#early winters

[grrlmusic]

Early Winters

[coming-of-age-witch]

october november december. they pass by so fast but its heavily decorated with joy and pleasant moments. i love to look forward to them because of all the things they have in them, but once we reach january the first month goes away in looking back to these months and wishing i could go back and have the same kind of fun again

[grrl-beetle]

Early Winters

[kyufiber-moved]

song rec of the day !! count me in by early winters

[pcttrailsidereader]

Whoa! Winter!

By Howard Shapiro

In early August, as we were making our way to Donner Summit my partners and I were meeting numerous thru hikers bound and determined to get to Canada before October 1. The distance alone made that intention a BIG effort. One fellow had calculated if he walked about forty miles a day he would likely make it to the border ‘in time’. At that particular time (August 6) that left about fifty or so days to get to Canada with NO real zeros. Quite an effort by any means. 

I live in northwest Washington and knowing what I know I tried to be reassuring. ‘Even if you don’t make it by the first of October you will likely still have a week or more before the really challenging weather sets in.’  I am no weather expert but given what I know about this part of the country it seemed reasonable that our typical late summer early fall weather would be spectacular and on the mild side. 

Let me simply offer my sincere apologies now to all those people I tried to encourage. In late September an early winter storm rolled in off the Pacific and left its mark across the Olympic mountains and into the North Cascades. Similar to the late spring storms that surprised many hikers making their way from Campo north this storm slowed people’s progress and for some gave them real pause. 

On the up side there were few to no significant fires in Northwest Washington this season. In the past few years smoke has been the plague suffered by many walking north. The reality in 2019 is a kind of scissors effect of cold damp weather on both ends of the PCT. 

As I passed through Rainy Pass at the beginning of October there were few hikers to be seen. Maybe they made it through, however I did see a cluster down the road in Mazama where noticeable re-grouping and supplying for the last push into Canada was taking place. Lightly equipped folks were weighing their choices around staying warm and dry while still moving north as quickly as possible. Just west of Mazama is the Early Winters campground. Now I fully understand how it got its name. Winter is knock, knock, knocking already around these parts. What this suggests for the upcoming five or six months remains to be seen. One never knows when a ‘pineapple express’ rushes up from Hawaii and melts these early snows and the cycle restarts or at worst re-positions the Jet Stream sending snow further south like it did in 2018.  What is clearer than ever is weather can be both a friend and foe. For 2019 it was a powerful feature in a lot of people’s PCT experience. Between the late spring cold snaps in the south, the deep snow in the Sierra, and the early snow in the Cascades my hat is off to all who made it through. Put away that sun screen and pull on that stocking cap. 

[grrlmusic]

Early Winters

[grrlmusic]

Early Winters

[grrlmusic]

Early Winters