Jackson Flat Campground (372.2) - Cooper Canyon Campround (395.2) | Mileage: 23.0

Sometimes the day after town days is really hard mentally. I think because in town you have nothing to do except whatever you want to do, basically. And the day after, when you are walking all day and feeling sweaty and tired and like you want to stop but you still have to go 23.7 miles because that is where your group is camping, it’s very easy to pull up that image of yourself on the town day prior, lounging about and feeling wholly relaxed, and be very grumpy with you current walking self.

Anyway today was one of those after town days. And it definitely was compounded by the fact that it was Baden Powell summit day which sounds very legit but it is in fact a very tiny mountain which though snow covered is not dangerous really. But regardless everyone got up at the crack of dawn i.e. started hiking between 3:30 and 4:30 so that they could hike while the snow was still firm because that makes using microspikes easier. We started hiking at 5:30 because that already felt plenty early. But it also made us feel like we were running late and behind our group all day even though we knew we were fine on time.

We went downhill from our campsite for a bit before we crossed a road and the uphill switchbacks began in full force. Soon the trail developed patches of snow and then became fully snow covered at which point we donned our microspikes and started following the boot pack instead of the trail buried beneath the snow. The boot pack of course went literally straight up the mountain ignoring the buried switchbacks which was nice because it probably reduced the miles but not nice because it was seriously steep which made Maddie seriously grumpy because she hates hills. So we took lots of breaks and finally reached the summit at 8:50.

The view from the summit was actually super cool. The photos don’t really do it justice because it’s hard to see what’s going on but essentially for whatever reason probably a couple thousand feet below us there was like a really dense cloud layer that just spread out like a carpet as far as you could see. Looked like the ocean but puffy and cloudlike. And then any mountains that were taller than the cloud layer poked out of it, like little islands in the sea of the clouds all misty and shadowy and ethereal. Definitely the most insane thing I’ve seen, it was unreal.

A bunch of other people were at the summit too, Abby with the CDC mom, the German guy Nathan we think she’s hitting on, some others we recognized. We sat a little removed from the people and ate lunch or breakfast or whatever you want to call it, aka tortilla with pepper Jack cheese, avocado, and tomato (did I mention we pack out produce and it’s fire and we eat really good food on the trail and everyone is jealous?).

Then, feeling like we took a long break and feeling pressure to get moving and catch our group and also seeing the other people pack up and not wanting to get stuck behind them we packed up real quick and started moving fast down the trail. Except that we were on the wrong trail. At which point we got grumpy at each other and awkwardly zoomed back by the other people. The ridge down was partially snow covered and thus frustratingly slow going and also had a decent number of uphills (which did I mention Maddie hates) so the hours slipped by as the miles decreased painstakingly slowly.

We talked about germs and hand washing and parenting and having to deal with icky kids that crawl all over the ground and get sick and whether you should give your kids meat or not if you are vegetarian and speculated how far ahead our friends were and what they were talking about and why the one person we passed seemed grumpy and who the other people we passed were and whether the friends people make on the trail are the same sort of people they would be friends with off trail.

And then we got a patch of service and a text from Sweet Pea came in that and that him and Madi had met up with Flo and Boon and the whole rest of that group and they were all hiking together to the site we were gonna camp at. Which gave us huge FOMO. And made us grumpy and stressy and feel like we need to race race race and catch up again.

And then the second huge uphill started and we decided we would do it all in one go, for the challenge and implicitly to catch up (1.4 miles, 1400 elevation gain). And Maddie asked me to keep talking to distract her so I wondered aloud about the burn we were walking through and when did it happen and why was this side growing back faster than the other and rambled a bit and then I got tired too and it was silent except for our super heavy breathing as we pushed up the switchbacks on and on and on and on in the hot hot hot hot hot and just when I was feeling totally burned out and ready to call it and Maddie was making struggle sounds behind me we hit a level area with no clear indication of where the trail went next. It looked like it still went up so Maddie huffed and looked depressed and was sad we didn’t complete our challenge and laid out on the ground like a sad starfish. But then we looked at FarOut and realized we actually were at the top! So we had a brief happy moment and I pulled out our cold soaked oats and an orange and we sat for way longer than we meant to, feeling tired and like we never wanted to move again.

But of course we still had miles and miles to go, so we got up and went ALL THE WAY back down the other side of the hill we came up (note there was a road walk that did entirely skip the hill that our group collectively dubbed the stupid dumb pointless hill). But oh well, it was on the PCT and we are doing the PCT so we went up and down it accordingly.

And then we were back crossing the road again and some guy going SOBO asked us for some water because he was out and because we only had 6 miles left and 3.5 liters we poured him a liter (and then proceeded to be real confused as we walked by like 8 water sources he could’ve refilled from but chose not to????)

And there were picnic tables with some hikers eating lunch but where was the trail and we wandered back and forth looking for it until finally we found it. But there were trail closed signs which was extra confusing until we remembered Sweet Pea told us the trail was closed for a bit to protect an endangered frog habitat. So we headed out on the roundabout road walk which ended up being kinda nice to walk on the smooth flat pavement and the road was closed because of the fire still so no one was driving on it except two motorcycles illegally racing each other. And we walked and walked and walked and the hours went by and we missed a turn but realized pretty soon and then took the road to a campsite that was big and fancy and empty because of the road closure and we took the campsite road to a trail and we took the trail for a while and it was wider and smooth and had pretty views of the creek way down below and finally finally finally at 5:50 we were back on the PCT.

And Maddie was hungry and grumpy and sad because it was so late in the day and our friends were probably hanging out without us and we’d hoped to get to the site earlier and we were going uphill again and I had just told her it was just downhill for the rest of the day and I was tired and hungry and grumpy and not responding super well so we marched along the last 1.2 miles on the PCT to the campsite. And we got near and we could see it and Maddie slowed down and asked if I could go in front because we could see everyone sitting at picnic tables eating together and she was feeling shy and awkward about showing up alone and late. And I didn’t want to either because I was feeling like that too but I did it anyway.

And it was fine and we chatted briefly and then set up our tent and then came back and ate a super awesome dinner of flavored Spanish rice with SO MUCH produce (avocado, tomato, jalapeño) and Sin Nombre was there too which was a fun surprise. And then it was all of a sudden already late and we rushed to go to bed early and failed and set up our tent inside in the dark and a couple came in late and cooked at the picnic table right next to our tent and had bright lights but I fell asleep anyway and that was that.