Tuesday, June 25th. Day 7.
Today's miles = 15.1 Total CDT miles = 84
I camped at Atlantic Creek Campsite last night. There were a few other people camped nearby so I was less nervous about grizzlys. Maybe I should have been more worried with the fact that there was extra food smells but I felt safer in numbers. It rained most of the night and into the morning. The alarms went off at 5am but but I did not move. It was still raining at that point and packing up in the rain is my second least favorite thing to do...second only to setting up in the rain. So, I laid there until 7 when the rain finally let up.
Because of all the snow that has been out here so far, in the morning when I realize that another bear has not visited camp my worry shifts to the passes and how much steep snow I'm going to have to cross that day. Luckily today there was not too much steep snow but there was a whole bunch of snow. It was 7 miles to the top of Pitamakan pass today and about 4 of those miles were uphill in the snow fields. We guessed where the trail was for most of the snow miles and eventually got to dry trail! Thats when it got windy! WINDY! There were gusts of about 60mph which definitely blew me around a bit. I didn't mind until I was at the last few switchbacks before the pass and was on a steep ridge. The thought of being blown off a mountain wasn't exactly pleasant. Monkey and I actually locked arms at one point to prevent ourselves from losing too much balance. We both got a bit of wind burn. I was very pleased when I started to cross the last snow field before the top of the pass and realized that it looked a lot more intimidating than it was. The snow was soft and grippy and the wind let up a little bit right as I went to cross it. I lucked out. After making it to the top of the pass I did not linger long. The wind was still brutal and all I wanted to do was get the hell off of that pass. My efforts of descending quickly were interrupted by more snow and steep ridges. I ended up making my own trail and butt sliding down sharp grassy sections of the mountain to avoid the snow. I ripped the butt of my rain pants in the process. Once I got down to the valley the weather lighted up, the sun came out, and it actually (for the first time all week) got warm. I finished out the rest of the day strongly and made it to Two Medicine just in time for the rain to start.
Two Med is a campground that really did not have much to offer. They had a bathroom with running water (only cold) so that was nice. They also had a camp store with almost NO veg options. Baboon, Panama, and Beth all microwaved different deli dinners for themselves but there were no meat free options for me. I ate chips and cheese for dinner. I was more than disappointed. I had just set up camp in the rain, walked almost a mile from the camp spot to the camp store in the rain and then watched everyone else eat hot microwave food (doesn't sound very appetizing). Meh, I've had worse dinners on trail than corn chips and caned processed cheese and I'm sure I'll have worse again at some point. It's just part of thru hiking.
It was nice to have a bear box to store my food in tonight. Bear boxes are just large bear proof metal containers that are around the campground. I know it's just a campground that I'm staying at tonight but even a wilderness campground feels like town. I'm not afraid of bears tonight. I'm more worried about how dehydrated I am. Better drink up.
Today's miles = 15.1 Total CDT miles = 84
I camped at Atlantic Creek Campsite last night. There were a few other people camped nearby so I was less nervous about grizzlys. Maybe I should have been more worried with the fact that there was extra food smells but I felt safer in numbers. It rained most of the night and into the morning. The alarms went off at 5am but but I did not move. It was still raining at that point and packing up in the rain is my second least favorite thing to do...second only to setting up in the rain. So, I laid there until 7 when the rain finally let up.
Because of all the snow that has been out here so far, in the morning when I realize that another bear has not visited camp my worry shifts to the passes and how much steep snow I'm going to have to cross that day. Luckily today there was not too much steep snow but there was a whole bunch of snow. It was 7 miles to the top of Pitamakan pass today and about 4 of those miles were uphill in the snow fields. We guessed where the trail was for most of the snow miles and eventually got to dry trail! Thats when it got windy! WINDY! There were gusts of about 60mph which definitely blew me around a bit. I didn't mind until I was at the last few switchbacks before the pass and was on a steep ridge. The thought of being blown off a mountain wasn't exactly pleasant. Monkey and I actually locked arms at one point to prevent ourselves from losing too much balance. We both got a bit of wind burn. I was very pleased when I started to cross the last snow field before the top of the pass and realized that it looked a lot more intimidating than it was. The snow was soft and grippy and the wind let up a little bit right as I went to cross it. I lucked out. After making it to the top of the pass I did not linger long. The wind was still brutal and all I wanted to do was get the hell off of that pass. My efforts of descending quickly were interrupted by more snow and steep ridges. I ended up making my own trail and butt sliding down sharp grassy sections of the mountain to avoid the snow. I ripped the butt of my rain pants in the process. Once I got down to the valley the weather lighted up, the sun came out, and it actually (for the first time all week) got warm. I finished out the rest of the day strongly and made it to Two Medicine just in time for the rain to start.
Two Med is a campground that really did not have much to offer. They had a bathroom with running water (only cold) so that was nice. They also had a camp store with almost NO veg options. Baboon, Panama, and Beth all microwaved different deli dinners for themselves but there were no meat free options for me. I ate chips and cheese for dinner. I was more than disappointed. I had just set up camp in the rain, walked almost a mile from the camp spot to the camp store in the rain and then watched everyone else eat hot microwave food (doesn't sound very appetizing). Meh, I've had worse dinners on trail than corn chips and caned processed cheese and I'm sure I'll have worse again at some point. It's just part of thru hiking.
It was nice to have a bear box to store my food in tonight. Bear boxes are just large bear proof metal containers that are around the campground. I know it's just a campground that I'm staying at tonight but even a wilderness campground feels like town. I'm not afraid of bears tonight. I'm more worried about how dehydrated I am. Better drink up.
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