Day 6 - Are Your Kidding Me?

July 17th

Start Mile 1141.85

End Mile 1153.4

Miles Walked 11.5

We took a leaf out of my experience from last years hike along the PCT where we decided to leave camp and have breakfast after walking several miles. This was partly through choice and partly through necessity, as we were very low on water. There was a creek 1 1/2 miles along the trail and that is where we had breakfast and filled our water bottles. After leaving the creek the trail led up and up and up until we reached the ridge where we enjoyed a spectacular walk along the top with glorious views. It was pure heaven as the trail stretched out before us. We could see the path laid out before us and after all of our climbing it was a pleasure to enjoy the walking that dropped away in front of us. It was some of the most pleasurable walking to date and all the stress and worries of the previous days struggles washed away from us. We stopped in the shade for a light lunch that consisted of a Larabar and trail mix washed down with water and Ultima (a powder added to your water to replace your electrolytes). We only stopped for 20 minutes or so as we were heading into town for a well earned rest day and were driven to get there. All was going well until we turned the corner and hit another patch of snow which was arguably the worst we have encountered to date, although last nights episode at Squaw Valley might just be on a par with it, The first thought that ran through my head was "are you kidding me"?. This snow ran across the face of the mountain for about 100 metres and was intimidating to say the least.

As is now customary Marvin and I had a sit down and pow-wow to discuss strategy, but in the end there was only one way forward and that was to follow in the footsteps of those who had gone before us. We both put on our spikes and I ventured forward, followed by Marvin and we clamped our spikes firmly in place with each step as we started to work across the snow towards a clump of rocks about half way across. After reaching the rocks we now had to navigate this obstacle which is tricky when wearing snow spikes. We were now on the 2nd leg across the snow which we navigated safely to the other side, with our only problem being to re-locate the trail which we eventually did successfully. We now had a long climb down a dirt path before climbing up again, and once we reached the top the trail spread out before us, much the way it had before hitting the snow field. The trail now switch backed down the mountain before a huge climb up another daunting hill with another snow crossing before the final push up to Donner Ski Resort.

Marvin had rolled his ankle the day before and he was moving a little slower than I, but we made it to the snow before donning our spikes one more time. Instead of crossing the snow however we chose to go up and around it and ended up eventually finding the trail which continued to climb upwards. This last part of the climb was relentless and we eventually reached the summit. Unfortunately the euphoria we felt was swiftly dispelled, as a worker on the ski hill pointed out the trail below us which ran across another formidable snow bank with steep drop offs.We felt it would have been more dangerous to back track to cross the snow and so started to work our way down the face of the ski hill after getting directions from one of the workers. It was very dangerous ground we were on as it was a scree slope and several times we had to readjust our footing. Unfortunately, as we were almost at the bottom Marvin took a tumble and rolled the same ankle he had injured yesterday. This meant we could not rejoin the trail, and so instead made our way down to the ski village where we were able to hitch a ride to Donner Pass where we went into the restaurant and enjoyed a cheeseburger and beer, (for Marvin) and a ginger ale for me. After a pleasant stay we left to try and hitch a ride into Truckee, and our luck was in as the third or fourth vehicle to pass was a winner. A middle aged lady very kindly stopped to offer us a ride and we were blown away by the views as we drove down the pass towards Truckee. There was an amazing view over Donner Lake and I would urge all who read this to read up on the history of Donner Pass, which is a chilling story of Pilgrims trying to survive their journey through the mountains.

We were safely delivered to our hotel and were extremely grateful to have put the first 6 days behind us. It is our plan to take a day off from walking, pick up some supplies and for me to catch up on my blog.

Wanderer.