[pct-l] A moment on the trail...

[jjolson@uwyo.edu (Jeffrey Olson)]

On a section hike from Echo Summit to Tuolomne a couple summers ago I
managed to arrange to camp at Wolf Creek lake just north of Sonora Pass.
You drop down off the trail a couple hundred feet to a sandy/rocky meadow.
The wind was blowing upwards to 30 knots in gusts and was sustained at 20 or
so.  The clouds were dark and thick, roiling over Sonora Peak behind me.
I'd spent the previous night on the south facing wall in Noble Canyon below
the Noble Lakes along a spring rivulet in the hot sun, naked, letting newly
washed clothes dry.  This was going to be different.

I put on all my clothes and erected the tent, paying particular attention to
tieing it down.  I put all my gear in it, checked the guy lines, and walked
down to the lake's oulet.  A great avalanche had occurred in the last couple
years and trees were tossed about like some great hand had come through and
swept them down. The wind was concentrated and at least 30 knots, if not
higher. Walking involved leaning into the wind and bracing against gusts and
then their retreat.

I crawled up onto the logjam and stood there, looking out acorss the canyon
and realized this was why i was hiking, why each year I came back for more.
It is remembering moments like this that make the hot, thirsty, "wonder why
I'm doing this" feelings distant memories as I sit at the computer screen.
Pain?  What pain???

Jeffrey Olson
Laramie, Wyoming... where it was 60 degrees today!