Two smiling people stand between rocks with a glimpse of mountains behind them I am in the left with my backpack still on, wearing a turtleneck, my wind jacket and a buff around my baseball cap to cover my ears. I also have a sunglasses clip over my glasses. My son is wearing the green safari hat he found and his wind jacket. He doesn’t have his backpack on because he reached the top way before I did!

A backpacker stands on a rocky ledge carved into a cliff. That’s the trail after the pass. There is some snow on the rock faces. Far below is a rocky basin with several lakes in Tyndall Valley. More snow can be seen on distant peaks. The sky has low overhanging clouds.

Reached #foresterpass highest point on the #pct at 13,153 ft OTD in 2005 on the southbound portion of our #thruhike. @tapirsmith.bsky.social, the VIPs and I left #onionvalleytrailhead at 0730 with full packs. We did 6000 ft elevation gain that day to beat a storm over the pass. Whew!

Two smiling hikers, faces partly shaded by their hats hold up a sign written on their tyvek groundsheet that says PCT hiker to town. They are sitting on a metal box at the Onion Valley trailhead. Their backpacks are behind them and a road is visible in the foreground. There are Rocky Mountains and trees behind them and a clear blue sky. They need a ride to town to get their final resupply box. After this resupply they are headed to the highest pass in the PCT. Thankfully a ride came along soon.

The same two hikers are smiling sitting on a bed in a hotel room with a large amount of food in ziplock bags strewn about the bed. One hiker is wearing the green jungle safari hat he found on the trail. His face is red from days spent hiking in the cold and he has a scruffy beard. His wool sweater has an embroidered raccoon patch on it. The woman (me) also has a blotchy red face from cold exposure. I am holding a black plastic bear canister. All of the food needs to fit in two of these canisters before we head back into the mountains. This resupply was crucial. If we had to wait until Monday to get our box we would have been out of sync with our hiking partners.

OTD in 2005, @tapirsmith.bsky.social and I reached the #onionvalleytrailhead southbound on our #pct #thruhike. Instead of views, today’s memories are of hitching a ride to town and gratitude for the clerk at the closed post office for giving us our final resupply box on a Saturday. See alt text.