Day 48: Mile 767 to 782   (15 miles)

Woke up and was off by 7am to get back to the PCT and climb the first of many passes. It wasn’t long before I passed Rain Gear who was on his way to summit Mt. Whitney. About halfway into the day the pain in my right leg came back. It had been feeling great and was surprised it had come back.

Brandon caught up to me just as the first snowflakes started to fall from the sky and we continued up to Forester Pass. The climb was very steep and seemed to go on forever as we slowly climbed our way to the highest point on the PCT. Once I reached the top, there was one obstacle to complete still. There was a big snow wall in the way and it looked like the only way through was to climb up and over it. Took me a few minutes to finally be ready to climb the 8 foot wall of snow as if I was to slip and fall back, its a long ways down. I slowly climbed up and scrambled across the top and reached the highest point of the PCT. Forester Pass sits at 13,200 feet.

I am now in Kings Canyon National Park and ready for the same routine every day now. I hear that we climb all the way up to the top of a pass and once you reach the top, you go down for a long ways. Once you hit the lowest point, you go uphill for a long time until you reach the top of the next pass and we keep doing this over and over again for the next week.

I looked down below and there was no trail to follow but you can see in the snow the different paths people take to work their way down the mountain. I saw a couple people working their way through the snow when a girl sunk down to her waist and was having trouble getting out. Another person hiking with her turned back to help her out.

It continued to snow the rest of the day, but it was just a constant light snow and never was going to cause any additional problems for anyone. I got down out of most of the snow and was able to find a nice campsite three miles away that was well protected by trees and would help keep me warm for the night. Took some pain killers to help me sleep as my leg is really starting to hurt.

(Coyotes were recently in the area)

Day 49: Mile 782 to 793   (11)

Spent most of the first half of the day walking downhill. I am taking it slow today because of my leg. Started up another steep climb of Glenn Pass. Once I reached the top, I realized this was going to be a very steep and dangerous decent. Nearly straight down on snow and rocks. There was one small part where I decided to slide down the snow by sitting down and just sliding down for about 30 yards. It seemed like the best way down at times if you go slow and are careful.

(Came straight down Glenn Pass)

(Snow on its way from the distance)

Once I reached the bottom of the snow and found the trail again, I limped into Rae Lakes with extreme pain in my leg. It was only 2pm and I was well short of my goal for the day. I talked to Papa Smurf who talked me into stopping at Rae Lakes and resting my leg for the rest of the day. If I keep this pace up, I will need to stretch my food from three days into 6 days. I did the math and can make my food last up to 6-7 days and be completely fine. It started to snow off and on and I sat in my tent icing my leg by using snow that was on the ground near by. The views here are amazing!

(Icing my leg while cooking dinner)

Day 50: Mile 793 to 809   (16 miles)

I was woken up to the sound of snow last night falling on my tent and when I crawled out of my tent, there was a nice light coating of snow everywhere that would start melting as soon as the sun arose over the mountains. I started my downhill journey all the way down to the suspension bridge where I dried out my tent and made lunch. All a sudden the sun vanished behind some dark clouds and it looks like I’m in for the next round of weather. Rain started to fall and I packed up everything and got moving. I would really like to climb back up high and get into the snow as I prefer that over the rain!

(Fresh snow around the lake)

(Passed 800 miles today!)

At 8,500 feet it was raining and off and on thunder which brought the occasional hail. Once I hit 10,500 feet, the rain turned to snow and I continued to hike up into the very thick clouds. The last two miles I could barley see more then 30 yards in any direction around me. The clouds were so thick up here! I finally reached the top of Pinchot Pass where I had no views anywhere.

(On top of Pinchot Pass)

I descended down into Lake Marjorie about an hour before dark when the clouds started to lift and give me more of a view of whats around me. As I sat around, I realized I only saw two people all day long and I have been seeing less and less each day. It’s really starting to feel like I am in the middle of no where, but surrounded by some of the most beautiful sights around. I wouldn’t trade this for anything. I have also come to realize I am going to have to live with this leg pain for awhile. I am to stubborn to sit here and take a couple days off to heal, so I can understand I will need to push on and have no reason to complain about my pain.

Day 51: Mile 809 to 825   (16 miles)

Another cold night, woke up to my water being frozen. Made another decent and started another climb over Mathers Pass. On my way to Mathers Pass I noticed a rescue helicopter flying overhead to the South. I was happy to see that Mathers Pass was one of the easier passes to climb, but did have a steep decent. The views were very rewarding by showing me a couple beautiful lakes.

Followed the river down the valley and found a nice camping spot by the water. I cooked up some Mac and Cheese for dinner while three deer decided to come by and say hi. Tomorrow looks to be a tough day as I will be climbing up to Muir Pass.