Day 58

Tyndall creek to bishop - 21.6 miles

Total - 790.1 miles

Today was the day we did our first pass and I was estatic but tired. My pad deflated about a 1/3 of the way last night so I knew I might have a hole in it. I only blew it up once throughout the night. Caleb apparently blew his up 5 times. We got out of camp first expecting the crew to catch up to us as they are fast as fuck. We had 5 miles to the top of forester, the tallest point on the PCT (13,200). Since we did the Unitas high line trail I felt confident on passes but I’ve never done a snow covered pass. All the way up we were unsure where we were going to start going steeply up and over the ridge. Every guess was absolutely wrong. It was worse than we thought. We got to the base of the steep climb after a couple of easy snow fields and followed the boot tracks up. Most of the switchbacks were still covered in snow and the boot tracks were solid in the shade. We decided to go up with no spikes as again I felt confident with my feet and the snow was hard. Straight up we went on a steep slope until we reached a part of trail that had no snow. It was a couple more switchbacks until probably the scariest part of the day. We had to cross a 10 foot fully exposed spot. Boot tracks were there but it was hella steep. A guy named flapjack easily did it with no spikes or ice axe so I thought I would just give it a go as the top was 20 feet away from us. Halfway through the snowfield was a slightly sloped down boot track where you could easily lose traction. I had to pause and just go for it trusting my feet that I would not slip. I safely made it across, breathing hard, terrified, realizing I should’ve had spikes on and an ice axe in my hand. Dad did it quickly. I kept repeating to myself how scary that was over and over and over again. Hiked a few more feet and then started to tear up from just the emotion of it all. It wasn’t bad tears at all it was thankful tears as it was our first pass together, I was so happy dad was there to give me the confidence to even do that snowfield, and it was breathtaking. The views were phenomenal and I was just grateful to even be there in the first place as again, probably 1% of people in the world see these mountains in this sort of aspect. Everything combined together was just amazing. We then stopped at the top to take it all in. We saw a group of four that took the glissade down but were postholing to get back up trail so we decided with the boot track to the rocky ridge approach. So we strapped on our spikes and grabbed our ice axes and got moving. It was soft on the other side of the pass so I’m glad we finally used our spikes. We are carrying them so might as well use them. Got to the ridge and saw our first pika! And a marmot of course. Love those guys. Once we got to the rocky ridge we took everything off again lol only to have to glissade down a small part with our ice axes. Lots of fun though and just the right amount of speed to feel comfortable. We saw our group take the first glissade aka we heard them yippee! Then we saw them take the second glissade down which was apparently super scary at like a 90° angle where people were losing control. Gourmet lost his bear can and whiskey bottle which he was able to find his bear can obvi but not the whiskey. Tragic. Apparently Louisa almost lost full control but was able to recover. Caleb tore his finger apart from the glissade leaving a blood trace in the snow for others to follow. Happy they survived and had fun while doing it but so happy I didn’t do it as I would’ve shit my pants. We then slowly picked our way down the slushy snow slipping and sliding all the way down. Nothing too bad though as we still didn’t have spikes. Sorry Mummi, we lied to you on the phone today. We will be more safe next time. We grabbed some water without filtering because we are in the sierras baby! Fresh snow melt. I will update you if I get sick in three weeks from Giardia. I forgot to mention. I did the 7ish miles from camp to the bottom of the pass with no food in my stomach. The altitude had gotten to me like usual where I can’t stomach anything. I did it on one garnola bar and a couple of bites of a raspberry pop tart at the top of the pass. I felt great though but I know I’m paying for it. Sierras will be the place I lose the most weight for sure. I have been pretty consistent on my weight so far mostly just losing fat and building muscle but staying the same weight. I need more calories. Never enough calories. We stopped for an early lunch and I tried to stuff my face with food at 10:30 to make it to the next stop. I started to realize that we needed to pick up the pace a lil as we still had like 13 miles to go to make it into the campground before town. We had multiple plans but the ideal plan was make it to the campground where we could hitch into town and stay the night. So it was a quick break and we were on the move again after talking to Marc and Caleb for