Daily Log: Day 9

09 1812.2 6/23/2021 sunny, cloudy with some sprinkles in the mountains, sunny. What a day. It was harrowing and so exhausting. I was on trail about 5:30 am. Mosquitoes were swarming right away. I hate those little buggers. So with a bug net on I ate quickly and was off. I wanted to do 16 mikes so I could see Justin tomorrow. The first climb was hard. But what made it even harder was the massive snowfield at the top. It was still too early so it was frozen and I could not kick in foot holes. Also I was unprepared because I didn’t have micro spikes or whippet ice axe or even snow baskets for my poles. So on my hands and knees I was able to climb it. Then I had to re-find the trail afterwards. Nope. Over and over and over I had to deal with snowfields and it got worse as the day progressed because the snow began to thaw. I was postholing galore. There were many times I had to climb around the field. And at one point I had a major creek underneath the snow and chose to climb way around it. Instead of trying to make my miles I decided to hike 11 hours and then stop. And how many miles did I accomplish – a measly 12.7. OMG! It was a terrible awful day. Oh and somewhere I lost my glasses. Sheesh. For the good news. I finally figured out how to blowup my NEMO air mattress easily.

Adage: “Red sky at night sailors delight; red sky in the morning sailors take warning.” Should I have been concerned?
I’m really in the mountains now
Climbed this frozen-solid snowfield on hands and knees and then had to search for the trail afterwards. It doesn’t look steep, but it was
The weather-worn sign says Lester Pass
Although it was beautiful it was becoming a very hard hiking day
Climbs, snowfields, and hidden water was a challenge
But coming upon a bridge over a fast-moving stream was greatly appreciated
More and more snow fields and lakes covered with patches of ice made hiking difficult and dangerous
Especially streams covered by uncertain ice bridges caused me to carefully climb on the slopes around them
Too many snowfields to count, but I continued to climb. It was a very tough day