Wednesday, June 19th.

Wednesday, June 19th. Day 1

Today's miles = 9.7 - Total CDT miles = 9.7

I was told the CDT was going to humble me but what I was not told was that it was going to be on the first day. I only hiked 9.7 miles today because that is what the ranger station gave me as far as camping. I didn't mind so much with it being the first day out, not being in hiking shape, and still having a bit of a cold. The miles are not what is difficult about today; the weather is. Lets back up a little...

When Baboon and I first got into East Glacier we met two guys by the names of Tim and Sky. They looked like CDT hikers so we began conversation immediately. They were stuck in town waiting on some packages containing their essential gear; ice axes, bear canisters, bear mace, and so forth. With all this waiting in town they could no longer use the permits they were issued to hike through Glacier as the permits are date specific. When their packages finally arrived there was no longer any permits being issued for the first 4 nights of the hike. I suggested that they jump in our permit for those days. The only real meaning of this is that they now have to camp with us for these first few days of trail. Yesterday, Baboon and I were curious as to exactly how we were going to make it to the trail this morning, then in traditional trail fashion we found that Tim and Sky had left us a note on the hostel bulliton board saying that they had a lead on a ride. The lady giving us the lift was to meet us outside the bakery at 8:30am. All was well that night until I heard the thunder of a storm rolling in over the mountains. Now, I know its Glacier and anyone familiar with Glacier is familiar with storms. Lets just say that I was very glad to still be in the hostel last night when the hail began to fall. My hopeful thought process was that the sky would rain out all it had and today, the first day of the CDT, would be beautiful and dry. Ha!

The rain held out for the first few miles of the hike. The rain from yesterday, however, made everything a sloppy, soupy mudslide...mixed well with copious amounts of horse shit. About 10 yards into the hike I was covered to my calves (and in some places a bit higher) with mud and shit. Yum! Now, I've been sitting on my ass at a desk for the last 6 months and had conveniently forgotten what that feels likes. It only took a few moments for me to get back into the swing of it. Mud, shit, sloppy trail, big mountains...yeah, I'm actually ok with that, mostly. The next few miles it began to mist, then sprinkle, rain, pour, pour harder, then whatever adjective indicates harder than pouring, and thats about when heaven decided to fall from the sky and land directly on Glacier National Park. Luckily for me I was only hiking 9.7 miles today and it took me a whopping few hours to get to camp. I set up in the rain, ate in the rain, got and filtered water in the rain, went to the bathroom in the rain, and then opened my tent to discover that it had apparently decided to rain in there as well. Lets be fair, Tim and Sky got to camp first and chose their spots. As with hiking courtesy, whoever arrives first picks spots first; fair, right? Well, I was hiking with my umbrella so I wasn't in much of a hurry to get to camp and got stuck with the spot in the puddle; unfortunate on any other trail, detrimental on the CDT. The amount of rain that has fallen in the last 3 hours is..well, I have no idea how to describe that much rain. The thunder is screeching and right above my head. The lightening illuminates a daytime sky. Am I being dramatic? I hope so! Because this storm is being dramatic also.

I have a blow up sleeping pad which doubles unintentionally as a floatation device. To say that I was floating in my tent on top of my sleeping pad would be quite the overstatement, although, if the rain continues all night it most certainly won't be.

I made Ramon for dinner. I was too cold to eat or do much of anything after setting up my tent. I've eaten 1,100 calories today. I still have a cold and don't generally get hiker hunger for about 200-300 miles out but with the temperature what it is tonight I should have really been smarter and eaten more. It's too late now. I'm in my wet tent in my (kind of) dry sleep clothes and my food is 200 yards away; protecting me from an unwanted encounter with a grizzly. There is no way I'm getting out of my tent again tonight in this storm unless I have to pee...and even that's pushing it.

Camped with Baboon, Tim, and Sky.