Day 5 - Around the Rim

Feb 24, 2017

Segment: I-5 to Little Pilot Rock, 9.4 miles.

Weather: Low 20 degrees, high 30 degrees, mostly sunny until lunch then gray, snow sprinkles rest of the day.

Good morning my old friend!

How nice to meet you again.

You were my nemesis 3 years ago

when you tore my knee.

You were my enemy a couple weeks ago

under an icy crust.

But today you are my friend.

Although trees slap at me

and drop snow bombs on me,

you are my friend

to lead me and show me

new scenes and new perspectives.

It’s wintertime

and all is covered in snow

and wonderfully changed from summer.

Most of the day was spent in the trees without large views

Rhonda dropped me off before 10 and I made good progress up the southward winding trail through the tangled scrub oaks and over the several small streams. I said, “over”, but really, I went through the water. I was so proud of my waterproof boots in the 3-4“ deep water. My skis also did well as I gingerly stepped, but by the time I got to the shoulder of the rim, they were refrozen thick and solid.

I rested as my skis thawed in the sun. I should have waxed them before taking off, but I had to be forced to do it half an hour later under the now completely gray sky.

Another half hour and I reached the 5000‘ level and the trail turned to head east. I paused for lunch and to talk with two local snowshoers returning from an attempt to climb Pilot Rock. The powder was too deep and too loose to allow even boots to ascend. I was encountering the same conditions. I was partly skiing and mostly postholing in the four foot fluff.

Two weeks before there was no snow at the entry and exit points. I feared I would be too late ski much of this section. Yet, winter has hung on and dumped more than a foot of powder at this level. I now realize I am too early. The snow is still stuck on the trees and has not melted off. The ground snow has not consolidated to faster conditions. I now watch the upcoming weather windows and for warm temperatures in the preceding days. Live and learn!

At least I never ran into any safety concerns. Navigation was pretty much straight forward. I had time and brain space to think.

Pilot Rock up close

Nothing spectacular, so I looked for shapes and highlights in the gray

The trail was easy to track in this section

I thought of the movie Into the Wild, where Chris McCandless escaped into the Alaskan wilderness by himself where he died after eating the wrong plant. I thought of other hikers and historical naturalists who escape from all humanity to the wilderness. I realize that is a more or less exaggeration of their experiences, but it was the direction they were heading that got me thinking.

We cannot possibly ever be truly and fully independent of others. Even when I am in the wilderness for a long time, I am still dependent (to some degree) on other people. The clothes I wear, the pack I carry, the food I eat, everything comes from someone else. The resupply stops are interactions with humans.

I guess I muse on this because choosing the wrong goal causes us to travel the wrong path. So if you are having problems with other human beings (who doesn’t?), then right from the beginning make it your goal to find the right people to have the right relationships with. Why waste time on a dead end. In Chris’s case, that dead end was literal.

Today I am thankful for the people in my life, both the pleasant and problematic. (I could not do this trip without my wife, aka support crew.) I am also thankful my Father lets me ski and hike with Him.