Day 58: Muir Pass

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Wendy

Day 58
June 15
835-852.3
17.3 miles

Luckyman got up early, us he always does. He was hoping to say goodbye to Dust Bunny, but didn’t know where she was camping, so he headed off. A few minutes later, she came over to plop down beside me in my sleeping bag. She thought that once I made it to Mammoth, I should take a week off to try to heal up. “A week?!” I exclaimed. There was no way I could afford to take a week off the trail! The weather window frame on this trail was far too narrow. She told me that I could skip a part of the trail and jump ahead when I felt better, but that idea did not sit well with me at all. I wanted to do the entire trail in one shot. She asked me why that was so important to me, and I had to question my reasoning. Did it really matter if I hiked every mile of the trail or not? Cheryl Strayed only hiked 1,000 miles of it and achieved huge success from writing about the sections of the trail that she did hike. Maybe my thinking wasn’t so rational, especially when I was hurting so much. Maybe my injuries and illnesses were really a test to see if I could actually be caring towards my own self. I wasn’t ready to make any changes to my plan yet, however. I still wanted to try to accomplish what I set out to do. I would think about alternatives later, if it came to that.
I gave Dust Bunny some of my extra food- at least the things that did not contain gluten in them. She wanted to avoid staying in towns and hoped that there would be a full hiker box at Mono Hot Springs, even though it was early in the season. She headed back to pack up and I started the trail just ahead of her. We walked along a glacial lake and stopped for a quick break. I needed to put on sunscreen. Dust Bunny longed to bathe in the lake and contemplated whether she should do so or not. I was perfectly fine staying out of the cold water!

I took the lead, and as I looked for a place to cross a river, ended up losing the trail. We made it to the other side and looked around. Dust Bunny asked if I could go back and see if I could find the trail that way while she went up over a big rock in front of us. She ended up quickly finding the trail and leaving me behind to hike the longer route.
We headed up into the rocky and snowy terrain of the higher altitude, hopping on rocks to get across the ice cold creeks. I would wince with pain every time my right foot had to bear the entire weight of my body and backpack.

Up, up, up we climbed. Again, we reached a creek crossing and this one, I couldn’t figure out how to cross. I saw footprints on a snowy path above the water and wanted to cross it that way, but Dust Bunny didn’t feel the same way. I then thought about the potential of the snow to cave in, resulting in a fall into the water and decided I would follow her. She had made it to the other side, but I still didn’t see how I could get across. As I stood there contemplating, she started back across to show me the path she had taken. One of the rocks tipped over and she fell into the water. I felt bad. Our feet were wet and cold and we still had a long way to get to the top of the pass. We followed the footprints in the snow and ended up losing the trail again. I checked the map on my GPS but still couldn’t figure out where we were in relation to the trail. We ended up backtracking and then spotting the trail again. I was so glad that I had someone with me at this time! It was amazing to me that at the time I most needed help, someone was there, willing to do so!

The snow got deeper as we climbed and I kept slipping backwards. This pass was taking a lot of effort. It was not at all “fun” for me. Finally, I spotted the stone hut.

I had made it! A group of hikers was just starting to descend the path that we had just climbed. I didn’t envy them. I went into the hut to find Dust Bunny. It was cold inside, but we were at least sheltered from the wind in there. Dust Bunny was sitting on a bench in her sleeping bag, eating. I wished that she could take a picture of me, but I didn’t want to make her get up. Post-it notes that other hikers had written little messages on sat in a cluster on the bench. I read through them and found the one that Whistler had left. Then, I looked through my food bag for a snack. Dust Bunny planned on staying at the hut for awhile. She asked if I would be okay on my own. We had different resupply strategies and wouldn’t be able to hike together for much longer anyway.
I told her I would be fine and started down the other side.

There was still a large field of snow to cross, but it wasn’t as deep as it was on the climb up. I took my time and scanned the wide-open terrain ahead of me to see if I could figure out where the trail went. A big group headed in my direction helped me with the path finding. Occasionally, I still lost the trail and exerted a lot of energy scrambling over boulders. A couple of other hikers quickly passed by on the actual path while I was doing so. I reached another beautiful lake and sat down to take a break. The water was unbelievably clear!

Then, I headed onward, climbing a bit more before dipping down to another lake which the trail followed.

I saw a man fishing in the next body of water that I came to and followed the path of rocks to the other side.

