You can see Turtle at the base of Old Snowy in this picture. This is where the trail begins to change from loose shale to eroding dirt and loose gravel. If you zoom in, you can follow the trail as it continues to climb peaks and fall down them as quickly as it climbs.
Around this time we met a Southbound PCT hiker on the trail who was kind enough to let us know that theres a spot up there where the trail fades away and all that is left is a deadly fall and that was all he said.
Why thank you sir. That was so informative and helpful. Do tell me more. I truly feel prepared now. Do you have any more useful facts like water is wet. Ice is cold. Please continue to bathe us in your knowledge. We spent the next few hours wondering is this the spot? Did we pass it? Then we saw it. You see erosion on steep trail is normal especially with the amount of snow and rain these areas receive, but this 3 foot section of trail had been washed away completely. There was trail, then a fall literally of a few 1000 feet, and then trail. At this point I put on my fourth pair of underwear for the section and did what you do you go North at all costs. I put one trekking pole on the other side and leaned on it and then jumped. I stopped breathing. There goes my life. How would they even get a helicopter here? Then I hit solid ground and my reward 2 more miles of this insanity. Turtle
later relayed a similar story except she had to fight her backpack which wanted to use gravity to pull her back into the gap.
Nonetheless this had to be the part the man had talked about so we trekked on. Now sunset was closing in. You see we averaged 1 mph for this section and that is coming from now decently experienced hikers who can knock 30 miles in a day a 3 mph. After 3 miles and 3 hours of sliding up and down saying more prayers releasing more expletives and even creating new terms we hit the Coyote trail and more solid ground.
Holy cow guys! Your most recent email post with all of these pictures and stories is my favorite so far! Good job escaping death. Do you have the true feeling of a goat yet? I can't believe how close you are to the end! XOXOXOX
ReplyDeleteKell it is so great to hear from you! Thank yiu so much for your love and support! We should be coming to Elm Tree soon and we will be happy to show off our mad goat skills. I can't wait to see you and the boys!
ReplyDeleteTalk to you soon,
Drew