CDT Days 134 – 135 – The finish!

These three days included our final miles to Canada! We completed the CDT! We hiked an unbroken footpath between Mexico and Canada. We followed the official trail the entire way except where it was legally closed due to fires, in which case we walked the Forest Service’s recommended detour routes.

Day 134 – Mile 2953.1 – Glacier climbs and Glacier views

This morning when we woke up the rain had stopped but everything was wet. We went to the food prep area and made coffee + breakfast. Probably because of the dampness, we were very slow, but we had a nice time chatting with Moose and Flounder. We finally left camp at 8am and immediately started climbing. The scenery was outstanding! We climbed 3,000 feet before we descended again. At the bottom we saw a moose that I confused for a horse… Renee teased me for that! The moose was standing right near a horse-hitching post and wasn’t the least bit afraid of us though, so I think the mix-up is excusable. Then we hiked through a populated part of Glacier’s front country (the Many Glacier region) and saw a ton of people out in the park. It was nice to see so many people are enjoying our national parks! Several folks we hiked past asked where we were headed and then congratulated us when they learned we were about to finish such a long hike. That was nice of them. In the evening we had another huge climb and then the trail followed a ridge with expansive views of mountains and glaciers all around us. Did we write previously that Glacier is pretty? We saw mountain goats and bighorn sheep on the climb. Once we got to camp we cooked a nice dinner of curry rice. Yum! -T

Day 135 – Mile 2975.3 – CANADA!

We made it! We walked from Mexico to Canada! We woke up this morning with just 22 miles and one big climb between us and Canada. It was a cold morning, but it eventually warmed up. We made it to the Canadian border at 6 pm with Dirty Money. We celebrated with bubbly wine in cans. Entry into Canada via the backcountry is not allowed this year, so we had to turn around and walk back to a campsite 4 miles behind us in the USA. Tomorrow we’ll walk 22 more miles to the nearest road. When we got to the campsite we found Flounder and Moose having a campfire, which was fun. When we got into our tents for the night, it started raining. Perfect timing. -R

Hike Out of the Wilderness

This morning we woke up and had breakfast in our campsite with Dirty Money, Moose, and Flounder. Moose and Flounder headed off to do the final four miles to the border, and we headed west towards the Glacier National Park front country. We had just 22 miles to walk today to get to Bowman Lake Campground, where our friend Jen was planning to meet us with food, friendship, and fun. The hike felt long, but that’s probably because instead of hiking toward Canada, we were hiking away from it and back to civilization. We got to the campsite before Jen, and while we waited for her to arrive we met a nice lady camping in a site near us who gave us some chips and salsa. That was much appreciated because we had absolutely no food left! It was great when Jen arrived — we haven’t seen her since she visited us in Germany before Covid. We had a campfire and caught up. Jen also hiked a long trail this summer (the Tahoe Rim Trail), so we have a lot of stories to swap. Right next to our campsite there is a very clean outhouse with toilet paper and hand sanitizer dispenser. What a luxury! -T