PCT Day 6: White Fish Horse Camp

 Day 6: 26 miles

    Last night we went to sleep without being able to see the view from our tentsite but this morning the clouds had parted and we could see all the beautiful surrounding mountain peaks! What a way to wake up :) I wish I took a picture...

    We had 10 miles to walk to get to the next water source. Luckily, the early morning miles were  in cool temps and I didn't need to drink much water. When we reached the side trail down to the spring I realized we were in for a bit of a detour and sadly it was all downhill. Because we usually have so many miles to complete on any given day, detouring off trail for water isn't my favourite. The trail down to the spring went on and on and I had a bit of a tantrum realizing I had to hike all the way back up. I probably just needed a snack. When we got back up to our packs there were a couple of other hikers there that we had never met before. Turns out The Boston Mule and Rotisserie were also LASH's (long ass section hikers) and had hiked long sections of the trail in years past just like us. We also saw Happy and Lucky (who had travelled all the way from the Czech Republic to do the PCT). We had been leap frogging with them for a couple days now. 

    The day was really heating up and we were pretty excited to see a full water cache 6 miles later. All of our new trail friends were stopping for lunch here too. As Peter and I packed up to leave, Happy and Lucky asked us if we were going to the White Fish horse camp. We said we had never heard of it and then they told us there was trail magic there. The words "trail magic" really piqued our interest and we quickly got the beta on this camp. Turns out the camp hosts Jim and Gerri are amazing and offer PCT hikers soda, sometimes food, a charging station, and a free place to camp. I think it also cut off 2 miles of trail which would get us into Shelter Cove a bit earlier the next day! Needless to say, we were sold! 

Happy, Lucky, Rotisserie, & The Boston Mule

    The 11 mile hike to camp was pretty hot and exposed and the trail was very sandy. We had to stop every hour to dump the sand out of our shoes. But, let me tell you, every sandy step was worth this detour! As we walked into the camp Jim and Gerri greeted us from their golf cart. They asked if we were PCT hikers and got us settled at the picnic table by their RV. They offered us a soda and an apple and gave us the run down on the camp ground. They also informed us of a lake that was a short 7 minute walk from camp. They said they were making burgers for dinner and asked if we wanted to join. We of course didn't hesitate and said YES!! It was so nice to sit down and get to know everyone a little bit better. Jim and Gerri have been the hosts at this camp for many years now and had so many PCT hiker stories. This truly was a magical day and one of the most memorable of the trip. After dinner, Peter and I went down to the lake for a swim. Can't think of a better way to cap off an amazing day. 

Marathon and Pole Vault

Day 5: Highest point in OR/WA!

 Day 5: 26.5 miles

    It rained on and off all night but luckily took a pause while we packed up our packs for the morning. The skies were moody over Crater Lake and it was an amazing sight to behold. 

    I think the lack of water sources has become a bit of a theme in Oregon. The picture below shows one of the 2 water caches we came across this day. The caches are maintained by trail angels who so generously volunteer their time and energy and make hiking the PCT possible or at least more comfortable. 

    Just before we reached the water cache Peter was feeling a bit off and so we sat down on a log. He then proceeded to vomit. Now, if I were vomiting, I would be keeled over with tears streaming down my eyes, unable to focus on much else other than my current state. Peter, on the other hand, was able to casually engage me in conversation, while intermittently barfing, and continuing the conversation as if nothing had happened at all. 

    After barf gate, we saw two groups of all female Forest Service workers who were doing trail maintenance. Trail maintenance looks a lot different in the US than in Canada. For starters, I don't believe they're allowed to run chainsaws in National Forests. Instead, they carry massive 2 person cross cut saws. Secondly, there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the trail and each person we saw was carrying very heavy tools. I couldn't help but think about how much easier it would be to load up an ATV and motor on in there. One person was even carrying a 20L jug of water in her hands. The amount of effort that goes into clearing these trails is insane and we made sure to thank them for all their hard work as we passed by. 

    The trail had been quite flat all morning but this afternoon we began to climb up and up and up. It also began to rain and we put on our rain gear. 

    After having walked most of the day in the forest it was a nice change to hike to the shoulder of Mt. Theilsen. Here we were rewarded with exquisite views as the clouds parted exposing the summit of Mt. Theilsen. 

