[pct-l] pct'04 planning

[kdpo at pacbell.net (Ken Powers)]

I can relate to that.  My trail shoes that I finished the AT in were so
stinky I bought the only pair of shoes that would fit me in Millnocket, ME
and immediately threw the old ones in the dumpster. They didn't even make it
to the motel room.

On the crossing the border subject: Slick 60 got checked by the Canadian
Mounties between the border and Manning Park. He was just hours ahead of us
at the border. He had his papers and had no problems. I don't think he
thought to ask what would have happened if he had not had them.

On the CDT we had a bad time getting back into the US. We crossed the day
before they were closing Chief Mtn for the winter. We had already cleaned up
as much as possible - laundry and showers. Caught a ride to the border and
bravely walked up to the US border crossing station. Two guards came out.
Their first words were "Passports, Please." I think we fooled them when we
promptly pulled out both our passports. They examined the passports and our
drivers licenses (with pictures that hardly matched our looks and overstated
our weights). They asked where we had been. We told them that we had just
hiked the Continental Divide from Mexico to Canada, They weren't impressed -
to state it mildly. "Where have you been in the last couple of days" was all
they wanted to know. We stated we had hiked into Canada the afternoon before
and that seemed to satify them.  They were anything but pleasant to us. They
asked us the standard questions "Do you have any weapons, liquor,
cigaettes?" We had none.

"What are you going to do now" they wanted to know. We told them we were
planning to hitch from the border to East Glacier (about 35 miles) to catch
the Amtrak train. That was pretty much the end of the discussion. We walked
about 100 feet down the highway into the US.

A few minutes later a car arrived at the crossing. The border guards had
everyone out of the car, the trunk open and emptied. Then we heard them say
to the tourists "See those people up there. They want to hitch a ride. I
wouldn't pick them up if I were you. They might have a gun or other weapon."
We were furious. They repeated this scene with the next two cars. We
obviously weren't going to get a ride with these two jerks making comments
like that to every car. So we started down the highway. East Glacier was a
long way away and we didn't think we needed any food when we left Waterton.

After walking a few miles we figured the border guards had forgotten about
us. We started trying to hitch. It was late in the season and not a lot of
cars. We finally had a couple from Georgia stop. He didn't want to give us a
ride, but his wife offered anyway. We didn't hesitate. We jumped into the
car before they changed their minds. After starting a conversation with them
things warmed up. When we left their car they still wern't through asking
questions. They would have driven us wherever we wanted to go. We should
have asked for San Francisco.

Ken
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Slyatpct@aol.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] pct'04 planning


> In a message dated 11/26/2003 6:44:33 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> walkinglarry@yahoo.com writes:
>
> > When I flew from Vancouver BC airport (due to a family
> > medical emergency), I was asked how and when I had
> > entered Canada.  My appearance (unshaven hiker with a
> > backpack) probably had much to do with it.
> >
>
> I got on a plane shortly after completing the CDT.  One of the security
guys
> ask me to take off my trail shoes.  LOL.. was that a mistake!  He had me
> quickly put them back on, hardly checking!
>
> Sly
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