The first thing I want to say is plenty of people do what I did without being scared. But the six hikers I encountered the day I went from Moose Lake to Dose Meadows all told me they had been terrified. None of them, including the group of four men, had been able to do the entire 9.8 miles in one day. They all split it into a two day hike. Knowing this helped me feel a bit less like a scaredy-cat and helped me acknowledge just how scary and difficult that day was for me.

For starters much of the day averaged a grade of 28.5% which is already fairly steep but there were sections where the grade was 49 or 50% for a few tenths of a mile at a time. That’s steeper than many double black diamond ski trails and left me thankful I grew up hiking in places like the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the the Adirondacks of New York, where steep grades are the norm.

What made these more frightening for me was that at times I was on a steep trail that was completely exposed. I would be slapping around a mountain which dropped vertically off to one side. The so-called trail I was walking on was barely a foot wide and no where near flat. It canted off to the downhill side of the mountain. I found it especially terrifying because each step I took caused the loose shale rock I was walking on to slide down the mountain, sometimes taking me with it for a short side slip.

In one stretch that took me an hour and a half to go eight tenths of a mile, I would firmly plant my lower pole then move my downhill foot until it was over the pole, which kept my foot from sliding sideways down the mountain. Then I slid my other foot forward to meet the downhill foot, which held the uphill foot in place. Sometimes, after each step, my feet were buried in the loose shale that slid down the mountain. I had to decide whether it was safer to pull my foot up out of the rock or to try to push it forward. My main concern was keeping my balance. This became even more of a challenge when a marmot popped its head out and gave it’s high piercing call. Normally this would take me by surprise causing me to jump. But when I was on that exposed loose rock I had to use every bit of brain power I had to ensure I not make any movement that might throw me off balance.

When I got into wooded sections, which were still quite steep but a little less daunting to me because I didn’t have the same visual sense of a sheer drop off, there were other challenges. Sometimes the trail followed a waterfall down, so the rocks were quite slippery. In another place, there were a lot of marmot holes along the trail. Sometimes they were covered up by vegetation so I had to not only be careful to keep my balance, but I had to probe into the overgrown trail ahead of me to see if there were a holes that could cause me serious harm. And if this wasn’t enough of a challenge, as I dropped in elevation, there were a number of grouse with little ones who would explode from the weeds as I walked by. I have come to call these grouse “heart attack birds” because when I’m walking by and they suddenly explode up into the air from the side of the trail I usually jump. But when I’m descending at such a steep grade, I don’t have the luxury of jumping, so I had to really focus and stay completely present with each step. It was mentally exhausting.

Cameron pass afforded me yet another challenge to its steep ascent by presenting me with my first of what would be numerous washouts on the trail. Any semblance of trail completely disappeared and I had to cut steps into what was now a sheer drop off. Each time I hit one of these I wanted to quit, but I knew I couldn’t go back the way I had come so I had to stifle my fear and continue on. I kept telling myself “other people have done this, so so can I.” That became my mantra all the way to the top of Cameron Pass. I was relieved when I reached the top of the pass to encounter a young woman who spent time chatting with me, assuring me that the rest of the way down to Dose Meadow, while steep with some 50% grade drops was not as exposed or frightening. She assured me that part of that trail had beautiful views and was well worth the walk. While that was relieving to hear, what was disturbing was that this kind, smart young woman told me she had just graduated with a PhD in climate sciences, and because of what was happening in this country, she was thinking of going to work in another country. She was the fourth young scientist I met in the last month who told me they were thinking of leaving the country to be able to pursue their work.

Another challenge of the day was encountering blow downs, which can be difficult on any trail but on such a steep trail with such large logs, there was no way I felt safe climbing over them. I found ways to crawl under which usually involved having my face literally in the dirt as I inched under a log. But after another hour and a half, I completed the 7/10 down to Dose Meadows where I was able to find a spot to camp for the night, utterly exhausted and glad to have that section of trail behind me.

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