we descended down to two medicine. We passed some tourist and then arrived at the backcountry permit office. The ranger and I have the same name, Whitney and she quickly found our permit and gave us the rundown of the park. About 30 minutes later and we were enjoying buffalo chili and an IPA at the store. Since we were only camping right there we took our time, shopping for resupply food, and talking with folks.
Finally, we started back to the campground to set up while the weather was nice. As we came to the office we saw Steve Jones a CDT hiker who got off trail earlier this year and is helping hikers out with rides etc…I finally met Cloud Buster and then out walked stone who I had not seen since pie town.
Three guys in skirts left to right- Stone, Allgood, and Cloudbuster
Now Stone is a nice guy so don’t take what I’m about to say the wrong way, but he gave me a bit of put down and probably didn’t mean anything by it. You see stone went to college on a full ride for swimming and is a collegiate swim coach and very fit he looks at me and say, “Allgood you’re the only one besides Bambi and buttercup I didn’t catch from pie town, and Tatu-Jo I’ve been trying to catch you too. I figured once he was with Allgood I had them.” Basically, he said I was fat and slow so I smiled and said,”well mate looks like you still are only going to catch me because of the car ride here to get a permit before you head back to Maria’s pass.”
I talked with Tatu-Jo about this over hotdogs on an open fire and he said to me, “welcome to the fat kid club of hiking, what did you forget who you are?” He then went on and told me to screw folks like that because we might not look like much but we both know we can hike and out endurance most people. It’s nice to have someone here who understands the struggles us husky hikers face, I know I have lost a lot of weight but even beforehand I have held my own on miles and pace.
We rolled to camp and I’m sure the park service figures since we are thru-hikers we don’t mind some walking because they put us at the farthest possible site there was. As a bonus we are located next to the dumpsters and privy, what could go wrong? We made a fire to cook our hotdogs from the store and all was well until the sky got dark, the clouds got low and the rain started to fall.
Tatu-Jo crawled into his tarp which was leaking terribly and I popped into my tent. We are riding out the storm and hoping tomorrow brings better weather. After all, it’s the final countdown to Canada and we only have 95 miles to go so come on CDT, how about some nice weather for us?
