Monday, September 30th

Monday,  September 30th. Day 104

Today's miles = 16.8 Total CDT miles =
1, 576.4

Today was one of those days that you kind of wish you didn't have to go through but you know if you hadn't it would have made the trail less satisfying in the end. I didn't know what I was in for this morning when I woke up but it wasn't long until I realized that the tallest, snowiest, most grim looking pass off in the distance was where I was headed. Looking up at it from the valley was rather intimidating. All I could see was the snow that coverd it and I began to dread having to trudge through it all. I tried not to think about it and kept my eyes on the ground... one foot in front of the other (and soon you'll be walking across the floor-or-or). Eventually I had to look up again when my feet came in contact with the first snow and ice field. That first mile of snow wasn't too bad. It was annoying and exhausting but it was still in the tree line and wasn't dangerously steep. The last mile of snow however, in addition to being annoying and steep was exposed and rather... well, I made sure to use extra caution. The trail had almost completely disappeared underneath the snow and I could barely see where I thought the switchbacks may have been leading up the pass. About a half a mile from the top is when things got a little hairy. I ended up crawling up the pass on my hands and knees through the feet of snow that had drifted in some spots to have enough traction not to fall.  There were sections where the snow gave out underneath me and if I hadn't had three other parts of my body touching the snow I may have fallen. I most certainly did not enjoy that last section of the pass. My toes had gotten so cold at this point that I couldn't tell if my foot was touching the ground or not. All I kept thinking was how I hoped the other side of the pass didn't have as much snow as that side. In my head I had said that if it did I would turn around and go down the way I came up. I knew the other side of the pass was steeper than the side I was on and I couldn't imagine going down it in that amount of snow.  What I later found out was that Baboon had said the same thing to himself. Luckily we did not have to make the decision to turn back because once we got to the top we discovered that the South side had considerably less snow than the North.

I didn't make it too long down the pass before I had to take off my shoes and warm my feet. They had gotten so bad they had started to turn colors. It took about 25 minutes before I regained any feeling in my toes but once I did I was pretty much good the rest of the day. There was some snow going down the pass but nothing in comparison to the morning. There was a bit more uphill but the second half of the day turned out to be much more pleasant than the first.

Tonight I am camped in a really nice spot. It's flat and actually has a fire pit (which I'm always to tired to utilize). Hopefully the snow tomorrow won't be as bad as today.