Trail Day 129: Tentsite (mile 2623.1) to Boundary Trail Junction (mile 2646.4)

23.3 PCT miles


It was my last full day of hiking today. Tomorrow will probably be about a half day of hiking to get to Manning Park, BC. Today is also supposed to be the day the newest storm system hits, with this first day having the highest chance of rain.
Yesterday I had heard that the chance of rain may not have been as high as originally forecast, so that, along with the probability of not hiking as far today, allowed me to get up a little later than I have been the past couple days. Even so, it still seemed to be earlier than everyone else on the trail.

Morning grouse herding on the trail.
I walked for a while, watching the morning light hit the mountains. The sky was incredibly clear. I took that as a good sign as the forecast I had last looked at predicted it would be cloudy in the morning.
Morning view from the trail.

Another morning view from the trail.

I had a similar morning to the past couple days, being passed early on by Flame, and Taylor and the Swiss. They are fast hikers, but get up late so I have been passing them in the morning while they are sleeping, only to have them pass me back after I get up.
I also started encountering thru-hikers who had made it to the monument and were returning south to exit the trail at Harts Pass instead of Manning Park. Most of them told me “Congratulations.” I have been hearing that for the past 3 days now. Apparently, making it to the border is a several day long celebration.


I recognized one of the people heading back to Harts Pass as One Eleven. I last saw him in Etna, CA when he and a bunch of other people were going to flip up to northern Oregon to try to avoid the forest fires. They were skipping a lot of trail miles, so I hadn't expected to see him again.
I continued down the trail into a valley, enjoying the great weather, and then started the uphill out of that valley. It was on that uphill, around 11:30 am that the winds picked up, the clouds came in, and it started to get cool. It looked as if we were going to get hit with that storm system after all.


The PCT.

View from the trail.

The PCT and a storm starting to roll in.
The first bit of rain started around 1:30 pm. It was just a tiny drizzle and I was on some switchbacks, so I didn't feel like it was worth it to stop and put my rain gear on. Then it got a little heavier and I looked in front of me. It was dark straight ahead. Still on the switchbacks,  I took my pack off and got my rain gear on just in time.


I walked uphill in the rain for a good while. The heaviest rain was definitely in those first sets of clouds. After that, I was walking through light rain or fog the rest of the day. It wasn't as bad as the last storm system because at the moment it was warmer. However, the last storm system was OK as well until that first night, when it started to snow.
Unfortunately, the weather smothered the amazing scenery, so I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Eventually, I started the descent that would take me down to the border.

Just below the cloud layer.

View from the trail.

Clouds from the storm.
There were two places I could camp before the border. One was a lake about 6 miles out and one was a trail junction about 3 and a half miles out. The lake seemed to be where most people in the thru-hiking bubble were headed today.
When I got to the lake,  it was barely under the cloud layer. Since it was likely to be crowded, at that elevation it could possibly be snowed on during the night, and there was a lot of daylight left, I decided to do the extra couple of miles to the trail junction.
Hopkins Lake.
When I got to the trail junction, I was really excited to see a sign pointing to the “U.S. Border.” Bam Bam was the only other person there and he was setting up his tent. I’m pretty sure that I have camped with Bam Bam the last two nights as well, but he was already in his tent by the time I got there.
With how hard I had been pushing myself, it felt weird to get everything set up and dinner cooked while there was still daylight out. I spent the rest of the time in my tent getting warm and sheltering from the sporadic rain showers as they hit.

3.7 miles until Canada!
Trail junction sign.

This way to Canada!

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 12, 2017 at 6:29 PM

    Just Below The Cloud Layer is one of my favorites!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SusanneOctober 12, 2017 at 10:29 PM

      It wasn't fun to hike in, but it did make for some nice pictures. :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FT2018 Day 44: Campsite near the Aucilla River (mile 734.2) to Ring Dike Campsite (mile 760.8)

Image
26.6 FT miles I had meant to get up really early this morning. There were only two places in the St Marks National Wildlife Refuge where you could camp, and there was one that was supposedly one of the best, if not the best, campsite on the trail. However, it was over 26 miles away. Some of those miles were going to be road walks, so those parts would go quickly. On the other hand, if we encountered swampy areas, it might be a very long day. A little before dawn I yelled over at Sugar Rush to see if she was awake, which she was. We packed up in the dark and, just like last night, went crashing through the brush trying to stay on trail. There were some parts that were clear and other parts that were not so clear. When the sun came up, things didn't necessarily get better. We started to realize why we were having so much trouble last night. Even with daylight we couldn't always track the path on the ground and had to search as a team for hidden blazes. The river made
Read more

AZT 2019 Day 44: Campsite near Umbrella Tank (mile 768.4) to Utah-Arizona border (mile 788.7)

Image
20.3 miles Just like the past few mornings, it was difficult to get up again. Unlike the past few mornings, I could actually see snow on top of my tent. It was supposed to rain or snow on and off the majority of the day again. That was not a motivating thought to get me out of my sleeping bag. I had also finally used the hand warmers that I had purchased back in Flagstaff, and they were still warm inside my bag. Somehow, I emerged from that bag and packed everything up one last time. I was only about 20 miles from the Utah border and on schedule to finish the trail today. Most of the items I had on me were damp or wet. It didn’t bother me packing them up as I knew I would be warm and dry tonight. What did bother me was having to put on my wet, cold, dirty shoes. After I did that, I had wet, cold, dirty socks as well. In Flagstaff I had also picked up toe warmers, so I stuck those inside my shoes and hoped that they would help. The view looking out of my tent. My camps
Read more

FT2018 Day 40: Holton Creek River Camp (mile 652.0) to Black Tract Campsite (mile 674.4)

Image
22.4 FT miles Soon after I started hiking this morning, I passed Holton Spring. It was what made Holton Creek, which gave the name to the campground I stayed at last night. It is not a very big creek. The spring formed a circular pond that emptied out of one side to form the creek. The creek then dumped out into the Suwannee River after only a short distance. Holton Spring in the early morning. Around the area of Holton Spring you could really see the karst (formed by limestone) landscapes. It was fairly bumpy and dominated by large holes formed by water cutting through the soft limestone. After about 5 miles, I hit Gibson Park for breakfast. It appears to be a campground, but is available for day use. I used the picnic table out front, then used the bathroom and refilled my water supply. The bathhouse had “Way down upon the Suwannee River” painted on it, which are the lyrics to the song by Stephen Foster. It seems like everything in the areas uses it for advertisement
Read more