Uphillhike

Author: mmbowden60

  • Day 41 – Donner Pass

    Day 41 – Donner Pass

    At mile 1157.4. Hiked 16.6 miles today.

    More of the same with snow. My thought was to get to Donner Pass where I would eat lunch at the Ski Restaurant. Every time I thought I was out of major snow, I encountered more and had to stop to put on Microspikes. 

    The scenery was incredible, but as I am now writing this It seems hard to remember. I guess I see so much that one memory replaces another. At one point I was feeling great. In the zone, laughing hysterically over the beauty and my solitude. 

    I reached The backside of Sugar Bowl Ski resort and began a climb with a wicked steep avalanche chute o my right. The trail looked like it went straight up steeply  to the top of Disney mountain where there were ski lifts. When I reached the top, seeing no trail, I checked GPS. The trail had crossed under snow at the avalanche chute near the bottom. I figured out that I could  easily descend the other side of Disney and rejoin the trail past the avalanche chute. Although a calf busting steep unnecessary climb, it was a good thing since I avoided a dangerous spot. Descending, I noticed tracks of the 2 hikers I had been following. They had also chosen to bypass this dangerous spot, but I think their decision was intentional because I knew they had good trail tracking skills.

    More snow walking across this ski resort. I was navigating through snow covered woods by GPS and looked up to see a man on a log. As I climbed across snow he told me that I was on the trail. His name was Rich. He had started a hike to Yosemite only 2 miles ago at Donner Pass. I told him what I knew about the conditions in the direction he was traveling. I told him about how it was okay with Microspikes and GPS and described wandering around in the snow trying to find or follow the trail. It turned out that he had neither GPS nor Microspikes. A little while later I saw Rich going my direction back to Donner Pass. He had changed his mind about this 300 plus mile hike after only 2 miles. Feeling bad, I said that I hoped I hadn’t been discouraging. He said, “No, after the snow he had already seen he was having second thoughts.” 

    Here is where I was breaking down my campsite on the coldest morning yet. A frozen boot morning.

    Here are views from that campsite. I was on an island in a sea of snow in the middle of Squaw Valley Ski resort.

    I crossed a creek at my campsite with snow bridge.

    Here is a view of snow I crossed on climb to Tinker peak. It turned out that I didn’t need to cross since trail switch backed under snow.

    I had some some ridge walks after getting through snow. 

    I climbed to Tinker Peak.

    I came across these cornices that had large crevasses which looked ready to break off in an avalanche.  

    I had to cross a wide steep  slope of snow. Steeper than photo makes it appear.

    Here is a distant view of this same snow slope I crossed.

    I walked  more ridge withbeautiful rock formations and views.

    I reached Donner Pass where I had an early supper at the Ski Ranch. I had the pulled pork sandwich special and took quesadillas to go for a 2nd supper a time my camp about 4 miles further up the trail near the I-80 rest stop.

    This is Donner Peak after leaving Ski Ranch.

    I had to walk through 2 spillways in order to cross under Interstate 80. The first had 2-3 inches of running water. Wet feet right before camp. 

    Here is a photo of the 2nd spillway. I had to wade through thigh deep water in the dark tunnel. Soaked feet and legs. 

  • Day 40 – Microspike and GPS day.

    Day 40 – Microspike and GPS day.

    At mile 1140.8. Hiked 15.1 miles.

    Click on this to view YouTube Video of Day 40

    I should have known what kind of day it would be when I had to wander the snow frozen woods straight out of my tent site to follow what my Guthook GPS said there was the PCT somewhere nearby under the towering frozen mounds of ice. After the first few steps, I had to stop to put on my microspikes.

    Once in the clear, there were beautiful views, but the trail quickly hit a steep frozen slope and wandered around the steep frozen slopes of an equally frozen valley. 

    Jump forward to Alpine Meadows. The snow was not a challenge, instead I had to walk exposed rocky slopes with a stiff cold wind. Finally dropping out of that cold wind into a wooded area, I was again in the snow and off trail. I saw a set of footprints that used dead reckoning to descend the most direct route. I followed and at times losing the track, but always checking Guthook. 

    The end of the day was an endless hike through deep snow. There was no trail. I tried to follow the turns shown on Guthook. Sometimes I would break through the snow up to my groin, my foot plunged into an icy stream flowing under the snow pack. Woods and meadows were covered in feet upon feet of snow. 

    I began to be worried about my external battery supply and phone battery. Without these I help navigate , I’d be in trouble. If that happened, I guess I’d hunker down until some other hiker came along.

    Morning view from camp

    Here is a sample of Granite Chief Wilderness. 

    Nice ridge walk in Granite Chief Wilderness

    Here is view looking back at snow area that I hiked.

