Category: Off-trail

I didn’t manage to get to sleep until like 4am, but then I couldn’t sleep in until 8 because my roommates got up and started talking and making breakfast and such. So, I got up and started getting ready myself.

This mostly meant packing while my frozen breakfast sandwiches warmed in the oven. (The hostel, running only on solar power, lacks any microwave ovens, so I needed a good hour to defrost them through.)

Margaret and Anna Grace arrived a little after nine as I was taking my clothes off the line. I got them some of the bacon my roommates were cooking and hurried to finish packing so we could get started. Because Anna insisted my mustache was wrong, I took a few minutes to wax it, then all that was left was loading my stuff in the car and taking my bedclothes to the washer.

After a couple of wrong turns, we got on the highway headed out to the eastern side of El Malpais. Our first morning destination was La Ventana Natural Arch. It was an easy stroll from the parking lot to the base, no need to stock up on snacks, though Anna insisted on carrying a banana (and on not being called Anna Banana). I made a very difficult climb onto a tall boulder for a photo so that I had to jump off. Anna pretended that a sloped section of ground was equally treacherous. Kids, eh?

After Anna ate her banana at one of the picnic tables, we set off for the bigger adventure. A few miles south, we turned down Pie Town Rd, then a mile later, hung a left onto a ragged sandy road out into the prairie. Margaret said it was still a better road than the one to her house. We couldn’t go all the way down the single lane road because a truck was parked in the middle of it, but we just waited a couple of minutes for the coyote hunter driving out to walk back across the country. He stopped to tell us about the bear sign he had seen, and Margaret decided to carry protection as a result.

We couldn’t drive much further anyway. The trail into the canyon was blocked to vehicle traffic. So we parked and got snacks and lunch packed up to walk 2.5 miles into the canyon.

It was a pretty easy hike all told, basically level ground. But it was tough for Anna because the sand kept getting in her shoes (no gaiters) and the thorny sticker plants kept leaving pointy bits in her socks and pant legs. Being a child, she found this absolutely insufferable and had to stop often to pick at her socks and shoes. She also did not want to wear her sun hat, preferring to risk a scalp sunburn over getting hot from the lack of airflow over her head. Plus, a two hour walk in the desert is not super entertaining by itself, so she entertained herself by picking bouquets of grass for her mom or just to throw in the air. Eventually, I got bored with holding back my pace, put on some music, and went ahead at a slow but comfortable speed, only stopping to wait every ten to fifteen minutes.

The last break, less than a half mile from the destination, took a lot longer than expected, so I just gave Anna a piggy back ride the rest of the way there.

We had lunch in the dilapidated house (with an oddly new metal roof) we encountered there, then I went on alone to track down the petroglyphs that were supposed to be carved in the canyon. There were supposed to be many more than the two I found on a boulder right nearby, but although I found some areas interesting from a natural beauty perspective, I couldn’t find any other petroglyphs.

So as soon as I got back to the house, we headed out again back to the car. The way back proceeded largely as before with Anna causing delays in the same ways and being just as unwilling to wear the hat. She tried hard at the prospect of the holiday Oreos I had stashed there, but again, over an hour of walking is not the most engaging prospect for a child. So I carried her most of a mile on my shoulders.

It was about a 5 hour little hiking trip by the time we got back to vehicle and started rolling toward Albuquerque. I was out really starting to feel the lack of sleep, so we stopped on the way for a bathroom break and got me to grab some caffeine.

An hour later we cruised into ABQ over a rousing game of I Spy. Despite the 5 mile walk in the sun, Anna did not sleep a wink on the car trip. Our destination was a small Mediterranean restaurant in the Brick Light District. After some running about the parking lot where Margaret was paying the fee and I was injuring myself falling down in a gambit to entertain Anna, we made it safely into the restaurant.

As far as the Greek food went, mine was great. Souvlaki and Dolmades were exactly the reason I had chosen the place. The baklava was about average… neither great nor terrible. Margaret’s kebab was a bit below average in my opinion while Anna’s cheeseburger seemed to be way above average as kids meals tend to go. Although she had no interest in anything but the bun in the long run, they did actually include onions, tomato, and a sizeable serving of melted cheese.

After dinner, we crossed the street for the Insomnia Cookies. I got a regular chocolate chunk cookie I found to be not even as enticing as the one I could have gotten next door at the Jimmy John’s. Not bad, no. Margaret got an enormous peanut butter cup cookie which was equally okay. Anna’s strawberry ice cream, on the other hand, was pretty great.