  We reached the last water source today around 3pm and it was roughly 25km to the next one. We knew we weren't about to hike all the way there this night so we had to carry a shit ton of water to make it to camp and then have some left over for the next morning. I remember my pack feeling very heavy as we hiked uphill for the next 5 miles to camp. 

    Not long after we reached the highest point of the PCT in both Oregon and Washington at 7560 feet. 

    The tentsite we chose for the night we had all to ourselves! We could tell there was a stunning view waiting to happen but it was covered by clouds. It would be a different story in the morning :) We hung our stuff to dry, filled our bellies with cold ramen noodles and tucked ourselves in our sleeping bags and enjoyed an episode of criminal minds. 

Marathon and Pole Vault

  

Day 4: Crater Lake!

    Day 4: 22.5 miles

    We woke up to the sound of rain around 3:30am! This came as quite a surprise to us since it was super clear the night before. So clear in fact, we slept without the fly on our tent! Peter had hung our food/packs high up a tree and there was no quick way to solve our issue so we decided to pack up and start our 12 mile walk to Crater Lake.

Morning light!

    The rain led to a short lived thunder storm and we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise. Peter was having a hard time eating this morning and I think we were both excited to get to the amenities that existed at Crater Lake. I had read the comments in the Guthook PCT app about the amazing breakfast at the Crater Lake Lodge and so I hiked and fantasized. 

    We reached the road to Crater Lake and had about 3km to walk to get to the visitor Center. My right knee began to bother me as we walked down the road, right about where my ITBand inserts on my tibia. That was a bit worrisome. I stopped and stretched and focused on firing my glutes and luckily it didn't bother me again. At 9am we reached our destination and dropped our bags behind the general store. We were able to poach some wifi and were able to FaceTime our family for the first time! 

    

I was sad to learn that the lodge with the breakfast I was fantasizing about was a couple hour hike up the trail. The restaurant where we were had mixed reviews but it would have to do. The restaurant wouldn't open for another hour or so which was fine because we had some re-supply shopping to do! 

    We had planned to re-supply out of the general store and this would be our first winging it re-supply of the trip. I walked into the store and quickly realized that this would be an interesting shop. The store didn't really have the things that I was expecting to find and so I bought a drumstick ice cream cone and walked back outside and contemplated my food choices. Upon further review there was actually some pretty good stuff in there. One of the best things we bought were bagels and cream cheese. It was the only time we had that on trail but we talked about it often later in the trip. I also picked up a bunch of chocolate/granola bars, nuts, gummies, and chips. Trail food isn't glamorous but it sure is tasty! We re-packed our bags with all our new goodies and walked over for lunch at Annie's restaurant. I had a buffalo chicken wrap and Peter had a beyond meat burger and we both really enjoyed it! 

    We walked out of there with full bellies and began our hike up to the Rim of Crater Lake. This trail was steep and it was probably the hardest climb we had done in our 4 days of hiking. This just made it all that much sweeter once we got our first view of the lake! It is a thing of beauty! 

    Peter had mentioned that he thought the Rim trail would be pretty flat but it turned out to be quite the opposite. We were again in a stretch with very few water sources. We were starting to get tired and knew we would have to dry camp tonight. We didn't have enough water to make it all the way to the water cache tomorrow but luckily we came across a parking lot and found a nice couple who so generously gave us some water! 

Our dinner spot. A PCT hiker had made that and hung it in the tree. 

    Not long after we found an amazing flat spot just outside the park boundary and set up camp for the night. The clouds were starting to roll in and we got the tent up just as it started to rain. I love listening to the pitter patter of rain on the fly once I'm all cozy in my sleeping bag. This was a day to remember. 

Marathon and Pole Vault

Day 3: The Lilly pond

 Day 3: 24 miles

    We woke up to another beautiful day on the PCT. It was going to be another scorcher without many water sources so getting up early was really advantageous. The terrain was really varied today. We weaved through lava fields and burnt out forests. It was a bit smoky today. Not the kind of smoke that you can taste but the type of smoke that prevents you from seeing all the layers of mountains in the distance. Peter was continuously impressed by how smoothed out the trail was in rocky/lava sections. The amount of work that has been put into this trail is quite something. 

