Pretty soon after we set off the next morning, Peter’s backpack busted apart again. I sat down on the trail in despair. Peter, a perpetual optimist, didn’t seem to be bothered. After half an hour or so of Pack Wizardry, we were off again.

We took the climb up to Stoney Indian Pass pretty steadily - this was Peter’s first climb on the trail, and I had already had about 10 days to warm up. The trail was covered in thick bushes, and we hiked alongside streams, waterfalls, and lakes on the way up toward the pass.

Before I started hiking, Stoney Indian Pass was one of the sections of trail that I was most anxious about. There was a lot of chatter on the PNT Facebook group about how it may be necessary to bring an ice axe specifically for that pass, since it often has snowpack well into July. I did end up buying an ice axe on ebay, but the snow melted a bit faster this year and I ended up telling Peter not to bring it for me.

At the top, we sat with Robert and Mina again, the PNT hikers I had been so excited to meet at Gable Creek Campground. We stopped for a snack and took in the view before continuing on down the other side of the pass.

Robert playing his ukelele

The snowpack on the other side of the pass was indeed very passable. I remember run-sliding down sections of it, as one does when one is confronted with non-treacherous snow slopes. Just about a hour later, we met our third and fourth fellow PNT hikers, Cooper and Maddie. I think we passed them as they were eating lunch, then leapfrogged a few times after that. Maddie was having a lot of trouble with blisters on her feet, and she seemed to be in a lot of pain.

When we got down into the valley, the mosquitos started following us again. I was getting kind of antsy, because I had grown accustomed to a faster pace in my week-and-a-half or so of hiking, and the slower we went, the more the mosquitos bit. Hiking alone was hard, but hiking with a partner brought plenty of new challenges that I was having some trouble adjusting to.

We ate dinner with Maddie and Cooper at the campsite that night. It always feels so good to me to meet other people who are attempting a thru-hike. There’s always an instant bond that happens over shared challenges and goals. A large group of backpackers with a hired guide came in a bit later, but they ended up having to dash back to the Canadian border to show their IDs, because I guess they did something wrong when they were crossing the first time or something.

We had only one more night in the park, and then we’d be off on the “real” PNT. I knew things would be pretty different after leaving the park, but I really wasn’t quite prepared for the changes to come.