Today is my first backpack hiking day. Let’s just start at the beginning of the day.
After a good night’s sleep, we once again wanted to be up for sunrise. I was able to get up 15 minutes before it and get out of the tent into the cold. Lara stayed in her warm sleeping bag. She had hoped (without communicating this desire to me) that I would open the rainfly so she could see it as well.
Anyway, once we got up, we slowly started dismantling camp. It took a while as the rainfly was wet from condensation from our breathing. We also packed our gear and realized that we have too much shit and not enough space.
Our hope was to leave camp by 9, we left at 9:15. We went to the ranger station for a quick weather update (and to grab enough WiFi to let everyone know when to hear from us again) and left by 9:30. We decided to have one last hot breakfast and stopped at Johnson’s Cafe. This place is awesome and everyone should go. The food was great, the ambiance fantastic, and the service was great (one of the waitresses gave a table a joking hard time for not coming in during the 10 previous days they had been in the area). The food was quick and we were back on the road before 10.
We got to Many Glacier and loaded up. We said goodbye to the car and headed up Ptarmigan trail at 11:10 (after a couple false starts). Our packs were definitely heavier than or practice run at Garnet.
The hike up the trail is steep, then not steep, then flat, then very steep. A 10.1 mile hike with 2500 ft ascent and 2500ft descent in total.
The views along the way are breathtaking. We took a ton of pictures (slowing us down). We stopped at Ptarmigan Lake (below the start of the switchbacks up to Ptarmigan tunnel – the high point of the hike) for lunch and met three other campers (a father and his daughters) that were doing the same back country loop as us. They seemed much better prepared for this than us.
After lunch, we began the climb up to the tunnel. This sucked. SO.MUCH.STEEPNESS. The views going up made it worth it, though. We eventually made it up to the top and to the tunnel. We took in one last look at the sights and then went through…
We emerged into a breath taking landscape. We think the Park should rename it, “Oh my” point as that seems to be what everyone says. We celebrated making it this far, took a break (and many pictures), and began the decent to the campsite.
The decent was a bit steeper than the ascent. The views were spectacular. The rock formations awesome. The wind was intense. We would have taken more pictures but we were running behind schedule. About half way down, my knee began to hurt; by the time we were done, it really hurt. As a result, at the moment, my right leg is stiff and doesn’t like flexing.
After our 11.5 mile (due to restarts and where we parked versus the trailhead), 7 and a half hour hike, I made dinner while Lara set up the tent. We ate, talked to some guys that are on day 4 of 5 days in the back country, and then went to the tent for the night.
While we left the food in the bear lockers at the food prep area, the top of my pack has a slight apple smell (from lunch) to it. I rubbed dirt in and on it to reduce the smell. We also placed some sweaty pants on top of it. Hopefully that deadens the smell enough. Either way, sleep will likely be light tonight. And, with the pain in the leg, it will likely be restless.
Tomorrow we head up Read Gap Pass to Poia Lake. It’s slightly more up (2700 ft ascent) but much less down (1815 ft descent).
Stats: 2 hikes, 21.1 miles, much leg pain, 0 bears (here’s hoping that stays 0)