My hotel was five minutes down the road, and that’s where they left me around 8. I scheduled a 4am wake-up call and a 4:30 airport shuttle when I checked in, then spent the rest of the night in my room hanging on with a friend online while drinking one of the remaining beers I had brought. I should have brought one in with me at dinner because the other one I was never going to drink.

I got to sleep around midnight following a long relaxing shower/bath. Not much time to sleep, but it wasn’t like I would be having a big hike ahead of me.

Tomorrow will be my last daily post for the season. Believe me, I’m as sorry as you are to be back in the real world.

Miles hiked: 5

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The next morning we slept in pretty late. It was cool, the windows were wide open, we had two fans blowing. And we were in no hurry.

We decided that instead of parting ways in Many Glacier, I would go with Mama to East Glacier Park and stay at the historic Glacier Park Lodge, and then she would bring me back to Many Glacier in the morning. Otherwise, I would just have been staying in the Many Glacier campground with nothing in particular to do.

We packed up and left at checkout time and not a moment before, lying around in the cool morning air and eating breakfast in the room. We took the route to East Glacier Park that would take us past Two Medicine Road so we could go up to see Two Medicine.

It was about an hour’s drive down with only brief stops to look at the scenery and let the rangers at the gate know we weren’t carrying fireworks into the park.

Just inside the park, we stopped at Running Eagle Falls and did a short 0.3 mile hike to the falls. It was a very clever waterfall with separate stacked falls, one behind and below the other. I wouldn’t have even thought it was possible. But it was not nearly as impressive as Apikuni. Also, the story of the warrior-woman Running Eagle, who had been buried in a tall tree overlooking that falls, was perhaps more interesting than the falls itself.

We proceeded into the Two Medicine Campground and found a nice spot in the group campsite for a picnic. (It had been set aside for day use for the Fourth of July weekend.) We had a bit of shade and a view of the creek right next to where the CDT passed, so I technically walked on part of the CDT at one point. I’m not going to count it as trail miles though. We could also see families of ducks floating by. And some bighorn sheep.

After lunch, we swung by the camp store and I got some huckleberry cider and huckleberry flavor Wiley Wallaby’s for a snack. We talked with some other tourists from Indiana on the deck beside the store.

It was already well into afternoon, so it was time to get on down to East Glacier Village to check in to the lodge. It was only a few minutes away. After checking in, we went across the street to the Glacier Park Trading Post to drop off my resupply package and grab some drinks for the evening. We made it back to the hotel in time to move all our stuff up to our room and then take the hotel historic tour with the bellman. He was clearly interested in the history but didn’t have quite all the details straight yet. Still it was fun to banter with him and ask him things he didn’t know.

Later on, a bit of research indicated there was an inn for backpackers behind the Mexican restaurant across the street, and since none of the places I tried calling about accommodations when I came back through were answering, we decided to go ask the Mexican restaurant in person. We walked across the street, asked the bartender, found out the cabins behind the restaurant had been converted to employee housing when the restaurant had changed owners, and got on the list to eat there.

We got a table on the back patio sooner than expected given how busy they were, and the food was actually amazing. Great portion sizes. I had the “Plato El Jefe” (Boss’s Favorites), including a chile relleno, an enchilada, and a rare asada steak. Mama had an enormous taco salad. We split a quesadilla as an appetizer. Mama actually had a house margarita on the rocks since we weren’t driving. I tasted it. It was perfect.

As we walked back to the hotel into the setting sun, trying and failing to get pictures of the lodge because of the backlight, we could here the distant pops of fireworks getting started. Later on, in our room, with the sun fully set, we retired to our private balcony to see what fireworks we could see. (I also had to finish my last Huckleberry Blonde Ale and the last of my huckleberry pie.) We ended up staying up until 11pm with all the light and noise out there.

But that wasn’t going to prevent me from getting back on the trail as early as possible the next morning.

Miles hiked: 0.6 (it totally counts!)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day 53: Lake Macdonald

We didn’t really have to hurry to get out of the West Glacier RV Park. We only had a few miles to go to our next destination and could fill the hours between as we liked. Since I stayed up late, I slept as late as my body would let me, then cooked one of our microwave breakfast sandwiches and had a bagel and yogurt and fruit and coffee for breakfast.

Finally, just about checkout time at 11, we were packed up and ready to go. The first stop was the Mercantile for some butter. Or rather vegetable oil spread because I wanted it to be easily spreadable.

Then we stopped at the Backcountry Permit Office to discuss the trail conditions and the finer points of acquiring a backcountry permit the following morning. We also watched the required 15 minute video while we were there. We decided that a very early start the following morning to get into the office first would be called for.

