Day 64

Trail miles: 14.4

Total: 804.4

Trail mileage doesn’t mean anything anymore. It wouldn’t matter anyway because the days are hard enough at altitude. Basically what we do is set ourselves up to get up and over a pass as early as possible, because there is usually snow in them and they are steep which makes them dangerous. If you hit them in the morning, the snow is frozen, which makes it easier to cross with microspikes. Right now, we are 3 miles below Pinchot Pass. Wake up is at 4:30 for us slow pokes. The snow is reported to be on the ascent this time which is better for us because we will hit the snow earlier.

Today we went over Glen Pass. It was only a mile to the top, but I was going very slow and I woke up with a headache. But somehow I am not the slowest person. I am the third slowest. It’s nice that they wait for us for the dangerous sections; that’s all I need. There was no snow in the ascent. When we got to the top, there was a long stretch of snow we had to cross almost horizontally down the hill. The footsteps were so deep though, it kind of made a sort of wall of protection to prevent falling or slipping down the hill. The rest was almost straight downhill. There was a mix between rocks and snow, none of which were terribly difficult. Once at the bottom, we got the chance to glissade (when you slide down the snowy hill on your butt)! I picked up way more speed than I was expecting that I almost ran into Raechel. We were rewarded for finishing a pass with Rae Lakes, such beautiful lakes. And we also got an easy 8 mile downhill to lunch. Raechel caught a fish with Oracles fishing rod. We crossed a river using a very swing-y suspension bridge that was only able to allow one person on the bridge at a time. It said you could take stock on it though, which was scary to think about. Also one of the grate panels was broken so that made it all the sketchier. The water crossings today were not very deep so most of them we are able to rock hop. There was one that we just walked through, but it was early enough in the day to dry our socks and shoes out completely before they froze at night. There is so much was here. The water rushes down the trail sometimes and feels like we are walking in a creek. I’d probably rather carry a few liters of water than cross rivers and creeks every quarter mile. And waterfalls are so abundant I have to pick and choose which ones I take photos of. If they are smaller, I just skip them for the strong and big ones. The last 4 miles were uphill so it took me a while, but I enjoyed it. Dinner was rice and barbacoa from a bag. It took like 40 minutes for my rice to rehydrate, probably because of the altitude, so I will not be doing that again. I went to get water from the little lake nearby and totally got my socks wet from the damp marshy grass. I think they are dry now though. We met a hiker from South Africa at the campsite which was cool!