Glacier, Day One

On the morning of Monday, Aug. 2, Laini and I embarked on a week-long backpacking trip — Laini's first backpacking trip ever.

The afternoon before, while at Apgar, we'd gotten a walk-up backcountry pass for our seven nights in the park. (The reserve-in-advance passes booked up in March, a few weeks before I planned our trip). Because many backcountry campsites were already booked, and because we didn't have a car, our options for where to hike were very limited. Therefore we ended up doing 16 miles on our first day, with full packs and multiple stream crossings.

This would've been fine, except that it was raining, and the hike views were very monotonous due to no elevation gain. Also, for the last five miles or so of our hike, the trail was so overgrown we could hardly see the trail — sometimes simply following our feet on the packed earth underneath all the bushes.

I didn't take many photos, because of the rain, but here are a few:

The most scenic view of this day's hike

Laini under her backpacking poncho

In the last few miles of that day, we were both very tired and hungry — almost to the point where exhaustion overcame hunger. We were both trying very hard to keep our own and each other's spirits up, making silly conversation that nearly became nonsensical. Needless to say, there wasn't much conversation at all after we finally arrived at camp, as night was falling. We set up our tent, cooked dinner, and found the pit toilet in the dark. 

Unfortunately, the next day wasn't much better...