Bears and ER

The first 95 miles of the PNT

The Pacific Northwest Trail has been a beautiful and wild ride so far. My spouse Shane brought us to Glacier and we all spent some time together in the beautiful park. We saw a fox carrying it’s prey and shortly thereafter watched a beaver moving one of its pups. All of that before we even hit the trail. On June 25, it was time to say goodbye and Shane deposited us at the Chief Mountain Trailhead to begin our 1200 mile hike.

Glacier

The first 55 miles of the trail takes us across Glacier National Park. We kept ourselves to about 10 miles a day as we built up our strength. We had to do some last minute reworking of our permits because the campsite we planned to use for the second night was closed due to recent bear activity. The rangers kindly allowed us to use a site that was technically in winter status instead.

The park is really well set up for bear safety. The first thing to do when getting to camp is to remove all food and hygiene products from your pack and hang them at the bear pole or put them in the bear box. Then you can go and set up your camp, coming back to the food area later when it’s time to eat. The only down side to the camps for me was that the latrines were pretty far away and they do ask you to always use them even when you get up to pee in the middle of the night, as apparently urine attracts grizzlies. Not the easiest trek for this middle-aged woman with a weak bladder!

Our first morning out, Jessica wandered down to the lake and saw a moose splashing around in the water. By the time I went down it was gone.

The next day was Stoney Indian Pass, which we were a little nervous about. We’d heard conflicting reports about the amount of snow up there. When fellow hike Wings offered to walk with us up the pass, we gladly accepted, since he seemed to have more experience with snow at elevation than we did. We had decided to go ahead and carry the weight of ice axes and microspikes to be on the safe side, but it turned out to not be necessary.

The next day came our first grizzly sighting, pretty close to the trail. We unholstered our bear spray just in case as we continued to walk by talking and making noise, but the bear was happy to leave us be. That night we camped at the stunning Lake Francis, where we saw what we think was a juvenile bald eagle scoop a trout out of the water.

We only saw a few other hikers, all very nice people and all blowing by us with high mileage days. We think we are still ahead of most PNT hikers and the ones who are coming through now are probably the most fit.

Polebridge

The first resupply was the small off-grid community of Polebridge, where we took a day off, staying at the wonderful hostel. We had some packages waiting for us, and it turned out to be good that we had sent them extra early because mail only comes twice a week. Our packages had just arrived.

We were surprised to see Wings at the hostel. He had taken a fall and hurt his hand pretty badly. It was still looking puffy, but he’d had it x-rayed and it was apparently not broken so he was planning to head out again the next day.

Before we packed up, Jessica asked me to look at her toe. It had some kind of cut on it that she’d been keeping clean as she good. The wound looked good, but the toe was a bit swollen. Jessica asked if it looked infected. I thought maybe a little bit, but it wasn’t red and I suggested that if she could, we just keep walking and keep an eye on it. We planned to take the next stretch at about 12 miles a day, still easing in.

Heading to Eureka

The first day out from Polebridge, we felt pretty good in spite of 90 degree heat and decided to push 18 miles to Red Meadow Lake campground. We were pretty beat by the time we arrived, but the campsite was perhaps my favorite so far. One lone loon toured the lake in the evening and in the morning some mergansers clucked at us in annoyance. Who can blame them?

We only thought the first day out of Polebridge was hard. That morning, we left Red Meadow with a mile push up to a stream to get enough water to last us the next 14 miles through the heat. Our packs now even heavier than before, we began a hefty climb to the Whitefish Divide. I love being on a divide, with 360 degree views, but by noon we had only done about 6 miles and already felt like we’d put in a full day.

We knew we had two major ascents, but it turns out we’d read the maps wrong and missed the fact that in between the two there was another ascent that was even more arduous—the kind that involves a lot of up and down in a generally upward direction.

Somewhere in the late morning, Jessica took a major tumble and as I watched her go down I thought “well, this is it.” I was sure her ankle would be badly sprained at best. She went down on her pack and bounced a couple of times before she came to rest. After a mere moment she rolled over with a shit-eating grin. “I bounced on my pack!” I asked about her ankle and she replied it was fine. Then she held up her pole, now bent to about 45 degrees. “It took the brunt,” she assured me as she got to her feet uninjured.

At one point, we saw a trail going straight up the next mountain and, certain that was a side trail to the summit that we were bypassing, we remarked how crazy you’d have to be to take that trail. The joke was on us. That was our trail.

Heading up the mountains, I was very very slow, and Jessica was utterly patient. Only after we saw our second grizzly did she start to suggest it would be good for me to pick up the pace. She had heard a woof not long after we got up from a break and we began talking loudly as we hiked. Another few minutes passed and she heard it again, as small grizzly sprinted away. We again unholstered our spray and kept talking and walking.

From there we headed more or less straight up Mt. Locke, which was totally burned over. We had to clamber over a number of snags and the trail was hard to find at times, so much so that we did end up taking the side trail to the summit of that mountain and had to backtrack to get back on the PNT. If Jessica had asked if I’d like to summit I’d have said no, but I was glad we did. It was a wonderful view.

The final few mile brought us out of the burned over land and instead into an area where trees had fallen more recently due to an ice storm. These green small trees were more difficult to pass through than the older and usually bigger trees with limbs that could easily be broken. We thought we’d never make it camp at Blue Sky Creek. When we did, we were almost too exhausted to eat, but forced in some food before making camp and hitting the hay.

The next morning Jessica told me her toe she had asked me about in Polebridge now had a red streak running up from it into the foot. I eventually roused myself and went over to look. “We need to get you out.” I said. She used her Garmin to text Shane, who in turn went on facebook to see if a trail angel could meet us at junction with a forsest service road. Incredibly, the amazing trail angels Kurt and Eve set out more or less immediately. Before we even got to the road, they were hiking up to meet us. These extraordinary people are experienced wilderness guides with a vast knowledge of the flora, fauna, and geology.

Unfortunately this was the 4th of July and the clinic in Eureka was closed. Our trail angels earned their wings for sure when they drove us more than 100 miles round trip to Whitefish so Jessica could get into the ER. There, Jessica was able to get some aggressive antibiotics and orders to stay off her feet for a week if possible. We are taking four days and hoping by then it will be good enough to start again.

Gear Corner

For those who are curious about gear, I’ll try to include a few notes in each post about our gear. Jessica is using a Zpack tent, the soloplex. I’m using my trusty old Big Agnes Fly Creek single person tent. Mine is much heavier (about 3 pounds I think), but requires less staking and more importantly doesn’t usually have any issues with condenesation. Jessica’s tent if extremely light (about a pound I think), but as a single wall tent does get lots of condensation. I think we are both pretty happy with our choices.

Next Steps

Once we leave Eureka, we plan to make our way to Feist Creek Resort, where we’ll meet our friend Scott for some resupply and companionship. Not sure what our ability to get online will be, but hopefully can make another update then. Until then, thanks for all the love!

Next post

Previous post