Wednesday July 17, 14.2mi/22.9km

Bowman Lake Head camp (40.9/4042ft) to Polebridge/North Fork Hostel (55.1/3527ft) (MT)

I heard noises outside my tent at 7am, so I was awake and decided to pack up. Turns out the noises were from a very non-shy rabbit!

I had a leisurely breakfast at the food area with a couple hiking the western side of the park. I rolled out after 8am, and had views of Bowman Lake for a couple of hours.

I reached the western end of the lake at 11am, and saw lots of families driving in to the area for a picnic lunch. The weather seemed like it was starting to clear.

I took a break at some picnic tables, had a snack, disposed of my trash, and filled my water for the 7-mile roadwalk to town.

Along the road, I saw this strange sign, which raised many questions. Like, why is there a public horse here? And why does it need a ramp? Are they stunt horses?!

A few miles later, I crossed over the North Fork Flathead River.

And a few minutes later, I was in “town”! It’s just a dozen buildings or so, but everything hikers need – a restaurant, general store, and hostel.

I met two other PNT hikers in town, Mesquite and Charger. This is their first long hike, and they were very entertaining to talk to, and so excited for the trail.

I went “shopping” from the hiker box, then went to the general store to grab a few more items. It rained intermittently throughout the afternoon, so I stayed in the hostel and had social time with the other guests. The entire town is off the electricity grid, so everyone went to bed at sunset (9:30pm), it feels like camping!

Tuesday July 16, 14.6mi/23.5km

Waterton River camp (26.3/4222ft) to Bowman Lake Head (40.9/4042ft) (MT)

I heard it rain briefly overnight, and when I packed up this morning, my tent was already dry! Gotta love the west. I left camp at 8am, and spent all morning slowly climbing up towards Brown’s Pass.

The clouds were shifting around the high summits, which was really neat.

There always seems to be an alpine lake just below the pass. I was hot from the climb up, and thought about swimming. I got in as far as my feet, it was probably only 35F/2C.

At the top of the pass, I found a huge field of wildflowers…

… And a furry friend. He seemed to big to be a pika, and too small for a marmot.

Looking ahead from the pass, down the next valley.

The descent from the pass was quick, probably only two hours. All along the way, there were snowmelt waterfalls. I named it TLC valley, who doesn’t love a 90s reference?

I arrived to camp early, at 2:30pm. These days are short, since the permits in Glacier Park are difficult to get, and I had to take what was available. The campsite by Bowman Lake was nice though!

I read from one of my e-books (“2600 Miles to Home”) for a couple of hours, made an early dinner, and went to bed early. Tomorrow is a town day!

Monday, July 15, 13.6mi/21.9km

Glenn’s Lake Head camp (12.7/4865ft) to Waterton River camp (26.3/4222ft) (MT)

I slept in very late, finally packing up my tent at 9:30am. Good thing it’s a short day today! I met two of the other campers at the site, packing up their stuff too. They are hiking the CDT southbound, and also had a short day planned. Firecat & Hannibal had already hiked the AT, so this trail should feel easy.

The hike up Stoney Indian Pass was beautiful, and the trail was nicely switchbacked and easy climbing.

Looking behind me, down on Atsina Lake:

Looking ahead, at Stoney Indian Lake:

The trail actually weaves around the northern shore of SI lake, just inches above the water level.

The rest of the afternoon I spent descending to Waterton Valley, and then another couple hours hiking in the valley. I met a ranger in the valley, she checked my permit, and we discussed our future hiking plans. Turns out she had hiked the PCT in 2015, starting a week after me! Somehow Suds and I had never met on that trail, but what a fun coincidence to meet now!

I crossed the Waterton River on another fun swingbridge, and arrived to camp shortly after. I setup my tent, then went to the “kitchen” area to socialize.

