Stats
👣 Miles: 0
📈 Elevation Gain: 0 ft
📉 Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Overall Weather: Cold, Snow, Sleet
This post contains affiliate links. I have used every product mentioned, and if you purchase one of these products, I can make a small commission at no cost to you.
The Snowy Night
We went to bed, but we had to wake up every few hours to knock snow off the tarp so it wouldn’t collapse on us.
Very soon, we realized that we were getting way more than the 5 inches predicted for 6,000ft.
We stayed mostly dry except for some condensation. That was fairly unavoidable after the snow formed a wall around the bottom of the tarp.
Morning Decision Time
We awoke and realized we needed to wait for a bit instead of breaking down the tarp quickly and moving. Also, it was Karma’s birthday today!
When we opened the tent door, we saw 9-12” surrounding us. Great…
Theoretically, it was supposed to stop at some point today. However, when we re-checked the weather with our InReach, it looked unlikely.
We used one of our 10 monthly texts to message Crosby and ask about road conditions up high instead of doubling back. About an hour later, his helpful reply came back.
We had enough food and fuel (to melt snow for water) to be about four a little over 3 days.
We debated about going up and going back down for a long time. Eventually, we settled on an on “trail” rest day and we’d decided up or down by 8 am tomorrow.
We used a few more texts to say we were on-trail zeroing, but ok.
Sitting in the Tent All Day
We knew we couldn’t lie down all day and be about to sleep tonight. So, we deflated our pads and made the effort to sit up for most of the day.
It’s surprising how sore muscles get from doing something other than sitting. Sitting in a tent all day was more tiring than most of the days on this route.
So what did we do all day?
Karma took a nap, we listened to an entire podcast season, and I read a part of a book I had downloaded.
We melted more snow into water. This was surprisingly easier as it rained/sleeted and condensed the snow. Then, we needed less snow to make more water.
When we finished and got a break in precipitation, Karma went out and put his hand in a ziplock to forcibly move the snow off the tarp. While we punched the snow off the top and sides so it didn’t collapse, a lot of that landed on the foot and head areas. Karma moved it away, and it gave us a lot more space inside.
We cooked dinner with the last of our fuel. That definitely forces a decision tomorrow!
We’ll see if we can suffer through the snow uphill tomorrow to reach our goal of touching the PCT.
However, if the weather doesn’t go as planned, we’ll bail back down the canyon and come back for it when we get the caches that we reburied.