Heidi was amped to hike. As I mentioned in my last post, she did not go with us on our Bowman-Kintla loop because of injury. She had trained her knee right into a stress fracture when preparing for her Mount Rainier summit attempt. (She got within a couple miles but then the weather said no. Ugh, she's had a tough year.) But after several weeks of rest, her doctor said she could hike three miles if they weren't too challenging.
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| See the cable for people with Acrophobia? You're not going far if you need it. |
You can't always trust Google, because after doing the Highline I'm pretty certain it has nothing to do with the Pacific Northwest Trail. And that's fine, because we got the loop done. It may not have gotten me ALL the way to 40, but SO close at 35.8 miles. I suppose I could have walked 4.2 miles on the road that is still considered PNT miles to be completely official, but who in their right mind would choose a road and miss out on this...
Though we did almost miss out anyway. There's a new system at Glacier National Park that requires you to have a reservation to drive on the Going to the Sun road...the only way to said hike. But like all reservations in this extremely popular park, they are near impossible to get. SO lots of folks beat the system by going through the gate before 6 am when the reservations start. Us included.
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| Granite Park Chalet is right on trail! You can only hike to it. |
Except because there is this surge of cars going up to Logan's Pass (which is the highest elevation you can drive to, has a massive visitor center and is also where the hike starts) the parking lot is guaranteed full at 7 am. So that means we needed to get there at 6:30, which means we needed to leave before sunrise at 5:30 and NO later.
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| Our morning selfie at Hole in the Wall camp. BRRRR |
Janet uses a nalgene that says "BUT FIRST COFFEE" (above) and it is a motto she lives by. But this was a "drive first" day, so Janet was not a happy camper. Consequently, she was even grumpier when we asked if she could change a flat tire when we discovered that was our situation before even turning out of our KOA campground.
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| Janet gets er done! Plus I think she might make a great break dancer ;) |
BUT SHE STEPPED UP! I wouldn't say Heidi and I are helpless women by any stretch...but this is not our realm. I really thought the day was shot, and I saw utter disappointment in Heidi's eyes. But because we had the extra time set aside for finding a parking spot, Heidi threw out our only hope option by saying "if one of you can change this tire in 30 minutes, we can still make it through the gate."
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| Heidi IS a happy camper |
Janet grumbled, "I can do it if one of you can figure out the jack," and then it was ON. We were like a NASCAR pit crew! I guarded the bolts like a mother hen until head surgeon Janet threw out her hand and ordered, "BOLT!" I'm pretty sure it was done in 15.
So we had enough time to make the gate, but not enough to find a parking spot. Thankfully we fit into an "unofficial" spot on the road, but I think they are really cracking down on that because we got a warning. Though even a ticket would have been worth seeing the light in Heidi's eyes as she got to hike her first few miles in weeks.
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| Time for Heidi (and little Sunni) to turn around :( |
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| And a group shot of Rocky, Sammy and Sunni too |
Poor Heidi did NOT want to stop hiking - we practically had to threaten to tell her doctor if she didn't turn around. So we took our group pic and she went back to get the car to drive down to the "Loop Trailhead" and wait for us. We were thankful for her, and sad for her, and also totally sure she'd be back to do it herself someday. I hope everyone reading this finds a friend like her. Happy "teamwork makes the dream work" trails!
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| To see video of this deer licking Janet's pack click here |
Loved this 'blog' Kelly!❤️
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