Miles: 9.5
Light floods my tent and I check the time. 4:40 a.m. Jesus. How early does the sun rise out here? I pull the draw string tight on my sleeping bag to block the cold seeping in, and turn over to catch another hour of sleep. By the time 6 am rolls around, I’m stuffing things into small sacks, getting ready for the day. I lay out the snacks and food I’ll eat today in my hip belt pouch. Also known as a fanny pack.
I’m early in getting all of my stuff packed and tell Victor I’m going to hike ahead and scout things out. I lug my pack on and start hiking up. The trail is patchy with snow but not too bad initially. And then I’m back in a different, just as seemingly endless, snowfield. I need to descend and while it’s not too steep, it is icy. Probably a combo of the shade and the early morning. It’s tough going and at some point I do a semi-controlled glissade for lack of better options, in which you slide down the snow on your but. I’m not too practiced in this art and my shorts slide up, causing snow burn on my right thigh. Well, at least I made it down.
I chill and wait for the rest of the group to catch up. I hear voices and I let out a couple of whooping noises. They are heard and returned. We link up and continue our trek together.
It’s tough and slow going. We are following the trail, but consistently can’t see it due to the snow. And the snow build up is often at an angle that requires us to kick steps in for a traverse. We hit a particular treacherous section in which it takes two hours to travel one mile.
The trail gives ground and provides us with dirt and rock for a glorious mile. It feels ridiculously easy to not be walking on snow, and I think if we can make it through this, the trail shouldn’t be too much harder. Which is a dangerous thought. I think the trail will continually present challenges, just in different forms.
We hit another bad section mid-afternoon and I think our goal of tagging the Canadian border by tomorrow night is gone. We are currently 21 miles from the border and I doubt we will event get within the camp site we were scoping tonight, 13 miles out from the border. Man. The thought of hiking for 10 hours and going only 7-8 miles is a tough pill to swallow. This will pass, this will pass, this will pass.
And it does! A burn section comes up that provides glorious snow free switchbacks that are descending. The best combination in the world. Sure the trail is a mess with trees down, as forest service or volunteers from the PCTA haven’t been out here yet, but dodging down trees compared to snow travels? No comparison.
I go ahead of the group and come to what I deem “The Waterfall Problem”. It’s a waterfall without a clear passage through it. I heave in a log, test my balance on it, and decide it’s not safe. I want a second opinion and decide to hike back to the group. It’s a little before 6 pm at this point, and I hope they haven’t already posted up at a campsite.
Only two minutes into backtracking and I run into them. Victor, who is trying out the trail name Banana Split (he has yellow shorts with mud on them and has taken a few slips), waddles across some rocks underneath the current and splashes his way to safety. I feel relieved in seeing this and am thankful to be traveling in a group. In order, Mousetrap, myself, Lisa, and Victor cross.
7 P.M. rolls around and we are a little less than mile from our campsite. Please can we not camp on snow tonight, I think. Last night was pure snow camping and it was borderline comfortability for me in terms of staying warm. Banana Split and I work our way through a snowfield to the campsite, but there’s some dirt underneath the trees. We rig up 3 campsites (Tommy and Lisa are sharing a tent) and after setting up my tent, it’s straight to changing my soaking socks and feet into bag for me. From my sleeping bag, I make dinner and eat a hunk of cheese and Trader Joe’s dark chocolate for dessert. I’m tired and sore but overall feel good about how today went. Morale was low midday, when we were making less than a mile an hour progress, but we hit some good dry sections of the trail in the afternoon. We logged a tick under 10 miles, giving us another 14 or so to the Canadian/US border. It’s a nice goal to try to make it there tomorrow night, but I kind of doubt it. No worries, we all have plenty of food and most importantly have had no injuries up to this point. Oh ya, also we are pretty sure we are the first group of SOBO hikers tagging the border in the 2021 class. We haven’t seen any clear tracks when crossing the snow and have passed no one going the opposite direction. Tomorrow we should find out for sure, but that would be pretty cool to be in the first group to make it to the border.
