A thief in the night
Awoke to partly cloudy skies, packed up for an early start –and could not find my other hiking pole, the one that wasn’t holding up my tent. I left it laying a few feet away from the tent but it was not there.
I immediately suspected the work of marmots, especially the one that had been poking around nearby and whistling excessively. Marmots are infamous for chewing things and have destroyed the tires of more than one hikers car left at the trailhead.
I searched for and found 2 nearby marmot dens, but neither had a pole by the entrance. I conducted a systematic search, walking ever-widening circles around my camp, out to 200 yards. No luck.
I then considered the possibility that a deer had stolen it and took it off to her bed to lick the salt off the handle at leisure. But I could find no deer beds nearby.
After an hour I gave up. Storm clouds were moving in and I still had a pass to climb.
A ptarmigan distracts me as her chicks scamper away
Last set of pitches up to Elizabeth Pass
The trail up to Elizabeth Pass is mostly nonexistent but there was little to impede progress other than the climb itself. Although only 2 miles , the route rises 2000 feet, causing me to stop often to catch my breath.
With storms moving in I snapped a few quick photos at the pass and strapped on my micro spikes. The north side of the pass was snowbound for miles, and the first of those miles was pretty steep.
View north and east from Elizabeth Pass
It began raining and i worked my way patiently down the slope, following the tracks of a mountain lion, reasoning that it knows the country better than me.
By the time I reached the end of the snow I had covered all of 5 miles in 4 hours of hard hiking. I am finding it difficult to keep up anything resembling a decent pace on the TST.
Looking back at the pass – a lot of snow travel
The valley below the snowpack was a swamp. You know it’s a high water year when you see fish swimming ahead of you in the trail.
The numerous stream crossings of the aptly named Roaring River were hard, thigh to waist deep. My feet were already soaked from the snow, so I just waded in shoes and socks. My feet have been mostly wet on this hike, but I brought 3 pairs of socks and always have a dry pair at night. You can’t take too good care of your feet.
Roaring River sliding down a granite chute
I also decided that I am not going to do the hardest ford on the TST, the Middle Fork of the Kings River. I’ll skip ahead or maybe go up the river to the JMT and continue on from there. With the water as high as it’s been, and rain continuing, it is just too dangerous. Especially to do by myself. And especially with only one hiking pole. Curse you, marmot thieves!