July 19th 2020
Mile 121.1 to 138.1
I woke up to the sun beaming into my tent this morning!! It was actually warm as I packed up and got ready. Lucas, Emily, and I decided to hike the whole day together because of the bushwhacking and snow still on Fire Creek Pass.
We got moving and started the day out on snow coming around a ridge in a lovely valley. We saw a handful of marmots being dumb as usual. We also practiced self arresting with our ice axes so we’d be prepared if need be.
Once we got out of the snow we had a bunch of switchbacks down into the valley. The trail was super overgrown and a bunch of plants had thistles/thorns so my legs got pretty scratched up. The plants were also wet with morning dew so we got soaked.
Once at the bottom of the valley we crossed a small bridge where we took a short break to dry out our things and then we had to climb right back up the other side of the valley. Luckily this side wasn’t as overgrown.
At the top of this climb is when we began to encounter snow. We got to Mica Lake and it was still frozen over. We ate a quick lunch and suited up with our microspikes and ice axes. It was a long, steep climb over the pass but it wasn’t dangerous because if we slipped we would just slide down to the bottom of the hill. The snow definitely slowed us down a lot today.
At the top we celebrated and took some pictures but we had to keep moving to make it to camp. Coming down the other side was easier and we kind of just slipped and slided all the way down. While coming down, we saw a search and rescue helicopter circling and eventually saw it land. A couple hours later in our descent we ran into the search and rescue person with a PCT hiker!! It was a 70 year old man I had actually met on my first day hiking with Matt. He had hiked the PCT before and turned around at Rock Pass because of snow. Apparently he went up a steep part of the pass (not part of the trail) and got stuck and had to hit his SOS button. I’m glad they evacuated him safely but I’m very sad that his adventure had to end like that. It also makes me hyper aware of the risk to being out here in a high snow year.
Coming down from the pass I also BROKE ONE OF MY TREKKING POLES. I actually need two poles to hold up my tent so right now it’s duct taped. If my tent falls over in the middle of the night I swear I’m gonna press my SOS button too. But it was also difficult getting down some of the snow with one pole so I used my ice axe again.
The camp spot we were aiming for was still covered in snow so we had to go an extra few miles to the next camp spot. We didn’t here until after 9pm which sucked but we did see a pretty sunset.
Basically, today was super hard and super tiring. I kinda wanted to cry towards the end. But now it’s already 11pm so it’s very late and I must sleep.