Doug drops me off at the airport.

Gosh goodbyes are hard.

I will be thinking of him the whole trip and look forward to seeing him here and there along the trail! 💖

I’m flying with an osprey airporter duffle to protect my backpack as a checked bag. As much as I’d love to bring it as a carry on, there’s no way it would fit in an overhead bin, especially on a tiny flight to Kalispell.

I manage to tape a box around the sharp point of my ice axe while it’s looped onto the outside of my pack. My ice axe is a little long and I’m impressed the osprey duffle fits over it and the box! I hope the axe doesn’t pierce right through the box and duffle!

The flight went by quickly. There is still so much snow in the sierras! I can imagine what hiking through there must be like: lots of postholing! (where you take a step on a snowy surface and sink down, sometimes up to your waist!)

Hopefully I won’t have much of that. Glacier’s snow this year has been a little below average.

The osprey duffle survived the flight! But the axe totally punched through the box… I might need to double box the axe next time? (Sorry I forgot to get a picture)

In Kalispell I meet up with my Mom and her old coworker friend Paul!

They have been planning a road trip through Glacier NP to Banff for over a year and are willing to give me a ride to Waterton on their way! What luck!

Thank you so much for letting me crash the first few days of your trip!