My intestines started to cramp badly and I had to quickly find a place to go to the bathroom. I was so glad that I was alone. This stomach illness was awful! When was it ever going to end?
As I continued on my way, I looked behind me to see Dust Bunny and another hiker gaining on me. I was glad that I had that little bit of space to myself when I needed it! I reached another beautiful lake and decided that I had to stop to put my feet in the water. I didn’t know when my last opportunity to do something like this was going to come! I had heard so many people say that you should slow down and enjoy the Sierras, but so far, the Sierras were anything but enjoyable for me! They were all about pain and immense struggle. I couldn’t imagine hiking this section of the trail ever again.

I told Dust Bunny that I was going to put my feet in the water and she decided that she wanted to, as well. She introduced me to “Knock on Wood” and told us that she wanted to go all the way into the water if we both agreed to look away. She just ended up putting her feet in, though. I calculated that I could only spend 30 minutes here, which included taking off my socks, shoes, and gaiters, and putting them all back on again. It was not at all a relaxing break for me.
We headed on and I dropped behind the others. I wished that hiking this trail was as easy for me as it looked to be for so many of the other people out here! I saw two men under a tree and was asked what my name was and where I was from. I mentioned that I was not feeling well, and the guy who was hiking the PCT that I had never met proceeded to tell me that he had a fever one day in the desert and was “forced” to keep hiking in the heat and how awful that was. I felt like being in pain for over two and a half weeks was quite a different story, but didn’t say anything. I just excused myself and headed on my way. I later found Dust Bunny and Knock on Wood off to the left of the trail eating dinner. Dust Bunny was exclaiming about how good the mashed potatoes that she was given were. I didn’t want to take the time to cook and ate a quick snack instead. I hadn’t planned on taking a break at all. I asked them where they planned on crossing the notorious Evolution Creek that was coming up. LuckyMan had told me that there was an easier place to cross it about a mile before the PCT crossing. I planned on looking for that spot. They said they would see when they got there. I was so cold sitting in the shade so I headed out and told them I would see them before the creek crossing.
I checked my waypoint App and was not happy to see that the mileage for the creek crossing was off! How was I going to find the place that was easier to cross? I continued on the PCT and could see the creek to my left. I came to some rocks that opened to the creek and assumed that must be the point at which I could cross it earlier! I walked over the rocks, sat down, and took off my shoes and socks and put on my crocs. I placed my camera and iphone in a ziplock bag, and put in inside my pack. Then, I put my pack on, keeping the hipbelt unbuckled in case I needed to fling the pack off if I was swept underwater. I looked back at the trail and saw no one coming. The water was ankle high at the edge. I started to make my way across. The rapids increased as I headed towards the middle and I had to dig my poles as hard as I could into the rocks below me. The water was now up to my thighs and I felt stuck. I thought I was being smart crossing this creek early, but when I was in the middle of the rushing water, all by myself, I felt like I had made a huge mistake. I briefly thought about turning around, but realized that would take just as much effort as continuing to the other side, and I would still be left needing to cross this big creek. So, I braced myself and plunged my poles forcefully downward as the current tried to sweep me away with each foot that I lifted. Eventually, I made it to the other shore. I felt happy that I had done it!

I found a rock to sit on while I changed back into my socks and shoes. Then, I started looking for a place to follow the creek downstream. There were trees and giant bushes everywhere! I heard Ned Tibbets tell us that it was no problem to re-find the trail if we just followed the creek, but I was stuck! This was not how it was supposed to be! I heard some hikers talking as they made their way down the PCT. “Hey” I called, thinking it was Dust Bunny and Knock on Wood. It wasn’t them. I felt so stupid in the position I was in. I really did not want to take off my shoes again and try to make it back across that strong current. I continued to search out a way to get through the trees, and somehow managed to scramble my way through. I found the water and walked in the swampy grass following its contour. And then, the creek forked. I had no idea where the PCT crossed it. I took out my GPS, and just as I couldn’t figure out where I was when we had lost the trail in the snow on Muir Pass, I could not figure out where I was in relation to the trail here. I decided that I was going to have to cross the river back to the other side. This time, I was not going to take the time to take off my shoes. I was mad.

