You won’t believe this? It rained last night! We talked to a local and he told us that we are in-store for a warm fall but the caveat is, it’ll rain a lot. Well, good thing I have a proper rain jacket but I may need to invest in some gills!

Today was a bit different than other days on the trail. After walking four miles, we stopped at Big Sandy Lake and pitched our tents. The plan is to slackpack to Jack Ass Pass (yep, that’s its real name) and Lonesome Lake, then head back to camp. Just an out and back kind of day.

Once we got everything set, Fearless and I took off for the Cirque of the Towers. Hogged Up chose to stay in camp and keep a watchful eye on the food bags while she took a long slumber. This worked for all of us. 

As all thru-hikers know, this is a must see and the favorite part of the CDT. We left Base Camp just before 10am and headed on the Blue Line north. Yes, this is the wrong way but being we entered at Big Sandy TH, we needed to back track a bit. The weather was not cooperating with us so I had all layers of clothing on except for my down jacket. Hogged Up loaned me her poncho so that gave me an extra layer of protection. And good thing because we had rain, sleet, hail and winds, which just about blew us off the trail.

With our current conditions, I had a turnaround time at 1pm with a fudge factor of 1:30pm. We headed up the trail and encountered rain and hail within thirty minutes. The clouds were covering the tops of the peaks but were moving quickly so we would get a peek of the mountains from time to time.

We came to our rock scramble and somehow got a bit misplaced. After scaling a near-sheer granite wall, that slid down to Arrowhead Lake, Fearless advised me that we were off trail. Well that makes perfect sense because this was about the sketchiest thing I have done on the CDT since Goat Flat Pass! We turned around and found a much less sketchier version of bouldering than we attempted minutes prior.

When we reached a fork in the road, I checked my map and found the lower route would be shorter. Well we’re just past noon and if we wanted to reach the pass, shorter would be better. Unbeknownst to me, it was also known as the “Mountaineers Route” which we realized when a few others mentioned to us that if we could do it, then they should be able to also. Oh no, more bouldering but this time it was reminiscent of the Appalachian Trail, with an obscene amount of climbing, again.

And of course, it started to hail when we made it to the big boulders. After scaling twenty football fields of rocks and boulders, we found an overhang and waited for the final cell to pass. Our time was running out so we took one last chance to get up and over the pass. One of the climbers told us to take the steep route to the pass as it was much faster. So we put on our big girl pants and climbed straight up.

Just after 1pm, we arrived at the top of Jack Ass Pass and saw it, the Cirque of the Towers. Oh my gosh, there are no words to describe it. In every direction we looked, we were surrounded by the most incredible peaks, mountains, spires and cathedrals! The glacier filled lakes were bluer than blue even with the cloudy skies. It was magnificent, and nothing can prepares you to see such beauty!

We took a handful of pictures and turned ourselves around and started the hardest part of all, getting off this mountain pass. There was a trail we had not taken prior. In theory, I thought it might be a better option than what we did on the way up. As soon as we reached the proper trail, the wind was so powerful, it about knocked us off our feet. All Fearless could say is “Get me off this mountain!” So we made our own trail, straight down towards the boulder fields. This was the most direct and efficient way back.

Once on the boulder field, we found a lower route with some butt sliding and within a half an hour, we were well on our way. It always seems the return trip is faster and for us, it was. We knew the route this time and made it back to camp just after 3pm. Hogged Up was fast asleep in her tent. All Fearless and I wanted to do was eat! We hadn’t had anything since breakfast and with the crazy weather and time constraints, we had zero chance to eat. So we grabbed our food bags and munched down whatever we could! Then we retired to our tents. Thank you God for getting us back safely.

This was, hands down the most epic adventure we have had on trail. It pushed our limits, we were lazer focused and without a doubt, this was the hardest day so far. But it also was, one of the most rewarding parts of this journey. Fearless and I are great partners. We watch over one another, we push each other and by the end of the day, we know that we did the best that we could. As we say in Law Enforcement, we had each others six! I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to share this story with. Thank you Fearless!

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