This has been a hard week.

First it was the loneliness of going it alone after hiking for hundreds of miles with friends. Then injury. Constantly wet feet. Gear breaking. Swamps and bogs. Mosquito bites. Thunder. Pollen. Terrible food. Slippery, near-vertical climbs and descents. Miles and miles of slushy snow. This week had it all.

But it wasn’t all bad. I traversed some of the Sierra High Route’s pristine valleys and untrodden passes, proving to myself that I actually can do some routefinding through what the guidebook calls “truly onerous terrain”.

First though, out of Bishop, I did some passes on the official PCT. On the very first one back on trail, Glen Pass, I lost half the skin on my left hand. With no band aids large enough for the job, I simply leukotaped my fingers back together, prayed I would avoid a fatal infection, and continued on.

Pinchot pass was unremarkable. Mather was steep, and I did my best to descend on the rocks instead of the snow. Unfortunately, on those rocks I broke my carbon fiber pole clean in half, and had a moment of true despair. Poles are essentially an extension of the body of a thruhiker, providing crucial biomechanical assistance on climbs and descents, as well as balance. The thought of doing 100 miles with only one was not heartening.

One of the more important uses for poles in the Sierra is to ford the rivers and streams, which there are many of. Some thigh deep. Certain hikers try to keep their feet dry, by crossing on logs or removing shoes for each crossing. This is not only a fool’s errand, but also dangerous. Stream crossings are consistently the most dangerous hazard on the PCT, above bears, falls, and Skippy peanut butter overdose. Shoes provide important traction and protection on slippery rocks, and a fall off of a log with a pack on can drown you. I am no big fan of wet shoes in the morning, but at least I’m alive.

Muir pass, often said to be the most difficult of them all, I did not find particularly bad.

With nearly 8 miles of snowfields, it was a test of endurance, but luckily endurance is my middle name. The relative gentleness of the slope made for easy travel and I was able to enjoy the scenery more than other passes.

Maybe because I was finally hiking alone, but I saw many more animals this week than previously.

Along the High Route, I got excited when I thought I saw the footprint of a hiker. Someone must be just ahead of me!

After completing back-to-back Bighorn and Shout of Relief Passes on the High Route, I felt pretty much done with routefinding for a while and done with this week overall and just decided to follow the PCT to Mammoth.

It was weird to have so many bad things happen so fast one after another, while still being in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Trying to appreciate the scenery for what it was, while dealing with all of these issues was weird. I guess that’s life. A thousand more small annoying things happened too, but I’m not gonna dwell on them. Trust me though, it can only go up from here.

Milk&cigarettes

Mac

Repair of the week

• My hand

• kidding, it’s the stuff sack for my Enlightened Equipment Enigma quilt

It was fraying like crazy after dealing with the stress of being stuffed every morning.