After Glacier I spent one night in Polebridge with the crew, drying out my gear and packing my resupply. They were all taking a zero at the hostel but I felt the need to move on. I had received a very unpleasant text from someone who was angry with me, and even though I knew the things she was accusing me of were not true, I felt a need to walk it off. Plus I was eager to reach Yaak where a different pair of boots would be waiting for me. I knew the others would catch up to me soon.

There was a long paved and then dirt road walk which added to my foot woes. Besides the pain I was having, the road encouraged hot spots. Even though I tried to pad them, by nightfall they were full blown blisters.

I stopped many times that day to chat with people along the way. I met Hoss out of Polebridge and Wilma and her husband sightseeing along the dirt road. I stopped and took a short nap and before I hit even twelve miles I called it a night. There was a stream crossing the road just after a place where the ground had slabbed down over the road. No cars could get through and there was a lovely little grassy place for me to set up my tent. As I ate my dinner I thought about how different it was for me not to be pushing to make as many miles as possible.

I felt pretty good the next few days, even though I wasn’t walking big miles and was having to deal with significant foot pain. There were quite a few mikes when I was walking on snow, which significantly slowed me down. Climbing up onto a snow field, which could often be a few feet high and then cutting steps in while looking to be sure I was heading in the right direction was tiring, especially when I had to climb around the tops of small trees sticking out of the snow. Getting too near the trees was dangerous as those were the places where I was more apt to fall through soft, rotting snow and get stuck in a hole.

I took a second short day, stopping on top of a ridge in a small area which was clear of snow. I felt peaceful in that place and even made a little snowman, hoping to make the hikers behind me smile. Unfortunately it rained buckets that night and by morning my snowperson was a small blob.

Again I walked for much of the day on snow and just as I was getting to my camp spot Mary showed up with a hiker named Gramps. Instead of focusing on the fact that it had taken them two days to hike what I had done in three, I enjoyed having company and meeting a new hiker. In the morning they went off on a shorter route and I again felt satisfied with my day. Despite more stops than usual to rest my feet, I took advantage of the really long evening daylight and hiked until close to 9 PM. It was still light when I finally crawled into my tent at ten.

After another exhausting day hiking in snow, I slept right at the US/Canada border. I thought about how I had stood on the southern US border just a few months earlier. This one was also demarcated by a wide clear cut as far as the eye could see. I realized these boundaries meant nothing to the wildlife and was glad that at least on this northern boundary there was no wall to stop them from roaming at will.

The walk into Eureka went well enough and I surprised myself by doing a “hero.” That is hiker terminology for going into and out of town on the same day. I sent to Watson’s Grocery store where I had mailed a package containing fuel for my stove and a few harder to get items. I was grateful to the owner, Steve, for accepting my package especially because it was Sunday and the post office would have been closed. After I did my grocery shopping for the next leg of the trip, I sat at the tables in the grocery store deli eating my fill, including leftovers given to me by a couple at an adjoining table. I suspect they thought I was homeless or at least down on my luck, but I gratefully accepted the French fries and biscuits they did not eat.

I had purchased some new patches to try on my feet and had taped them in the store, using the shopping cart with my pack to keep other shoppers from being horrified. I could have done this sitting outside but as it was over 100 degrees I preferred to stay in the air conditioned store.

After a brief visit with Mary who was taking a zero in town, I headed off on the next section of my journey.