Then we decided to go west out of Apgar and see what was that way. We stopped and ate ate the turkey sandwiches I had made at Fish Creek Picnic Area. While we were there, we had plenty of cell service, so we watched a docuvertisement about the “famous” Polebridge Mercantile. We decided we might as well go see it.

It was 30 miles up a dirt road just outside the park’s west side, and there it was, a cleared flat dirt lot filled with cars. And even just outside the door of the merc it smelled like sweet and cinnamon baked goods. I bought a loaf of fruit fritter, Mama got an apple danish, and they threw in a day-old pizza rollie.

We asked about the gas they had. They said 6.50/gal, 3 gal max. We decided we had enough to get back to West Glacier.

On the way back, we stopped at a restaurant and bar that was not nearly as popular as the merc. We decided to pass on eating there. I certainly wasn’t hungry.

We stopped at the Glacier sign on the way back in for a picture, then at the gas station in West Glacier before heading out to check into Lake Macdonald Lodge. Because we checked in fairly early, we got one of the better rooms on the second floor. No lake view, but a big window and a fan to put in it.

After we had brought in what we were going to bring in, I spent a couple of hours in the lobby trying to get some pictures uploaded for you readers. I was interrupted because Mama was hungry so we went down to the lake to eat supper. Then I left to continue my blogging project and even get a nice tepid shower to cool off before we returned to the lakeside to try to watch sunset. But there were clouds completely obscuring the sun and there wasn’t much to see.

And, given that I was going to have to get up really early in the morning, I got to bed as soon as I could after that. It was still hot in the room but the temperature was starting to drop and the fans helped. I’m sure I was asleep before 11.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day 54: Rising Sun

My alarm went off at 4am and I started getting up and getting dressed and was ready to leave by 4:30. Destination? Backcountry Permit Office in Apgar Village. Mama dropped me off there just before 5 and I was the first in line.

What followed was three hours of sitting on the ground hoping my itinerary would be possible. At first there was enough wireless data that I could watch TV shows, but then more people showed up making meaning I couldn’t make so much sound. (I had left my headphones in the room on accident.) Then the whole village started waking up and the data speeds just evaporated.

Finally, I got inside and there was a mad rush all over the park as 8 group leaders in four locations were all putting together permits at the same time. The rangers were pretty surly compared to how friendly they had been the day before. My itinerary was almost finished being plugged in when the last day didn’t work out. And then a ranger suggested putting me on a permit that was being made at another location. It got me to most of the places I wanted to be on the days I wanted to be there. The only downsides were a very long day later in the week and the fact I would have to pay for a night I had no intention of using. I took it because it seemed likely to free up sites for other people and they said there was no problem adding Jacob to it.

I was done by 8:20 but no one else there was going past the lodge so I walked over to the visitor’s center while calling Mama at the lodge to come get me. She picked me up there and brought me back to the lodge, at which point we had a leisurely rest of the morning, not leaving until checkout time at 11. I had what amounted to a McDonald’s breakfast meal with sausage egg McMuffin and some wifi time in the lobby. Finally, we set out to drive the whole Going-To-The-Sun Road.

We stopped a few times along the way so that we took all day to finish it. We walked the Trail of the Cedars (a mile of hiking!), climbed up to a waterfall near the Weeping Wall, wandered around the Logan Pass Visitor’s Center, checked out the CDT crossing, had lunch overlooking St. Mary Lake, hiked out to Sun Point (separately–I also literally ran over to Baring Falls while Mama was at Sun Point), and got the famous photo overlooking Wild Goose Island before we made it to the Rising Sun Motor Lodge.

We checked into our cabin, put all our food inside, then left again immediately to check out the restaurants in St. Mary town.

We stopped at Johnson’s and heard it had an hour wait. We went up the road and everything else seemed closed, so we came back and signed in on the wait list. We were one of the last few seated and one of the last to leave after it closed. I had a huge spinach salad with chicken and huckleberry cream fizz, and Mama got the special, which turned out to be beef sliced and drenched in gravy with sides of bread, decent mashed potatoes and undesirable cole slaw, most of which she gave me. She also ordered huckleberry ice cream and ate most of it because I couldn’t find anything special about it.

And with that we returned to the cabin, opened the window and stuck the fan in front of it, and went straight to bed. Another early morning awaited.

Miles hiked: probably like 2

Trail miles: 0.1 to be hiked again verbatim

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day 49: Weed to Boise

Mama and I didn’t leave the country club until 9am. It was already blisteringly hot and we were glad to be able to crank the air conditioning in the Jeep up to full blast. Especially me, since the sun was on my side all day.

