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And now what?!
We stayed in Waterton for two nights. On day two we tried to hitch from Waterton back to East Glacier. It took us about 30 minutes to get a ride out of Waterton. At the boarder we had to take the car line to cross, as there was no passenger walking linesđ The boarder patrol just asked 'are you CDT hikers?' And we confirmed. He briefly checked our passports and let us pass. That was super easy! I was a little afraid that I didn't have the right Visa for Canada, but the Canadian boarder didn't even check. So now we are back in the USA. But there is hardly any traffic at this side of the boarder. Only a handful cars passed us in 1 hour and there is only one street to take, but no car stopped. After a little over an hour a nice car stopped. They will take us half the way, where they turn to another direction. In St. Mary they dropped us off at the petrol station and souvenir store. From there you can either drive to East Glacier, where we want to go to, or take the Going-to-the-Sun road through Glacier National Park direction West Glacier. It was 5pm and the Souvenir store closed, hence all the cars where leaving. Good timing, we got a hitch straight to East Glacier within 2 minutes.
Arrivng at the Looking Glass in East Glacier a big group of hikers welcomed us. I run into Stumbelbee and Sprouts, whom I met last in Salida, Colorado and also Longstride was here, with whom I hiked many days in northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Also Pirate, Buckwild, Shuttle and Honeybager, who have already reached the boarder, are back here. In East Glacier nothing much happens anymore. Most of the restaurants have been closed for the season just when we hiked out to the boarder. We stayed at the Looking Glass for one night.
The next day I talked with Stumbelbee about how to extend the B2 Visa, to may stay in the US for 2 week's longer. She has already looked into it. Doing so, we noticed that the stamp in my passport given to me when entering the US on the 21st of April was not the B2 Visa stamp. I was given the normal 90 days stay stamp and should have left the US on the 19th of July already! I am staying here illegal since a couple of months!đą I have no clue what to do now and googled for hours. I found out that in Las Vegas they have an immigration office and I hope I can go there and solve the problem. But for now there is nothing more I can do, hence I try to ignore this problem! In the afternoon also Piper and Duskman, together with Vista, arrived. I couldn't believe we would see them again, as they just reached the boarder this morning. However, they hiked to the Chief Mountain boarder. This boarder is currently closed to pass but as there is a trailhead, you might get lucky for a hitch back. And so did they. It was wonderful seeing both Piper and Duskman again. It is their first thru-hike and while so many other hikers gave up, they made it all the way to the end, a truly amazing achievement! In the late afternoon it was time for us to pack up and say goodbye. A very strange feeling. This really feels like the end, more than when reaching the boarder. Most of us hikers are trying to keep up the illusion, that this journey hasn't yet come to an end. But now I can't deny it any longer. Together with Vista and Shuttle we leave to the Amtrak train station. We will take the train from East Glacier, departing at 7.50pm till Spokane, arriving at 2.00am. Then we have booked a flight at 10.50am to Las Vegas. The Amtrak trains are surprisingly nice. They have a huge foot space, big seats which you can nearly turn into beds and the train personal will wake us up when we are about to reach Spokane. I had a couple of hours of sleep, and the 6hrs passed by in no time. Once in Spokane in the middle of the night, time didn't quite pass as fast anymore. We stayed in the train station. While Soccermum blew up is air mattress and set up his 'camp' on the ground, I was sitting on the chairs. But I couldn't sleep anymore and was more than happy once the sun rise shortly before 7am. I was listening to an Harry Potter audiobook all night. We walked out of the train station and got breakfast at a diner, my last chicken-fried steak with gravy! Then we headed to the airport, and again waited there for a couple of hours. Our flight has been delayed by an hour. Just when reaching the airport I remembered my wrong stamp in my passport and was worried, if they even will let me fly to Las Vegas! But they did. My passport was only looked at briefly and given back to me, what a relief! We finally reached Vegas in the early afternoon and stepped out to a hot and dry day. What a change coming from East Glacier! I am wearing my long hiker pants, a shirt and jumper and was hot in no time. We are staying at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, one of the cheaper rooms we found still being in the middle of the Strip. But arriving there, the check-in area was crowed. We decided to walk around the Strip and check in later. At 6pm we walked back to the hotel and tried to check in for the second time but it was still full of people. We left our backpacks at the storage and went for dinner at an all you can eat Sushi place in China town, recommended by a Hotel staff. I didn't even know that Vegas had a China town. It was a little out of the strip, having now car we walked there. The China town was not really a China town, just a couple of buildings. But the Sushi place was full with people and we filled our belly with all kind of Sushi, it was so delicious! It was after 11pm we reached the hotel for our 3rd attempt to check in and finally there was no line anymore. I don't know why but checking in the lady gave us an upgrade. Reaching our room it turned out we were given a Suite on the top level with an amazing view to the Strip. I love this room but it is a pity we only have it till tomorrow 11am. Also, today I called customs and boarder protection in Las Vegas and send them an email. The next morning they called me to come and see them at the airport. I went there and was informed that I was given a wrong stamp in my passport, but that the information was correctly entered in the system. He just striked through the stamp and added a B2 manually to my passport. I asked him to also sign it so he added a Las Vegas Office manuayll next to it. Wow, I mean I am glad that everything worked out that easily and I don't have to leave the US or being banned, but I didn't really see why he couldn't tell me that on the phone. I could have striked through the stamp on my passport myself! Anyway, I am glad that chore is closed. He also informed me how to prolong my Visa, but to do so I would have to pay 300 or 400 USD, which is not worth it for just staying one or two weeks longer.
The next day Soccermum's dad picked us up and drove us to Cedar City. Here we are planning the next steps, while visiting friends and family in Utah. We will go back on trail in New Mexico and hike the section which was closed when I passed trough there in May. It is a 250 miles section from Chama to Grants and once I hiked that section too, I did hike all of the CDT. After being back in civilisation for a week, I am more than ready to go back on trail. 'Sledge', another thru hiker will give us a drive back to Chama. Let's see how it will be like being back on trail, I can't wait!
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