PCT Day 6

Start: 1433.9

Stop: 1445.4

Today’s miles: 11.5

Total PCT miles: 64.3

I had big plans for today. I was going to wake up early, crush this snow, make some miles, be brave! Damn, I’m funny. If only I knew what today had in store for me.

I actually slept incredibly well on my slanted spot near all the snow. Especially for being so paranoid once it got dark.. I drifted off before 10pm and woke up a little after midnight to the sound of rain tap tap tapping on my tent.. when I woke up for this rain-my face was smooshed into the mesh side panels of my tent. Like so smooshed it took me a second to realize why I couldn’t open my eyes! And I had drool everywhere! LOL I guess my sleeping pad slid a little during those two hours and I was just knocked out cold. Worth it.

I quickly checked and made sure everything was dry (I’ve never had an issue with this tent, except for the condensation in the mornings from my hot breath all night, but I’m still paranoid after that one tent I had on the AT allowed a little river to come right through the middle of it.). I was back to sleep the second my face was back down, although I did scoot the pad back to where it should have been.

My watch alarm vibrated at 5:30. I actually giggled. Yeah right am I getting up at 5:30 in the wet, damp morning when the birds aren’t even up yet! I took my synthroid and fell back to sleep. An hour later, I finally got moving-but slowly. It was cold. Not like freezing cold, but definitely like I want to eat my oatmeal snuggled in my quilt cold. So I got up, got my food bag (I also peed & cleaned my hands), and came back to bed to make my oatmeal and coffee.

I was finally packed and on snow-I mean trail by 7:40. I had my microspikes on and made my way through the not so fluffy white stuff. I ended up taking them off after maybe 30 minutes in them. Everything I was crossing, while frequent, wasn’t hard to balance on as long as I used my trekking poles.. and when I did get back to solid ground, the microspikes hurt my feet a little. So, I took them off and at times felt like I was skating and other times I thought to myself I am an absolute moron and should have left them on.

It was slow moving, a lot of the snow underneath the massive piles I was walking on had started melting and making little streams, it was difficult at first to figure out what was safe to walk on, what definitely wasn’t, and all of the questionable variables in between. At some point I gained confidence, especially when I picked up other people’s footprints. I thanked God for them all day today, even when they led me astray.
There were many moments where I’d stop and look around, then freak myself out because I was just utterly surrounded by the snow, and if I didn’t have my app to follow or those footlprints, it would be so easy to get very very lost out here. I haven’t laid eyes on another human all day. It’s a little unnerving.

Sometime between 11-1 I went through a logging area, it looked awful and it was hard to maneuver over and around all the accidental or purposeful fallen trees. It looked like a place to buy wood chips by the truckload. But, also surrounded by snow. And no people buying or selling wood chips. Ha.

I decided to sit on one of the purposefully cut tree stumps for lunch around noon. As I was pulling out my bagel to make a sandwich, it started sprinkling. I shoved everything in (after pulling out a snack to stick in my Fanny pack-sour patch kids from Jennifer Kilgo!) put on my rain cover and got out my umbrella. Minutes after I started walking again-the sky fell out and decided to dump hail on me for a good 20-30 minutes. Thankfully there wasn’t much snow to navigate at this point.

Around 1 the rain stopped, so I found another stump. Thankfully the sun was shining again too. I ate my lunch while my tent, socks, and shoes all sat drying out in the sunshine. It wasn’t the prettiest views, but I was happy and honestly a bit proud of myself for making it through this type of terrain. I’ve never hiked through snow like this, unless you count when I walked down a black diamond ski slope in Heavenly Ski Resort because the guy told me I was “required” to ski down it. This is way different though. While that guy was a jackass, and I was being stubborn as hell, he was at the very least required to keep me safe or he’d lose his job. I’m required to keep myself safe out here, or I could lose my life. Scary shit.

Anywho. In the afternoon the trail went over some ridge lines which were stunning. On my left, I could see mostly snow free valleys covered in trees surrounded by other mountains. To my right-tons of trees sloping down into a valley surround by nothing but snow. And water. Haha, every single turn my brain was like, “please don’t go back into that yet! Please!”

I was getting frustrated at how slow I was moving. Over the day I had slipped into the snow on my butt at least 5 times, the last time post-holing and losing my shoe, making me have to shove my hand in the hole of branches and twigs to find it. As the day went on, the more likely it would be that I’d sink more and more when I walked through the white stuff.

Around 4pm, I turn a corner and see huge billowing storm clouds ahead. I keep walking and see that around that next bend, I’m back in snow. NO! I did not want to be caught in a storm in the snow with no idea when I’d get out of it again. You just don’t know, sometimes it’s less than a minute of quick walking, the next time it’s 20-30 minutes traversing a whole valley floor with seriously deep looking tree wells.

I turned around and spotted a decent-ish sort of flat spot by this chunk of snow and ice beside some trees. While I was pondering whether I should just set up shop right there, right now, and deal with all this crap tomorrow.. thunder tumbled through. Ok, noted. It was 4:13. I dropped my stuff and started setting up my tent. The thunder continued and then I could hear the wind. That was terrifying. I knew rain would be coming any second so even before I finished staking it all out correctly, I pushed my pack inside the tent, then finished feverishly working to make sure it was staked well enough in this soft ground to hopefully weather whatever storm was coming for me.

I leapt inside by 4:18, shoes off.. and at 4:21 the first rain drops started their decent. I’ve slowly started unpacking. My pad is up and my warmer clothes are on. I’m actually pretty chilled and my legs look cut to shreds thanks to the overgrown trail. I’m not hungry yet though, which is a little concerning. I am super tired, so I’m considering skipping dinner and getting some shut eye now, with the rain, and maybe I’ll sleep through anything worse coming my way. I haven’t seen lightening, but it’s been over an hour and the thunder is still rumbling. The rain is a soft pitter patter and I don’t hear the wind like I did.

Who knows. Maybe I’ll wait a bit and eat dinner sometime closer to 7 to help break it up a little. Otherwise I might be wide awake at 3am and I know I’m too chicken shit to go hike in the dark in the snow alone, hahaha, so if I did, I’d just lay here waiting for 5am to roll around. Part of me thinks I should just eat to make the pack lighter, because that is the smartest thing to do, replace calories, have a warm belly when you’re cold, lighten the load. But I’m just not feeling it right now.

Alright, until tomorrow I guess, unless I get fidgety and think of more things to ramble on about. Goodnight!