PCT 2018 Thru-Hike: Episode 12- Passes and Postholing

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Tags: UL Hiking Gear,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru-Hike,Thru-Hike Gear List,UL Backpacking,Zpacks,Enlightened Equipment,CNOC Outdoors,UL Backpacking Gear,Vargo Bot 700,Hiker Trash,Hiking,Backpacking,Pinhoti Trail,Adventure,Long Distance Hiking,Zpacks Duplex,Zpacks Ark Blast,John Muir Trail,John Muir Wilderness,PostHoling

Video Transcription

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[Applause]

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the massive difference a week can make we're walking right next to all of our postholing

tracks and we're just walking right on top of it right on top of the snow it has melted down so much and hardened up so it's icy which is awesome man I'm pretty sure we just made it farther than we made it that day maybe almost to the top of Pinchot pass that we you know should have been up like a week ago we finally made it to the top of picture [Music]

[Music]

finally on some trail that we can a hike instead of postholing it's finally clear it up

and we're just about to bottom a pinch of little Valley and then we'll have Mather pass which is supposed to be fear inducing

Cruz is probably gonna his pants [Music]

that's some really good clear trail for anything three miles any little s little Weston three miles and now we're back in the snow fields postholing up to our knees and on our way up Mather pass so the goal today is to get two passes done we got Pinchot done I've had some decent hiking for a while and now we're gonna go up Mather pass which this side of it doesn't look like it's too bad the other side of it not really looking forward to [Music]

made it

it's really hard kappa mother passing [Music]

just made camp after postholing well pretty much all day but we started coming down the path and it is super brutal we it's now 8 o'clock 8 p.m. and when we were at the top of the pass it was four maybe five so took a lot out our stuff but we found a little camp spot down here right at the bottom of the pass and we're gonna make a small fire and eat food and crash out get up tomorrow and do it all over again especially the postholing

[Music]

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today is such a beautiful day we have dropped down quite a bit in elevation and we're cruising through this amazing valley and there's no snow there's a little bit of snow this morning but no snow right now I think it's like ten miles of this until we start heading up towards a Muir pass so definitely definitely enjoying this this is what I signed up for this is what I wanted to hike in when I was thinking about hiking in the Sierras you know that thought you have of the Sierras in the John Muir Trail this is it 100% [Music]

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good morning well yesterday Cruz and I decided to stop our day pretty early we were only 15 miles in but it was like 4:30 and because of the day before we were just still completely wore out so we decided to stop just at the approach to mirror Pass the day before yesterday we just spent all day postholing up the pass over the pass on the other side and it took us like 12 almost 13 hours to do 15 miles so last night we just decided let's let's go ahead and break camp early got some good sleep got some food and woke up pretty early this morning and now we're about to go from your past the whole thing with these passes and out here in the Sierra especially when it's early with all this snow it's too dry try to do this stuff as early as possible in the morning because all that snow melts during the day so in the afternoon it's soft easy to posthole at night it freezes back over so it's easier to walk on top of so we just decided to make camp get up this morning push up and over the pass get to the other side past the snow fields and then we're hoping to put in a pretty big day today it's been a while since I've put in a large day not that I'm trying to put it in large days just you know when you're out here and you're pushing food and just beating yourself up and it's cold you definitely want to get it done so today I think we're gonna try to do a 20 something mile day as long as we can get up and over this pass over these snow fields before we start postholing

we should be in pretty good shape yesterday was absolutely beautiful hopefully after this snow field and after this pass today will be absolutely beautiful trail fingers crossed here we go [Music]

your pass number five is so beautiful [Music]

it was a long descent still not done a bit of a break [Music]

Snickers

[Laughter]

satisfies

[Music]

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I have made it to evolution Creek and this is supposed to be one of the sketchiest water crossings on the PCT and the JMT so it's supposed to be pretty wide I'm probably not gonna film this one so I'll have to give her your report on the other side but it's very beautiful it's very beautiful out here right now

so water crossing or not it's just got to get out here that wasn't so bad current got a little strong there towards the end and I'm 6:1 and the water came up to my waist so I can definitely see how in about a week maybe two weeks this could be a lot worse whole lot worse and it was very very cold but not too bad [Music]

finally made it to camp after a pretty wild day today this was the first day that we were actually able to do over 20 miles we ended up doing 24 and a half which is pretty awesome for the Sierras the last two days we did like 15s and you know before we bailed off the trail it was like nine mile days so it's getting much better we have definitely started figuring it out that if you camp right before I pass before the snow starts right at ten thousand or just under ten thousand you can usually get up in the morning get up and over the past with outpost Hollen I think I only post told like twice today and that was after the pass so I was pretty happy with that but overall an amazing day got out of the snow fields pretty early and the trail was just beautiful absolutely beautiful cruising down to the valley we did leave Kings Canyon National Park today so we are now done with Sequoia done with Kings Canyon and we are currently in Sierra National Forest or the John Muir wilderness and then next up will be Yosemite so right towards the end of the day today we stopped at a junction it will actually take you down to the mirror trail ranch which is a big spot for John Muir Trail hikers and just a really cool kind of like little resort really roll not a lot of flash to it and I decided to drop my pack here at the junction and hike down there because they have a store and my whole plan was to get down there and get some extra snacks because just been eating so much out here I'm kind of worried that I wasn't gonna have enough food before we got into Mammoth so I got down there right before they closed and found out that they were closed for the season and they don't technically open until the 15th the

thirteen through the 15th one of those days luckily there was a guy by the name of DJ that was kind of a caretaker and he was there and I ended up chatting with him he showed me around the property showed me some of the buildings there's actually a building down there that has been there since the 1800s it's all original the shingles on the roof are all original hand-cut pine shingles absolutely amazing really cool place and I mentioned that I was hungry and I needed food and he let me into the not hiker box

it was a hiker house and it was filled with leftover mountain house meals and rice sides and tuna packets stuff that JMT hikers leave behind and never pick up from last season so he just let me dig in and take whatever I want so I walked away with quite a bit of food that is definitely gonna feed me pretty well until we get in to Mammoth but we're currently camped about six miles from the next pass which is Sheldon Sheldon Sheldon Sheldon sölden Pass so we're gonna be getting up again early in the morning hitting that getting down on the other side and then we should have another day after that to get into Mammoth and finally get there after having to bail out and get back on the trail we're finally gonna be able to get to the spot we were trying to get to so two more passes Selden and silver and Mammoth

[Music]

you