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Day 14: mile 183.4-195.4

It was noticeably colder when I woke up this morning. Not only did I feel colder, I had ice in my water. Thankfully I didn’t notice at night, I felt warm in my little bed. 

My tent is is somewhat see-through, so I noticed the girl I camped next to had the only spotlight of sunshine beaming down on her. I was pretty jealous because I almost chose that spot instead. 😂 I slowly went about my day, strategically getting ready while still tucked in my quilt until the sunshine finally reached me too. 

It didn’t take long for the snow to begin again. At first it was like the trail couldn’t make up its mind. Just enough patchiness not to put on microspikes, until… dun dun dun …I was again surrounded by snow. 😩 Hours and miles, miles and hours, of snow. Endless blankets of white with no dirt trail in sight, noooooo. Can you tell I was thrilled? 🙄 

Okay, it’s not completely terrible. I’ll at least admit when it was still hard and frozen in the morning it was easy to walk on, but as the day went on, I was walking on a 7-11 slushie. At that point microspikes don’t help much, you’re just sliding everywhere, concentrating so hard because if you look up you’ll fall right on your booty. The majority of people I talked to today had these same feelings, except a few guys who live in an area with a lot of snow, they just seemed to cruise on by. Jealous again! Oh well, at least I wasn’t alone in my frustration, right? 😂

After my pleasant experience in the snow all day I finally reached the dirt trail. A mini celebration was had, and a decision was made. Today I decided I’m going to let the Sierra Nevada’s thaw out as long as possible, and go through later this summer. The thought of day after day of snow for a month just puts me in a bad mood, and I want to continue enjoying this experience as much as I have been. This desert girl couldn’t possibly have picked a worse year for snow on the PCT. I’ll make it work though! I’ve still got about 500 miles to come up with my plan.

The trail was all downhill from here. I took off my wet shoes and socks and walked down in my sandals to let my tootsies dry out. 

I hiked a few more miles and picked a spot to put up my tent. However, the day wasn’t quite done challenging me yet. The wind really picked up as I was setting up. Luckily the gentleman I was camping next to, aka my hero for the day, helped me. I wish I’d taken a picture of our set up. My tent was so close to his we shared a stake. The wind died shortly after we finished of course. 😂 I climbed inside for the night, happy to be done with this crazy day. I’m looking forward to a sunny day of snow-free downhill tomorrow, yesss! 

Goodnight! 

XOXO Becks