10:30 PM I’m violently woken up by my stomach. Something didn’t sit right, I get up out of my tent, rush outside and dig a cat hole. This area was horrible to dig cat holes. It was solid rock underneath. As I’m doing my business, I see a shooting star. Awesome. When I’m done it’s back to my tent for another few hours of bad sleep and 2 Imodium.
My alarm goes off at 4:15 AM. I look outside my tent and I see the guy next to me Mark from Israel is already up and packing his stuff. He told Seven and I that he was going to be on trail by 5 AM. We all agree that’s the move. My Oura again says I’m sick, yeah yeah I believe you. I feel like absolute garbage.
Sevens running late, he says he’ll catch up, Mark and I start off up the trail and within a mile we meet another hiker Valkyrie a girl from SoCal who now lives in Denver. We all hike the 3.5 miles together till the bottom of the pass.
Seven catches up, we toss on our micro spikes and look at what we’re about to do. He turns and says “I need a minute.” Huh I reply. He says “I need to text my family my will real quick.” Yeah no shit. As we look up its steep as F, there’s switch backs of rocks, dirt and snowy traverses. The best of all worlds, we get moving up and it’s already clear this would’ve been much scarier three weeks ago.
Seven goes first then me, he gets halfway across and I start going, as we climb I keep saying easy peasy. Keep it slow and steady. Just keep stepping forward, we finally reach the last bit of switch backs and they’re clear of snow. We can breathe for a second, as we catch our breath there’s one last ascent up the head wall and the homestretch is done.
As we look over the other side it’s snow the whole way down. The initial descent is steep, there’s glissade marks that look gnarly. We sketch down the steep mountain using our microspikes and kicking into the sun cups. Once the terrain levels out it’s easy walking as we descend below 10,000’ and the snow disappears.
Seven and I look at each other and nod, we agree to drop our microspikes, now it’s time to make up ground and get moving fast. We turn the jets on and crush a total of 4,500 of downhill.
As we reach the bottom we say goodbye, Sevens heading north to VVR and I’m going to side quest to Bishop Pass. I’m heading into town to see a doctor, I think I have either Covid or the flu. 4 days of diarrhea, a fever, nausea and zero sleep. Yaay, Until today the protocol has been standard Marine protocol. Change ya socks, hydrate and keep fucking walking.
I hang the right up Bishop Pass trail and it’s 13 miles to town. I do the first mile and it’s 9% grade uphill through an absolutely gorgeous mountain scenery. As I get to mile 1.5 of Bishop pass I see two men setting up their tents who are just here for the night. They tell me there’s a campsite another 2 miles ahead after a nasty river crossing. I tell them “ok thats my plan for the night.” They ask if I want help crossing and I say I’m sure I’ll be fine. They looked at me like I was insane.
I get to the crossing and it’s sketch city, I debate turning around and heading back to camp with those guys I saw. I take a deep breath, assess the situation and say to myself “Kyle you can do this.” (boys meets world reference) I step in, the first steps up to my knees. It only gets deeper from here, the temperature? Ice fucking cold.
I start to get across the river and say wow this is flowing fast. I continue on through and make it half way to the other side, the waters coming up to my stomach, my legs wobbling, feet stinging but I make it. Completely soaked all the way to my belly button.
After the river crossing I’m cooked and don’t think I can do another 2 miles now. Now freezing and the sun low in the sky, I find a random piece of slanted ground and pitch my tent. I’ll finish the last 10 miles tomorrow easy peasy.
The Pacific Crest Trail 