I woke up early and tried to catch up on writing blog posts. The hotel I’m staying at has non existent wi-fi. I’m a little peeved since it wasn’t the cheapest hotel, but it’s what you get I guess for being so remote.

I make one last trip to the post office and general store. The store has a little cafe with Wi-Fi. I order some oatmeal and attempt to upload a blog post with no success. Gah I’m wasting time AND my phone’s battery.

I head back to my room to try and charge my phone a little more before heading out. The next section is a long food carry. 6-7 days. My pack is heavy! The trail is going to take us deep into the Bob Marshal Wilderness. A very remote section.

A lot of hikers are slack packing a small portion of the trail from Marias Pass back to the town of East Glacier to lessen the food carry. Slack packing is where you leave your things in one place or with a person, then get a ride up the road and hike without your heavy backpack. I don’t want to hitch so I decide to hike strait in with all my gear and food.

The anxious feeling I get when I’m in town recedes as I get farther into the woods.

True Grits and Thin Mint walk up the trail towards me. They slack packed and are heading back towards town. They tell me the Professor is maybe 5 min behind them/ ahead of me. Yay! I speed up and catch him taking a break. He is a great conversationalist and the heavy food doesn’t feel as heavy with the distraction! Also I don’t have to yell ‘Hey Bear’ as often, or talk to myself out loud haha

We come across another slack packer, Crush, who said he was just charged by a black bear a mile down the trail. Yikes. We’re extra loud when we pass through the area and luckily have no encounters.

It starts to sprinkle. Another hiker catches up to us, The Breeze. The sprinkle turns into rain.

We pass over the train tracks over Maria’s pass.

I was just here with mom and Paul! How fun!

It feels a little surreal walking back to these locations.

The Breeze decides to camp at the campground by the road, his shoes got really wet. The Professor and I cook at the campground and decide to keep hiking after dinner to find a different spot. I’d like to get in the habit of not sleeping where my food is cooked, like the system the Glacier National Park rangers have set up. Plus! This campsite has no trash cans! It’s kind of shocking haha

A nice lady in her camper van offers to take our trash for us. Thank you!

We find some flat spots .4 miles from the campground and hang our food. The Professor is from Alaska and has a lot of bear experience and gives me some great tips for hanging my food.

Instead of pulling down on the rope to raise the food, walk backwards while holding the rope. 👍 That technique causes much less tension on the tree branch and is a lot easier on the hands.

We set up camp 200 yards from the food.

Hopefully we’ll catch up to The Geologists, they left East Glacier earlier in the morning.

I feel really good heading into the Bob Matshal Wilderness. I think this will be the most remote backpacking I’ve done yet.