a lil. Right after we left dad rolled his ankle. This is what reroute got taken off trail for early on so I started to hyper analyze his walking and pestering him with questions which he obviously loved. I had to go up front after a mile so he could get some peace and quiet. It was all downhill but it was still slow moving as there wee patches of snow fields scattered throughout the valley. It was gorgeous though as trees rose up with mountains on both sides of you. You could also see the aftermath of avalanches showing the power that they hold with the trees snapped like twigs. Beautiful. We cruised to the bottom, a lil down on morale knowing we still had another pass to finish before town. I was worried as clouds were starting to form above the mountains in the direction we were going, looking a lil dark and thundery but it wasn’t a problem at all thankfully. We had two more steep climbs which was difficult in the heat of the day. It wasn’t necessarily hot temp wise but the sun blasting down on you felt like you were being fried. Snow in the hat helped a lot. We finally made it to kearsage pass trail to bring us to the trailhead to get a hitch. 8 miles left and it felt brutal. The climb wasn’t too bad until the very top where it got steep as hell. It was gradual up until then with again, amazing views of alpine lakes and snowy covered peaks. Gorgeous side trail. We past a whole bunch of hikers that I had met in the past so that was fun to catch up a little bit. Everyone knows dad as Aida’s dad. Might be his trail name at this point. Dad kept saying how impressed he was. Californians (no offense) like to play up some of their natural landscape and we weren’t sure if it was true or not but we were entirely wrong. Sierras so far even if it’s still the beginning blew our minds today. We got the top and were promised minimal snow (they fucking lied) to the bottom. It was 4.5 miles to the bottom and it was brutal. All I kept thinking is we have to come back up which is going to fucking suck. Again, gorgeous. It was slow moving and I kept having to take a piss which was annoying but a good sign at the same time. We passed multiple lakes which were calling our names but I only had a burger and bed in my eyes. About 2 miles out I got service and FaceTimed mom which was sun to show her the scenery. Love her. I then booked it to the trailhead as I saw a van with open doors and hikers going up to it. I wanted to see if I could catch them to grab a ride into town. Sadly I missed it. I walked up to a guy asking him if he was staying the night or driving in and he informed me that he was leaving tomorrow morning at 9 to bring hikers in. I was severely disappointed knowing we had a small chance of getting a ride in that night from another driver. There were a couple of day hikers that could be awhile but I wasn’t having it so we sat down on top of a bear box looking all sad when a guy and a girl hiker came down. I explained the situation to them. She said she was going to make herself known to the driver. The guy only spoke French and girl only spoke English so it was a funny dynamic knowing she talks a lot and he smiles and nods. She was hilarious though. Hope to see her up trail. She was talking the driver UP. Everytime we would stare and he would look up we did the whole redirection look so he knew we were not interested in their conversation WHATSOEVER. 40 minutes went by between them talking and laughing before he glanced over to us and waved us and two other girl hikers who recently joined over. Dad was up front and I sat on his lap while the four pages on the guys built out can bed. Once we reached the highway I crawled back into the bed with everyone else and we all spooned. First time meeting everyone and we got close real quick. It was an hour drive into bishop which was another pleasant surprise as independence was closer. We wanted bishop tho so we were happy as clams. We finally get there and get out of the car and the girl who talked the very nice driver up told us she glissade down forester and got glissade rash. She proceeded to show us and I respectfully asked for a pick of her ass. It looked so incredibly painful. She had bled through her shorts and was worried that she bled on his blanket of his bed. She didn’t. Instead we just left our stench in his car, no blood. We stopped at a brewery and we bought the guy dinner aka dad did. We stuffed our faces which was delicious. A woman came up to us and asked if she could buy us pct hikers a pitcher of beer which was so incredibly sweet. Dad is good luck honestly. We then grabbed a motel room (super 8) and headed to bed. Today was insane. Our first pass, dads first 20+ mile day, first hitch for him as well, first town off trail. So much happened and I am so incredibly grateful. I will continue to say that in every post which might get annoying but I truly am so happy right now with where I am at and everything that has happened so far on this trip.