Snow Again

We woke up, had our usual hearty pop tart breakfast, tended to our feet, and packed up. We started out at 8:05 today. There were some beautiful views with some lakes below us as we hiked up and down several ridges. We also saw some orange yellow fungus type plants which we have been seeing on and off and I took a picture of them. I know not what they are. We were making pretty good time when we came across a snowfield near mile 1211. some people had climbed up to the rocks above it and then back down to avoid it. We started up that way but in looking at it, decided to try to cross the snow. You may ask why there was even a decision to make here?

Carol Crossing Snowfield

Well, there was a 100 foot or so section that was pretty steep and if you fell, it would probably mean that you would become a human toboggan until you hit the rocks and trees several hundred feet below. We decided to cross this although in hindsight, we should have taken the safer but longer and more strenuous route above. Part of the reason we crossed is that the snow was soft enough on top for me to kick some good footholds in it. I would plant my feet, kick a foothold, move one foot, plant the feet, kick a foothold, move other foot all the way across. Carol was able to use my footsteps to maneuver across. We did not look down the slope, our eyes focused entirely on our feet, as we slowly made our way across. Past the chute, we were still on snow for another 100 feet or so until we hit solid trail and ground again. This crossing was about as close to living on the edge as you could get.

From here the snow dwindled again as we made our way to Little Jamieson Creek, which much to our dismay was not flowing with Jamieson, although the water in it was very good and near the trail.

Near Little Jamieson Creek

It was so nice, that we decided to sit in the shade and have lunch while we rehydrated some. As we were packing up, another hiker called “Freight Train” came over to talk with us. His name was Aresh and he was from Iran. He has been here for 30 years but still knows people there. When I asked if he was Muslim, he said he was born Muslim but has renounced that faith. He told me he had never protested anything until President Obama signed the agreement with Iran. He went to Washington to protest and told us that our president does not understand how evil these people are and that they will build an atomic bomb no matter what they say. Interesting to hear his perspective. We left Freight Train to his lunch and hiked on. We soon passed a large group of Boy Scouts who pulled over to the side of the trail to let us by. I of course ran by getting and giving low and high fives.

Eventually, we made it to our next water source, the A Tree Spring. It was about 100 feet off trail and flowing nicely. We again sat in the shade and cameled up while we filtered water for the next stretch ahead of us.

A Tree Spring

It was getting a little warm out and we had a big climb of over 900 feet coming up after the spring. This of course stays within the PCT rules of whenever you fill up with water (at 2.2 pounds per liter), you must immediately carry this heavy load on an uphill trail. I put in my mp3 player for a little uplifting music and my feet responded as we did well on the climb up. The day up to here had been a series of ups and downs making for a fairly tough day so the music helped. Unfortunately, once we hit the top of the climb section, the other side of the ridge had a lot of snow again. this made the long descent tricky in many spots. The snow continued and flourished even when we got below 7000 feet, It lasted until 6,600 feet and although it was not a continuous snowfield, we were hiking along some steep slopes, so we had to watch our footing. We finally made it to W Nelson Creek and our camp at 5:15 PM with our knees hurting from the downhill and kicking steps in the snow. Set up camp and ate a dinner of Taco rice in a tortilla finishing up just as the mosquitos were deciding it was their dinner time.

W Nelson Creek Camp

We hiked 14.1 Miles today at a pace of 2.3MPH. The high point today was 7513 feet and we are now camped at 6300 feet. Carol just told me that I have a kick ass wife and I cannot dispute this assertion. She did great on this tough day and helped push me on several occasions. I am feeling whupped right now.