    Peter's chafing was still very much a problem for him and after realizing that the liner of his shorts was a major source of discomfort I made a recommendation. I suggested he go commando in his wind pants. By doing this he would get some air flow and hopefully his wounds would start to heal. This technique seemed to work pretty good and he was able to hike without too much pain. His wind pants are a very pale blue and thankfully are tinted enough that they aren't see-through...until he started to sweat. This was a bit of a source of amusement for me since I often walked behind him. If you see him, ask him to sing you the "Swass" song that he so cleverly made up. 

Proof of Swass

    We ended up stopping a bit earlier today because of the lack of water sources and unfortunately the best water source that we would hit for the evening was in a lilly pond. Now, the picture below doesn't make it look all that bad but it was badder than bad. We had to walk out on this log to get to water that was deep enough to scoop out of. There were snakes swimming in the water and tadpoles. The water looked black and it really clogged up our filters. I think the worst part about it was that the water filtered yellow. We made sure to also pristine this water too. 

I cold soaked some ramen noodles this night but there was a weird tang to them, which I'm assuming came from the water so I skipped dinner. Peter wasn't feeling so good and it seemed like he was coming down with heat stroke. The lack of water sources was starting to take it's toll on him. Let's just say that we weren't drinking to our hearts content this night. I believe he may have had his first puke here. 

The infamous "Lilly Pond"

On day 4 we get to one of the biggest highlights of the trip - Crater Lake :) 

Marathon and Pole Vault

PCT Day 2 + coccyx injury

    I forgot to mention an interesting fun fact that happened before we left for the trip. About 10 days out from our hike we decided to go scrambling in Rogers Pass. Our objective for the day was a rocky peak called Uto. We only made it 1/4 of the way up the actual scramble before I decided I wasn't feeling it and we turned back. 

 
Climbing up Uto 

    On our way back down we had to cross a rather steep snow slope. Peter said he might butt slide down. I took one look at it and couldn't think of anything more terrifying. Upon a closer look he too had changed his mind. 

The slope I fell down on the way to Uto. It got steeper below!

    The slope descended steeply roughly 300ft and there were rocks on either side of it and at the bottom. Falling didn't look ideal! I have never practiced self arresting and Peter gave me a very brief description of what to do if I were to slip. He recommended I take off my micro spikes because the snow was soft but I decided to leave them on. I was using a new skookum ice axe that was very lightweight and had a shorter shaft than the one I'm used to. I was finding it awkward to plunge into the snow because I had to lean over so much to plunge it deep enough. Needless to say, I wasn't doing the best job because of this. I have never slipped on a snow slope like this and probably wasn't giving it the respect that it deserved. When I was half way across it I slipped and started to slide pretty fast. I did what Peter told me to do but my attempt failed miserably. I kept desperately trying to self arrest but the pick was just cutting through the soft snow. My heart began to race as I descended down the slope on my belly. Because there were rocks on either side I was looking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't veering in either direction. This caused me to do a few 360 degree rotations. Eventually, I decided to just stay on my butt because I wanted to see the rocks below me and brace for landing! At some point I hit my tail bone really hard. I mental noted that. I had way too much adrenaline rushing through me to care about it in the moment however. Luckily, the slope finished on an uphill ramp before the rocks and that slowed me enough so that I didn't crash into them. Once I came to a stop I took some time to control my breathing. It was completely out of control and it took a few minutes to regulate all the adrenaline that was pumping through my body. That might have been the most intense moment of my life. I've been in worse accidents but I've been knocked out for those and didn't really feel like I was a witness to my own undoing. 

It sure was a beauty day though!

