Start: 2648.9 to Canadian border and then to
Stop: 17-SOBO
Today’s miles: 23.3/only 17 SOBO count
Total PCT miles: 204.8
The beauty here is unmatched, but damn it’s cold as hell! That snow I thought wouldn’t accumulate to much turned our world into a winter wonderland. In the middle of the night I could see the snow piling on my tent and making it sag, so I’d break it off by pushing on it praying that was enough to not bring it down on me.
The bivvy warmed me up and I slept with it all night, of course waking up to a damp sleeping bag liner. Crap. And it wouldn’t be warm or sunny enough today to do anything about that. I woke from dream at 5:45, and it was an odd one: NancyPants Fischer was giving me a hug and when I realized it was her I squeezed her so tight she fussed at me to let go, with that laugh of hers still in my ears now (and a couple tears now, too).
Then after talking awhile, not that I can remember about what, she goes, “ok, you’re gonna be late! Get to it!” Kissed my cheek and I woke up. Dammit y’all, I really flippin miss her.
With that dream on my mind, I couldn’t press snooze. And then when I noticed the white glow outside my tent, I started to panic. I quickly packed up just my food bag (after getting a snack out of it for my hip belt pocket), my electronics, and my water filtering stuff. I stuffed my sleeping bag in the dry bag and rolled it a few times, so if my tent collapsed while I was gone my sleep stuff should stay fine. I left my sleeping bag liner and the bivvy laid out to hopefully.. dry? Lol yeah right. But beggars can’t be choosers. I got my shoes on and was out the door.
My God it was a totally different scene than the one I saw before bed. Completely white all around. I peed real quick, then shoveled the snow away and off of my tent.. walked over to see if Marquis (I spelled his name wrong, still pronounced like Marcus) left his tent. I already saw his massive footsteps leading to the trail. He did, so I felt better leaving mine, too.
It was 6:15 when I passed A-Train and Drake’s tent.. no footsteps to be seen in the snow besides Marquis’ that I was following.. but I didn’t want to yell to them if they were finally sleeping well. I regretted that later, when I was worried about them not catching up to me, until they did 😉
It was completely white all around except for the set of footprints I was following. Thankfully because of him, I knew where the trail was going so my mind was at ease. I passed Wolf and two people hiking with her just as they were getting up from their tents, Pica and FoodTruck (they camped about 3 miles closer to the terminus) and they were just as shocked as I was about the snow! Hearing that first sound of “WTF?!” Had me laughing because I did the same thing-amazement, shock, slight horror. It’s one thing to wake up, look outside and see snow and then put on a sweatshirt while watching tv.. completely different feeling when it’s coming down and you’re miles and miles from safety and a warm anything.
I carried on. Not far from passing them, the snow turned to sleet, and then to rain: cold cold rain. Y’all, I was hiking in every layer I own and the cold water now seeping into my shoes, in a way the snow had not, had me shivering! It was pure torture ! It rained like this all the way to the terminus. I ran into Marquis about 15-20 minutes before reaching the border. He had the same thoughts I did.. try to get as far out of this hole and snow as possible today. The problem is, the border was 6.3 miles downhill.. which meant turning around was 6.3 uphill to pack up the stuff we left, then another mile or so of snowy/potentially more sketchy switchbacks and ridge crossings.. yikes.
I got to the terminus, walked a little farther so I can say I went to Canada.. and then took pictures to mark the occasion, before stripping some layers and protecting them inside my pack. I also decided to put my phone away too, just to be cautious, with the rain and snow.. and I felt confident I’d have footprints to follow.
I was the only person the most north on the PCT for a solid hour or so! There was no one more north than me until I ran into A-train and Drake! It was a weird feeling! I was happy to see them, just under an hour after I reached the terminus and started hiking back south. They ended up packing all their gear. We talked a bit about the plans for the day: they too wanted out of this bowl. There was a campsite 5 miles past the lake, 8 miles from the lake, and then 11 miles from the lake. The second 2 seemed safer, since those would be lower elevations, with the last one being the lowest. We all made “idk” faces and decided we’d just see how far we got.
I got back to camp at 12:30, slower than expected. I was shaking from the cold. I ate my oatmeal and drank hot coffee in my tent, letting all of those things warm me through. Then I packed as quick as I could. I had to reshovel snow off my tent before I could take it down. It was hard to do, and I kept pausing to warm up my hands. Now, I’ve realized I’ve broken both thumb nails pretty low on the nailbed.. it had to be when I was taking the tent down and forcing out frozen stakes. Before setting off, I put on my microspikes. Better to be safe!
I looked for Marquis but couldn’t see his tent.. I was pretty sure those were a second set of his footprints though, so I assumed he was in front of me. I was so thankful for him, all of the sketchy areas he would drag his trekking poles and so I could see exactly where the trail went. At the top of the switchbacks when it came time to go up to a snowy peak, he drew arrows showing the better way to go. A true Angel, seriously.
I started running into northbound hikers, at least 7-9 of them. I’d ask about Marquis and A-Train and Drake (I assumed they passed me while I was packing and eating, but I couldn’t differentiate their steps in the snow). Half the people saw all of them, the rest saw one of them.. I had no clue where anyone was. Except for Margo, one girl said she saw that Margo decided to walk back to Hart’s Pass yesterday.. her pad kept deflating and her leggings were torn, I hope she got to town and warmed up ok.
I made it to Woody Pass: the tent sites were covered in snow. I made my way down and heard an avalanche or a tree breaking and sliding towards the area we ate lunch at yesterday: note to self, don’t camp there! And all this time I never caught up to anyone. So, I kept chugging along. Around 3pm I saw a site or two that I could make work, but decided against it because I’d be cold as hell waiting for morning to come for that long. I was warming up pretty nicely with the steady movement.
I made it up Rock Pass and the sketchy snow area just after 5pm. Then, I made it to the next campsite area we had all talked about just before 6, and it was a ghost town. No A-Train and Drake.. No Marquis. Hmmm.. did they carry on to do a 23 mile day? It is all down hill from here to the campsites. Surely that’s what they did.. so I kept going another 2.3 miles.
I get to the bottom of this mountain and can see a tent! I walked over to it, and it’s not either of my friends. It’s FoodTruck that was hiking with Wolf and Pica. Only he is set up here, so he must have wanted to stop early. Dammit, where the hell are my friends?! Oh well, surely I missed them somehow. I found a flat spot with some distance between us so my crinkling and rotisserie-ing doesn’t bother FoodTruck, and I set up shop. I took my time and dried out the inside with the last bandana I have.. Then once everything was inside and set up, I ate dinner closer to the trail.
After dinner I got in bed for the night. Not long afterwards I heard a couple walk through. I popped my head out so fast hoping for my friends, but it was a different couple, Molly and Harry, hiking north at the moment. They did as I did and walked around until they found were they wanted to lay claim. And now, at 9:20pm it’s starting to get dark. My bed stuff is a little damp. I’m cold, but nothing like last night. It’s drizzling a little bit out there and I think it’s time for me to roll over and call it a night. Sweet dreams, y’all.