I made it across the water, followed a path, and came to a sign that said this was the alternate crossing for Evolution Creek, just as another hiker was approaching. I had jumped the gun and tried to cross the creek too early, based on what Luckyman had told me. His memory had been off. The old trail crossing was a quarter of a mile before the current PCT crossing- not a mile like he had said. I was reminded not to take the advice of other people. The hiker in front of me had a wire coat hanger hanging off the back of his pack which disturbed me in the state I was in. What on earth was he carrying that for? A little further ahead, he stopped to talk to Dust Bunny, Knock on Wood, a couple who I had never met before, and another guy. They all seemed happy and invited me to camp with them for the night. Now that my shoes and feet were already wet, however, I was determined to cross Evolution Creek for once and for all! I told Dust Bunny what had happened, but she gave me no sympathy. She was too busy socializing with the others. Commando made fun of me for wanting to hike a couple more miles rather than stopping where they did, but I didn’t care what he thought. I needed to move on and knew that because I don’t get up early, that it is necessary for me to get my miles in during the evening hours. I left them and continued on, finally coming to the actual PCT crossing of Evolution Creek. It was not bad at all. I had put myself at much greater risk by crossing it alone where I had first chosen. I was fortunate that nothing bad happened to me, and that it resulted only in experience for a future dangerous crossing.

I walked along more rapids that sprayed me with mist and then started the descent. I saw trees at the bottom and knew I could find a place to camp there. As I reached the trees when the terrain flattened out, I saw the annoying man and his much nicer relative camping at the first available spot. I walked on, unnoticed, and eventually found a spot to myself as the remaining traces of sunlight faded away. I set up my groundcloth and sleeping bag and finally took off my wet shoes and socks, cooked some dinner, and went to sleep. I was now hating the Sierras.

Day 57: The Day I thought I was going to have to be airlifted out of the Sierras

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Wendy

Day 57
June 14
818.5-835
16.5 miles

When I opened my eyes in the morning, I looked up to see Cuddle’s tent gone! He had already left. Dust Bunny was sitting on a rock, gazing out into the horizon. Why was I the only person that needed to sleep? Dust Bunny came over and sat next to my sleeping bag. She asked me how I was feeling and I told her not well. She said that she she was getting the feeling that I needed to learn to care for myself and that it really wouldn’t help me if someone else tried to do reiki on me, which is why she decided not to do it. I didn’t know how to feel about that. The flagyl had not made me feel at all better, and was in fact making me feel worse. I dreaded taking another pill. Dust Bunny told me that she had learned a lot from her dog and told me about the time he was sick and refused to take his medicine, no matter how hard she tried to disguise it. She learned that it knew what was best for him more than she did and encouraged me not to take the antibiotics if they were doing more damage than good. I figured I had taken at least the equivalent of a five day dose by now and wouldn’t swallow anymore of those pills. Instead, I would just concentrate on giving my body probiotics. I opened up my bear canister and spread out my food to see what I could have for breakfast. “Oh, sweetie,” Dust Bunny said. “All of your food is bad for your stomach! It’s all sugar.”
“I know”. She said she would go get her ginger and make me some tea. I set her little strainer with the real pieces of ginger in it on top of my jetboil and let it absorb into the water. She ordered me to sit and relax for awhile. I agreed to do so for this one morning. The ginger tasted really good. It felt like the first real food my body had ingested in a long time! I was so thankful.
I got up to collect some water and saw LuckyMan headed towards us. I told Dust Bunny and she ran out to greet him. She loves talking to people! She stood there asking him about his family like she had all the time in the world. LuckyMan told us where he planned on camping this evening (he had hiked this section before) and bid us farewell.

I returned to my spot, packed up my things, and headed out before Dust Bunny.
Just after I had made it across the first creek of the morning, I heard someone make a sound. I turned around to see Ash and Sexy Legs! Yay! I had wondered why they hadn’t caught up to me yesterday. They asked for help in choosing the best route across the water and I pointed out the rocks I had chosen. (Really? They wanted MY help?) Once across, I told them about how I had injured my Achilles coming down Mather last night. They told me about their cold night high up near the pass, and how LuckyMan was fascinated with the cracking ice in a little pond when he passed by them this morning. They went on ahead and I walked alone for awhile. The trail paralleled a beautiful Alpine lake that reminded me of being in the Swiss Alps.

