Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - June 20th
Day 65: Thursday 20th June Glen Aulin – Wilson Creek
I was first away in the morning at 6.30am. The day started with a long gentle ascent
of Cold Canyon. I made an error in taking my first break in Cold Canyon Meadows and
was soon driven away by swarms of mosquitoes. By this time Tom, Katie and “Jaybird”
had gone through. The first creek crossing was across Return Creek in Virginia Canyon.
I made the mistake of leaving my shorts on for the crossing and got them soaked, as I
misjudged the depth of the water. I found a clearing with enough breeze to keep the
mosquitoes at bay and stripped off in the sun to dry my clothing and my boots. “Iron
Man” came through, followed by “Purboy” who joined me for the rest of the day. He was
having blister problems with his feet, which hadn’t been helped by walking in wet boots
for much of the time. I was now carrying three pairs of socks in an attempt to keep my
feet as dry as possible. Storm clouds gathered again in the afternoon, but although we
could hear thunder in the distance it stayed dry where we were. We climbed up to Miller
Lake, which would be a lovely spot to camp later in the summer, but now was overrun
with mosquitoes, then dropped down to another difficult ford of the Matterhorn Canyon
Creek. We then climbed steeply up Wilson Creek before camping below Benson Pass.
All together we had had 4 deep fords to cross as well as three more creeks that I
managed to cross on fallen logs. Most of the snow had already melted and I imagine that
the route would have been impassable a week earlier with a greater amount of snowmelt
making the creeks too dangerous to cross.
Day 65: 17.1 miles 8.33 hours Camp: Wilson Creek
I was first away in the morning at 6.30am. The day started with a long gentle ascent
of Cold Canyon. I made an error in taking my first break in Cold Canyon Meadows and
was soon driven away by swarms of mosquitoes. By this time Tom, Katie and “Jaybird”
had gone through. The first creek crossing was across Return Creek in Virginia Canyon.
I made the mistake of leaving my shorts on for the crossing and got them soaked, as I
misjudged the depth of the water. I found a clearing with enough breeze to keep the
mosquitoes at bay and stripped off in the sun to dry my clothing and my boots. “Iron
Man” came through, followed by “Purboy” who joined me for the rest of the day. He was
having blister problems with his feet, which hadn’t been helped by walking in wet boots
for much of the time. I was now carrying three pairs of socks in an attempt to keep my
feet as dry as possible. Storm clouds gathered again in the afternoon, but although we
could hear thunder in the distance it stayed dry where we were. We climbed up to Miller
Lake, which would be a lovely spot to camp later in the summer, but now was overrun
with mosquitoes, then dropped down to another difficult ford of the Matterhorn Canyon
Creek. We then climbed steeply up Wilson Creek before camping below Benson Pass.
All together we had had 4 deep fords to cross as well as three more creeks that I
managed to cross on fallen logs. Most of the snow had already melted and I imagine that
the route would have been impassable a week earlier with a greater amount of snowmelt
making the creeks too dangerous to cross.
Day 65: 17.1 miles 8.33 hours Camp: Wilson Creek
Jaybird in Cold
Canyon Meadows
Canyon Meadows
Spiller Creek
Iron Man crossing
Spiller Creek
Spiller Creek
Matterhorn Canyon
Ancient Brit in camp
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