Family Fortnight and Heatwave

I came off trail recently for a couple family events in Minnesota and Illinois.  The plan was to hop back on the trail immediately when I returned to California. Unfortunately, California  (and most of the southwest) was hit with a heatwave. It has actually been a prolonged heatwave, lasting a little over a week.

Considering the next part of the trail takes me into the upper elevations of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains, I decided to wait it out for a while. The numerous water crossings were already swollen and dangerous, so the massive snowmelt from the heatwave would have made it even worse. Additionally,  I will be crossing Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT, in this next section. It is safer to cross the snowfields when the snow is solid and it may not have gotten cold enough, even at night, for this to happen.

As we are currently in the tail end of the heat wave, I am heading back to the trail. Some reports I have seen show that the water flow has peaked for the season and there appears to be much less snow overall. I'm hoping that I have stumbled upon the perfect time to enter the Sierra. Fingers crossed!

I am entering one of the most beautiful sections of the trail, but also possibly the most isolated. Therefore blog post may be sporadic for the next couple weeks, but keep checking back! I will get them all up eventually and I'm sure the pictures will be gorgeous.

Fully loaded backpack with crampons, ice axe, and bear can. It is heavy.

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 26, 2017 at 5:38 PM

    I'm so excited for you! Can't wait to see the pictures!

    ReplyDelete

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