A little while later, I heard another call and thought it must be Dust Bunny catching up to me, but realized it was Sexy Legs again. “What are you doing up there?” I shouted.
He and Ash were high above the trail. “We found a cave! Come see!”.
“But I’ll never finish if I do that!”.
“Sure you will! Just pack some extra food!”.
“But I can’t even eat with my hurting stomach!”.
“Even better!”.
I continued along the trail and Sexy Legs shrugged. It would be so fun to explore with them, but walking the PCT alone took all of my time and energy. I could’t keep scampering up and down to see all of the natural attractions along the trail like they could, because I couldn’t walk as fast as they did.

I came to a huge cascade of rushing water and decided to take a break there. Ash and Sexy Legs came down from the cave and stopped for a minute with me. Ash took a picture of me looking like I was relaxing in front of the rushing water, which is the antithesis of who I really am. I almost never relax and enjoy myself! Sexy Legs put the edges of his fingers to his forehead and bid me farewell as they moved on.
The trail descended out of the granite rocks and back into the woods. I contemplated heading away from the trail and taking a break at the creek, but decided to move on. As I started the next climb, I saw three deer on the trail! They were not at all fearful like the others ones I had encountered.

I continued the climb and suddenly saw Sexy Legs and Ash about 300 feet in front of me! I reached out my arm and almost called out to them, but no sound came out of my mouth. By this time, the pain in my Achilles was immense and I knew I would not be able to catch up to them. I wondered if they would stay with me if they knew how much I was hurting. I stopped and took off my pack, dejected. I decided to try walking a few steps without the weight on my back and found that even without my pack, my Achilles could not bear weight! I couldn’t even take a step on flat terrain without excruciating pain. What was I going to do? I was in the middle of my longest section in the toughest terrain on the PCT, in the remote Sierras, and my foot could not bear any weight. I decided that I needed to get to some water and soak it. I put my pack back on and hobbled to a small lake, took off my shoes, and put my feet in the cold water. Maybe I was being forced to relax. I imagined being airlifted out of the mountains and resting in a hospital bed with Ash and Sexy Legs sitting at my side, looking after me. Surely they would care enough about me to do that! Then, we could share stories about our journey and our lives. It would be so nice! The water briefly numbed my feet and I felt like I might be able to walk again. It took only a few steps for the pain to return, however.
A little ways ahead, I saw another place that was just down off the trail that looked like a good stopping point and again, I took off my shoes and put my feet in the water. I kept looking back up at the trail to see if anyone was passing by.

I was surprised that Dust Bunny hadn’t caught up to me yet. As I hobbled along the path, wincing in pain, she suddenly called out behind me, scaring me. I told her how much pain I was in and that she should go ahead. I was still determined to make it several more miles in order to stage Muir Pass for the following morning. There was a lot of snow on this pass, and I would be postholing in it for hours if I didn’t get through it early enough in the day! The remaining miles were mostly uphill, which fortunately hurt my Achilles the least. Downhills and flat terrain hurt it the most.
I walked behind Dust Bunny while she scouted out a place to take her dinner break and then continued on alone at my slow pace. Still in forested terrain, I continued to climb. At some point, I saw an unattended backpack ahead, which I found strange. I walked by it and soon saw a man coming toward me. He stopped and asked if I was looking forward to seeing the whale. “The what?”.
“The whale! It’s a famous landmark on the JMT!”.
“I never heard of it.”
“None of you PCT hikers have. To us, it’s something we really look forward to seeing. You’re not going to make me walk back up there to show you, are you?”.
I told him I would be able to find it myself, but he insisted on showing me. To the left of the trail, two big rocks made a formation that looked like the mouth of a whale. I went and sat in it and let him take my picture.

“Oh, you’re a model!” he said.
He told me that he wished he were hiking the JMT the other way. “Why?” I wondered, thinking it might be easier that way.
“Because then I could hike with you for awhile!”. I told him that would not be enjoyable for him at all with my hurting stomach and Achilles. He looked at my shoes and admonished me for not wearing boots. He said that there was a lot of snow on the upcoming pass and that the running shoes the PCT hikers were wearing turned their toes red and raw from the cold and wet. Then, he offered to give me some of the drops he was carrying for stomach pain. I followed him back down to his backpack and waited while he searched through his first-aid kit. It turned out that he had sent them home along with some of his extra supplies. Before I headed on my way, he asked if he could give me a hug.
I continued the climb, emerging from the trees into a world of granite. Someone had made huge stone steps up the trail and they seemed to steal my energy as I slowly heaved myself upwards. This was not an easy climb for me at all.

