June 30

Distance today: 18.4 miles

Mile marker: 3.7

Day two started a bit slower than we would’ve liked. Jason took a Benadryl to soothe his mosquito bites and it dragged the morning out a bit, but we made great progress for the day. We started by finishing the climb out of the valley and into a great view. We finally caught a glimpse of Canada!

Then we hopped up to the high point of the day where we stopped for lunch. Jason had garlic mushroom orzo and Alex had spaghetti mac. We ran into our fellow Coloradan from yesterday, a bloke from the UK, and an older woman from Perth, Australia heading southbound after tagging the border. He had hiked most of the trail northbound a few years ago and was finishing the rest of it this year.

We started our 4000′ descent towards Canada and stopped only briefly for Jason to take a quick swim in the alpine lake. We reached the junction with the northwest train and setup camp. From there, it was only 3.7 miles to the border!

On our way to the border, we ran into that same gent from the UK who described the trail as “cruisey” which is a new term that will be a fixture of our vocabulary going forward. We ran into a few others who were returning from their mission to touch the border. The trail was a bit overgrown in places with several downed trees. We thought we’d be the last ones at the bordwr, but we ran into one other person heading down after we left.

The obelisk is still there and grand! It felt good to know that the hike was actually beginning. We celebrated by eating some pepperoni and resting at the border (but squarely on the US side!). We thought about making a dash north – we could blend in. Tomorrow is Canada Day, after all. We signed the log book. Maybe 20-30 people had beat us there, but we are probably part of the early crowd.

Heading back to camp, we filtered some water and took a quick wash. Before reaching camp, we stopped for dinner. Jason had Shin ramen noodles and Alex had “potato mac surprise.”  Alex’s came a little charred again – something we need to figure out. A few deer wandered past our dinner and the sun set just as we reached our tent. Tomorrow is the first day that counts.