Day 106 Sun Oct 8th
Tent site just short of Silver pass – Unmarked Tent site – West Fork Bear creek
1767.5 – 1785.8
Approx. 3983 ft ascent 4265 ft descent
18.3 Miles
Good morning all and what a beautiful morning it is today.
As I starred out the tent last night the sky was full of stars that seemed so close you could almost reach out and touch them.
Sarah said something to me last night:
“This is one of the best experiences of my life”
She said not only is she growing confidence but also the things she feared at the start she’s grown to accept and no longer worries about. Whether it was dealing with bears, mountain lions or simply whether she could do this or not. She’s learnt that just by putting one foot in front of the other, providing you keep trying and doing your best and keep pushing mile after mile, day after day, you can do anything.
It’s been nice to watch her adapt and grow in confidence. I think she’s finally become a Thru hiker.
I thought it was worth sharing with you because I think there’s some lessons to be learned here and how we can use these in our normal day to day lives.
As we left camp the sun was just kissing the top of the mountains with fresh morning sunlight and it wasn’t long before the whole landscape was lit up again.
I started at a fast pace and it feels good. The body is like an instrument and it feels good to push myself going as fast as I can uphill, controlling my breathing as I go.
Sarah’s in hot pursuit not far behind.
We have just over a mile before we go over Silver pass which is over 11,000 feet.
This will be the first time we’ve gone to this altitude. Camping at 10,000 feet last night should set us up nicely and help to acclimate us.
Apart from a section hiker with the trail name “impossible” we had the place to ourselves.
He told us that he almost had a melt down the previous day + I think he was finding things tough.
Being out here with so few people makes you feel like you could be Adam and Eve. Walking through a world with no one else is such a unique and awesome special feeling that is hard to describe.
As we stop and listen we can hear silence for the occasional puff of wind or screech from a small rodent pika or the sound of bird song.
As we climbed we reached yet another lake in front of Silver pass.
The water is flat, almost mirror-like and this place is beautiful.
These lakes are almost like tiered pools all fed from the mountain like a funnel or collector and feeding down into the rivers and creeks below.
If anyone wants a short taste of what the Sierras are like I would highly recommend checking out a slice of the John Muir Trail.
This follows the PCT from South Kennedy Meadows all the way to Yosemite (Approx 200 miles) and offers some of the best bang for your buck.
Just make sure you go in the shoulder season like us to avoid the crowds and bugs.
As we climb, the frozen soil and sand has a consistency similar to beef mince.
Towards the top there’s a large snowpack that remains from last year and looks like the icing on a Christmas cake shining back at us in the sun.
The last bit of the climb involved a rock scramble around the snowpack and as we crossed the pass a glacial valley opened up in front of us for miles.
A number of creeks wind their way down the valley like streaks of molten silver running off the pass.
Blown away by the beauty of Silver Lake at the foot of the pass we end up accidentally taking the side trail to Silver Lake which takes us close to the sandy shores of the lake.
Although it wasn’t long day before we were back on the PCT where it’s very obvious as the trail was way more defined due to the increased footfall.
Next up we have around 6 miles of downhill leaving away from Silver pass.
We follow a creek and it turns into a raging river that flows across the granite balls like in some kind of slip n slide water park, creating numerous cascading waterfalls as it went.
The trail is well graded, it’s almost like a staircase with steps up to a couple of feet in height. We both are glad we’re not going up and on this occasion we think the nobo’s probably have a harder deal.
As we get below the tree line it becomes more shaded and we walk through burnt orange ferns with the sound of running water to our right.
Pine cones were falling out of trees above us. Perhaps dropped by a kamikaze squirrel or maybe this is just a natural phenomenon?
Either way it makes us look back and double take.
As we get lower there is a smell of damp vegetation, almost like the smell of a wet dog as the vegetation is starting to decay.
We walk past yellow flowers reaching up to the sky. There petals folding back like the wings of a falcon mid dive.
At these lower elevations the Manzanita bushes seem to grow taller with lush green leaves laden with berries.
My only question it’s where are the bears?
In NorCal it was very obvious these bushes were one of the preferred types of food for the bears with bear sign everywhere, i.e. footprints and scat etc. Yet here there’s not a dicky bird and we are forced to carry heavy plastic bear canisters to protect our food? It doesn’t make sense.
We stopped at North Fork Creek for power up before the next punchy climb.
Sarah’s feet are sore again and the icy cold creek is exactly what she needs to help soak them.
The look upon her face suggested just how cold it was!
Ideally we need to get ourselves into a position where we are about to start climbing a fresh pass each day. The advantage, starting in the morning you have fresher legs and also the temperature is cooler.
The climb up to Bear Ridge was steep and long. Possibly even harder than the main event of climbing the pass!
I’m not sure whether this has a psychological effect due to the fact that our main climb of the day was after this, but it certainly knocked the wind out of our sails.
The climb went from 8,000 to 10,000 feet in a little under 4 miles + Sarah counted over 40 switchbacks.
I joked to Sarah that the JMT hiker trailname “Impossible” who was finding it tough yesterday would surely be sobbing on a rock somewhere halfway up there Ridge. Poor lad.
Luckily when we got to the top it flattened out beautifully which was good news as my back was killing.
Sarah is also going slower than normal. She’s struggling with the elevation and her feet and knees are starting to give her some concern.
Just like yesterday we lost all the elevation gained and we slammed back to 8,000 feet as we descended down to Bear Creek.
We walk through golden Aspen trees looking magnificent against the mountain. There’s a smell reminiscent of autumn back home in England.
They call this fall over here and it’s nice to see the contrast of the deciduous golden trees against the pines and mountains.
We stopped at Bear Creek as we were both flagging and Sarah was in desperate need for some TLC.
Sarah’s words ” You scooped me up and knew exactly what was needed to get me feeling like I could carry on today”
The secret weapon was just some decent food. Refried beans boiled up in some water may look like baby food, but this stuff gives you tons of energy and a warm meal always makes you feel much better. We also rustled up some tuna wraps and washed it all down with some hot chocolate and coffee.
Sarah also soaked her feet again and changed her socks and was back in the game flying along the trail.
We’re heading for the Seldom pass next and we have about 4.3 miles to go before we get to Mary Lake which is just shy of the pass.
We pass plenty of nice campsites near Bear Creek. It’s a hard decision but we need to make miles to get through the next week with the food rations and miles we have to cover.
We made good progress up towards Selden pass but again we were hiking in the dark and last minute we decided to pull into a campsite next to the West Fork Bear Creek.
The campsite had all we needed for the night. Including flat sheltered ground, a decent water supply and a log to sit on.
Because we had already eaten earlier we skimped on rations tonight and just settled for some good old fashioned Ramen noodles. This also means that today we have conserved 2 of our Peak meals, which may help us further down the line.
The 18.3 miles we covered today were definitely challenging, with the hardest point definitely being Bear Ridge.
At least my foot has been better today. Maybe the fancy new Topo trainers are working better and giving more cushioning? They certainly are more comfortable and seem to be more forgiving on rough terrain.
Sarah has also been using Tiger Balm on my sore back, so I have a massage waiting.
Sarah’s feet are tender and her knees still sore, but hopefully with some ibuprofen gel and a good night’s rest she will be feeling better soon.
We are both falling apart…
Starting the Sierras (possibly the hardest part of the trail) after 1600 miles isn’t ideal for us sobo’s as our bodies have already been put through the mill.
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