We overly prepared for the US-Canada border crossing which opened to US citizens effective August 8, 2021 but with a few additional requirements. Fully vaccinated? Check as we both were fully vaccinated receiving the J&J vaccine in March. Quarantine plan? Check, we found a campground near Calgary, Alberta where we could stay if we became ill. A negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of crossing the border? Not check but we had a plan, or so we thought.

After leaving Colorado we headed north and with Denver far in the distance we decided to make an appointment in Montana to get a rapid COVID-19 test. We quickly learned rapid tests are not readily available outside of major US cities and the few places that do offer them were many hours away or did not have appointments for at least a week. Uh Oh. We decided to take a laboratory PCR test at a local Walgreens in Billings, MT and then wait near an area which had a 24-hour border crossing option.

As we drove further north, Montana gifted us a broken windshield care of a passing construction truck. A 5” round impact just above head height on the driver’s seat was provided by a baseball sized rock. Literally, safety glass saved my life as we were going 70+ mph when this occurred. It shook me up for a bit imagining the “what if’s?”.

We arrived in Great Falls, MT and explored the area while awaiting our test results. We used the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center as our base camp and enjoyed the area and also the adjacent Giant Springs State Park. We hiked in the area, rode our Brompton’s on the trails and Tony took several road bike rides. We stealth camped easily in a couple of different areas near the Missouri River and continued awaiting our results. 60 hours later, I received notice that there was a lab error which invalidated my test and I would need to repeat it. Shit. We scrambled and both had another repeat COVID-19 test at local health department drive-through location in Great Falls which took 5 minutes at most and was much, much easier than Walgreens and all of their extensive paperwork.

After being in Great Falls for 4 days and at 5 PM in the evening, I asked Tony if we should just drive towards Glacier National Park and explore that area and cross the border there instead. Shockingly, he was game and we headed out on a 3 hour drive towards Glacier National Park breaking our rule of not driving at night in the dark. About an hour into this drive, I innocently inquired whether Glacier National Park had implemented time restricted entry requirements. A quick Google search indicated they had implemented such a policy and there was time restricted entry from 6 AM – 5 PM for areas around the Going-to-the-Sun Road and no permits were available for the next several days. Double Shit. What if we entered before 6 AM since the park is open 24 hours a day, I inquired? So we made a plan to stealth camp in St. Mary’s near the entrance, drive through the unmanned gate at 4:45 AM while still in our PJs, park at Logan’s Pass and then go back to sleep for a few hours. Our plan worked but when we woke from our morning “nap” the parking lot was completely full and multiple cars were camped out in each row stalking people for their parking spot. We felt a little guilty as we quickly ate our breakfast in our van, dressed and headed out for a hike, but we were in.

Glacier National Parks is one of our favorite national parks, but we found it considerably more crowded than the last time we visited a few years ago. We were there Labor Day weekend, so I am sure that was a factor, but it was a zoo. We intended to just do the easy and quick hike, Hidden Lake Trail, and then drive to another area for a 2^nd short hike. About this time we realized we had no internet signal in the park so how were we going to get our COVID-19 results? Opps, this is what happens on the Winging It Tour.

There were a lot of people and commotion as we approached the Visitor’s Center. We learned the Hidden Lake trail had just been closed due to grizzly bears being spotted close to the trail. The Highline Trail was still open but there was a missing hiker so helicopters, search and rescue teams and search dog teams were all departing for this trail where she was thought to have been last hiking. We have hiked the entire Highline Trail previously and it is a lovely trail, but we were not geared or prepared for that length of hike so we decided to just hike for an hour and then turn around and make it an out-and-back instead of a loop. Luckily, most people only hike the beginning ½ mile of the trail, so once past that point the hiker crowd thinned considerably. It was a beautiful, cool and sunny day and it was a thoroughly enjoyable hike. The views from that trail never disappoint.

As we left Logan’s Pass, we attempted to hike another trail but all the trailheads were completely full with cars waiting for an open space so we decided we had pushed our luck too far already and exited the park. Upon exiting, we immediately received our negative COVID-19 test results. YEAH! With a full tank of gas (Canadian gas is much more expensive) we crossed the US-Canada border without issue. No lines, no questions, no problems. We were through the border in under 2 minutes. Hello sweet Canada, it has been too long, my friend.

A few more hours of driving and we were tucked into a campground near Calgary with plans to explore the city and then venture onwards to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.