June 12th – Another Day, Another High
Another cold night has left a sheet of ice on the log crossing the creek to the trail back to the PCT. The Carrot and I slide on out butts rather than fording the icy waters or risk slipping off the logs. It works and we wait and assist as several others who are climbing Whitney.
For the second day in a row the trail opens up more and more awesome and inspiring views. We hiked most of the day with Crazy John ad watch as “Truckin” passes on by. There are cold fords across several streams swollen with snowmelt.
The tail climbs quickly to 11,000 feet and continues to climb more gradually towards Forrester pass. In places it was very different than 10 years ago, mainly because we seldom saw the actual trail in 94. Now there is so much less snow, it almost overwhelms me. On the Bighorn Plateau green grass and Buttercups replaced the three feet of snow we had and marmots were out playing in the sun. The ice chute on the south side of Forrester pass has melted to within a few feet of the trail, and on the north side the field of snow is so compacted that the one or two times we post hole are a rare novelty. What a difference is made by the years an a couple extra weeks into the season.
Forrester Pass, at 13,140 feet is the highest point on the PCT. Having climbed Whitney the day before, I am ready for it to be a bit let down. But it is not an anticlimactic experience, anything but. The views and experience are exhilarating. The mountains and the divide we cross are much more “close up and personal” than sweeping vistas of Whitney. And here there is a sense of achievement. We gaze, simultaneously, at our past and our future, looking back at where we have come from and ahead at the remaining high passes and peaks. The two sides of this divide are very different too. The north side getting so much more rain and snow, we are leaving high and dry climes in big basins and meadows, for wild and tumultuous river valleys, narrow and carved by the glaciers of eons past and sculpted by the forces of water, snow and ice that continue to this day.
At the summit we linger long enough to see the more through hikers on the trail at one point than we have in quite some time. We rejoice at our crossing with Crazy John, Jimbo and Truckin’ and 4 day hikers up from the valley to the north. The day hikers make hot tea, an unexpected treat. Far different than in 94 when Jeff and I gazed out at vast expanses of snow trying to find the one set tracks 3 days old. We take time to symbolically wave to the hikers on Whitney, who are too far away to see us, as continue on we our now downhill trek to Canada.
We camp with John and Jimbo in upper Vidette Meadows, the scene of an 8 year old crime, of a bear getting our food 8 years ago at same spot. This time the Carrot is very happy that our food is inside a bear cannister that is inside a bear box. Any bear that gets to this food needs it more than us and can have it.