    Once I gathered my wits about me, and after a release of emotion, I went to assess my coccyx (tailbone). It was very sore to touch and I was unable to clench my glutes. The muscles had completely spasmed around it. The couple hour walk out was uncomfortable and I sat in a creek near the car park in an attempt to ice it. The 10 days before the trip were agonizing. Sitting was awful. I couldn't hike or run. Getting in and out of my car was so painful. I started to wonder if I would even be able to hike the PCT at all. Hilariously, when we booked our last minute flights to Oregon just days before, I opted against the travel/cancellation insurance. What possibly would stop us from going, I thought. I went for a walk along the flat rail trail after about a week and I was experiencing shooting pain and spasms in my glute muscles. I decided to get an x-ray to make sure it wasn't broken. Luckily, the x-ray came back clear and it was just a really bad bruise. This at least gave me the confidence that moving wouldn't be making it any worse and I just had to work through the discomfort. I managed a couple of short walks in the forest before we flew out. I was hopeful that my body would enjoy hiking all day and that it would just have to heal as we walked. Sitting is what aggravated it the most and I knew we wouldn't be doing much sitting out there. The flight was pretty uncomfortable but as long as I just sat on an angle and switched sides often I was ok. 

    The first couple weeks of hiking the PCT were entertaining. I couldn't sit normally on the ground. I either had sit on a log with my butt hanging off the back or lay on my side. Ok enough about that...

Day 2: 20 miles

    We woke up at 6am with full hearts and sore legs! The night before Clint told us he saw a bear on trail just before reaching camp. Because it was so hot we slept without a fly over the tent, which meant I could look out and examine if we had any visitors anytime I heard a noise. Luckily, there were none but it made for a restless night. I noted that we were one of the last one's to break camp, which is rare for us. I recognize that now as an odd source of pride and my ego felt a little bit bruised. I quickly realized how ridiculous that was and moved on. 

    Just before lunch we had the option to take a 2 mile detour to a place called Fish Lake Resort. Here you can get real food and drinks. We weren't at the stage where we were craving new and exciting meals as well as we didn't want to add any extra miles to our day, so we skipped it. We got an update later from Clint that it wasn't all that exciting. Today was super hot! Like really really hot. We stopped for lunch beside a creek so we could eat and drink endless amounts of water. Peter was really struggling with his chafing and appeared to be in a lot of pain. He was having to reapply his anti-chafe stick many times an hour. This isn't Peter's first rodeo with chafing. He suffered pretty bad the first time we did the PCT. I think it's a combo of heat, sweat, salt, and the liner of his shorts. We ended up stopping early today to put him out of his misery as well as give our legs a bit of a break because of the previous days mileage. My apologies in advance for the photograph below but I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth! Hiking is all fun and games until you come face to face with chafing like this. The next few days were spent problem solving this issue...stay tuned for Peter's creative solutions :)

    The plus side to stopping early is you get to pick the best tentsite before all the other hikers get there. We were about to hit a 14 mile section without water so this spot by the creek was going to be a popular camp spot tonight. It was this night that we met a couple named Happy and Lucky. They came all the way from the Czech Republic. We would continue to leap frog with them for weeks to come. 

One thing we looked forward to each night was an episode of something on Netflix. I think at this point we were watching Heist. There was a pocket at the top of the tent that fit Peter's phone perfectly. It became something I looked forward to each night. 

Marathon and Pole Vault

Pacific Crest Trail: Lead up and day 1

I'm just going to get to it...

    Peter and I carved out a couple months this summer to go on a hiking adventure. We had a few options in mind and we took our time letting those ideas evolve before landing on a particular one. There were many factors that went into this decision and the ever evolving state of the world was definitely one of them. 

Here were the said options:

1) Vancouver Island Trail: Roughly 800km of trail, connecting Victoria in the South to Cape Scott at the Northern tip of Vancouver Island. 

2) Bagger Challenge: 80+ North Shore peaks that need to be done in a calendar year (various rules involved). This is a local bragging rights challenge essentially. 

3) Great Divide Trail: Roughly 1100km that traverses the continental divide between Alberta and BC. 

4) Oregon & Washington sections of the Pacific Crest Trail. 

    The Vancouver Island Trail is something Peter and I would really love to do. The downside to it at this point is that it's not fully complete. I wouldn't mind waiting a few more years until it has been a bit more developed. 

    We really contemplated the GDT. Peter attempted it a few years ago but had to exit the trail due to forest fires. I completed 950km of it last year and although I would like to go back someday, I was more excited to do something new. 

