Day 158 – Mile 2491.9 – 2517.2

Pass Creek to Tentsite (1)

Miles to go: 138.0

Canada: 2655.2

Today I met ‘Sloth’ & ‘Sawlax’ at camp before setting off for the day. They’d zeroed on trail yesterday to avoid hiking in the rain, snow & freezing temperatures.

It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine and clear blue skies, it was still quite cold though. Today we had the ‘Airplane Fire’ closure & alternate to negotiate. The detour started in 6miles. We hiked uphill for most of those miles and as we neared the closure I was following along. I was busy looking at the fantastic views & scenery. I’m pretty sure Sloth & Sawlax hiked through the closure! How I know that we’ll never know.

Walking high up, along the ridges was immensely rewarding. Hardly any smoke from the ‘not so nearby’ forest fire. I hope I’ve taken enough photos. On the other side of the closure the trail drops down into very dark damp mossy woodland. We clambered over several massive blowdowns and survived a very muddy, almost washed away, section of trail. It was starting to get dark. We still have a big climb ahead and about 3miles to go.

The last mile was brutal; cold, dark & very steep. We’d hiked back up to the freezing snow only to have to pitch our tents on frozen, very slopey sites in the pitch dark.

Water filtered: 493.0 litres

PCT Miles hiked today: 25.3

Nights under canvas current streak: 2

Max streak: 18

Total nights under canvas: 117

Total nights in a building: 41

Lake swims: 1

Showers: 36

Trail Magic: 19

Thought for the day: You’ll have to ask me any questions you have now because if I manage to complete this thing I don’t think I’m going to be able to talk about it and ‘hold it together’