We stopped for some amazing breakfast sandwiches an hour or so later in Klamath Falls, just over the Oregon border. There was a huge car show taking over the streets of that town, but we didn’t have to park too far away.

We played brain games to stay focused, snacked and drank, and soon came by Lake Abert, another salt lake with no outflow suffering the same fate as the Great Salt Lake: drying up and taking billions of brine shrimp to their muddy graves. But as of right now, Abert is basically gone. We saw cows grazing where it used to be.

We stopped for lunch at a Subway in Hines. Nothing special. It was an 8 hour trip and we didn’t want to waste a lot of time along the way. And we managed to get into Boise before it got dark. So no sooner had we checked in to our hotel than we were driving out to the local Noodles and More, a chain fast casual restaurant we don’t have in Georgia. Still nothing special but I was down for some Korean noodles.

And then it was time for some late night chores. First, Winco Foods to buy a month’s worth of food for the trail. There was some drama checking out due to not having enough cash, but we just scraped enough together to get everything and get out with the help of an ATM and the right credit card.

Then to Walmart to get boxes to pack the food into, even though I was practically a dead man walking at this point. Then I brought every bit of that food and all the boxes up to the room before I could go to bed. But Mama didn’t want to have any chores left to do in the morning.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day 50: Boise to Butte

I got up and got breakfast first. I had just come from waking up at 6am with the sun, so sleeping past 7 was pretty difficult, even with the time change.

But I let Mama sleep and started packing boxes with all the food I had brought up to the room. I packed two boxes ready for their destinations and organized the rest of the food to pack later so we could get driving. We had another big day ahead.

First, I needed to visit REI for some bear spray, bug spray, and some new gloves in a better size. We wouldn’t be stopping in any REI towns ahead. Then we could head out of town.

We were only a couple of hours in when we stopped at an everything store for fishermen in Picabo. I got a sandwich there and a huckleberry soda for lunch. We also got gas.

Soon, we were driving past the Great Rift and the lava flows of Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was basically El Malpais again except bigger. There could not be two more similar national parks.

Another couple of hours across the prairie, we turned down a detour to Leadore (pronunced “lead ore”). It was an hour out of the way, but Sam at the Inn was super helpful, took my resupply box, and said he did shuttles from and to the trail. Seems like that’ll be an easy stop.

I thought we could cut across the mountains here to get to the highway we wanted to be on, but Waze said going back the way we came and cutting across below the mountain range was faster.

Which is why it was already late evening when we finally made it around to Lima. I dropped my resupply box at the motel no problem and suggested getting supper at the diner across the street. But some cyclists leaving said we ought to head down to Peat’s Saloon for steaks instead.

Boy, were they right. Steak cooked to perfection, salad, and baked potatoes. And some good local beers too. Mama thinks are the best she’s had anywhere but Ruth’s Chris. We also got some entertainment: a girl trying to pull off a aerial right next to our table and eventually succeeding to uproarious applause from the whole restaurant.

Finally, we had to get to Butte as the sun disappeared. We still had some lingering twilight as we pulled into the hotel. There were several different locations where fireworks were going off even though they were supposed to stop at 10. Butte is the only city in MT where fireworks can be bought and used for more than a week leading up to July 4.

Again, I carried all my food and boxes up to the room, but this time we had been given a family suite. I had a room with bunk beds and stuffed chair bags to myself. But sleep was the top priority. And also lots of internet videos to keep me awake in spite of myself. Dang akrasia!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day 51: Butte to Darby

I got up first and went to breakfast first, despite not getting to sleep until the wee hours. This hotel had a hot bar for breakfast with an actual server to plate the food for you! How hard is it to start hiking again when you’re getting this spoiled?

I spent the rest of the morning packing up the rest of my boxes and my bear can. We didn’t have nearly as far to drive, so we opted for a late checkout. It was past 1pm by the time we were out of the room.

Our first stop was the post office a mile away. I needed a box of the right size to ship to Benchmark Guest Ranch. And I needed a stamped envelope in which to send them a money order, which I also needed, to pay for them to handle the box. While we were there, we called about getting me a new debit card to replace my expired one. And they explained that I could withdraw money directly from my PayPal account at a Walmart.

So our second stop was a nearby Walmart, which I left with a boatload of cash. Finally, we could leave the city.