Slowly, I put one foot in front of the other and made it out of the granite and into a meadow. I knew from what Luckyman had said, that I was relatively close to our stopping point for the night. It took everything I had to make it across the rocks and up another climb. I almost stopped at a place that looked like it would fit my sleeping bag but climbed a bit father and suddenly saw three tents! I had made it! I walked past them and then saw LuckyMan set a little further back. I dropped my pack. This had been a brutally tough day. I looked around to see where I might be able to set up and ended up finding a place up a slope, next to a tree. I spread out my piece of Tyvek and picked up a rock by the tree to weight it down. I coiled back when I saw toilet paper underneath it. I was sleeping right beside someone’s bathroom spot! It didn’t appear that I had much of a choice to move elsewhere, so I just tried to ignore it.

I boiled some water for my pasta soup and went to talk to LuckyMan while it steeped. He said that he was hoping we would make it this far tonight. The others who had stopped were JMT hikers and a PCT hiker that neither of us knew. Lucyman said that he had crawled into his tent as soon as he set it up and went to sleep!
After I finished my dinner, we went and looked down across the meadow to see if we could see Dust Bunny coming. I spotted her. “She’s stopping!” I said to LuckyMan. He shouted out, “No! Don’t stop! Keep going!”. I told him she was probably just peeing. She does that a lot!
We cheered when we saw her pick up her pack and keep heading along the trail. Then, we went to make an arrow out of sticks to be sure she wouldn’t miss us! We ended up waiting for her right beside the trail, like expectant parents waiting for our child to return home after a late night out.
She made it and seemed both a little amused and disappointed to find so many people camping in one area. She chatted with us for a couple of minutes and then went off into the woods to find her own little area before coming back to chat with me next to my sleeping bag while we sipped our tea. She told me that when she sleeps in a places where others have slept before, her dreams get mixed up with theirs and it is very disturbing to her! She looked out across the water and rocks that I was near and exclaimed over my view. “But I’m going to be asleep and won’t be able to see it!” I said.
It got too cold for her to sit any longer so we agreed to see each other in the morning.

Day 56: Two Passes in One Day

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Wendy

Day 56
June 13
801.5-818.5
17 miles

I got up at my regular time (around 7) and tried to be as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the sleeping boys. This is hard to do when you make your coffee with a jetboil and have to repeatedly move all of your possessions into and out of stuff sacks and metal bear canisters! I wish I could be as care-free as them, but I don’t have the ability to hike as fast, so I must steadily keep plodding away. My goal for today was to hike more miles than I did yesterday. These Sierras are tough!

As I was nearing the end of my packing, I saw someone coming up the trail. It turned out to be Dust Bunny! What timing! I told her I was just about ready and our whispering woke the boys up. She took the opportunity to ask them if they had any extra food because she was low. Sexy Legs began sorting through his bag and came up with a few things. I had seen how much food he had with him last night and was worried about it not being enough for him, so I didn’t think he had anything he could spare. Since Dust Bunny has to eat gluten free, she couldn’t accept his offer anyway. I told her I could give her some of my food. I went over to Sexy Legs, still in his sleeping bag, and stretched out my arms to give him a hug. “Thank you for welcoming me,” I told him and then did the same for Ash. It was my big open-hearted moment and it felt wonderful!
And then, Dust Bunny and I were off!

We filled each other in on what had happened to us since we last saw each other on Mt. Whitney. Dust Bunny was hoping to see a nice guy she had met earlier in the hike, but so far, that had not happened. She was lamenting the fact that she wasn’t a “good thru-hiker”. She had all the ability, but not the drive to wake up each morning and put away the miles on a single path. She much preferred exploring and enjoying the places she found herself in. I, on the other hand, had no problem with keeping myself motivated to keep walking and pushing through all obstacles in my path, even when to my own detriment, which Dust Bunny didn’t think was so good.
She let me take the lead as we climbed to Pinchot Pass. “I’m doing good!” I proudly said at one point. “You’re doing awesome,” she said. We found Syashinka, a young hiker from Japan, who was a bit lost and searching for the trail. He had stopped by last night when we were sitting around the fire and asked us our names. When Sexy Legs responded, Syashinka’s eyes opened wide. “Sexy?” he asked and pointed to his legs. It was a great reaction! I remembered first seeing Syashinka at the fire by Dr. Sole’s RV at kick-off. This morning, he asked my name again before realizing that he had passed by last night. I sat down on a rock and took a break while the others worried about where the trail was. And then, we were off again!
We let Syashinka go ahead. The terrain reminded me a lot of Colorado with its red rocks and openness. Dust Bunny lives outside of Durango and agreed with me. The altitude slowed my pace and I let Dust Bunny go ahead. I walked through another patch of snow and kept moving one foot in front of the other. The top of the pass seemed like it was never coming!

