As always, Murphy loves to throw a wrench into plans. The driver that I paid to be there a month ago was not, with the excuse of car trouble. I called another person who was there on the spot, and was cheaper. I ended up splitting the fare with Rally, a German thru hiker who thru’d the PCT in 2018. When I mentioned my crazy plan to do the whole section in a day, he laughed and promptly went to Many Glacier instead to get his permit. Perhaps I should have followed him, but I have this thing for starting at the border.
Made it to the border by 1400, took a pic, flipped off Canada, and took off. 9 miles of cruising BEAUTIFUL trail. Then Red Gap Pass happened. Since it’s not on the Red route, the elevation chart doesn’t show on FarOut. Red Gap Pass is a Sierra style mountain with switchbacks all the way up, all visible and very exposed. There were snow patches on the ascent, but nothing too crazy. The descent however was a different story. As I was coming down the steep switchbacks I hit a field of snow that covered the remaining trail down. I had to traverse at a left, downward angle for over a mile. Part of it was a straight slide down a field of recently exposed, rotted grass. I got to practice glissading in mud. I quickly realized that getting down was going to take hours. After getting down I was confronted with an additional unexpected 1,500 foot climb before gradually making my way down to Many Glacier Ranger Station this morning at 0530. I was told I needed to wait in line EARLY to get a permit. Turns out the next pass is socked in with very dangerous traverses. The snow pack is thick and mushy. An older Ranger had flown reconnaissance the day before and reported to me that I made the right choice. I decided to forgo the permit, and I’m currently 12 miles into a 55 or 60 mile road walk to get me back to East Glacier where I will resupply. I did see one bear yesterday, luckily he was more scared of me than I of him and he bolted before I could get my spray out. Awesome views, pretty flowers, and abundant wildlife/mosquitoes to finish the mix.
The CDT be is a choose your own adventure type of trail with multiple ways to get to Mexico. The one stipulation is that it must be within a 50 mile corridor of the official CDT route. I have multiple routes in mind for different sections. Some have better water access or better views. I will post my route as it develops.
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