Day: 146
Date: Sunday, 29 September 2024
Start: Reynolds Creek Campground
Finish: Many Glacier Campground
Daily Kilometres: 27.4
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 4177.3
Weather: Cold, windy and overcast with occasional light showers.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts/Muesli
Lunch: Protein bars/Trail mix
Dinner: Rehydrated meals
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - painful knee after a fall (see below).
Highlight: More spectacular mountain scenery on the climb to, and descent from, Piegan Pass (7574’). Although low cloud hid the tops of some of the jagged and sheer-sided mountains, most were still visible as were some glaciers and large snow patches.
Lowlight: The weather gods were not shining on us today. Sara, the Swiss CDT hiker who was in the same campsite as us last night, had said the weather forecast was for strengthening winds during the day and it would be a good idea to get over Piegan Pass as early as possible.
The wind did strengthen on the way up but, on the way down it was terrifying. Both of us were blown off our feet at various times, both sustaining knee injuries. Dave's looked worse, perhaps thanks to being on blood thinners, but Julie's seems more serious, slowing her down in the latter part of the day and she's now taking some anti-inflammatories.
If that wasn't enough, when we finally reached camp and were about to eat dinner, a mix of sleet and snow began to fall. It was miserable. Must be time to finish the trail.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were hiking, along with Rob, by 7am. However, thanks to the policy of the Glacier National Park (GNP) of removing some bridges for the winter, we first had to ford a very cold Reynolds Creek in our sandals before donning our boots/shoes.
The first half hour was spent climbing steadily up to where the trail crossed the Going to the Sun Road. Rob had left his car here and he switched to a day pack before joining us for the long climb up to Piegan Pass. The higher we went, the more the weather deteriorated, though it didn't seem to bother Rob, a Scot, who felt right at home. The views from above the treeline were fantastic and we could see many peaks and some glaciers beneath the forbidding skies.
At the Pass, Rob turned around for the walk back to his car and we continued on. Tomorrow, Rob will do a day hike of his own and then, very generously, meet us at the northern terminus of the CDT at the Chief Mountain border crossing into Canada, before driving us to Kalispell where we will pick up a hire car on Tuesday.
After farewelling Rob, we began our descent from the Pass which turned into a very slow, very stressful and, at times, terrifying journey. We knew the only way to get out of the diabolical wind was to descend below the treeline, but we had to go extremely slowly, sometimes sitting down to avoid being blown over. Fortunately, there were not very steep drop-offs so a fatal fall was unlikely, but the rocks were sharp and the slope significant so a fall was likely to result in injury, as happened to both of us.
Despite all this, we were still in awe of the wild scenery, witnessed in such wild conditions. Eventually, we did get into the trees, which was such a relief, though there were still sections exposed to the wind. To top it off for Dave, he slipped on a wet rock crossing a stream and ended up with himself and his pack partially in the water for some time before he was able to extract himself.
On our way down we met a southbound CDT thru-hiker who is attempting to hike all three long-distance trails - Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide - in one calendar year. That's a total distance of around 12000km (7500 miles). He has just three months to hike what has just taken us nearly five months!The lower we got, the safer the conditions and the last kilometres of the day were alongside two beautiful lakes, Josephine and Swiftcurrent. We reached our goal, the Many Glacier Campground, around 5pm in bleak conditions. Many Glacier is a tourist hub in GNP, but is now closed for the winter. The chalet, motel, cabins and store are all closed. An area had been set aside for CDT hikers in the vast campground which is empty, apart from the Swiss/Canadian couple and ourselves. The water has been switched off, so Julie had to collect some from the nearby Creek for dinner, and all the toilets are locked apart from one pit toilet. It's a forlorn place, especially with the wind howling and a mix of sleet and snow falling every now and then.
We are hoping conditions improve overnight as we are planning a very early start tomorrow for our last day on the trail.
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