Day 174: mile 914.9-925.9
The snow came! I woke up and pushed it off the top of my tent and looked outside to find a thin blanket of white covering everything. It was beautiful. I packed up and started my climb for the day.
Still below freezing out, my hands were cold, so I attempted to make some gloves from my socks and a pair of disposable latex gloves. It worked well enough I suppose. My face was also feeling the chill, so I decided to pull my buff up and sacrifice wearing my sunglasses so my face wouldn’t freeze off. The glasses wouldn’t stop fogging up and it was pretty cloudy out anyway, so I thought my eyes would be fine.
I was thoroughly enjoying the beautiful dusting of snow, feeling pretty thankful it was just a dusting. I had a bit of service, so I got word that it had hit a lot harder north of me. I found myself again hoping it was just the one storm and winter wasn’t hitting. I was soooo close, I just needed a few more weeks.
My day went from all smiles to slowly becoming a bit annoying. I was hopping around trying to avoid the ice covered streams and huge muddy patches of trail. The snow melted very quickly and the trail became a wet mess. To add to that the sky wasn’t looking too friendly and the temps were dropping again.
The highlight of the day was definitely Thousand Island Lakes. I stopped to enjoy the view and a snack before moving on since those clouds just aren’t looking super welcoming, and holy bananas it’s seriously cold. I’ve been hiking in my puffy most of the day to give you an idea of cold it is.
I ran into two separate couples who said it might not be the best idea to cross over Donahue Pass today given that there isn’t much camping with good cover for the first few miles on either side. With the possibility of another storm coming I didn’t want to put myself in a bad situation, so I stopped early for the day.
As I lay in my tent freezing cold, attempting to get warm without much success, I noticed that my eyes hurt. I think I made the wrong choice on foregoing the sunglasses. I guess the reflection from the snow got to them. My eyes are pretty sensitive when it comes to the sun, so I should’ve seen that coming.
The cold is also making my dinner take longer than usual. I started it a couple hours ago, but still working with crunchy ramen. The longer I lay here freezing the more I’m considering walking back to the trailhead tomorrow if the night is just too cold. The temps are set to be this low for the next few nights, maybe I’ll jump off for a couple days, we’ll see.
Goodnight!
XOXO Green Light