Three and a half hours after we started out this morning, we reached the windy pass and quickly had to put on our winter hats after almost losing our hiking hats! After quickly taking a couple of photos of the other person, we headed down the other side.

Part way down, Dust Bunny started talking to a man headed in the other direction. I recognized the voice as the German who had put me down at kick-off, telling me that I was hiking up to third gate slowly. He obviously had abandoned his plan to thru-hike. When he saw me, he said, “You’re the yoga teacher…You’re still on the trail.”
“Yes, I am.” He asked me if I was doing yoga along the trail. When I said no, he scoffed at me. Dust Bunny had already taken off. He asked me if I had seen his friend Half-Slow and I told him not for a very long time. I wished him a good journey and continued my descent. As I was walking through more snow, my knee hyper-extended. Ow! I wasn’t sure how much damage I had just done. I took the next steps slowly. A little later on, I did it again! These mountains were not kind to me!

I continued to descend to a lake, where I found Dust Bunny taking a break. She was contemplating whether to make a hot drink. She had one packet of coffee and one packet of green Chinese tea that had been given to her. For some reason, she decided to mix the two so we could share it. It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted! I recommended that next time, she make the tea and coffee separately. She asked me if I knew much about the chakras and I said I knew a little. She was wondering what chakras the colors green and red represented, as those were the colors she was wearing. I told her that green was the heart chakra and red was the root chakra. She thought those were applicable to her current state- finding a state of groundedness while opening her heart. She thought that my colors also matched me- speaking my truth and seeking a connection with the infinite.
We moved on. Somehow I got ahead and after crossing a creek, in which I got my shoes wet, I found a sunny rock to try and dry off a little. I had to keep moving back and forth because the sun was too hot to be in, and the shade was too cold! Dust Bunny came along and joined me. She decided to bathe in the creek while I ate some beef jerky and snickers. We didn’t know if we should attempt the next pass this evening. It was already getting late for that. I told her I would see how I felt. My stomach was already badly hurting. A hiker passed by that Dust Bunny knew, but he didn’t stay to chat. We moved on and reached another wide creek that we had to ford. Cuddles, the other hiker, was waiting on the other side, and helped direct Dust Bunny across. I followed her. My stomach was hurting so bad that I told her I needed to stop and see what I could do about it. I told her to go on.
The afternoon was slow going due to the pain of my calf and the even more excruciating pain of my stomach. Another hiker was in the same vicinity that I didn’t know. I would stop and take a break and he would pass by, and then I would catch up and we would repeat the pattern. There was yet another creek crossing ahead and I searched up and down the banks for the best crossing. Nothing looked easy.
The trail continued to climb and I thought there was no way I was going to be able to climb another pass tonight with the way I was feeling. I was going to tell Dust Bunny that I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t feel at all like myself.
I saw LuckyMan up ahead and hiked up to talk to him. Mosquitoes were attacking everywhere. He said that Dust Bunny and Cuddles had decided to climb Mather Pass tonight and that they had left 10 minutes ago. No!! I looked at my watch. It was 5:00. The mosquitoes were horrendous. I thought about what it would be like to camp here and then decided to move on. I can do it. It’s just 1,000 more feet and 5 more miles… I wished Lucky Man a good night and continued on. I stopped often. The other hiker, Oblivious, remained in my area. I wished I were in a better mood. I was in such pain that I really couldn’t be friendly, however. I kept plodding along. I watched Oblivious hike ahead and stop every 100 feet or so and take in the views all around him. I just tried to keep moving forward.

The trail started climbing more and then turned into switchbacks. I kept thinking I only had one or two more, but they wouldn’t end. Then, I saw Dust Bunny ahead, making her way towards the pass. Unbelievably, I wasn’t so far behind! I reached the pass ahead of Oblivious and dropped my pack. I was exhausted! Dust Bunny and Cuddles welcomed me. I told her there was no way I was going to do that and then Lucky Man told me you had just left. We took some photos and Oblivious talked about how he had hurt his knee early on in the hike and how some guy did reiki on it and made it feel 75% better. I told Dust Bunny that I wished someone could do reiki on my belly! She said she would put her hands on it when we got to camp if I wanted.

