Hiking Dude Blog

My Pacific Northwest Trail hike starts July 13.

Taking the Amtrak to Glacier National Park with my son, Josh - arriving the evening of 7/13 (if the train is on time). After camping overnight, we'll get our backcountry permits first thing in the morning, take a shuttle up the Going to the Sun road, and start hiking. About 65 days later, we hope to reach Cape Alava on the Pacific coast of Washington. Cape Alava is the westernmost point of the 48, and the western terminus of the PNT.

We welcome you to follow along in whatever way works for you:

• HikingDude.com - There will be a post at the end of each day, recalling the recent adventure - includes a real-time map of our progress.
• Instagram - photos of the coolest stuff will show up here.
• Facebook - announcements of blog posts show up here if that is more convenient for you.

We'd love to have you follow, like, share, or comment. Whenever you leave a comment, it makes the long days on trail more fun - really! If you know someone along the trail map, tell them we're coming because it's a huge treat to actually meet someone. There aren't a lot of towns along the way, so this trail is very isolated.

Also, I've got Hiking Dude stickers along to give out to folks we meet, to be stuck on water bottles, bumpers, whatever.

Our general plan is to hit Bonners Ferry, ID in 2 weeks and take a week off. I've been asked to present Dutch Oven Cooking at a Lutherhaven Weekend for ladies, and Josh will do volunteer staff work at Lutherhaven. So, we'll spend July 28-Aug 4 in the Coeur d'Alene area.

After that, it's just feet to the ground across Washington, trying to not get lost, eaten, or dehydrated for another 900 miles.

Hike On!

Just 23 hours after boarding Amtrak in MN, we hopped off in West Glacier, MT. We hiked up the Going to the Sun road to a bike path which we followed to the Apgar campground. I asked a guy walking by about maybe setting up a tent and he recommended trying the group site area. Here, I intruded on a large group that had a few unused tent pads. Turns out they are a big family outing and were fine with us using the spot. So, here we are all set up and in tent our first night. Oh, they also said a bear and 3 cubs were right here a day ago. :-)

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.

I do believe our first day may wind up being our toughest day of hiking. We got up early and found the backcountry permit office. We were 5th in line. The campsite we wanted was marked as full so w wound up getting one much farther along. Got in line forthe shuttle and waited almost an hour. First bus got us part way then second bus hauled us on. But, the driver chose to not stop at our trailhead so we got a nice tour Up to Logan Pass. Caught another shuttle back down and finally got hiking around 11am. The trailhead sign had Goat Haunt listed which was the direction we needed, so off we went - up up up. After a few miles we figured out that we were on the CDT which was a few miles longer than the trail we wanted but went the same way. Oh well. TheTrail was rugged, steep, and high but the views were awesome! By the end of the day, I could barely move ahead. All my 'going up' muscles were done. Tomorrow, we'll actually hook into the PNT and heI walked 41070 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 17 miles today.
ad West.

I walked 40650 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 17 miles today.
The night at Fifty Mountain campsite was comfortable and quiet.  We rose, packed, and got hiking to blue skies and sun painted peaks.  The high peaks to our east provided shade as we headed north, dropping into the Watertown valley to intersect with the actual PNT.  The trail was terribly overgrown and seemed like a perfect place to meet a bear.  No luck. Goat Haunt ranger station and the Canadian customs was funny.  While we were looking at the big Lake Watertown, a Canadian customs guy asked where we were coming from - I pointed back South and said 'back there'.  He asked where we were going - I pointed West and said 'over there'.  He then asked if we had been in, or were going to, Canada - I said 'no'.  Then, he said 'well, then I don't even need to talk with you.'  Fine with me, he started the conversation. While our morning was all downhill, the afternoon was a continuous climb, but not to steep.  We made it to the top of Brown's Pass and spent the night at the buggiest site in Glacier, at least from all the warnings we got from dayhikers, rangers, and trail crews.  It wasn't that bad and it topped off a serious 1000ft climb at the end of the day. Still no interesting wildlife but the mountains are wonderful.  We've met some nice folks but no other long distance hikers yet.  Tomorrow is all downhill and out of Glacier.

I walked 62353 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 23 miles today.
Brown's Pass, today's starting point, is on the Continental Divide so it's all downhill to the Pacific now.  And our day started out extremely downhill - a very steep descent to Bowman Lake. On the way down, we saw a moose grazing about 50 yards from the trail, oblivious to us due to wind direction and noise from the waterfalls.  We stopped for lunch at the Bowman Lake campsite which I would vote in as the prettiest site in Glacier.  About a half hour after lunch, as we were getting water cartoon a small stream, a young lady climbed up the short distance from the Lake shore.  She and her two companions were having difficulty paddling their canoe West against the very strong wind that we were thankful for forkeeping the bugs away.  She asked us to let the rangers at the west end of the lake know of their predicament.  We got to the campground and told the camp host since no rangers were around. From Bowman Lake to Polebridge is a 6 mile dusty, busy roadwalk.  We had fortunately gotten water from the camp host.  The only interesting thing about the road was that we finally saw a bear!  A pickup passed us and w then saw it stopped in the road after coming around a bend.  They were easygoing the bear so we did too.  It was only 20 yards from the road casually eating trees.  So we walked on the other side of the pickup as they slowly drove by as a barrier for us, just in case. We finally reached Polebridge, ate outside at the saloon (which was pretty good), then hiked out of town since the publicized 'Merc' store didn't really have any backpacking food that we could find.  This first bit of civilization was enhanced by our chance meeting of an older fellow and a couple at the saloon and chasing with them for quite awhile.  We also saw our canoeing friend in front of the Merc - it turns out they persevered against the wind and made it on their own. We also met another PNT hiker named Alexander in Polebridge.  He's staying here

I finished hiking for today. You can check out my current location on the map and I'll post about my day when I am in coverage.