PCT day 53 – Selden Pass
Last night was a surprisingly warm camp. I even had to take the the gloves off my feet in the night! Although I didn't sleep very well, my legs were in so much pain. They were pulsating. Probably from the long day and all the snow work.
I would have loved to have stayed here for the day by the lake in such a beautiful spot, but alas we have to keep moving. We had 13 miles of downhill to get through first, which sounds good but the paths are rocky, sometimes small rocks sometimes big and they both come with their problems. There are rivers to cross and streams and puddles to avoid. It's also murder on the knees and ankles, one wrong move and it could be game over, especially when you start to pick up a bit of speed!
My bag is so uncomfortable at the moment. I think my body has changed and it's sitting differently so I can't get comfortable. I only have around an inch left on my hip belt adjustment. I better start eating more!
The morning was mostly tree covered and was a bit hotcold. We had to cross a creek. It was quite fast flowing and quite deep. Growler was in front of me but I could see from her footprints that she had already crossed. Cool breeze was behind me and I waited in the hope we could cross together. He didn't arrive so I went for it. The water came up to upper thigh, and I was on my tip toes.
It turns out cool breeze thought I was behind him and had waited for me further up the trail. I had passed him while he was dropping off the kids and he didn't realise. We leave our packs by the side of the trail so people know where you are but you miss people going by when you're busy so we have come up with a system where you leave an item on their pack to let them know you've passed by. He caught up with us as we were hanging out by the bridge.
My legs were so sore, so Cool Breeze gave me some cream to use, it felt good at first but later on in the day all the dirt from the trail stuck to the cream and I was filthy.
We had around 9 miles and 3000ft of ascent to get over Selden pass - cited to be the easiest pass on the trail. I'm not sure I would use the word easy but it was easier that some of our pervious passes. Long steep switchbacks and long but gradually inclining paths. The route was incredibly pretty, with forest and lakes. We had a break and at 3pm we had 6 miles left to go. I told myself I wanted to get there by 6pm.
We were told by some day hikers that there was no snow on this pass so it will be easy, they were right, just a few small patches - no match for us. But what they didn't know was that it was going to actually snow on us - just a light dusting on the way up. After lots of false tops I got there at 6 on the dot! I ate cake with a spoon to celebrate.
After our photos we started our 2.5 mile descent (to make a hefty 24 mile day in the Sierra) and the snow really started coming down. Along with a flash of lightening and a crack of thunder. We went as fast as we could to the camp spot and sent up on rocks.
I ate some tuna, cheese and chocolate from my tent as I didn't have to cook any of them! And I am now listening to the rain patter on the tent.
Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow!...