Steamboat to Canada

Getting from Steamboat to Glacier turned out to be harder than we expected. None of the car rental places wanted to let us do a one way rental to east glacier for a reasonable amount of money. We still had the option of having Austin drive us up but it was going to be a big pain for him since he couldn't get the same days off as his girlfriend like he had originally planned. Plus spending 28 hours driving was more than I was willing to ask him to do.

We eventually got in touch with some other hikers that were renting a van from Durango and diving up to Kalispell, the closest major town just west of Glacier, then getting a ride to east glacier with their trail angel friend. They were willing to add us to the trip which would make the van full with 12 people. The price was about the same as us renting a truck and diving but would be more comfortable.

The van ended up showing up a day late due to "mechanical" issues, but there was plenty of space. I took some dramamine so I wouldn't get car sick and was glad I did since I ended up in the back row.

We drove to Jackson Hole to pick up our 12th hiker and had dinner at the brewery. The food was food was good but the waiter never came to our table once. They had split the group in two and he waited on the other group while the manager took our drink and dinner orders. I guess the waiter thought the manager was going to take care of us all night cause he didn't come to our table. After dinner I eventually got tired of waiting and went up to the manager and told her about it. She comped our drinks and gave us the employee discount. That was nice but I would have preferred to have had something to drink with my meal. I doubt I'll go back.

After leaving Jackson we headed north for another hour before we decided to call it a day. The driver had been going since 5 am and was definitely tired. We got a suite at a super 8 motel which was surprisingly big enough to fit all 12 of us comfortably.

We set the alarm for 330 so we could make it to Kalispell by 11 am. After dropping 2 hikers off in Butte so the could northbound the trail. We only had 2 hours to drive 3 hours of road. Thankfully the rental shop let us turn it in at 2 pm when we called them.

When we got to Kalispell they grabbed the trail angels car and 5 hikers got dropped off at the park and made backcountry reservations. The rest of us hung out at the airport until the trail angel could take us up to east glacier.