Many Glacier: When does the CDT start getting sketchy?

Reynolds Camp

We had a happy reunion with Dogwood at the Many Glacier campground and met another thru-hiker, Seth, who had taken the Highline Trail. He looked frightened and still full of adrenaline from the experience. I was pretty happy we had taken the chill Chief Mtn route.

We’ve had great weather on the CDT–sun and not much wind. I’m actually a little sunburnt (sorry Dad, I’ve been putting sunscreen on everyday, though). The other thru-hikers seemed to find the passes sketchy because bad weather was involved, but we are very lucky so far.

We still had to pick up our permits for the rest of the Glacier trip, and during breakfast with Dogwood, I learned our next campsites were either 15 or 25 miles from Many Glacier and that Dogwood may have taken the last site at the place 15 miles away. We dropped by the ranger station and were told the 15 mile site was indeed taken. I really wanted to hike something like 20 miles. Without a 15 or 20 mile option, I was doomed to 25 miles–exemplifying why the permitting system in Glacier is so difficult for thru-hikers.

We set off for a 24 mile day over two passes at 10 am, but right as we exited, Seth, the Highline Trail thru-hiker, came into the ranger station to drop his permit. We ended up getting his spot at the 15 mile campsite. As we signed our permit, the ranger was sure to say “this route is not recommended,” quite casually as he listed off all the other things we had to agree to on the permit. “Watch out for the ford at Piegan Pass.”

The Adams had mentioned a beautiful photo exhibit at the Many Glacier Lodge that compares photos of Glacier National park from the early 1900s to how the glaciers are now. I highly encourage checking it out. We dropped by the lodge, and headed off to the canyon. Without much climbing, we found snow (must be protected by the high walls to the right and left) and saw glaciers. Then, we saw the ford at Piegan Pass, and realized it didn’t look bad. Still, upsteam 100 feet was a snow bridge. It looked like it might hold–but my greatest fear is falling through snow into a cold creek and being swept away by the river back under the snow. I didn’t want to ford, though, so it was worth the chance even though the bridge looked thin.

It worked, and we kept climbing through snow and route finding. We could see some of the switchbacks until it came to a steep snow bank endlessly up and straight down into the robust Morning Eagle falls. I had no choice. Grabbing my potty trowel, I crossed. We followed the switchbacks, and it crossed the same snowbank again–this time in the opposite direction. We crossed again, this time the potential fall into the Falls being greater. This continued a few more times-back and forth across the snowbank–until we gave up and went straight up the snowbank.

Piegan pass is very long and you look straight into Glaciers as you go up the valley. I didn’t know where the pass was and just looked at those Glaciers, fearing that was where I would end up. The wind was so fierce I feared it would blow me down. I wasn’t sure where the pass ended up until nearly the end. When we crested, we looked across at a steep snowbank “At least we didn’t go over that” only to see mountain goat tracks travelling across impossible spots.

It was endless snow and route finding to the Going to the Sun Road, but there were tracks to follow. Reynolds campsite was easy to find, but Dogwood didn’t show up all night.