Day 11 - Mile 1610.8

Oh sure, why not add another fear to the pot while I’m stirring up trouble. How about hiking in a snow storm? Yes, that little rain event at my campsite last night was a snow storm up high, and continued to snow today, from about 10 am on. 

The day started out nice, if foggy.

Then came the high wind and sleet/freezing rain thing.  

Pretty soon I was walking in snow and the wind was blowing ice onto the trees. 

That is it for the images today. I was concentrating on walking in the snow, not hurting myself and surviving the event. I lost the trail in snow drifts and had to rely on my gps once. I made the mistake of not stopping to eat or drink, out of concern I would get too chilled. I obviously don’t have snow pants or snow gloves so of course my fleece mitts and hiking pants were soaked. Not to mention my shoes and socks. 

Half way into the afternoon my right hip, of the previous injury from two years ago, started acting up. Feeling like it could go into a total spasm again. This would be very bad as when this happens I can’t put any pressure on the leg at all. It didn’t, but in order to protect it I had to slow way down. The cold and strain I guess. Damn. 

I didn’t manage to get to my planned camping spot for today, it was getting late and I was too chilled. So I stopped at the first likely campsite and got the tarp and hammock set up. I crawled into the sack and shivered until I figured out I needed to eat something. So I laid in the sack and ate whatever I could find in my bag that was high fat and that I could swallow. After about an hour I stopped shivering and I’d say the danger of hyperthermia is over, for now. I have tons of snacks with me in case I need to eat during the night. 

The spot I’m in is not the best option I could have found. It is windy and it’s still snowing off and on. I have many rocks on my stakes so I hope they hold with this wind. I am hoping the wind dies down at night like it often does in the mountains. But in a storm??? I don’t know.  

I still have 13 miles to walk out tomorrow in whatever snow has accumulated in the past two days, as I was only able to do 10 today. I don’t know what to do. I hope I can make it. I’ll see how things are in the morning.  But clearly I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not ever gonna go into the back country in early season again. In fact, no matter what happens, I’m not going to continue with the next section. I’m done with snow and it’s too early in the year.