July 19, 2020 to July 21, 2020
My grand-niece, Melissa, joined me for this section as she owns property near the trail and is interested in future trail maintenance for this section. This was Melissa’s first backpacking trip and she turned out to be a fantastic hiker and good trail company.
The first part of the trail was a bit of a road walk.
We ran into the herd of south bounders on this section. Since the Glacier National Park section of the CDT was closed the hikers had started their hikes at different locations and various methods. Some road walked in to Marias Pass. Others just started at Marias Pass on Hwy 2. It was a strung out group of about 9 hikers we crossed all in one day.
We experienced almost non-stop blowdown which made hiking miserable and dangerous. We pushed ourselves on the last day and arrived at McDonald Pass in the dark and camped in the campground by Highway 12. The next morning we hitched a ride into Helena and rented a car to drive home.
I was able to regroup and join Edward, my son-in-law, and Max, my grandson, August 1st for the Section K hike of the PCT from Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass. It was wonderful to re-hike this section in good weather as it had been raining most of the time on my thru hike.
Edward and Max
Lucy Ondo 