    The Bagger Challenge was what we had initially planned but it got vetoed once we brought the PCT into the mix. Peter and I had hiked 1200 miles through California on the PCT 7 years ago and have always wanted to go back. We spent a lot of time planning our 2014 hike since it was our first ever thru-hike. We (mostly Peter) put months into researching lightweight hiking gear. We bought fancy lightweight backpacks, made a stove out of a cat food can, and figured out what was essential. I spent weeks preparing and dehydrating 2 months worth of dinners. It's shocking how long it actually takes to dehydrate your own food. Not to mention the time it takes to figure out how many calories are in the recipe and how many portions it makes to ensure we were feeding ourselves enough. We put everything into boxes and drove them across the border to our friends warehouse where he shipped them at specific intervals for us. Shipping from Canada to the US is very expensive and we are forever grateful for Mike's help with this logistic. It probably took us 7 years to rap our heads around the thought of putting this much planning into anything ever again. 

    When I did the GDT last year I was introduced to cold soaking. Essentially this just means that you don't cook anything. Everything you eat is cold or can be rehydrated with cold water. No stove necessary. Once you learn to cold soak its hard to imagine ever going back to cooking. It reduces the weight and volume of your pack both of which make the hike more enjoyable. Having learnt this skill, it made going back and doing the PCT logistically way easier. We wouldn't have to cook and dehydrate food ahead of time. There would be no packing and shipping of boxes, mainly due to how unreliable shipping across the border would be and the cost. We simply would just pick supplies up along the way. Essentially, we would wing it. How fun! 

    I googled the closest airport to Ashland Oregon and was surprised to see that it was in Medford. When we got off the trail in Oregon in 2014 we hitched to Medford and took a bus back to Vancouver from there. I had no idea there was an airport but this would be the perfect spot to get us back to where we left off all those years ago. Peter went onto the PCT Southern Oregon Trail Angels Facebook page and asked if anyone could help us get from the Airport to the trail and luckily a wonderful angel named Beth answered our call. Not only would she pick us up at the airport, but she would let us stay the night and take us to the trail the next morning. It was all coming together quite nicely. 

    Looking ahead it seemed that we wouldn't have to pack more than 4 days worth of food at any given time (50km/day) and there were great re-supply options on trail. An issue I have been having on thru hikes is pain in my left shoulder/neck. It's due to carrying a "heavy" pack and clearly something (a nerve) is being impinged. Most likely between my clavicle and 1st rib. Although there are other factors I'm sure. I was in a bike accident in 2007 where I flew over a car and landed on that shoulder. It's never really bothered me until I started thru-hiking. I basically get referral pain from my neck to my scapula and then down my arm. I am usually able to deal with it by stretching but it only helps for short periods of time. The lighter my pack gets the better it is and the more enjoyment I have. I have a wicked Physio who pretty much made it disappear for my GDT hike but I also only carried 1-3 days worth of food since it was a crewed/supported effort. I only managed to get into my Physio once before the hike but hoped it would be enough to keep it at bay. 

Free beer and wine on this flight!

    We flew into Medford the evening of July 22nd. YVR was eerily quiet. Most of the restaurants/venders were closed and there were like 4 flights on the board. Luckily, there was one place open where we could get food and a beer. Our flight was on time and we landed in Medford an hour and a half later. Beth greeted us and took us back to her place. Her and her husband have converted their garage into a huge bedroom essentially and that is where we slept soundly for the night. In the morning she made us dutch style pancakes which was such a fantastic send off. We then drove 45 min to the trail head and looked out at some of the previous years forest fire devastation.  I should mention that there were some active fires in Oregon when we started but none of them were impacting the trail at the time. 

Where we started off HWY 66

Day 1: 27 miles    

    Our first day back on trail was quite nostalgic. I was incredibly happy to be back and excited for the adventure ahead.  We crossed paths with a few hikers right away and it was nice talking to them about how their hike was going so far. It was a hot day in Oregon but these hikers had to hike through California during a heat wave. I can only imagine how intense that would've been. 

