My alarm went off at 05:30 and we made some coffee and drank that while driving to St. Mary's visitor center to acquire our back country permits. It took some time to find a place at which we could camp at and still do quite a bit of hiking for almost all the sites were already booked or occupied. We finally just asked the guy at the desk and he was able to help us out and after watching a 15 minute video and paying $28.00 we had our passes for two nights camping in the back country. I walked to the gift shop and bought my sticker and a post card then we hopped back in the vehicle and drove to the store right at the entrance to the park. There I sat in the vehicle catching up on messages while I had service while Travis ran in to use the restroom; or so I thought. He came back out holding a brown paper bag that contained two croissant sandwiches which tasted so delicious and was a wonderful surprise!
We ate the sandwiches as we drove north towards the border of Canada where our hike would begin. Originally, we were hoping to go into Canada but since my passport was stolen I never bothered to acquire I new one so unfortunately we were not able to pass into Canada. Arriving at the trail head we began the process of packing up all our gear into our packs for the three days. It was interesting to do so for I have never packed a backpack for a hiking/camping trip before. My pack contained clothes, tent, hammock, gun, sleeping bag, journal, cookware, propane tanks and health essentials. All in all we decided that my pack weighed in around 50 pounds.
Starting out on the trail we took pictures of a family at the trail sign and they returned the favor for us. The trail was an easy one but with a heavy pack it was brutal. I have never carried so much weight before and it added strain to my back and neck that I already have problems with. I kept having to adjust the straps until I finally found the right position. Unlike on our Guadalupe Peak hike, Travis and I did not talk much for I think we were both concentrated on the strain from our packs. Thankfully, it was not too hot out and there were multiple opportunities to stop near a stream and relieve ourselves of our packs. At these stopping points, I dunk the bluff I had around my neck into the ice cold water from the streams and we ate cliff bars and did shots of honey.
The landscape was breathtaking to say the very least and we traversed woods, meadows and mountains, and crossed a one hiker at a time bridge which was a blast! Waterfalls were abundant throughout the 13.3 mile hike to our campground. We started our hike at 11:00 and reached Glenn's Lake Head campground around 17:30. All I can say is that the last stretch of the hike was brutal and I was in quite a bit of pain. A blister had formed from my big toe and encompassed two additional toes, my hips were rubbed open from my pack and my shoulders were raw from the straps.
When we finally did reach the campground we went straight to the food hanging area as we were instructed to do so and hung up all our food and smellables. From there we had the pick of three camping sites and picked the one that was obscured by trees and off from the others. It was perfect! The first thing we both did was throw our packs on the ground, kick off our shoes and socks and walked very gingerly to the alpine lake that was right by our site. Stepping into the lake my feet and legs instantly went numb but it felt so refreshing. We both stood in this crystal clear lake looking up to the mountains that surrounded us. The view and serenity of the area honestly cannot be described so I will not even attempt to do so; all I will say is that I was and am so at peace. I can't believe that I am actually standing in a pristine lake in the back country of Montana! How has my life led me to this?
Drying off and changing into some clean camp clothes we set up our site and headed off to the cooking section where we joined the family we had met at the trail head. I think that at this point Travis and I were really hoping to just be alone and eat in solitude for this family talked a lot, but don't get me wrong though they were very nice people. Seeing them makes we wish that one day when I have a family that we can go on back packing adventures together for I would have loved nothing more than to do that when I was a kid. Anyways, Travis and I got to setting up our cooking area and boiled some water which we poured into a backcountry pantry bag of dehydrated Persian peach stew with chicken and waited 15 minutes for it to cook. During that time, Travis used the families water bottle filter to fill up all our camelpaks and water bottles for we didn't bring my water drops.
When he came back we opened up the food bag and took turns eating out of the bag and I have to admit it was pretty darn tasty. Once we polished that off we put everything away and we headed back to our site and as I sat in the hammock trying to write in my journal Travis was down by the water. At one point he called me over and as I stood next to him near the water he showed me a spectacular view! The lake was so calm that a perfect reflection of the mountain with the moon above it was reflected within the water. It was a truly surreal moment and as we stood there, no words were spoken for we both were in awe and knew that there are no words to describe how we both felt to be in this place.
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