To PCT mile 787 (stats here).
The night was cold. I did not feel it, but when I got up, I noticed that my water bottles were frozen. I cowboy camped but the WM sleeping bag is performing well. What was really annoying is that I noticed that there was a cut in the bag. I have no idea from where it came from. The feathers were coming out of the cut. I used my electrical tape to cover it but the thing does not properly stick to the fabric. It was my original plan to skip the next resupply location as I had plenty of food, but now I thought I would need to get to town and think of something,
I got moving 6am as the previous day still felt heavy on my legs. I met BigFoot who had travelled a bit further and we continued together. Creeks and streams were now everywhere.
When you are irritated, you do not pay attention and mistakes accumulate. It was maybe 7am when we hit a bigger creek. There was no obvious way to get over without getting your feet wet. We went a bit upstream, and there were rocks that you could use to jump over. Seemed easy enough, so I went first. The distance from the last rock to the opposite shore was a bit long, but I could do it. The opposite bank was at higher elevation, and I did not take into account my heavy backpack. I jumped, landed on the edge, and the weight of the backpack tipped me back. I submerged fully into the creek and hit my head on a rock. It happened in an instant, and I felt puzzled. The bump to my head was light and I was up and crawling to the other side quickly. Once there, I thanked myself for one being stupid and arrogant, and for one for the fact that I had just closed my pocket where I had my camera and phone. They were intact, and the only things that went broken were my ego and the cover for my toothbrush.
I was shivering for the next hour but full of adrealine so we hiked quickly towards Forrester Pass. Even with the wind, the sun was out and going quickly dried out my stuff well. It is not hot here at higher elevations, but stuff still dries out pretty nicely.
Approaching Forrester Pass was a bit intimidating. The trees disappeared, the amount of water increased everywhere and the mountains grew larger. There were no other hikers and we feared we would be too late. As the day progresses, the snow melts more and it becomes more difficult and dangerous to traverse the snow fields.
The climb to the pass was a bit strenuous. Once at the pass, we saw that the other side was fully covered with snow. There was a glissading path (slide the slope with your ass) made by previous hikers. I first thought that I am not gonna do it, with these conditions and the thin shorts. BigFoot did not. But then I carefully did it anyway. By foot it would have been too slow. The snow was not hard to travel. I was lazy not to utilize the microspikes and slipped every now and then.
There was more trouble when we got temporarly away from the snow and to the rocks. The actual trail was seemingly blocked by small rocks and there was what looked like an alternative path, veering to right and towards a steep drop. We figured that people have been able to avoid going over more snow so we took the alternative path. After a while it seemed that it was not a real path and a very risky descend with gravel, rocks and slipping stones. We were glad we made it intact. Once my foot slipped, and I was able to get a hold with my hand.
The scenary was best so far on this trek. Ascending to other side really was something. We kept a long break when we got to the tree line. Napping in the sun felt great. After continuing, a guy coming from the opposite direction said that there was trail magic further ahead. It was an amazing setup. Smiley and co had faked a "welcome to Canada" party and carried a ton of food with a mule train for 14 miles. There were spaghetti, tortillas, wine, whisky and some snacks. Early gave me a patch of real gear fixing tape and I fixed my bag a bit more properly. I celebrated the day by pooping and called it in early.
The night was cold. I did not feel it, but when I got up, I noticed that my water bottles were frozen. I cowboy camped but the WM sleeping bag is performing well. What was really annoying is that I noticed that there was a cut in the bag. I have no idea from where it came from. The feathers were coming out of the cut. I used my electrical tape to cover it but the thing does not properly stick to the fabric. It was my original plan to skip the next resupply location as I had plenty of food, but now I thought I would need to get to town and think of something,
I got moving 6am as the previous day still felt heavy on my legs. I met BigFoot who had travelled a bit further and we continued together. Creeks and streams were now everywhere.
When you are irritated, you do not pay attention and mistakes accumulate. It was maybe 7am when we hit a bigger creek. There was no obvious way to get over without getting your feet wet. We went a bit upstream, and there were rocks that you could use to jump over. Seemed easy enough, so I went first. The distance from the last rock to the opposite shore was a bit long, but I could do it. The opposite bank was at higher elevation, and I did not take into account my heavy backpack. I jumped, landed on the edge, and the weight of the backpack tipped me back. I submerged fully into the creek and hit my head on a rock. It happened in an instant, and I felt puzzled. The bump to my head was light and I was up and crawling to the other side quickly. Once there, I thanked myself for one being stupid and arrogant, and for one for the fact that I had just closed my pocket where I had my camera and phone. They were intact, and the only things that went broken were my ego and the cover for my toothbrush.
I was shivering for the next hour but full of adrealine so we hiked quickly towards Forrester Pass. Even with the wind, the sun was out and going quickly dried out my stuff well. It is not hot here at higher elevations, but stuff still dries out pretty nicely.
 |
| My partner in crime today, BigFoot. |
Approaching Forrester Pass was a bit intimidating. The trees disappeared, the amount of water increased everywhere and the mountains grew larger. There were no other hikers and we feared we would be too late. As the day progresses, the snow melts more and it becomes more difficult and dangerous to traverse the snow fields.
 |
| The other side of the pass and glissading marks on the right. |
The climb to the pass was a bit strenuous. Once at the pass, we saw that the other side was fully covered with snow. There was a glissading path (slide the slope with your ass) made by previous hikers. I first thought that I am not gonna do it, with these conditions and the thin shorts. BigFoot did not. But then I carefully did it anyway. By foot it would have been too slow. The snow was not hard to travel. I was lazy not to utilize the microspikes and slipped every now and then.
There was more trouble when we got temporarly away from the snow and to the rocks. The actual trail was seemingly blocked by small rocks and there was what looked like an alternative path, veering to right and towards a steep drop. We figured that people have been able to avoid going over more snow so we took the alternative path. After a while it seemed that it was not a real path and a very risky descend with gravel, rocks and slipping stones. We were glad we made it intact. Once my foot slipped, and I was able to get a hold with my hand.
 |
| Back to the tree line. |
The scenary was best so far on this trek. Ascending to other side really was something. We kept a long break when we got to the tree line. Napping in the sun felt great. After continuing, a guy coming from the opposite direction said that there was trail magic further ahead. It was an amazing setup. Smiley and co had faked a "welcome to Canada" party and carried a ton of food with a mule train for 14 miles. There were spaghetti, tortillas, wine, whisky and some snacks. Early gave me a patch of real gear fixing tape and I fixed my bag a bit more properly. I celebrated the day by pooping and called it in early.
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