On Saturday, Toby and I took our packrafts for a long walk on the Johnson Pass trail. The trip we had in mind didn’t work out, because I balked at getting up and over a ridge. Just like the first time Ian and I I tried the Center2 Spencer route, we got cliffed out in an area that probably would have been fine if we had an ice axe and crampons. You’d think that I would have learned from that trip, but no, once again we left the ice axe in the car at the trailhead. The terrain looked fairly mundane on the map, but less so in person.
Even so, we probably could have made it up and over, but I get really cautious in those situations. I guess I’m kind of a chicken, but I start thinking about all the possible ways that it could go wrong and psych myself out. Its a paradox that I struggle with often – I love adventure, but I’m not much of a risk-taker. Anyway, I convinced Toby to turn around.
So what was supposed to be a hike and packraft trip instead turned into a long day of hiking the Johnson Pass trail from north to south, with a detour along the way. We hiked/jogged approximately 27 miles in ten hours. It was still fun, and we got to explore a really cool side valley. My body is nicely beat up today from hours of jogging with a 30 pound pack (in addition to our rafting gear, we also had gear for an overnight). My shoulders, back and hips are all a little sore and raw.
With the equinox upon us, and temperatures starting to get below freezing at night, I think that’s it for the summer adventure season. All in all, it was a pretty disappointing summer. So many things I wanted to do, and I only did a couple of them. There’s always next year!
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