I hardly slept last night. My head pounded throughout the night due to altitude sickness. I was even awaken by Blaine, who asked me, "Chris, what kind of animal is that?" When I looked up, there in the dim light was a porcupine. "Psssssssst!," I responded, "a scared one," and the porcupine waddled off. I laid my head back down to try and get more sleep.
A few hours later all of us were awake. When Blaine crawled out of his tent, he noted the condition of his shoes. Apparently, that porcupine, who visited early in the morning, decided to make a meal out of Blaine's Avia shoes. All the leather was shredded on his left shoe, but amazingly, it's structure was still in tact. We all had a good laugh about it.
After eating our breakfast, we packed up the tents, and we continued our journey to the top of West Maroon Pass. Blaine told me that he didn't sleep a wink through the entire night. On top of that, he came on this trip with a cough that he had been fighting since Tuesday, and had only gotten worse. He told me that he was not feeling well, but he was going to give the hike a shot. However, after about a mile and a half of hiking, Blaine told Lauren and me that he just could not go on. His cough had grown worse, and the exertion and altitude was of no help. So we decided together that Blaine would head back to the car to get medical attention, and Lauren and I would continue on the loop. After an emotional moment, we said our goodbyes, and like that, Blaine was heading back down the trail, and we were continuing.
Lauren and I continued up the trail to West Maroon Pass. Both of us lamented that Blaine could not be with us, but we felt that we had made the right decision in continuing the trip. As we climbed we left the shrubs and trees behind us, and now we were among red rocks, patches of snow, and occasional wildflowers. The sun had grown high, and the temperatures were warming. I was sucking wind, and my head continued to pound from the lack of oxygen.
Before long, Lauren and I reached the top of West Maroon Pass, and the view from up there was phenomenal! The new view to the west revealed a lush, green mountain landscape with scattered patches of snow and two small lakes, and immediately below was a steep descent over a red, rocky mountainside. Lauren and I took a healthy rest break on the pass, where a number of other day hikers had also congregated.
The descent from West Maroon Pass was indeed a steep, knee-jarring experience, but thankfully it was short lived. The elevation drop was about 600-feet, and then the trail leveled out for the journey toward Frigid Air Pass. Scattered along the sides of the trail were more wildflowers, but unfortunately it was hard to appreciate them since there were more mosquitos on this side of the pass. During our hike the day grew warmer, but a slight breeze created very ideal hiking conditions.
As we approached Frigid Air Pass, we were initially confused about the location of the pass. Ahead of us, and to the left of a peak was snow-covered shoulder, which we thought to be our pass, but it was not. A weathered sign on the trail pointed us to the right of the peak, and straight up a hill, so we began our second climb of the day.
On the Pacific Crest Trail, I always remembered that climbing two passes in one day was quite the chore, even for an experienced hiker. Out here I had only been on the trail for less than 24-hours, and here I was climbing my second 12,400-foot pass in one day. Over the course of the climb, my head was pounding, my breath was short, and my energy was spent. Thankfully, Lauren had a more relaxed pace, which allowed me to take it more easy on the climb and not burn out so quickly. On top of the pass we absorbed to incredible views down into the North Fork valley. Again, it was another beautiful sea of green with splotches of snowfields littering the landscape. We took another break on the pass, where I just about fell asleep.
Gathering clouds in the sky forced Lauren and I to start making tracks for our campsite somewhere in the North Fork valley, so we left the pass. As we made our steep descent, I kept looking back at the pass, and I noticed that the clouds continued to consolidate and get darker - rain was on the way. Still we never felt rushed to get to our campsite. There was something about the day that was reassuring and relaxed.
Confirming that notion were two hikers who caught up to us and asked, "Are you Freefall and Tenderfoot (Lauren's trailname)?"
Surprised, I responded, "How did you know?"
"On the way up," he replied, "we ran into Blaine, who told us to be looking for you."
"Where did you see him?" asked Lauren.
"Second creek crossing," he replied.
It was good to hear about Blaine, and that he had made it down that far. However, I thought back to that second crossing, and all I could see in my mind was Blaine crossing that creek and shuttering from the ice cold water (see video from Day 1!). According to those two hikers, Blaine was heading to Aspen to find a place for the night.
Around 5:30, Lauren and I found a nice campsite close to the creek, and the timing could not have been more perfect. Just after I set up the tent, it began to rain. I pulled out my sleeping bag and mat and I laid down and let the pattering rain lull me to sleep. I was out.
An hour or so later I woke up. Unbelievably, I was feeling like 100%. The headache was gone, and I felt full of energy. Lauren, who had also taken a cat nap, was awake and talking about eating the dehydrated lasagna that had been reconstituting in our packs for the day. After the rain died, I fired up the aluminum can stove and cooked up the lasagna. I was overjoyed, since it turned out perfectly!
The skies began to clear again, and I took the opportunity to explore our campsite. Near our site was a small, but cool waterfall, so I took some pictures. As is became dark, Lauren and I huddled in the tent and played another ruthless game of Scrabble. One game tired us out enough and we turned in for the evening. Despite my earlier nap, I went to sleep very quickly.
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