Photos are under „Fotogallerie“

Glacier National Park

First section done! After about 90miles hiking through Glacier National Park I got to where I had arrived by train a week earlier: East Glacier Village.
The „hostel“ I’m staying at is a pretty interesting place. It’s explicitly aimed to CDT hikers, there’s just a big open space where you can sleep 9n the floor or you can set up your tent in the yard, there’s a kitchen, showers, outlets, Wifi, just everything a thru-hiker would need and nothing more.
However, the actually interesting thing are the people here. For me, that was the ideal place to.start out, having never hiked in the US before, to get an idea of how things work, to meet people, to get some last-minute intel.
So 6 days ago, we set out. Me.and three other hikers I had teamed up with for the backcountry permits for the Glacier National Park were picked up by a shuttle that took us the 70 or so miles to the border. We took some pictures at the border monument, and off we went! The forst day was pretty short, about 10 miles, so we got to our campsite early, which was beautifully located at a lake. Actually, of the days were kind of.short, 10-14 miles, except for two days that were around 25. That meant I often got to campsites early and could hang out, relax, talk to other hikers. he weather wasn’t too bad, all things considered, the first 3 days were somewhat rainy, not too bad though, except for the hailstorm that caught me right at a pass. The last 3 days were quite sunny and hot.
The scenery here is pretty spectacular, amazing mountaim views, beautiful lakes, gorgeus waterfalls. The same goes for the fauna. So far I’ve seen a fox, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, a (small) snake, deer, lots and lots of marmots and chipmunks, and one evening we were even visited by a moose in our campsite. No grizzlies so far!
Today, I’m taking a day off before heading out into the Bob Marshall Wilderness,.which will be the longest stretch without resupply options, about 175 miles.till the next town! With the fixed campsites gone, this is also where the race really starts – I have to be through Colorado by early October.

Starting out

I’m in the US for about 10 days now, and finally made it to East glacier. After spending about 5 days in Nashville with Hank, eating a ton of food and looking around Nashville we headed to Memphis on Saturday. Memphis is actually a pretty interesting City with quite some history. On Sunday night I boarded a train to Chicago, and from there I took another train to East glacier, which all together took about 45 hours. Yesterday evening I finally arrived and stayed in a hostel where most CDT hikers stay before setting out. Tomorrow morning we’ll catch a shuttle to the ranger station where we will pick up our permits for the National Park, and then we’ll head to the Border to start hiking on the Continental Divide Trail.