The route sent us back down the highway to turn west into the canyon of the Big Hole River, which we followed west for many miles past ranch after ranch after tiny fishing village until we reached the Continental Divide. After we inadvertently crossed the CDT, we turned around at the next intersection and came back up to the hill to take pictures at the trailhead.

Back down at the intersection with highway 93, which would eventually carry us nearly to the outskirts of Glacier NP, we were also at the ID/MT border, where we needed pictures of the signs.

Then it was just a half hour to Sula Country Store, where I needed to drop another resupply. Unfortunately, it closed at 5 on Mondays and it was 5:30. The lady at the door with the key refused to take the box inside, even though the conversation in which she repeatedly refused took longer than running the box in would, but okay. It was fine, since our lodgings for the evening were only 20 minutes away. We could just come back in the morning.

Speaking of the lodging, what we had was a two-room apartment on the back of Hannon House, one of the oldest houses in Darby. The operator gave us a tour of the entire property before giving us a recommendation for dinner and me a huge bag of snacks. Thanks, Jason!

So, after dropping our things in the room, we were off again to Little Blue Joint. The place didn’t have the fastest or most attentive service, but it sure had good food. Mama had a salad and I had a “small” pizza that I could only finish half of. I also sampled a couple of beers. One was decent, though not as good as the ones at Peat’s or Mt. Shasta Brewing.

By the time we got back to the House (with a brief and possibly unmannerly stop at the ranch from the TV show “Yellowstone” for pictures since it involved blocking their driveway), I was too sleepy to go sit by the river or get in the hot tub. I just went to bed, watched some videos and stuff until I fell asleep.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day 52: Darby to West Glacier

There was actually a little bit of hiking on this day, which is why I can get away with posting this account of a road trip on this hiking blog!

So despite my best effort to get going this morning, we didn’t make it out of the room until nearly checkout time at 11. There was leftover pizza breakfast and a shower to do. There was even a coffee maker and Mama ran it for me. Still, I did manage to sleep in a bit longer than usual, and I definitely needed the sleep.

The first goal of the day was to drop my box at Sula Country Store. No problem. Walked right in and left my box, and even got a giant peanut butter cookie to go.

The second task was to drive up into the hills to do some trail magic, though we did immediately turn back for gas upon seeing the time it would take. We didn’t end up needing it because it wasn’t that far, but you can never be too prepared when driving into the wilderness.

It took less than an hour to drive up the dirt road into the mountains to the seekrit location where I intended to hatch my dastardly plan. I loaded four boxes of soda into my pack and hiked them nearly a mile down the trail to a small creek, then poured all the cans into the creek. Some of them were trying to float into a different part of the stream so I built a small fence out of some rocks and a branch to restrain them. It may not hold them back if there’s a big rain, but they’ll just float down to a slightly deeper part of the stream and sink, so they should still be there when I hike to that point. I also taped a laminated sign to a tree hanging over the creek saying hikers needed to pack out the cans if they took one. Trail magic achieved.

The way out was all uphill but my pack was much lighter. Even so, it was nearly 1pm, so it was already brutally hot out. I was pouring sweat by the time I reached the Jeep again. Then it was another most of an hour back to the highway again and on our way north.

We went back through Darby and another little while on popcorn and snacks, but stopped in the next major town north of that for lunch. This time it was Mama’s choice, a little cafeteria that served comfort food. She had basically a Thanksgiving dinner. I had a plain roast beef sandwich on white with mashed potatoes, everything drenched in gravy. That’s just how they do sandwiches there. If it weren’t for the jalapeño poppers on the menu, I’d be convinced they were specifically catering to people who like bland food.

We stopped again coming out of Missoula at a truck stop to see about grabbing some food to eat in the park since the restaurants would be closed (and also to clean the corpses of millions of bugs off the windshield while we got gas), but they told us there would be grocery stores in every town going north, so we stopped at one in St. Ignatius and got things like yogurt, bagels, bread, and a microwaveable dinner since we would have a microwave in our cabin that night.

We didn’t really stop again after that, even as we were driving past the immense Flathead Lake (the largest natural lake in Montana and the 30th largest lake in the US by area). We came into West Glacier by 6 or 7pm. We checked in and moved into our cabin before driving into the national park to see the visitor’s center and the backcountry permit office.

After dinner (and a failed attempt to get butter for my toast at the camp store), I ended up staying up until past midnight working on content for this blog and then watching videos. I didn’t need to be up early since I couldn’t get my backcountry permit until the day before I hiked out anyway, so why not?

Miles hiked: 1.6 (0.8 each way, to be hiked again verbatim when I make it back to the Bitterroots)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•