10.7 Miles
Atlantic Creek Campground
So as a prewarning, Mom and Dad you may or may not want to read the following paragraph. You may just want to skip to the next one. Seriously.
So at Red Eagle Campground last night Spins and I had everything set and done for the night and our tents were facing each other with our flys open so there was just mesh. My tent was probably two feet from Spins and at around 9pm Spins had just fallen asleep and I was working on doing so as well. A heard a brief ruffling and out of nowhere a HUGE grizzly was at our tent site literally two feet from the side of Spins tent and three or four feet from my face on the other side of the mesh in my tent. Mind you 9pm here is still daylight so I saw it way clearer than I would ever wish to. I grabbed the bear mace and had the safety off pointed at it. I talked in a low voice to Spins and told her there is a grizzly right next to your tent be calm and I lowly spoke to make the bear aware we were there. It didn't care and grunted then walked off into the brush grunting again and then went into the water. At first I thought I was dreaming but it was more than definitely real a goddamn grizzly that was feet away from my face and didn't give two shits about me or my noise. When it left we started to make noise and then Spins and I both crammed into my tent because we only have one can of bear mace and threw our gear in her tent. This started the Bearinoia. We were going to wake up super early but we got close to no sleep. An hour or so after the incident we heard something loud in the water and turned on our headlamps because it was dark now and made noise to let the grizzly know we were still awake and aware it was there. So we laid in my tent scared absolutely shitless listening for noise. I kept my fly up just in case I needed to use the bear mace. We eventually dosed in and out of sleep kind of taking turns sleeping and luckily the grizzly didn't show back up but it definitely left us shaken. Also getting out in the middle of the night to pee was terrifying as well but the bear spray is comforting insurance because it is said to be more effective than a gun at deterring bears. The morning came slowly and as light returned we felt a tad more comfortable but were still edgy and now exhausted. We packed up and headed over to the food hang area expecting the worst and as we approached all we could see was my food bag and not Spins. Luckily her smaller food bag was just hidden behind mine so the bear didn't get out food either. As we left the campsite we saw traces that the bear had searched all over the campsite.
The close to eleven miles up over Triple Divide Pass we knew were going to be a bit rough. The first seven or so miles were uphill, about a 2700 foot gain. When we headed out of camp it began to drizzle, wonderful and there were mosquitoes everywhere...today was just going to be a pain in the ass. The drizzle turned to rain right when we approached a downed suspension bridge which meant we had to ford a split river (crossed twice) and the current was ripping and it was freezing. Sometimes on trails you get so miserable all you can do is laugh and that's about all that could be done. This trail has thrown so much crazy crap at me in the first week that its impossible to know what is going to happen tomorrow or what will go wrong or right in the next few hours. With the heavier rain came out the umbrellas. I love my umbrella. It keeps me so dry and thus warm in the rain that it it one of my top three things I am carrying with me on this trip.
Miles of wet hiking up the valley in and around the trees were done a bit drowsily and slowly. Then the snow began. We came to our first major snow field with the trail across a steep section. I glanced at my map and then at what I thought were cut footholds strait up the steep snow field. By steep I mean towards the top it was easily a 70 if not 80 degree angle, it was close to vertical towards the top. So I figured to go strait up by cutting huge footholds instead of crossing the steep snow field that dropped really far down. While we started we tried and practiced self arresting with our ice axes which is basically jamming the sharp part of the axe into the snow as you slide down because you fell. It was rather easy and we got the hang of it so it reassured us a bit. Then I started cutting footholds strait up. Neither of us looked down and after about an hour we made it to the top only to realize the snow was drifted from ground and we just climbed this sketchy snow face for nothing. We went backed down carefully and did some more self arresting so it was beneficial to practice but really frustrating. Sometimes I get to carried away with finding shortcuts and then they don't work and it screws time and energy especially after not sleeping very well. Luckily while we were doing this the sun had peaked out and it had stopped raining. Two thruhikers, Panama and Beth and their service dogs caught up to us just as we finished crossing the field we should have in the first place (but felt more confident in doing now that we had self arrested a bunch). They took the lead to the pass and made steps on the rest of the fields which was nice to follow and less work for our tired asses. The clouds thickened back up a bit and drizzle/rain was intermittent as we headed up the pass.
At the top of the pass it was an awesome sight. The Triple Divide Pass splits into three drainages one heading to the Pacific Ocean, one to the Atlantic Ocean, and one into Canada. On top of that the sky had parted and the sun shone through the clouds and the rain stopped the panorama is of both sides of the pass. It was three miles down the ridge to the campsite and besides one small snowfield, it looked like clear dry land all the way down. Looks can be deceiving...a few of the stream depressions in the ridge were still snow covered which proved to be multiple different obstacle courses as we decended. There were snow caves, thin snow sheets we had to avoid by butt sliding down loose rock and climbing back around, your run on the mill snow fields were present as well, and there was one where we literally chopped off a section of the snow with our trekking poles to create a way down. All while doing this, the matching blisters I have around the balls of my middle toes on the bottom of my foot were throbbing something fierce but blisters are of the slightest worry out here compared to all the other stuff going on. Soon after we made it to camp and were absolutely sure to take the strictest bear precautions and that pretty much wraps up another crazy awesome ridiculous day on the CDT. A sleep-filled night is in due order another pass and long day to to tomorrow.
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