    Here is a PCT sign post.

    I ran into a lot of snow.

    Here I pose in front of a snow bank

     

  • Day 39 – Solitary Man

    Day 39 – Solitary Man

    At mile 1125.7. Hiked 21.6 miles. 

    I’m happy with the number of miles I put in today considering that I had a lot of snow to cross in the morning that required trail finding. I had to stop regularly to use Guthook GPS to locate the trail. A lot of my hiking in the morning was off trail meaning that besides snow, I had to make my way across terrain that was overgrown or steep or with boulders and ledges. You can’t move in a straight line. Eventually the trail reached a long stretch that was snow free and with a gentle grade. This is where I made up for the slow miles. Late in the day I had to cross a number of areas of snow, but they were small enough so I didn’t lose the trail. Another new challenge was stream crossings. I crossed at least 3 good size streams above knee deep. Only one stream crossing was a little tricky., I crossed this one by finding à wider spot downstream. Even so, it pushed hard enough against one leg to make it hard to keep balance. 

    I didn’t see another person the entire day. Nobody! This was a first for me on the PCT.

    View looking back south from Dicks Pass

    Snow on Dicks Pass

    Here I am in the snow up on Dicks Pass

    Here is a view of Dicks Lake from Dicks Pass.

    Other views of Dicks Lake and mountains.

    First trail with no snow along far end of Fontanelle Lake. I still had a long walk of missing snow covered trail on ridge below the lake, but at least there were a set of foot prints so I didn’t spend much time checking GPS.

    Near Fontanelle Lake

    Here is one of many lakes and ponds.

    My tent site. See pile of snow in background. It is taller than me. There are many places where I have to walk across large piles of snow.

    Lake Tahoe view from my tent site

  • Day 38 – I’m Back!

    Day 38 – I’m Back!

    At mile 1104.1. Hiked 11.8 PCT miles today.

    After 26 days off the trail, I’m back and restarting my hike at the Echo Lake Spillway at mile 1092.3. I’ve hopped forward about 440 miles, bypassing the Sierras for now. After reaching Canada, I’ll come back to Echo Lake and hike 440 miles south to Walker Pass. 

    The morning started off with a long walk up Pioneer Road as I hitchhiked. Finally, I was piled up by Simon who happened to be on his way to Echo Lake. Simon is a very cool guy from New Zealand and a back country skier. His dog, Tickles is also very cool.

    Even though I was up at 6 AM and out the Mellow Mountain Hostel door very quickly, with hitchhiking, I wasn’t on the trail until 9:15 AM. I didn’t see any PCT thru hikers all day. There were a number of hikers that had were doing an overnighted at Aloha Lake. 

    There was a long hike through deep snow mostly through a wooded area just south of Aloha lake. The snow, rocky trail, and heavily food loaded backpack slowed me down. I was also worried about how snow conditions would be north off Dicks Pass so I decided to stop early and camp before reaching the pass. I hope to make more miles tomorrow, but it doesn’t hurt to ease back into this. One good thing… an abundance of water. When I wasn’t walking through snow, I was walking through water.

    Here is the view looking back at Echo Lakes.

    Here is an example of snow I had to walk through. I had to check my course frequently and make corrections. Otherwise, I followed footprints as long as I saw them.

    Here is Aloha Lake and mountains.

    Here are other lakes beyond Aloha Lake.

    Here is my tent site. 

  • Getting my PCT fix while off the trail

    I’m beginning to get excited about my anticipated return to the PCT. Preparations are coming along fine. I’ve just logged into Amazon to exchange a too small size 11 Altra Olympus shoe for a size 11.5. Same for a pair of gloves that were X-Small which should have been Medium. Hiking pole parts were ordered and poles repaired long ago. Even resupply boxes are nearly ready. I still need to mend my hiking shorts. With little remaining preparation, I’m getting my fix of the PCT by following Instagram posts and YouTube Video Blogs of the class of PCT2018 hiking. I started so early and moved so fast that nearly everything I’ve seen so far is of the portions of the trail I just hiked.

    Here is a great YouTube video that I’d like to share with you. This covers a day that this PCT’er was hiking from Whitewater Reserve to the campsite after the last crossing of Mission Creek. Even though I never met this person and I hiked this section nearly a couple of months before she hiked it, our experiences were much the same. She ended the day at the same tent site at which I stayed. Both of us had at least a dozen people crammed into this 2 tent site spread out cowboy style. We both got “lost” at the same spot. In my case I prefer calling it “getting off the trail momentarily”. We both literally found the trail in the same exact spot and had to climb up the same embankment. In many more ways, this video was like deja-vu.

    Here is the link to the video. ENJOY!