I met Iceman, who is hiking the CDT southbound (already did the Arizona Trail, and Grand Enchantment Trail). I also met a couple of nice gentlemen from Calgary (Canada), and a young woman from the SF Bay area. I retired to my tent at 9pm, even though it was hot in there with the sun shining on it. The late sunsets here are crazy!

Sunday July 14, 12.7mi/20.4km

Chief Mountain Trailhead (0.0/5325ft) to Glenn’s Lake Head camp (12.7/4865ft) (MT)

I woke up early, and got a ride from the hostel at 6:30am to the Two Medicine Ranger station. Turtleman is a former AT thru-hiker, and he now lives in East Glacier and gives rides to hikers. I arrived at the Ranger station before 7am, and got in line. The backcountry camping permits are popular, but it turned out fine. I got a permit for a longer first day (12+ miles), and a normal second and third day (14-ish miles). I hitched a ride back to town, and took a nap at the hostel until 11am (checkout time).

After my nap, I walked down to the general store for lunch. I ordered a pizza, and did my resupply food shopping. I noticed that beer sales are prohibited this weekend, this happened last time I was here too!

I lounged around the town after lunch, since my ride to the trailhead didn’t leave until 5pm. I checked out the East Glacier Lodge, it’s huge inside!

I met TurtleMan at 5pm, and we made the hour-long drive to the trailhead. We had a fun conversation about all things hiking, and even about the Te Araroa in New Zealand. Along the way, it even felt like NZ, with several cows standing in the road.

We drove by Chief Mountain, which is sacred to the Blackfeet tribe, so I don’t think it’s climbed.

I got my traditional starting photo at the US/Canada border, and then I was off into the woods!

The trails here are so much nicer than back east. It was fun to cruise at 3.5+miles per hour!

And the views definitely don’t suck, either.

I enjoyed crossing the Belly River, it had a long swingbridge. So fun!

The views just kept coming.

It took me until 10pm to hike the 12+miles to camp, since I started after 6pm. But it’s daylight out until 10pm too, so all was good! I passed a group of three guys in the fading daylight, and one of them recognized me! “Hey, I think I met you on the Dart-Rees Track, coming out of Glenorchy”. (New Zealand). Holy cow! After my initial stunned reaction, I confirmed to him that he was right. I recognized him too, and Chris and I chatted for a minute before I took off down the trail. Small world.

Tuesday July 9 – Saturday July 13

Let the week of travel begin! I got my 6:30am bus, and it was pretty empty, so I was able to sprawl out and sleep for most of the 6 hour ride to Amsterdam NY.

I arrived at 12:30pm, and it was HOT. Like 90F/32C. I walked the half mile to my grandma’s house, and enjoyed some afternoon conversation in the air conditioning. Just a nice low key, relaxing day. The next day, we went to Cappie’s restaurant with my grandma, mom, and uncle. This place has seem to become a tradition!

Afterwards, we went to visit my aunt, who was part of my early hiking experiences, in the Adirondack Mountains in NY. I still remember that long hike up Mt Marcy, over 25 years ago!

I would’ve like to visit for longer, but it was getting late and it was a three hour drive to Ithaca. I think we arrived in Ithaca after 11pm, and I went to bed.

On Thursday, I was mostly unpacking/repacking gear, and getting stuff organized. For dinner, we went to a very nice restaurant called Mix, which had dozens of delicious small plates.

Friday was a travel day! I left at 10am with my parents, who are driving down to North Carolina for a vacation. We drove 6 hours to Dulles airport in Virginia, where we said our goodbyes. I got thru security surprisingly quickly, and had time for a meal and a milkshake!

I was flying to Minneapolis on Sun County air, and my row was empty! What a great surprise.

With the time zone difference, the plane landed at 7:45pm, and I made my way over to the Amtrak train station on public transit.

The train station was called Union Station, and was huuuge.

I had dinner at a local organic pizza restaurant, and then boarded my train at 10:30pm. The seats are big, and I spread out across a few of them to sleep thru the night. In the morning, I wandered over to the dining car for breakfast.

