Trial by Fire

Day 11. July 6, 2020

I had set my alarm to wake up early. Apparently, I never heard it over the sound of Milk Creek. We all woke up and packed. The sky was cloudy. We knew our day would be a copy of yesterday: switchbacks for breakfast, snow for lunch.

By now, you’ve got a sense of how things have been going. This day, we contended with overcast skies. One of the rewards was reaching Mica Lake. It is a snow-fed lake carved into the stone. Although still mostly covered, it wasn’t hard to magine how beautiful it must be in warmer waether. The second reward was getting over Fire Creek Pass. Towards the top it was very steep.

It was again slow going down the other side….route finding, traversing slopes. By late afternoon we were still on steep slopes. I had fallen twice. Both times I was able to use the ice ax to self arrest before falling too far. It is scary and exhilarating. I had not fallen previously and it was sobering.

When we approached a small island of trees on the slope, I asked the team if it would be better to stop. We were tired, there was just more dangerous slope ahead, it seemed slightly dangerous. We assed our little island in th snow. Cole and I pushed ourselves into flattish spots under different trees. Josh and Brad decided on using the trail that was clear between two snow banks; it was flat, fairly smooth and wide enough for a sleeping pad. Nobody else was out here so it was not going to be a surprise or inconvenience. We all cowboy camped since there was not enough room to pitch a tent.

We ate and went to sleep in our makeshift campsite. I had used my Garmin satellite device to get a weather forecast: 20% chance of rain. We should be okay cowboy camping. Around midnight it became clear there must’ve been a zero missing from the forecast… it should’ve been a 200% chance of rain. I pulled the fabric of my tent on top of me. Still, cold rain dripped on top of my down sleeping bag and little rivulets ran underneath. I feared Josh and Brad were even worse, exposed on the trail. It was not a good night’s sleep.