Day 50 – Thursday, July 13

PCT Mile 789.1 to PCT mile 802.6
Day Total: 13.4 Miles

The Sierra is tough.

In the desert, we could walk for eight hours and consistently make it 22-to-24 miles. In the Sierra, we walk all day long and cover 13 miles. And I feel way more exhausted.

This morning, we had about two miles from our campsite to the top of Glen Pass. Well, those two miles took us about two hours. The slowness is a combination of factors: the snow, the effort to keep our shoes dry when there's a stream running down the trail, route finding, and impressively steep climbs.

The way down the pass still had a lot of snow as well. We spent a lot of time kicking our heels in every step and moving down the well-tracked path of footprints.



There was also a couple places where we got to slide on or bums, also knows as glissading. Glissading rocks because it's like sledding, but also because it is way faster than walking down switchbacks. Yes, we do hike in shorts. It's like a very cold, sledding shortcut.

We crossed a slow, near-freezing waist deep outlet of a lake. I was chatting with two guys who had just crossed who were headed southbound, and they mentioned that one of them had to dodge a snow iceberg that floated across right in front of him. Brrrrrrr!

We ate lunch with Caboose and Papa Bear in the most beautiful lake view spot. Stephen and I ate cheddar and turkey pepperoni tortilla wraps, and bagel chips.

The snowy mountains all around and the sun reflecting off the lake were gorgeous. It was so pleasant. Moments like those are when I'm the happiest.

The afternoon included a few more creek crossings – one on a log and another where we just had to wade across.

In a normal year, people would be hopping on rocks across. For us, the fords were frightening.

I saw on the map app that one scary creek had a bridge, but then we got there and the bridge was scary! There was a sign saying one person at a time. It swung and had planks missing!

Anyway, we all made it across so I guess it was better than having to ford.