The food was pretty good, and only a little overpriced. The views were great!

The train made stops almost every hour, and I took a few stretch breaks to move my legs.

The train arrived an hour late, getting to East Glacier Park Village at 8pm. Yes, it’s very light out at 8pm, I think the sun sets at like 10:30pm.

I met up with a friend from the PCT, P-Squares! She is working in the Glacier Lodge, and we hung out and had some drinks. I had to get to my hostel by 10pm to check in, so it was a short but awesome visit!

Goodnight from Glacier National Park!

Sunday July 7 & Monday July 8

I was busy on Sunday, unpacking and doing laundry and cleaning my gear. I stayed with friends Alice and Nick, and their apartment is dangerously close to Christina’s Ice Cream… so I may have made a few trips there during the day!

I also did some advance food shopping, as some of the towns on the PNT don’t have any grocery stores. There was a trip to Costco, and it’s amazing the quantity of cheap junk food they have.

On Monday, I packed all the food into four boxes, and mailed it to Montana and Washington. After my chores, I got together with some friends who couldn’t make it up to Maine. It was a beautiful day for a beer garden!

It was so great to see all my awesome friends again! Sadly I couldn’t stay as long as I wanted, since I had booked a 6:30am bus the next morning. Tomorrow, the traveling begins!

Saturday July 6, 0mi/0km

We were all pretty sore and beat up from the hike up Katahdin, so today was a paddling day! We walked over to Daicey Pond, and rented canoes from the ranger station.

There were even loons swimming near us. What a great final day in Maine!

Around noon, the sky started to get dark and cloudy… time to leave the water.

We returned the canoes and left Baxter Park, driving the 45 minutes to the town of Millinocket. As tradition dictated, we went to the AT Cafe for a celebratory meal.

Another tradition is for thru-hikers to sign a ceiling tile upon finishing the trail. Done!

After a wonderful sandwich and milkshakes, we hit the road at 3pm, and began the 5+ hour drive back to Boston. It was slow going with all the heavy rain and thunderstorms, props to Cailigh for doing all the driving!

The next few days won’t have regular blog updates, as I get cleaned up from the AT, and ready for the next trail, and then travel west!

Thursday July 4, 0mi/0km

I slept in, knowing my friends had a long drive from Boston and wouldn’t arrive until 1pm. Toni, Katie, and Sarah arrived first, and set up camp in our site #21. Lilly & Chris arrived a little while later.

Alice, Nick, Cailigh, Alexa, Kalmia, and Victor arrived also, and setup on a nearby campsite. All 12 of us were here! It was hot, so we went for a swim in a nearby river.

After a couple of hours in the river, we returned to camp and had dinner, and did some colorful sparklers for the July 4th holiday!

Friday July 5, 10.4mi/16.7km

Katahdin Stream campground (2186.8) to Mt. Katahdin summit (2192.0) (ME) + 5.2mi return hike to camp

We all left camp at 7:30am (Kalmia and Victor started earlier), After a mile, we took a quick break near a stream (and a privy!)

The trail gradually started climbing up and up, and it was very humid and sweaty. But all smiles on a beautiful blue sky day!

As we got higher, the trees disappeared and there were amazing views.

Looking up the Hunt ridge trail:

Looking back down from where we came:

The walk along the table lands was pretty amazing.

The last white blaze on the trail!

We got to the summit at 11am, and took many photos of the finish, including the classic Katahdin sign pose.

And since this is the completion of my “Triple Crown” – hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (2015), Continental Divide Trail (2016), and Appalachian Trail – I had to do a photo with three crowns!

The summit was pretty crowded, but there were also some beautiful views.

Looking down on Chimney Pond:

Cailigh, Kalmia, and Victor arrived half an hour later, and we took more photos!

The summit of Katahdin has a benchmark and a Plaque. It 5,267ft/1605m high, and it was a surprisingly exhausting climb for being only a moderately high mountain.

The view of the Knife Edge, an alternative descent route, was an intimidating sight.

