Glacier National Park (July 7) - East Glacier to Old Man Lake

This is the trail heading southbound, not north. (Photo by Camo)

Camo and I had planned on getting a 7:30 am start from Brownies hostel in East Glacier and begin our northbound hike along the CDT and eventually end up at Chief Mountain 7 days later. We had 16-17 miles to do our first day, mostly uphill. 7:30 is an early start for us. It would give us plenty of time to reach our destination since the sun was setting around 9:30pm in Glacier.
"I'll set the alarm for 6:00am," Camo suggested.
"Sounds good." I replied.
We woke up on July 7th at 6:00am just as planned. We ate breakfast, and packed up our backpacks. It was then I remembered that I forgot to pack a lighter. Camo and I walked down the lodge and they were just opening the shops. I bought my lighter, no problem. We walked back to the hostel. Anticipating a long day ahead of us, I worried about already walking an extra half mile to start the morning. Thankfully, we were still able to leave the hostel at 7:30am. It was a beautiful sunny day in Glacier. We were right on schedule.

Our luck pretty much ran out after that. Camo received a hand drawn town map from the ranger with directions to the trail. Problem was, it did not tell us which trailhead was north and which was south. A couple minutes of examination and Camo and I would have easily figured it out. For some reason we both assumed and agreed which way we were supposed to go. My memory was fuzzy since the last time I had been here in 2013. The only thing I really remembered was that the trail was pretty rough until the moment we hit the park boundary, which would not be for a mile or two. We found the trailhead and began our hike. The trail cut through some swampy forest. The trail forked in several directions in places. We were a little confused, checked our GPS, but were still walking in a northbound direction with giant peaks right in front of us. We were talking and joking. 45 minutes had passed, the trail was still in rough condition. Something didn't feel right though. I checked my GPS again.  We appeared to be off track, even though we were still facing north. I checked my maps and had the same feeling. Leaving East Glacier, the northbound and southbound trails practically run parallel from each other a ways. One is just a little further north than the other. We appeared to be on the southbound trail. Camo checked his GPS and confirmed the same thing. It was then that we pulled out the hand drawn map the ranger gave us and confirmed that we had started down the southbound trail instead of the northbound trail. Dammit! We had just added another 2 miles to our day. We had to turn around and head back to East Glacier.

Once we arrived in East Glacier I made another painful discovery. My camera had fallen out of my pocket and was lying along the southbound trail somewhere. We could not go back and look for it. There were too many miles ahead of us to reach our destination for the day. We didn't reach the northbound trailhead until 9:30 in the morning.

"We are like total newbs out here right now," Camo commented.
I had to agree.

Things calmed down once we started heading north. The trail took us to the east of massive peaks to the west and we slowly started climbing. The air was crisp, the sky bright blue, wild flowers blooming everywhere. It was a perfect day to be hiking. Problem was however, Camo and I were feeling the burn in our legs already, and it wasn't even lunch time yet.

Bighorn sheep near Scenic Point (photo by Camo)

Around 1:00pm or so, we continued our climb up to a beautiful mountain called Scenic Point. When I hiked the CDT in 2013, this spot had a powerful effect on me. This time however, the wind was so fierce that there was no chance to enjoy the view. At one point my hat and bandana flew off my head, took off like a rocket ship, and blew fifty feet up the mountain behind some giant boulders. I thought they were gone forever. My legs were so sore already, the thought of looking for them felt demoralizing. When I thought about the sunburn I would experience without my hat, I forced myself to scramble up the mountain and find them.

Camo and I reached Two Medicine Lake around 2:30. We still had 8 long uphill miles to go. Thankfully at Two Medicine, there is a ranger station and convenience store. Camo and I bought lunch and ice cream and were glad to get out of the wind for a bit. We tried to psyche ourselves up for the 8 miles that still remained. It was going to be tough, tough, tough. Our bodies already were telling us to call it a day. That was one tough realization that confronted us for the rest of the trip. We would not be able to camp where we wanted, when we wanted. We did not have the freedom to listen to our intuition. We had a schedule to keep and permits to abide by.

The final 8 miles went by in a blur. It was a true "death march." I noticed how short my steps were as everything hurt. It's a humbling experience to remember what thru hiking shape feels like. This definitely was not it. When thru hiking, 8 miles is really no problem at all. You are facing just over a  three hour hike. It took Camo and I about 6 hours to reach Old Man Lake. We didn't stumble into camp until 9:30pm, practically zombies. It was, no exaggeration, one of the top 5 toughest hiking days of my life. Maybe in the top 3.

Camo summed up the day: "It doesn't matter where or how far you've been on the trails. On day 1, you will always be a newbie..."