    A couple hours after stopping for lunch we came across some hikers sitting outside of a Dodge Sprinter Van. A previous years hiker named Trouble was offering trail magic to hikers. Because it was so hot it was nice to be offered a soda although I didn't feel like we had really earned the magic. Nonetheless, I'm not one down to turn it down and sat my butt on the ground and took it as an opportunity to meet other hikers. There we met a man in his 70's who was hiking a section of the trail. We mentioned that we were ultra runners and he asked us what ultras we have done. Since I was in the US I said we had done Western States and he just lit up and told us he had done it 27 times! What a small world and a big feat! Here we also met Siren and Mulligan who we would cross paths with for many weeks to come. We still had 12 miles to hike before the next water source and were already low on water. So we did what we had to do and filtered water out of the melted ice from Troubles cooler and were on our way. 

    Because of the lack of water we couldn't just camp anywhere. This made our first day much longer than I think may have been ideal. Don't get me wrong, I love big miles out on trail but 27 is quite a big first day. We got into camp around 7:30pm along with Siren, Mulligan, Clint, and Galaxy girl. It was so clear the bonds that had already formed between these hikers having been on trail for 3-4 months at this point. I felt a bit jealous but I also know how fast you get embraced into the community of hikers no matter where you start. 

Other things I noted in my phone: 

- I put a huge rip in my shorts

- Peter had some chafing in his nether regions  :(

37 more days to go....

Marathon and Pole Vault

GDT trip report: Field to Saskatchewan Crossing

 Day 11: 47km/2787m

    We woke up bright and early in the comforts of Jessica and Jay's house. They were so kind to let us feast on delicious cereals and berries. We followed Jay's instructions that led us directly to the trailhead and started up the many switchbacks on the Iceline trail. This trail is located in Yoho National Park. Such a beautiful name for a park! I quite enjoy a good long climb in the morning. I'm a morning person in general and as soon as I am awake I'm already quite full of energy. I drink coffee because I enjoy the ritual but I don't need it whatsoever. In fact, I was the only member of the team that didn't bring it on the trip. I love it in my regular life and drink it daily but I don't want to drink cold instant coffee in a plastic bottle. I like the warm and cozy feelings I get when I drink coffee in the morning and if I'm not going to be feeling warm and cozy, I can go without. Joanna was smart and would put instant grinds in her oats and she said she quite liked that. To each their own!

The Iceline trail is really a thing of beauty. It is definitely a highlight of the GDT and worth taking the alternate route to see. I don't know what the jungle looked like but it couldn't have been as beautiful as this 😜.

    We stopped to have lunch at this really beautiful tarn. I remember it mostly because Joanna shared some of her Hawkins cheesies with me. I couldn't believe that some people were opting not to take this route because it was literally one of the most beautiful trails I had ever been on and was in pristine shape. 

    After lunch we continued on towards the Kiwetinok Pass junction. Joanna was really excited about this junction because she has only ever turned right there and today she would turn left. This felt exciting and I was happy to be there to share this with her. The trail up to the pass was magnificent! A real thing of beauty. It felt wild and rocky but there was a distinct trail up to the pass. I think I may have exclaimed, "Aren't you glad we turned left!"...I may have spoke too soon. 

    

    I think I have blocked a lot of it out of my mind to be honest as this was my personal worst day of the trip. What started off as an amazing day quickly took a turn. There was no trail off the other side of the pass. Even reading Joanna's account of what the terrain was like seems unfamiliar. I remember there being a lot of boulders. Footing was shitty and slow going. We were doing our best to follow a line on the app but it wasn't easy. At one point it seemed like we were way too low and would have to climb back up into the forested abyss and hope the trail merged. I wasn't a fan of this option so we decided to follow the creek below and hope for the best. The forest was like a big game of pick up sticks as if the skies above just dropped a crap ton of dead logs into the forest and they stacked at random. Somehow, someway, someone flagged a route through this stuff. A huge thank you to whoever did that! We continued to slowly weave our way up and over deadfall. It was quite dangerous in there as the deadfall was sharp where branches had broken off. At one point I slipped and my shin got caught up in a jumble of logs and I cut myself sharply on a broken branch. I was laying on my back and I looked at my shin and immediately knew it wasn't good. I had 7 stitches on my hand a couple years ago and was familiar with what needing stitches might look like. The cut quickly filled with blood so it was hard to tell exactly how bad it was. Joanna calmly took out her medical kit and brought over some tape. She had done something similar to her shin and knew I would be ok which was reassuring. She taped it up and we continued on our way. There was no other option.

