Hiking – Page 2 – Roger Carpenter

PNT Day 1 to 5, July 2-6: Glacier National Park and The Bear

After thanking Wyett, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, for the ride to the Chief Mountain trailhead and the beginning of my journey, I pledged to look for and view the actual mountain as a sacred Blackfeet cultural site.

After obligatory photos of the start, I descended into the mixed meadows and forest. Mosquitoes and blackflies welcomed me right from the start! I walked confidently, knowing I was here before on October 3, 2016. I immediately began reciting bear poetry to scare off any grizzlies that I would other meet in a surprise encounter. When not checking for bears, I looked for a good view of Chief Mountain. As I reached a wide meadow where a beautiful deer stopped to look at me. Seeing wildlife at the beginning of a hike is, for me, a good omen. The doe ran towards me before darting into the forest. This was the same meadow where three deer greeted me on the final day of my hike on the Continental Divide Trail in 2016. Image that!

At the eastern terminus of the Pacific Northwest Trail

Blackfeet Nation: PNT Pre-Hike

July 1, 2024. The following was written while I was visiting the ancestral lands of the Blackfeet people.

Cindy and I had fun in Seattle before I boarded the Empire Builder train to East Glacier, Montana. We watched the Seattle Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins in an exciting fashion after a weakly hit ground ball drove in the winning run. The next day Cindy boarded a train back home, and I boarded mine. Twelve hours later I woke in Montana as the train neared Glacier National Park. It is there I will begin my 1200-mile hike.

Specifically, I will start at the Chief Mountain trailhead in the northeast corner of the park near the base of Chief Mountain. I obtained my backcountry permit at the St. Mary Visitor Center. To get there, I received a ride from Wyett, a member of the Blackfeet Nation. What I learned from Wyett was enlightening. “All of this is Blackfeet land,” Wyett explained, pointing toward the mountains inside the National Park. I understood this to some extent.

The Next Thru-Hike

The Choice
Embarking on my fifth attempted wilderness thru-hike since 1995 is a big event and a privilege. This time it is the Pacific Northwest Trail, a 1200-plus mile route that crosses Montana, Idaho and Washington. I will hike it westbound from Glacier National Park starting July 2. After hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2021, the Camino de Santiago in 2022 and the England Coast to Coast in 2023, I wondered which trail I would attempt next. Having lived in and embraced the Pacific Northwest since 1979, the PNT was an easy choice, and not solely for the location. The PNT is a hard trail. It combines the steep, up and down terrain of the Appalachian Trail with the remoteness of the Continental Divide Trail and the unfinished, pre-90s Pacific Crest Trail. I chose the PNT because it’s better to hike it while I am still relatively young (?).