I was surprised that we still had a bit more climbing to do before we headed down the other side. Again, we were met with snow that caused our pace to meet a snail’s. This was slippery stuff and we had to be careful where to place our feet so we didn’t turn our ankles on rocks. At one point, my foot slipped out underneath me and almost sent me sliding! Dust Bunny stayed close to Oblivious and I to make sure we were okay. I looked at my watch and told her that it had taken over 45 minutes to do less than one mile! She just laughed.

I continued to step heel-first through the snow, and suddenly, my heel locked up! I couldn’t get it to release. This day was getting worse and worse! We made our way out of the dangerous snow and back on to the rocky trail as the sun set. I thought about how I had now been suffering from my awful stomach pain for 2 and a half weeks and felt so sorry for myself. Dust Bunny had reminded me that the pain was only temporary, but 2 1/2 weeks seemed too long to be feeling this way. I could see trees in the far distance and hoped they would appear sooner, as I knew that is where we would be camping. I hobbled over the streams, hoping my Achilles would release. I had no energy to collect water and kept my vision on the trees ahead. Finally, I saw Cuddles with his tent set up. “Is this where we are stopping” I asked. “If it looks okay to you,” he said.
“It’s perfect. I can’t take another step.” It was 8:30 at night and nearly dark. He pointed behind him to two possible spots. I chose one and spread out my ground cloth and then my sleeping bag. I was in so much pain and so exhausted that I couldn’t even manage to brush my teeth, never mind eat anything. Dust Bunny had said that she would make me some ginger tea, but she was chatting with Cuddles and I guessed that she had forgotten about it. She found a place to cowboy camp just below me. As I lied on my left side, the pain seemed to move from the right to the left side of my body. I turned upright and placed my hands on top of my stomach.
It was the worst I had felt yet.

Day 55: Glen Pass, Mile 800, and a Pair of Lovely Boys!

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Wendy

Day 55
June 12
mile 789-801.5
12.5 miles

I only had 2 miles to walk before I reached Glen Pass, which my guidebook pages said was the scariest of all the passes. Past hikers had written a couple of sentences about their experiences and I couldn’t make sense of their advice. “Stay to the left of the bowl” and the trail goes over the “spit of land” between Rae Lakes. The only thing I could do was figure it out when I got there! I climbed out of the trees and into a landscape of loose rocks, heading to an elevation of 12,00 feet. Looking down, I saw the most beautiful blue glacier water in a small pond. It was mesmerizing.

There was no snow on the trail during the ascent, but my pack was heavy and the altitude made the going slow. The other side of the pass was a different story! There was lots of snow to contend with.

I took it very slowly, choosing my steps, and driving my poles into the snow. In places, the snow was deep and postholing took a lot of time to get through. Occasionally, I slipped, but made my way out unscathed! I slowly made my way down to Rae Lakes and back to cascading streams, flowers, and trees.

