June 16th, 2024
Mile Marker: 34
Miles Hiked: 21.23
First night of my 3rd thru hike was nonetheless exactly the same as the others; little to no sleep. The sun doesn’t set until 10:30 and rises around 4:30 and 4:30 AM I finally fell asleep. The weather last night was brutal, snow, rain, heavy winds, very cold temps. The weather made it so I could hardly hear anything that was going on so I felt paranoid all night that a bear was coming into camp.
Needless to say I was grumpy this morning when we started getting ready around 6:30 AM. Journey and I rolled out around 8 and hiked a little over a mile to get back on the CDT.
I met a few other hikers who claimed to also have zero experience with hiking in the snow and shared nerves with me. I didn’t know what to expect going up this pass but knew that my thoughts were fearful.
I could feel the altitude as we climbed. Journey and I hiked the climb by ourselves. As we were nearing the end of the tree line and I was doing my usual scan of the trees searching for bears I locked eyes with a cat.
I initially shout out to Jeff; “Mountain lion, there is a mountain lion!”
He couldn’t see it at first since the cats camouflage well and let me know it was a Bob cat. As soon as it turned around to prance up the mountain I saw its nubby tail and was able to confirm. The bobcat then turned around to watch us again and gave us a big yawn, bored with us humans and wanting us to move on, so we did.
We climbed higher up the mountain and started to hit some snow at the top of the treeline. We crossed one snowy steep passage as Journey explained to me how to kick the footsteps in to get a better grip on the snow when crossing. This was a crossing where if you fell…you were bound to slide down for a while.
After getting to the other side I immediately told Journey I needed to put my micro spikes on and started crying. I felt so scared and fearful of falling.
Journey reassured me and reminded me that this is a new skill and it’s okay to feel the need to use microspikes.
We continued up the climb and every sketchy traverse we came across I sat down and put the spikes on until the snow disappeared on the other side and sat down again to take them off. I felt frustrated with feeling so fearful but knew I felt so much safer with them on and for now that is best.
Then we reached the summit and I could feel the elevation on my legs and breath. I was very much ready to get back down. We crossed over more snow in sections and finally reached the treeline and were able to cruise downhill.
Eventually we met up with Whatever and us three hiked together, getting to know each other more. He is from Portland, Oregon and hiked the PCT 9 years ago. He has since been itching to do the CDT and finally has an opportunity.
I felt so much better being down low off the snow and when the sun came out, I was a very happy Brown Sugar. It was just gorgeous.
We reached the town of Many Glacier and its excellent campground. We set up on flat ground, dried our things out, were able to use nice restrooms, and cook up some good food: ramen bomb. For those of you who need a reminder what that is, ramen noodles, instant potatoes, chicken packet or tuna. 🤗 so good!
It’s only 8 o clock but I am sooo ready for some sleep. Solid day of learning and new experiences!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 