Saturday, July 3, 2010

Day 71: Mile 1189.5 (25.5)

Location: Campspot 8 miles before Sierra City

After 500 miles of postholing, sunburn, wet feet, map and compass,
getting lost, losing trail, falling on my ass, crossing insane river
fords.....the snow is finally over (I think). We started today
extraordinarily frustrated. We got off trail over snow and were lost
in dense forest for hours. We finally refound the trail, and had only
a few more potential snowy parts. As we crested a ridge at 8000 feet,
we started a descent that would take us below the 8000's for good.
Within a few hours, we were below 7000 feet with no sign of snow. As
quick as it started almost one month ago, it has hopefully ended.
After Sierra city tomorrow, we do go up to 7300 again, so there is a
small chance of hitting a little more...but as far as I'm concerned,
I've survived the worst. i was at my wits end with the snow. I can
see why many people quit the pct after tahoe. It really wears you
down on a level that I've not experienced before while hiking. Even
in 2008 when I thru-hiked the colorado trail early during a high snow
year, it was nothing like the past month out here.

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