Day Ten: Mica Lake

19.4 miles. Today was one of the hardest days of the PCT so far. Started out with tons of massive blowdowns that were difficult and exhausting to get over. Then the trail switched to long difficult snow fields then to overgrown vegetation with switchbacks in the blazing sun where the edge of the trail dropped straight down and you couldn’t see rocks or the trail below you for most of the way. The trail then came back to snow with a stream crossing. It wasn’t too difficult but Side Quest and I were too short to make the leap across the rocks to keep our feet dry so we ended up fording the short distance. After, I changed into my last pair of dry socks for the day but they too got wet and freezing cold from my wet shoes and it was an extremely difficult last 2 miles up to the campsite.

We heard a week ago there was still snow up at Mica Lake, where we planned to camp, but we had hoped the snow would be somewhat melted by then. Sadly not. The only options were to camp in the snow, hike back down the grueling trail 6 miles to the previous campsite and do it all again in the morning, or press on at least another 5 miles over the pass we heard would be the most difficult given the current weather conditions. We decided to stay in the snow, which ended up not being as cold as I thought and made for some gorgeous views but it was a rough night trying to get my feet back to normal temperature.Read more