Day 137

Day 137 (pct 27): 9 miles

I’m starting to think I might just unknowingly be the Night King. I don’t just bring the storm wherever I go. I am the storm.

For those coming behind me these conditions were on 5/22.

I knew it was gonna be a low mileage day when I couldn’t get out of bed this morning cause it was so cold. It was low teens, single digits with the wind chill. I also didn’t sleep much cause there’s a hole in my sleeping pad so every 45 minutes I’m just laying on the freezing cold ground. I finally got up around 8. But I didn’t leave camp until 10. It took me forever because I would do 5 minutes of work then have to put my hands in my crotch and stand in the sun for 10 minutes. If you’ve never felt nauseous because your hands are so cold, it’s a thing. After struggling through that for 2 hours and trying to not throw up I got moving around 10. Also my tent and sleeping bag were wet from the snow sagging on my tent and condensation inside my tent.

With the recent snow (6-12+ inches depending on area and elevation) there was no inkling of where the trail was. Thankfully there were a few people who left before me this morning so I just followed their footsteps, although they diverted from the trail substantially at times. I was moving extremely slow going up to Pinocht Pass cause I was cold, there was no trail, and I was trudging through 6-12 inches of snow. The pass wouldn’t have been to bad in normal conditions but the snow and cold really slowed me down. Going down the backside was surprisingly easy unlike Glen Pass. Even doing it in near blizzard conditions, Pinchot was probably still the easiest pass.

After the pass it was just a few more miles down to camp for the day. With the late start and slow hiking, I knew it was gonna be a short day cause I wanted to sleep as low as possible and it was too late in the day to go over the next pass with as cold as it was. Tomorrow I’ll go up and over Mather Pass which is usually the worst one I think so we’ll see how that goes. It snowed off and on all day but it was probably for a total of 7-8 hours today after more than 12 hours yesterday.

Tonight is the last night it should be extremely cold for a bit so hopefully I can get back to some big mile days soon.

Since I got to camp early, Taz and I started a fire and were joined by Purge, Ghost Fingers, and a collection of other hikers later one of them being Captain Jackass, probably my favorite trail name so far. It was a really fun day and an experience I don’t get to have too much since I’m always pushing miles. It was quite a scene, just a group of us huddled around a fire while it’s still dropping snow like crazy holding our shoes and socks near the fire to try to dry them out. “What a fuckin hobby” -somebody in the circle

Captain Jackass put forward my favorite theory so far of how they made the trail. They put a gps tracker on a guy with dementia and told him to go north. Whenever he strayed too Far East or West they jumped out of a bush and scared him to get him going north again.

May is mental health awareness month. Please consider donating to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at the link in my bio!

Song of the day: Barbie dreams-Niki Minaj