    PCT 2018 – Day 20 – The day I got lost

  • Taking a 26-Zero on the PCT

    Taking a 26-Zero on the PCT

    Having hiked 650 miles from the Mexican border at Campo to Walker Pass in 37 days without having a single zero day, I’m now taking a 26-Zero. That’s 26 days off the PCT. Over this break I’ve eaten a lot, but I’ve also started back with some high intensity training by pushing my heart rate to 160 plus during short workouts. I have to admit that the eating has happened more frequently than the training.

    The reason for this planned return to Roswell, Georgia was the expected birth of my first grandchild. It’s a BOY! His birthday is May 9, 2018 so I made it on time. His name is Declan. Here is Declan with me, Grandpa Uphill.

    I also wanted to be back for my daughter, Maura’s college graduation, and to spend time with my wife, Sandra, who I will miss a great deal when I return to hike the final 2000 miles of the PCT. So May 9th was a busy day. Maura’s college graduation and Declan’s birth happened within a few hours of one another. 

    Since I left for the PCT in a hurry, having been in the office at work one day and on the trail the next, there was a lot of incomplete PCT planning. Now I have 26 days to catch up.  First, I need to prepare all of my mail resupplies. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks running back and forth to the grocery store, ordering via Amazon, dehydrating food, vacuum sealing food, sorting food, finding myself short of food, and repeating the process. I’m tired of working on the mail resupply and want it to be over. It has been chaotic. Right now the resupplies are sorted into grocery bags and laid out in the hall in an order only I understand. Here they are.

    The first bag on the left contains the food that I’m carrying with me for the first 4 or 5 days. Other bags on the left at the far end of the hall contain resupply for the High Sierra section of the trip where all food will need to fit into a Bear Vault. 

    Here is a photo of some of the contents of my resupply for the 10 day hike between Tuolomne Meadows and Vermillion Valley Resort in the high Sierras. Before sending, 20 tortillas will be added. All will need to fit in a Bear Vault. I will probably need to empty the oatmeal and almonds out of ziplocks and dump directly in the Bear Vault to make everything fit.

    Even before returning to Georgia, I had been rethinking my PCT hike plan. Many thru-hikers were ready to plunge into the high Sierras in early May or even late April. I, on the other hand, considered the added effort of hiking through snow that would still be present in June. Upon my return, I plan to skip north 440 miles from Walker Pass to Highway 50 near South Lake Tahoe. I’ll be able to cruise through Northern California without trail snow slowing my progress and wearing me down physically. By the time it gets hot, I’ll be out of Northern California. With luck, I’ll beat much of fire season with it’s likely detours and guaranteed hazy skies. After reaching Canada, my plan is to return to South Lake Tahoe and hike south for 440 beautiful snow free miles and finish up at Walker Pass. 

    My first look at PCT Trip Planner predicts that I will reach Canada on September 10th. Here is the PCT planner link for my hike. Click here to see hike plan from South Lake Tahoe to Canada. Returning to South Lake Tahoe, I’ll need to finish the first 350 miles of the remaining 440 miles before any show stopping snow hits in September or October. The last 90 miles between Lone Pine and Walker Pass are pretty safe from heavy snowfall.

    I checked on snow information for the first 70 – 80 miles of my return to the PCT at South Lake Tahoe and found that I may get a little taste of trail snow. Here is a recent graph of conditions showing 100 miles from South Lake Tahoe to Sierra City. The blue line indicates the maximum historical snow water equivalent. The green line is the current percent of historical snow water equivalent. The yellow/orange line is elevation. The green bumps between mile 1095.6 and 1121.0 is the area around Dick’s Pass. The last green bumps is just beyond Donner Pass.

     

    For a closer look at Dick’s Pass, I used the photo below from Jenn Hikes 2017 PCT blog. Here is the link to her blog entry for the day she hiked over Dick’s pass. Click here go to Jenn Hikes – Day 74, Dick’s Pass . This will be the same trail section I’ll start off with  on the first day of my return to the PCT. By the way, Jenn and her companion, Colton, are my PCT heroes. They braved incredible challenges on their 2018 PCT hike. It’s a blog worth reading. 

    This is the view from the top of Dick’s Pass, looking north toward Dick’s lake. It was taken last year (2017) a full 2 months later in the summer than when I’ll be passing this point in late May. Can you imagine the snow that would have been here in May 2017?

     

    You can see why I have a little concern about the snow I’ll encounter here in late May. My plan was to skip sections that would require my ice axe, but the snow reports give me second thoughts. I haven’t heard stories of treacherous ice along this section, but I don’t really know. For now, I’ll plan on leaving the ice axe at home and bringing only the microspikes.