day 31 -- troy to glacier NP

libby turned out not nearly as dire as expected...run down for sure but no more than your average mining town, and livelier / more crowded than I'd have thought. after sleeping in at the ranch motel to make sure the rain had passed, I stopped at the 'world famous' libby diner for a late breakfast with a very gregarious hostess who commanded the room. at the next table there was what appeared to be a CSA general complete with absurdly bushy mustache-connected-to-pork chops, unsurprisingly from andersonville, GA (see above for georgians trying too hard at authentic southern street cred). all sorts of deep south connections claimed by the happy hostess and grand reminisces had by all. fox news was shouting in the corner. I won't wade into the irony there in a town where a callous corporation has fatally sickened someone in every family and then declared bankruptcy so as not to pay for the damage. but the foxies were all about holding BP responsible, right?

onward and upward from libby toward kalispell and glacier NP. caught up to the rain again outside of kalispell and bounced through a muddy construction zone in a steady downpour. sheltered in a gas station and attempted to calculate where the rain was headed (rather than oh, checking weather.com or something), securing reassurance from a local outfitter that the rain was headed toward missoula. though there was a big purple cloud parked low over the mountains. I got halfway out of columbia falls on the last stretch to the gateway of west glacier when it started to rain hard. this time I turned around and pulled under another gas station just as it started to hail. not good for chrome, presumably, so a surprisingly good call. another snickers and coke to pay for my stay, then to the grocery store to stock up for a hike this time and wait out for the rain. all this worked well enough, as it was dry and sort of sunny when I started back up the hill. got lost in the crush of end-of-the-season park visitors trying to ask about backcountry permits and decided just to head out into the woods in secret. followed the park road past lake macdonald and turned off as the 'going to the sun' road started its climb toward logan pass. a quick glance at the map suggested that most short-term hikers do 'the loop' from a point a bit further up the road or drive around to the eastern end of the park and hike from many glaciers. the latter looked most attractive, but it was getting late, and I really wanted to get into the woods without following a train of backpacks. and I was set on completing a loop that I had eyeballed at about 40 miles (without looking at the scale, of course) instead of an out-and-back. a gravel road led down to the macdonald creek trail at packer's roost, and I set out from there after covering my bag with its rain slicker...and wisely draped my leathers over it and my clothing bag under the bike, instead of stowing all of it on the porch of a nearby and apparently disused stable. impressive (for me) foresight but half-assed execution.

the trail was predictably spectacular, and because of the rain I had it all to myself. started out through swampy lowlands but soon emerged in a huge tract of burnt-out forest not yet recovered. a sign on the road noted a 1987 lightning fire, but if that was this fire it was surprising to see so little regrowth. not exactly the aesthetic ideal of the conifer forest, but striking just the same, all grey verticals and rain-shiny burnt stumps. the trail crossed the creek and headed up toward two possible passes, and with each switchback I recalibrated my guess on which one the trail was aiming for. at this point I still planned to sprint 12 miles to the second campsite and then march off another 30+ miles the next day to complete a loop that looked to cover a good section of the scenic core of the park. I've never hiked more than about 25 miles in a day, but the aforementioned explorers did routinely on their PCT adventure, so I figured I could, creaky achilles and all. only problem was that though I had food this time, I hadn't filled the camelback, so I only had a liter of water. to compenstate I sipped water off leaves every 50m or so, as if that would make up for poor planning. fortunately for me the ascent was slower than I planned and I only made it to the first campsite before it got dark, after about five miles. so no 40-mile hike the next day...I'd have taken an extra day, but I had another tire change appointment scheduled in havre, MT and of course some 1600 miles between me and dayton. so I set up camp in the near dark and discovered another slight problem...there was a food-hanging pole but no bear box. I had lazily assumed that all national parks had moved to boxes rather than relying on hikers' food-hanging skills, and hadn't brought any rope on the trip. this didn't trouble me too much until I realized that the bears here weren't just friendly and scare-able black bears but grizzlies too. so I stashed the bag under the rain fly of my tent and hoped that if I heard rustling I'd make the right call on scaring the bear away or playing dead.

in the event it started raining early in the morning and there weren't any visitors. I gave up even on the shorter loop and decided to sleep late in the wonderfully quiet woods. until I heard chainsaws at 7.30.