Twelve Nights in Glacier

[Francis DeRoos]

Country United States
State Montana
Area Glacier National Park
Trip Month (08) – August

Trip Dates – August 16-28, 2024

Weather
Most days sunny and dry low 60s, lows 30s. A few days of dense afternoon showers and finished the last night (and day) with a very cold and wet snow storm.

Route Description
Began hiking from my hotel in West Glacier, travelling into and through Harrison and Nyack creek drainages, over Cut Bank Pass, Triple Divide Pass, Piegan Pass, Many Glacier, Poia Lake to Red Gap Pass, throught the Mokowanis River Valley, over Stoney Indian Pass, and finishing over Flattop Mountain to The along the Going Into The Sun Road. There I picked up the free park service shuttle down to Lake McDonald Lodge to dry off, warm up and eat.

Gear List
McHale 36 BLP, Tarptent Notch, down quilt (35 degrees), Nemo Tensor Insulated pad
Kitchen – Kovea spider stove (w wind screen), 0.9 L Ti pot/lid, PB container (for recovery shake), OP sac (2), food stuff sack (2), 40 ft Spectra
Water – Katadyn BeFree 1L, 2 smart water bottles
Hiking clothes – Patagonia Rock Pants, Sun Stretch LS, baseball cap
Baselayers – 150 LS top and bottom (sleep clothes)
Footwear – Darn Tough ¼ hikers, Salomon XA Pro, dirty girls
Insulation – Patagonia R1 hoody, WM quickflash down jacket
Rain – Montbell Torrent, zpack Vertice
Socks – 1 pair sleep socks and 1 extra DT ¼ hiker
Possumwool gloves, merino beanie

Backpacking in Glacier NP – overview
Backpacking in GNP is a well organized and tightly monitored activity.  All backpackers are required to camp in preassigned designated locations. There are about 70 backcountry sites in the park so that’s a limited number of backpackers in the park at any one time.  During my hike I camped with 2 volunteer rangers one night and was asked to see my permit a twice during my hike.

Obtaining a Permit
Permitting process is straightforward. On March 15th one can place their name in a lottery which is held later that week, for the chance to be assigned on of 3000 ‘early access’ date assignments between March 21st and April 30th.  After April 30th, the booking portal is open to everyone in a first come, first served basis.

If you’re interested in backpacking glacier, I’d recommend spending time on this site before it’s “open” because it took me a bit of time to understand how it functioned.  You can interact with it (clicking buttons and seeing what happens) at any time but you can only place a reservation on your early access date or, if you did not win the permit lottery, after April 30th.

On the website, you must first select the region of the park you’d like to begin your trip in and then select a backcountry campsite.  Each time you make a campsite selection for a specific day, the site autopopulates the sites you’d be able to ‘link’ with your first. The software places restrictions on various campsites (not available on first or last day of trip, families with small children, maximum 1 day stay) as well as the maximum miles one can travel between campsites.

I was awarded an ‘early access’ date of April 23rd, and while many of the most popular campsites were already filled for much of the season, I managed to string together and book 12 nights (HAR-LNY-UPN-ATL(2)-REF(2)-REY-MAN-GLF-KOO-FLA).  On the day I picked up my permit, the ranger was very accommodating and worked with me to change my route to eliminate the zero days. Most of the people in line at the Apgar backcountry permit office the morning I was there were able to get permits for 2-3 night trips.

Travel Logistics
I did all my ‘long distance travel’ on AMTRAK. Leaving from Philadelphia, I travelled through Pittsburg to Chicago where I met up with my wife and a few friends and we boarded the Empire Builder.  This train travels from Chicago to Portland and services both East and West Glacier.  The trip took over 30 hours from Chicago to West Glacier and was a wonderful experience in and of itself.  Sitting for hours literally watching endless acres of land roll by.  My wife and I rented a “roomette’ which is a tiny private compartment which converts into single bunk beds in the evening.

We arrived at West Glacier in a driving rain at 1045pm and walked right across the street into a prebooked hotel.  The next morning I separated from my train travel team and went to the Apgar village to the backcountry permit office, picked up my permit, purchased fuel and a ‘previously owned but unused’ bear spray.  Be certain to check the front porch of the permit office before purchasing any fuel or bear spray because this is where people leave partially used fuel and unused bear canisters for other backpackers.

