Start: 1775.3
Stop: 1790.3
Today’s miles: 15
Total PCT miles: 1642.5
It would be so wonderful if it would quit raining on me when I’m trying to get over mountain passes! Sheesh.. Mother Nature.
I slept pretty dang good, in my queen bed with the heavy blanket.. Although I still tossed and turned and even got up to go to the bathroom at 2am. Weird. The power went off at 10:15 last night, and I was fast asleep seconds afterwards. I purposefully left the bedside lamp on and my stuff plugged in, so when it flipped back on at 6:45am, I was woken up (I rolled back over lol), and my battery bank could hopefully finish charging.
I got up at 7 and immediately took another shower. This time making the effort to shave my legs since I found real shaving cream in the hiker box last night. What a time to be alive! Once out, I slowly packed and looked through my food. Yep-definitely not enough calories for a day.. so, instead of putting everything in my pack as it goes, I left it mostly packed and went up to the store to figure out what else I could buy.
Welp. I got a couple more power bars, just typing that makes me nauseous, but the alternative was tuna packets-and that idea almost had me throwing up in the aisle. I’ll remind my stomach of this protestation when it’s growling and I don’t have anything else to eat! So, extra bars in hand, I went to the register and ordered my breakfast and paid my tab for the last 12 hours. 2 meals, a resupply, lodging, and a ferry boat ride round trip.. it was a small fortune.. so I grabbed a diet Coke for good measure.
I ate an enormous breakfast sandwich: eggs, cheese, bacon, apparently hash browns and some gravy too. Plus, a side of gravy. Wow! The sandwich was superb and I think I shocked some of the staff with how easy I put it away. Around 8:30 I ran back down to my cabin (which the girl working this morning called it the boat house.. neat!) and finished packing. I sat outside at a picnic table and talked with another hiker doing the JMT. We have the same pack. She was so nice to chat with.
Eventually, 9 am rolled around and it was time to get on the ferry. It was 9:40 when we arrived and I spent the next 20 minutes getting my shoes on and talking to mom before I’d lose service again. I started moving at 10am, and felt overall pretty dang good. After the first mile and a half which was the side trail to the ferry, the PCT went over a bridge and then up a massive amount of switchbacks.
I ended up passing 19 people today headed in my same direction. I never pass people! They pass me! Two guys were chit chatting as we went up and it cracked me up when they slowly started falling back. They passed me when I sat to filter water later, but then I passed them again once I started moving. One girl I passed remembered me from yesterday, she said I passed her in the morning on the climb up to Silver Pass. We talked a little while getting water, she’s on her 3rd day of the JMT!
I passed some others that were on the ferry, and then one guy that remembers meeting me before, somewhere on trail, but neither one of us can remember where.. he and I ended up doing the most leapfrogging of the day. After a small descent from the switchbacks, the trail went up and over Selden Pass (10,913 feet). It was gradual and there was tons of water. One spot I took my socks and shoes off to cross in my crocs-because magically, my feet were still dry!
Then. The clouds. I knew it was going to rain, I just knew it. All my hard work to keep my feet dry was wasted, because around 3pm, it started to sprinkle. As I climbed up this mountain to the pass, it just got heavier and heavier. I never saw lightening, but heard distant thunder.. so, I put my umbrella up. It was coming down hard at the lake 1/2 mile from the top of the pass, hailing even. I was in all my rain gear and had the umbrella up, moving pretty quick because I was cold. It was during all of this stopping to get on rain gear that me and John kept meeting up. He made me feel better knowing I was going over the pass with him nearby.
The views were epic from the top, and the rain slowly stopped. It was cold, so I kept moving, now after 5:30. I was planning to go all the way down the descent, but the trail was wet and slippery with big rock steps and tons of water crossings. So, instead of 5 more miles, I was wrapping my head around 2 more miles-but constantly going back and forth. Do I night hike? Do I just try to get up early tomorrow and make up the miles? Do I make an entirely new plan with the food I have?
I passed heart lake during all of this inner dialogue. I laughed because I could see the rock Andrea and I sat on to eat lunch one day when we did the JMT in 2018-and then the sky dropped out of nowhere on us and we had to scramble.. it was a mess. But it was just as beautiful today as it was in 2018. I rounded the corner still smiling, thinking about our trip, and remembering that these two lakes I was now walking between were so gorgeous on that trip, that Andrea and I made the comment that we wished we could have camped there.
I was considering it, just setting up shop, but I talked myself out of it. I had another mile and then I’d be to that 2 mile mark.. that is, until I saw a hiker up ahead getting water from the lake outlet.. I strained a little to see: STRIDER! She had her tent up already and is camping here tonight. We talked a bit and then I decided to just set up camp here, too. There’s several other hikers around, I think John is somewhere here too.
Strider and I plan to get hiking by 6am so we can cross the sketchy river together, the one where the bridge is out from the snow damage. I like this idea.. well, not the 6am bit, but the having someone I trust to cross with bit. And then we’ll get most of the way up Muir Pass, but camp 5 miles shy of the pass, since the other side has some pretty questionable snow still. We don’t want to do that in the evening, so first thing in the morning will hopefully go smoother. Plus I think changing my itinerary like this makes it to where I can climb in the afternoons, but camp before the passes and go over easier in the mornings.. hopefully with no storms. At least, I’m praying.
So, I set up camp and ate my ramen noodles for dinner. It’s cold. I think I’m going to look at my mileage business and then get some sleep. 5:30 will come way too damn early!