Day 51 – Friday, July 14

PCT Mile 802.6 to PCT Mile 815.6
Day Total: 13.0 Miles

We did not get an early start this morning. Our campsite was the last place in the entire visible area to feel the sun and between being tired from yesterday and cold in the morning, it was slow going once we got started.

From camp, it was a gradual climb for a few miles on trail, then a couple more over snow before we reached the steep part of the pass. There were some good footprints in the snow, but other places it was hard to follow.

The biggest thing I've learned about navigating these passes is that if you can't see the trail or footprints, take the easiest route up. This usually includes some scrambling on rocks. For a couple miles on either side of the pass, we saw only occasional short glimpses of the trail.

We had high hopes of making it over Pinchot Pass and over the next pass, Mather, today. The tops of the passes are 10 miles apart, so this would be the biggest day we'd done in a while.

After Pinchot, we walked down on snow for a while hoping the trail would get easier after we got past the snow. It didn't. There were downed trees everywhere, and countless raging creeks.

We forded a fork of the Kings River several times, and other "streams" that gushed up past my knees. The route-finding was difficult because of all the trees, presumably from an avalanche.

Progress was slow.

Shoes were wet.

We didn't make it over Mather Pass, instead opting to camp on the last island of rock not covered with snow about a mile before the pass. There were six or eight other PCT hikers we hadn't met before who were already camped there when we arrived at 6:30 p.m.

We were above tree line, camped at 11,000 feet, so the views were beautiful, and clear skies meant amazing stars.