Food
I spent a great deal more time on my food decisions than any other backpacking trip, including the JMT, and I feel it paid dividends.

Better estimate of caloric needs
I estimated that I needed 2500 calories daily baseline and then added an additional 130 cal/mile into each daily.  For example, on the 2nd day I was hiking between Lower Nyack to Upper Nyack – 9.0 miles or about an additional 1200 calories for a daily total of 3700.

I started the day with about 600 calories – granola, oatmeal, nuts – and some tea or coffee.  Each morning I also packed my hiking calories into a hip pouch with the goal of eating about 200 calories every hour or so.  Longer days or greater climbs I ate more snacks. For dinners, I ate commercially available prepackaged meals which had a high caloric density.

Used recovery shakes
This is the first trip I’ve incorporated recovery shakes, drinking them within 15-30 minutes after finishing exercise.  I feel they aided in my muscular recovery and felt much less restlessness while setting up camp.  I made my own shakes using a few ‘inherited’ protein and peanut butter powders, oatmeal flour, and freeze-dried fruit.  PB/chocolate, PB/chocolate/banana, raspberry/chocolate. They calculated out to about 50 grams protein, carb/prot about 2:1, about 700-800 calories.

Restock and Refuel at Many Glaciers
The ‘backcountry site’ at Many Glacier is actually a few camping sites within the traditional park RV/tent campground. This provided access to Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and Cabins which also runds a well-stocked camp store where I resupplied for the last 5 days of my trip. You can also buy shower tokens at the camp store and indulge in a hot shower behind the Cabins.  The Swiftcurrent Motel is also home to Nells, a ‘dinerish’ restaurant, that I relaxed at and enjoyed a large breakfast and several cups of coffee before hitting the trail the next morning.  For those who’d like to indulge you can walk the mile or so to the Many Glacier Lodge and enjoy fine dining and explore the historic building.

[Paul Wagner]

That’s an excellent introduction to Glacier.  Thanks for posting it.  And it has convinced me that I probably won’t be backpacking there.  The level of advanced planning, combined with the need for a rigid campsite and hiking schedule is not attrative to me. I do backpack where reservations are required and sometimes hard to get.  But the idea of always selecting exactly where you will camp each night loses some of the appeal of hitting the trail for me.

I have no doubt that these regulations (like those in Yellowstone) are designed both to control traffic and to decrease bear interactions, and I approve of them. But one of the great joys of backpacking, for me, is looking up a drainage and deciding to check it out. Or seeing  a lake I hadn’t noticed before and deciding to spend a day to camp there.

[Kevin Babione]

Thanks for posting – I love your selection of photos.  Looks like an amazing trip – I’m glad it worked out for you.

[Francis DeRoos]

@ paul – I get where you’re coming from and I felt the same way initially. That’s why I focused my post on the logistics rather than gushing about the beauty.  Once the preplanning and permitting hurdles have been cleared, there is a there is a simplicity and ease in backpacking through Glacier.  Rolling into a well organized camp area that has an installed food hang, a pit toilet, and a flat, well situated camp site is quite a luxury.  And enjoying dinner with a new set of fellow backpackers (2 to 6) most nights (first 3 nights I was alone) became something I looked forward to. Glacier NP is a very unique place that provides a fairly easy backpacking experience (it would be great for beginners) within an achingly beautiful wilderness.

@Kevin – thanks. I know you’ve hiked all about PA and I thought of you when I enjoyed the Quehanna trail this past year.

[AK Granola]

Nice trip! Thanks for posting the details. I had mixed feelings about Glacier after my friends and I did the CDT through it in 2023. Most of the campsites were decent, but some were not level at all or had very pointed rocks that would slaughter any inflatable mattress. I reported the ones we encountered, hopeful that the NPS will work with whatever volunteer org helps maintain things and they might get fixed. One site was so terrible that we waited until dark, then cowboy camped in the horse area, which was nice and flat and grassy. (and no horses thankfully)

Glacier’s views and landscapes are spectacular though! And the hiking is wonderful.

[Ken P]

Thanks I’m fascinated by the idea of taking the train.

[Jerry Adams]

The train crosses the PCT near the Ashland summit on I5.  I wonder if there’s a way to get off the train and walk to the PCT.

[Author]

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