Day 133: To St. Mary and Slackpackin' back

Mileage: 24.5 miles (2499.2-2528.7)

I slept in a bit and kept the other two waiting this morning. My legs felt pretty tight and sore after the long day before. We saw quite a bit of Moose tracks and scat up and down the undulating green wooded hills. I was following Malarky when he suddenly stopped and pointed at a big brown figure in the distance. It was a Moose walking down the trail. He galloped off quickly after he spotted us, allowing us to continue. After what seemed like more than two miles we came down past the head of Red Eagle Lake where I was happy to find a pit toilet. We continued down the path until we finally started seeing day hikers, which signaled we were close. Day hikers were always a good sign. The clouds had subsided some but many of the tops of peaks were still clouded over.

We got to the trailhead and walked to the road, following St Mary Lake, and met my mom in town. We ate lunch in Park Cafe and then decided to get a room. Me, my mom, and our dog shared a room at the Red Eagle and had Malarky and Commando next door.

Commando and I got dropped by mom at the intersection of the CDT with the Going to the Sun road, since the official trail was closed. We figured we'd get the road walk out of the way, so we'd could just start fresh on trail tomorrow. We had pretty awesome views of the lower peaks along the lake before it clouded over when we got out of the car. It wasn't until driving up it that we realized how enormous St Mary lake was and that we'd have to walk along it for ten miles. A sign told us the lake was 299 ft deep, and I wondered if Lake Trout or other monsters lurked its depths.

The drizzle began spitting at us as we started our slackpack. We'd left our packs in the room and walked toward town, making it easier on ourselves and my mom, who'd only have to come get us at the road we'd walk in on, instead at the top. It was cold and windy, but at least the wind was at our backs.

 At this point we were set in keeping our continuous footpath from Mexico to Canada. Since we'd already come this far there was no reason to skip now, even if it was a dangerous roadwalk along a busy two-lane road without a shoulder. It was unfortunate because the trail we were supposed to be on was closed due to fire damage, though upon further inspection it really didn't look bad. We finished the walk by 5pm and my mom just happened to be there right as we rounded the corner to the visitor center.

My mom after she dropped us off at the Going to the Sun Road to hike down

After we cleaned up, we headed down to dinner and saw Sanjay, Tom, and Rafiki trying to hitch. We stopped and convinced them to just stay in St Mary and eat pizza with us. It was fun reconnecting with them and we shared stories from the last few days. We both had been through quite a bit of snow and had plenty to share. It was fun to see the guys one more time. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and headed for early bed.