    Getting out of this deadfall took many more hours. This was very stressful for me because I was trying so hard to protect my leg and was so worried about banging it or making it worse. I also let my mind go down the rabbit hole of doom. How can I possibly continue? Will this injury be a trip ender? How will I get medical help? What if it gets infected and needs to be amputated? We were 75km away from any sort of civilization. Joanna told me that this is not the kind of injury that we call search and rescue for and hiking out was the only option. We pressed on. Eventually we were out of the shit!! We finally hit a creek and I took off the tape and rinsed the wound. Keeping it clean was going to be very important as to avoid infection. Luckily, Joanna had antibiotics with her from an unused prescription from a similar injury and I could take those if need be. The gash appeared to already be clotting and somewhat closed and that gave me a little bit of peace of mind. I only had smaller bandaids with me and I piled on a few of them to cover the wound and hope for the best. I had never had to deal with anything like this out on the trail before which probably made it feel more stressful internally than it had to be. The trail from here until camp continued to be slow going and challenging in its own way. 

    I feel like a theme was starting to develop on the GDT. Each day was the full meal deal. There was always some insanely beautiful well manicured trail that just took your breath away. On the flip side, there was also challenging terrain that was at times hard to navigate. I think it is this dichotomy that makes the GDT so special and so memorable. Because of this you get to feel the full spectrum of emotions and the experience gets solidly imprinted in your heart/mind. 

Day 12: 60km/850m

    

    We woke up really early today because today was a big day. I feel like I say that a lot but we were scheduled to meet people for a re-supply and we like to be accountable to those people. We fell short on our mileage the day before which meant we had to make up some ground and the only way to do that was to give ourselves a lot of extra moving time. I think we got up around 4:45am. We had pre-discussed taking the Collie Creek alternate that Joanna saw on the map even though we had pretty much sworn off alternates. By taking this alternate we would cut off 15km of logging road and instead only have to hike 8km to this particular junction. In theory, this should be faster as this route looked more direct and efficient. The 1km down to the creek was through a plush mossy forest and was quite nice. I was so far enjoying this alternate. 

    My tune changed as soon as we got to the creek. This creek was raging! The water was moving extremely fast and we had no idea how deep it was. As nervous as I was there was no way I was climbing back up the 1km to the logging road. We found a cairn and it appeared to be the best place to cross. Joanna offered to go first and I was fine with that. Things were looking ok until she was about 2/3rd's across the creek. The water was rushing up onto her waist and she was struggling to keep balanced. She was having a hard time stabilizing herself with her poles and I was growing worried that I just might watch my friend get washed down this creek. Joanna knew she was seconds away from being knocked off her feet and in a desperate leap of faith she jumped towards the other edge of the creek. Somehow she managed to grab hold of a rock and pull herself to safety. I don't want to downplay what I witnessed - it was a very stressful event. Joanna is built solidly and strength trains regularly and I started to get quite nervous that if she was struggling, what hope did I have. 

    I gave her a look that said, I don't want to fucking do this, but I knew I had to. My only other option was to abandon my friend and turn around and walk the 1km back up to and out 15km on the logging road. That just wasn't going to happen and I decided to risk death instead. I wasn't keen on crossing where Joanna crossed and I took my time and found a slightly better alternative further down. I like to think that my mind and body went into a sort of terminator like state. Without overthinking, I got into the creek and turned myself into Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I was a solid brick that could not be pushed around. Every step felt so fucking solid and I did not waver. When I reached the other side I took some deep breathes in order to calm my nervous system. This might have been one of the scarier things I had ever done in my life. 

    The remainder of the alternate was pretty exciting. If we weren't having to wade through the now much calmer but very cold creek we were bushwhacking through a thick forest along the shore line. I wasn't crazy about the bushwhacking because I was still pretty protective of my shin. I have to laugh because the 15km on that logging road that we chose to skip was sounding pretty nice and most likely would've been pretty uneventful. Although, I don't think it would've made for a very good story. But who knows - maybe we would've had to dodge logging trucks and other exciting unknowns! 

All of that excitement happened before lunch! 

