Scary moments

Day 63

Date: 03.07.2022

Mile: Mile 1'282.4

Miles hiked: 16.3 miles / 26 km

Elevation: 4'803 feet ascent (1'465 m Aufstieg) / 2'720 feet descent (Abstieg 830 m)

Camping at: 11'870 feet / 3'621 m

After a night on the Hotel floor in the room, which was not very recovering at all!, we enjoy the hotel breakfast. I had toast, yoghurt, pancakes and Kellogs!🤣 the TV in the breakfast room shows the weather forecast, with thunderstorms, rain and lightening every afternoon. Oh man, that's gonna be fun! I am not yet used to this monsun season, which apparently started very early this year. I hate rain on trail. This is gonna be the first 4th of July since many years in this area, where they are allowed to shoot fireworks (otherwise always to dry and forbitten due to wildfire).

We resupply at the local market and while sitting outside getting our gear ready and just about calling an UBER, a young sporty lady walks by, asking us if we need a ride. She has recognized us as CDT hikers, herself hiked the PCT a couple of years ago and hence knows hiker life. That's super awesome! So we got in the car and started hiking back at the trail head from Grey's Peak shortly after 11am. The first three miles lead us along a nice bicycle trail in the forest, however all street for race bikes. We are at low elevation and it is very hot. And who do we find there laying in the shade of some trees? Young Jules, I have last seen at the Butterfly House on Monarch Pass! How is this possible? I thought he would be far ahead, as we took a couple of zeros in Salida and he hiked out the next day. He got sick and had to stay 3 days in Breckenridge to recover. That explains it all! It's nice to see him though! We hike on together, cross the I-70 and follow a nice trail upda valley. The trail is filled with day hikers. And every second person at least has a dog! And they all smell good😁 most of them are already on their way back to the car. Our trail turns to the left after a very steep uphill section, and leaves the day hikers behind. We planned on having lunch around 8 miles in at the last water source for 10 miles. It's weird to go from water everywhere to no water again. That implies bigger water carries and lunch and camp stops close to the last water. Not my favorite an I thought we are done with that in New Mexico!

The weather has changed dramatically fast. We can hear and see thunder and very grey and dark clouds ahead of us. I can already feel some rain drops and we will be soon above tree level again (above 3'700 m). I need water for lunch and the next 10 mile stretch. Boss ahead of me pointes at some trees/bushes for lunch and shelter after we get water. But they are too small, we are already to high up! Bummer! We eat lunch at a flat spot and watch the thunderstorm and lightening coming closer. I don't really know what to do. The atmosphere is very scary. From beautiful and hot sunshine to dark and world ending in no time! I wanna be in a house or at least in a car, but not where I am right now! Rain, thunderstorms, snow and cold winds are things I definitely don't like on my thru hike.

SwissChris passed us about 30 minutes ago and another thru hiker just passed us too. Mmhh, if they hike on, we should be able to do so. Also Jules is ready to hike on. So Boss, Ducky, Vista and me get ready too. But just around the next corner, the thru hiker passing us a minute ago decided to wait out the storm and pitched his tent. A very good idea. But Boss and Jules want to move on. So we do, while Ducky and Vista stay (I only noticed later). We climb up the pass and the thunderstorm is getting closer and closer. It rains heavily and just shortly before we reached the top, we are hiking on a ridge line already, it starts to hail too. The lightening and thunders are no more than 3 seconds apart. I am super scared. We were always told to never be up and above tree line if thunderdand lightening in the mountains. It can be very dangerous. I stop, throw my pack and poles away and hide below a rock on the trail. First Boss wants to move on, but then he decides to stay with me. I am glad he did! He gets out the Tyvek and we both knee on the ground, try to get under the tiny rock as good as possible and cover us with the Tyvek from rain and hail. It's super cold and we are both shivering. It takes about 10 minutes and the worst is over. It is still raining, but no hail anymore and I can see the bad weather moving on ahead of us. We get ready to move too. I need to move to warm up again! And there is Jules in the distance too. I am glad he is safe, and that he could hide somewhere too. That was a bad experience and I never wanna make this experience again. I rather wait out the storm, may even pitch my tent (even if it sucks to carry out a very wet tent and to re-pack the backpack again) and be safe. We hike on an the views are breathtaking. We are walking along a ridge but I can't yet take any pictures. My hands are feeling ok, but I carry gloves under waterproof gloves, and it is windy and rainy. Taking a break in the icy wind and taking off my gloves for a pictures is too much work and not worth it getting even more cold. But luckily soon later the sun decides to say hello again. The world is changing immediately from scary atmosphere to beautiful and innocent. And the sun dries out my rainpants and rain jacket in no time, making me feeling warm again. However, in the hurry I didn't take much care on putting on my rain gear and with my pack the rain jacket has been pushed up my back. My hiking pants and shirt are fully wet.

We meet back up with Jules and enjoy a break in the sun. It seems like the weather has changed into good and we move on. It feels so much better now the sun is out. It's crazy how fast the weather changed and how uncomfortably and even scary it can make you feel. Shortly before we climb the last summit on the ridge line the bad weather catches us again. We have seen it in the distance, but I thought that one bad thunderstorm a day is more than enough and that hence this bad weather front will not catch us. Well, apparently the weather here doesn't works like this. And how it caught us again. It hailed on us heavily, and it hurts! The ground was covered in hail within seconds. There was no place to hide or cover. It was real scary again, specially seeing on top of a ridge line and hearing all that thundering too! So we hiked on as fast as possible and climber the last summit. Luckily there were no lightning's. It rained and hailed on us for another 30 to 45 min. Then it stopped and the sun came back out. What a day. I am super tired and cold. It wasn't a big mileage day, but it was a big day elevation gain and weather vise. I really hope not to encounter such bad thunderstorms and lightening in high altitude again.

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