May 29, 2016

The morning started with nice clear trail. Then quickly turned back to snow fields. Only these were much longer sections, on much more exposed faces, with a much further to slide if you began sliding. And oh how many ways there are to do that: swing your foot just a bit too hard cutting a step, shift your center of balance just a bit too quickly, or have the snow shift underfoot as it settles. We were constantly checking our position with GPS as we walked 5 feet above the trail; the snowy topology did little to provide any indication of where the trail below it ran.

Crossing the snow stretches was very fatiguing, especially on joints. We took lots of breaks and the 10 hours of hiking felt like an eternity with no real progress. We did see our first bear tracks and a small herd of caribou though, so at least we had that going for us.

We finished off the day crossing the CA/OR border (albeit 1000 miles early) with a nice stretch of clear trail. Then a last climb up to camp with a hopeful outlook for the next day. The topographic map looked much more promising for avoiding snowy sections.