On the stolen land of the Blackfeet, Ktunaxa, Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla peoples.

This post is about my 2022 thru attempt. I’m not currently thru-hiking and will not be in the 2024 season. I’ll announce concrete plans when I have them.

Decision Making and a Zero Complete with Grizzly

The following section of Glacier was about 20 miles and it was still open. From talking with rangers and other hikers, it was kind of sketchy, and the weather for the day I would have been able to get a permit for called for a lot of rain (and possibly sleet at the higher elevations). I was warned that I should have my ice axe and be comfortable with using it if I was going to go up there. I decided against it, skipping one pretty thing to make sure I lived to see all the other pretty things. It was a bad snow year for southbounders in Montana, with snow coming to the passes in late June.

I decided to zero in Many Glacier instead. It was a front country campground with a store, beautiful lakes, and some interesting people. I spent the day hanging around camp, doing laundry in the bathroom sink, and wandering around the front country. I got some ice cream from a shop down the way, and otherwise enjoyed just chilling. It was really lovely.

After lunch, I was sitting on the table scrolling through my list of downloaded audiobooks, trying to decide what to listen to next. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see a juvenile grizzly bear not five feet from me, just strolling past the picnic table. It was small, but not small enough that a grizzly mom would be following behind. It could absolutely take me in a fight. I stayed completely still, staring at it. It turned, made eye contact with me, then turned and kept walking at a good clip through the campsite. I got a picture of its butt. Once it was far enough that I was confident it wouldn’t be startled or interested in my movement, I got up, headed straight to the ranger station, and showed them the picture I’d taken. The ranger had me take him to the campsite and then we walked in the direction it’d taken off in. The ranger wanted to spray it with bear spray (referred to as hazing the bear) in the hope that it would become afraid of the campsite and steer clear. We didn’t find it. Afterward, the ranger asked if I would stay at the campground at my campsite for a while so that other rangers could come and ask questions or look at the picture, and I agreed. Rangers came over with questions and to see the picture several times over the next couple of hours. I just hung out and listened to an audiobook. The only thing I was worried about was being told to leave the campsite due to bear risk, since I didn’t know how I would get to St. Marys (the closest other front-country campground) before nightfall. It was around 20 road miles away. In the backcountry I would have left the site, but since the bear had shown no interest in the bear box for our campsite, which had all my food in it, and many hikers would likely arrive in the evening, I felt comfortable staying.

And the hikers did come. I started hanging out with them and another thru-hiker, Blue Collar, took us to dinner. He was on his fourth attempt of the CDT, having ended previous hikes due to injury, homesickness, and one time, tell me if this sounds familiar, giardia. Turns out I’m not the only one who learned to carry Flagyl the hard way.

Road Walks and Marias Pass

The two passes after Piegan were closed due to a situation with grizzlies. A herd of cattle had gotten trapped between the passes and had died over the winter. Now that the snow was gone and their carcasses had thawed, grizzlies were feasting. The rangers had closed the area to avoid encounters between grizzlies and hikers. The road walk for that section was 30 miles long and involved sections where there was a rock wall on one side of the road and a sheer drop on the other, with no real shoulder. I opted to do part of the road walk between Many Glacier and St. Marys (to make up for Piegan Pass), and to skip the road walk between St. Marys and Two Medicine (to make up for grizzlies), instead heading back to East Glacier. I was sad to have to skip a large section of the park, but I also knew from the second I arrived there that I would need to come back.

I stayed at Looking Glass and slack packed to Marias Pass, the last section of Glacier, south of East Glacier on the CDT. I zeroed once or twice in there and just enjoyed the people. There was so much music, so much laughter, and I had so many incredible conversations in those days. Thru-hiking makes family out of strangers, and while my brain was a dumpster fire I was starting to lose the ability to ignore, I was hooked and kept shoving it down. They were my people and it was my place, but it was not the right time. I caught a ride back after slackpacking and prepared to enter the Bob Marshall Wilderness.