Day 61, June 17: Mile 823 to 837, Snowstorm Day
Start: Mile 823.4
End: Mile 836.5
Miles: 13.1
Ascent: 3393 | Descent: 1698
Wowee, what a crazy day! Definitely my craziest day on trail yet, weather-wise.
The day started out as normal- I broke camp and started hiking early. It was a little chilly and I was hiking in my puffy for the first time since the very beginning of the trail. The sky was gloomy and moody, and the forest I was walking through seemed like a rainforest, lush with ferns and moss and green everywhere. I walked through small groves of Quaking Aspen, fluttering in the wind. The sweet smell of Jeffrey pines was in the air.
After a short 4 mile rolling descent, I started the gradual climb up towards Muir Pass. The sky continued to be gloomy and wind was starting to pick up a bit, and I kept switching between hiking in my puffy and taking it off as I went up steeper climbs.
I stopped to take a break after 11 miles or so and eat a quick lunch of leftover mac n cheese wrapped in a tortilla (yum), but the wind demanded I start hiking again much sooner than I wanted. I looked up towards the pass and it seemed that the clouds and haze around it were thickening. I talked to a few hikers who had just come down and they said it was starting to snow up there. Uh oh. I have layers of clothing but I wasn’t sure if they would hold up to a bonafide snowstorm, much less did I think I would want to walk through it.
I hesitated for a bit and talked to some other nobo hikers, a couple. They were feeling the same hesitation- do we attempt to climb over the pass, or do we turn back and wait it out? It was starting to lightly snow on us and I tried to pull up weather on my Garmin InReach but couldn’t figure it out. I also wanted to wait for Squirrel Daddy so I wouldn’t be going up alone.
Soon enough, he showed up and was confident about going up. I thought, why not try it, so we continued hiking up together. The snow was getting slightly heavier and the wind was picking up as well, but we continued up. There were a few other hikers heading up at the same time.
Eventually, we got onto a ridge and the wind got really intense. The snow was getting blasted into our eyes and I was having a hard time seeing the trail. We could barely hear each other over the wind, and we agreed it was time to turn around. Thank goodness.
We made it down to a flat area next to a small lake and we happened to run into our friend, Rookie. He was set up in his tent as well to wait out the storm, and told us Liz and Tikka were also nearby.
I set up my tent as quickly as humanly possible as the snow continued to dump down on us. I crawled inside my tent and bundled up into my quilt. I was very happy to have packed my backpack today with my bag liner so everything inside stayed nice and dry from the snow. Once inside my tent, I listened to the snow falling down, watched a movie on my phone, and dozed for a bit. I have never really camped in any type of precipitation so I was nervous to see how my tent would hold up, but it did just fine. The spot I had picked was semi-protected amongst the trees, which I was happy about as the wind continued to blow.
Eventually, the sky started to look a bit brighter from inside my tent. I peaked outside and lo and behold, it was sunny and blue skies! Liz, Tikka and Rookie came by to say that they were going to continue hiking on. As it was almost 4pm, Squirrel Daddy and I agreed we would both camp where we were and climb over the pass first thing in the morning.
We ventured outside to cook dinner and soak up the last remaining rays of sun. It actually got warm for about 10 min! Crazy how fast the weather can change out here. But then, the sun dipped below the horizon and it was immediately frigid again. So I brushed my teeth as quickly as I could and climbed in my tent, bundling up for the likely chilly night ahead.