08 1799.5 6/22/2021 sunny and a few puffy clouds. On trail at 5:35 heading to meet up with Justin. I sent an InReach every hour with time and trail mile. I had just over 9 miles. Justin had 11 miles. I had four big climbs with the biggest first. Still not in shape. Had to “count twenty-fives” over and over. On some of the passes were snow fields to cross. Was making acceptable progress to our meetup. I was almost there when Justin messaged me that he couldn’t cross Pole Creek because it was a torrent and rapids. He checked upstream and downstream. Nada! So since I was at the meetup I would go to him. This meant going off trail for me. And up to now Justin comes to me. I’ve got it easy. Now I had to find him. Also the confusing thing is there are two Pole Creek Junctions and three trails crossings of Pole Creek. So after a few starting goofs I finally figured out where he was. Naturally getting to him included a fifth climb and a few blowdowns. So when I got there it was very clear the creek was massive. He positioned himself at the narrowest point about 25 feet away. Over the rushing water noise we could yell and hear each other. I decided to use my bear bag line, anchor it down on my side, and toss it over to him. Then he tied my three days of food in the bear bag and threw it back. It just made it over and rolled, but stopped before falling in the torrent. He wished me a happy birthday. I put my food in my pack and we split up. Him returning to the Jeep and me back to the original meetup point to continue on north tomorrow. This would included me crossing Pole Creek but must farther upstream. However it was my deepest crossing (up to my crotch) and longest (about 100 yards). I think it was 4:30-5:00 before I stopped. What a day.
See “Birthday Airmail Resupply” for Justin’s description.