    The next section of trail looked a lot like the pictures above and was my first introduction to the world of hiking on flood planes. We were following the Howse River but there really was no path to follow. We pretty much walked along any dry ground available that appeared to follow the line on the app. This also meant we were going in and out of water constantly to do so. Sometimes we found a path inland but the trail was rough and poorly maintained. If we could stick to solid ground out in the open we would but it wasn't always an option. I noted that my feet really enjoyed being in water and I had zero hot spots. I also wasn't as concerned about the cut on my shin as it was getting quite the cleanse! Silver linings!

    I don't know how else to describe how I felt about this section other than it seemed never ending. The scenery didn't change for close to 7 hours. The last 3/4 of this day was so intense that I almost forgot that the first 1/4 was bananas! Joanna almost getting swept down a creek was already a distant memory. We pushed fairly non-stop all afternoon. We were well past the point at which we were supposed to meet up with our crew. We were able to notify them with the inReach so they knew about our delay. Once onto a main path we had a choice to make on the best route to the highway. There was a shorter alternate route that appeared to be very direct to the road or a longer main path. I think at this point we really really didn't trust the alternates and feared that although it was quite a bit shorter, it could take twice as long as who knows when it was last maintained. I'm quite happy with the route we took through Mistaya Canyon as it's   quite spectacular. Classically, as it was the end of the day, we were moving very fast as day light was fading. We finally popped out onto the highway. We thought our crew may have decided to meet us there because we were so behind but there was no one there. 

    We now had 5k of highway walking to get to The Saskatchewan Crossing. There was some urgency to get there before 9pm which was when the store closed where our-supply packages might be. Although, our crew may have picked them up for us but we didn't know and were rushing to be safe. We had to go about 1.5km past the GDT trail junction off the highway to get to the crossing and Joanna suggested we hitch hike. I thought that sounded like a fabulous idea so we stuck our thumbs out as we walked. Cars were few and far between but all of a sudden a car coming from the opposite direction did an abrupt u-turn and pulled over on the side of the road. Joanna thought it might be one of our crew members coming to find us. We approached the car and discovered it wasn't our crew. A man rolled down the passenger side window and said he would give us a ride. Immediately I had a terrible feeling in my gut about this man. I couldn't help but wonder, who does a u-turn to give someone a ride in the opposite direction? I also felt terrible not taking the ride because he was so generous to stop. The internal dilemma was real. We kind of hesitated and eventualy he said "Well, are you coming or not?"...which was enough to make us jump in the car. My heart was racing. Joanna was in the front seat and did a great job making conversation. As I sat in the back, I started to contemplate my death. Was this how I was going to die? What do I have on me to defend myself? What would I do if he decided to drive past our destination. I couldn't believe that I didn't listen to my gut and decline the ride in the first place. It was the longest 1.5km drive of my life. Luckily, he pulled into our destination and dropped us off. Crisis averted and lesson learned. 

    We were greeted by our crew members Becky and Mark (videographer). We caught up with them and told them all about the exciting events that occurred in the last 16 hours. Becky had made some amazing snacks for us to replenish ourselves with and she also brought me a plethora of large bandages, sanitary wipes and polysporin. At some point today Joanna and I had predetermined that we were going to be staying at the hotel here. She warned that it would be very expensive and I didn't care. It had been a very long day and I just wanted a place to dry out my clothes and tend to my wound. I asked if they had a thru-hiker rate and the lady said they did not but they were having a special promotion. Honestly, I was pretty hell bent on sleeping here and was prepared to spend whatever necessary. Someone had tipped us off that they heard there was an all you can eat breakfast buffet but that person heard wrong and I was a bit sad. A breakfast buffet is like music to a thru-hikers ears and stomach apparently. 

    We went to our room and chilled out a little bit before going to sleep. We both got to shower and attempted to dry out our gear. I was really nervous about looking at my shin wound for the first time but to my surprise it looked really good. I felt like a bit of an idiot for feeling so paranoid about it. I was stoked that I now had the proper things to keep it clean and covered going forward and was feeling confident in being able to continue the hike. I think wanting to protect the wound and not knowing how it would look under the bandage took an emotional toll on me this day. I felt exhausted and wished we could just take a day off the following day. But we had an FKT to chase so I kept that to myself and instead gave us an extra hour of sleep in the morning. 

Next up, The Crossing to Jasper