Tag: Hiking

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.

Continue reading “Blackfeet Nation: PNT Pre-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 (?).

Continue reading “The Next Thru-Hike”