The Wolf Pack

I mentioned the idea of this adventure to some of my hiking buddies (Ben, Tim, Chad, and John) whom I hiked the Superior Hiking Trail with last year and they seem very interested.  This changes things a bit, if there is a group going then it would no longer be finacially adventagous to take the Amtrak.  If a vehicle(s) will be taken then the trail plan needs to be modified to work around getting to and from a vehicle.  There seems to be three options that work in this situation:

1.  Hike out and back.  This works just like it sounds, park the car at a trail head and hike out and back.  I'm not a big fan of seeing the same trail twice, in my experience once you've tackled the hardships of certain sections of a trail you don't want to see them again (e.g. The first few miles of trail just north of the Castle Danger trail head on the SHT in mid-May).

2.  Hike a loop.  This is similar to hiking out and back, except you plan a route that takes you in a big circle.  This is an option worth looking into.

3.  Drop the vehicle.  This is my preferred method of hiking because you hike through from one point to the other.  There are a couple of drawbacks though:  A.  You have to be able to get from where you drop your vehicle back to where you are starting your journey.  If there is a shuttle then you are in good shape, otherwise you could use a taxi service or outfitter if they are available, or even stash a bike at the end and use that to take you back to your car (We did this in the BWCA and it sucked, the last thing you want to do after spending a grueling week in the backcountry is hop on a 10 spped and ride dirt roads in the rain for 30 miles to get back to your car).  B.  You have to finish.  There are no short cuts, once you're on the trail you have to make it all the way out, phoning a friend for an "emergency" evacuation in Glacier isn't an option and it is probably not a good idea to break your own leg so that the rangers will come get you out.

Glacier has a free shuttle that runs along the Going Into the Sun Road, so we could plan a route that skips along the road and use the shuttle to get back to the vehicle.  A quick look at the map leaves me a bit discouraged about that plan, not only is there only one real option for a trail to take which runs along the road, but it seems to be the most heavily visted area of the park and one thing you don't want ot see when you're backpacking (Besides bears and John rubbing his nipples) is overwieght annoying tourists running around in sandles and Hawaiian shirts.

There is also a pay shuttle that runs up and down the east side of the park, this looks like the best option for us.  We can drop our gear ar the start and then run the car up to the exit point and take the shuttle back.  Ben and I did that last fall on the SHT and it worked out great, except we waited for the shuttle for quite a while and Ben's car battery was dead when we got to it on Sunday night.