Most of the group hiked out to the Knife edge a little ways, but I stayed on the summit and took a nap! I got a little sunburned… oops. At 1:30pm, we started down back to camp. It was an uneventful hike, and by the end we were very tired, but excited to be done hiking!

We arrived back to camp at 5:30pm, and we ate all the foods – sausages, potatoes, mac& cheese, salad, beer, and brownies! What a great way to finish a long trail, surrounded by friends and food!

Wednesday July 3, 9.9mi/15.9km

Abol Bridge (2176.9) to Katahdin Stream campground (2186.8) (ME)

I slept in, and wandered into the kitchen around 7am, and had a very energizing breakfast.

I spent a few hours doing planning for my next hike (which I figured out I will start on July 14th), and then walked to the other side of town to hitch a ride back to Abol Bridge. Three hitches later, including riding in the back of a truck, and I was there!

Abol Bridge is basically just a campground and store.

I crossed the bridge over the Penobscot River, and got a great view of Katahdin!

A few minutes later, I crossed into Baxter State Park. They make it very obvious when you enter… and post all the rules too.

I walked along the Penobscot river for an hour, and the sound of rushing water was a nice distraction. There were many people out tubing and kayaking too.

Then the trail climbed up a small hill, along a different smaller river. But still plenty powerful!

It had a couple of waterfalls, Big Niagara falls, and little Niagara falls. Not tall, but super powerful.

Little Niagara falls :

Then the trail entered the woods, and everything was super mossy and green.

And finally, I walked by Daicey Pond, which is a popular place to camp and canoe.

I arrived to Katahdin Stream campground at 5pm, and some hikers that I had hiked with a few days in the Hundred Mile wilderness, Wow and Lightfoot, invited me over to their campsite! It was a fun last gathering together.

After I setup my tent, I walked over to the ranger station. Tim was the ranger, and gave me a Thru-hiker permit card for the summit. And he allows hikers to borrow a free loaner daypack for the summit hike!

I went back to the campsite, made dinner, and enjoyed one last night with my fellow hikertrash. They are summiting Katahdin tomorrow, I will go up on Friday with a group of friends from Boston!

Tuesday July 2, 11.4mi/18.3km

Rainbow Spring campsite (2165.5) to Abol Bridge (2176.9) (ME)

I got moving later than usual, knowing it was a short 4-5 hour hike into “town”. It was another beautiful sunny morning, and the trail was flat for the first 5mi/8km.

I walked along Rainbow lake for a couple of hours, and every once in awhile the trail would get close enough to the water to walk out and have a view.

I started the climb up to Rainbow Ledges, and for some reason someone left an entire bag of food on the side of the trail… like three days’ worth. And good stuff too!

I didn’t take anything, in case someone was caching food in the woods. But they better get here quickly, the rodents will eat thru the bags!

The climb up was uneventful, except for this funny sign.

And it even had some sections of really good trail, like PCT-quality. The tread was built up with gravel and dirt, and super dry and smooth!

The top of Rainbow Ledges had nice views.

Thunder started rumbling, I definitely wouldnt want to be up on Katahdin today!

I was a half mile from the road, and it started hailing… hard. I took a video, its hard to see, but shows little ice balls bouncing off the ground.

Hailstorm video

As I was walking the road, a nice woman offered me a ride to town! I got a cool Katahdin photo from the car.

She works at the AT Cafe in Millinocket, and even though it was her day off, we drove there and had lunch. And a milkshake!

The Cafe is a cool place, and has AT memorabilia all over.

All the past AT finishers have signed a ceiling tile somewhere here… neat!

I’ll be back here in a couple of days after I finish, to eat and sign a ceiling tile, of course!

Afterwards I went to the AT lodge hostel, got a shower and laundry, and took a nap. More hikers came in later, and we discussed all our future plans. I ended up giving an impromptu presentation on hiking the PCT, since it was on almost everyone’s to-do list. What a random night!