I found a tree to sit under and look out over a big lake while I snacked. It was pretty, but I was not feeling well. I wasn’t enjoying the Sierras with my stomach illness.
I walked along the lakes, stepping on rocks to make it across creeks in my path, and then finding a spot of take my pack off for another minute. As I put it back on, two guys approached and said hi. One of them asked me if I was hiking the JMT. “No, I’m hiking the whole thing.”
“You’re hiking the PCT? So are we!”. I asked them their names and one said, “Sexy Legs.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about you!”. The other said his name was Ash. After a brief chat, they headed onwards. I wondered what gave them the impression that I was only hiking 200 miles…
It wasn’t long before I saw them stopped up ahead, chatting with Delaware Dave who was resting up on a hill. He said that he had only hiked 2 miles so far today and was now taking a siesta. I chatted with Ash and told him about my stomach problems and my calf that was still hurting! He said that I just needed to walk it off. I said I wasn’t so sure about that… It had been hurting for a week now! He let me know where they were planning on stopping for lunch and invited me to join them. How nice!
They hiked on at their fast pace and I slowly walked behind. It turned out the lake they were envisioning was non-existent, so they stopped beside a creek to have their lunch. Sexy Legs cooked his 900 calorie meal! I joined them for a bit and then headed back out.
My stomach was really hurting and the miles were becoming excruciatingly slow. Delaware Dave caught up to me and hiked behind me for awhile. He was suffering from exhaustion and didn’t know where it was coming from. We reached a creek that looked impossible to cross without getting our shoes wet. I saw another hiker on the other side who looked liked he had crossed it upstream. I went to investigate but saw no way to get across. Delaware Dave made it across in the meantime and pointed downstream to a fallen tree that I had also seen. I made my way down to that spot and ducked under branches to try to get on the slippery tree. It took me a long time to make my way across the rushing water and only when I made it to the other side, did I see that Delaware Dave was waiting up on the hill to make sure that I made it across okay.
On and on, we walked. My energy was draining out of me. My pack was killing my shoulders and I had to stop and rest while Delaware Dave continued on.
Finally, I reached a camping area with a bear box and took my pack off again. I went down to see if Delaware Dave was okay. He decided that he could walk no more today and would set up his tent and rest for the remaining part of the day and night. He was worried that he had Lyme’s disease, but I thought it was probably the altitude in combination with a heavy pack. I hadn’t seen Sexy Legs or Ash since I left them and assumed they must have taken a nap. Soon enough, they came along and confirmed my surmise. We all chatted for a bit and then left Delaware Dave and headed across the suspension bridge to reach the 800 mile point! I was excited to have people near me for the picture opportunity! The bridge was very bouncy and a little scary to walk on at first, but then felt fun! I felt like I couldn’t take my time, though, because the others were waiting!

I let the boys go ahead and as my breathing became labored, let them do the searching for the 800 number while I stayed focused on putting one foot in front of the other. I saw them stop ahead and look at the ground and assumed they had found it! But they hadn’t seen anything yet. We continued to climb and then I found them looking at a raging river flowing over smooth rocks. I thought that there was no way that I could cross that myself and was glad that there were people with me, but it turned out that they were just checking out this attraction. Ash said that they were constantly finding cool things to check out in the Sierras. There was something new around every corner! I followed them down the rocks to look at the rapids and checked my GPS. “You guys- we already passed the 800 mile point! We are going to have to make our own marker!.”

After they were satisfied with observing the water, we went up to a bank and started collecting rocks. Ash started making a “nushuk” and Sexy Legs and I looked at it, confused. We didn’t know what he was making, so we got to work on forming the numbers for our 800 milestone! “I know what pose I want to do!” I said. It was great having people around.

We hit the trail again and the boys took off. They hike almost twice as fast as I do! I found them again at the edge of another creek crossing, trying to scout out where best to cross it. They didn’t find a place where we could cross it and keep our feet dry. I started to take off my shoes, but decided to keep them on when I saw Sexy Legs on the other side. I started across and the boys watched me from the other side. “You’re going to watch me?”. That was making me even more nervous. I told them I was okay and they went on. I ended up losing my remaining snow basket in the rushing water and was unable to cross without getting my shoes wet. I felt like a failure.
I walked on and heard a call. Sexy Legs was up on some hill! He said he was checking out a waterfall. I wasn’t sure if they were planning on camping up there. I decided to sit down in some grass and cook my pasta and peas. Some deer came by to keep me company.

The boys walked on and said they were planning on hiking about three miles and that I was welcome to camp with them. I told them 3 miles was too much for me tonight!
Luckily, I found them stopped about a mile ahead. Perfect! I was so tired and very dejected about only having hiked 12 lousy miles that day. Sexy Legs said he didn’t want to hear it. He and Ash weren’t doing big miles in the Sierras because they wanted to explore and enjoy themselves. They got up at 10 this morning and decided to swim out to an island in one of the Rae Lakes. Sexy Legs had gotten hypothermic in the process and nearly drowned! Luckily Ash helped bring him safely back to shore. He said his lungs were still hurting.
The boys set to work on trying to make a fire from scratch, starting with a cute little nest of straw. Sexy Legs said they always try doing this first, but so far, have not succeeded. It appeared that it was not going to work again tonight, but after a few more attempts, they got it to catch fire! I put on my warm layers and sat on an uncomfortable rock near the fire. This was only my second fire of the entire trip! Ash thought I was very brave to start the PCT alone. (Eh…).
They were both very friendly and polite and I appreciated them inviting me to hang out with them. We each picked a spot to cowboy camp and unrolled our sleeping bags. Sexy Legs asked Ash, “Hey, should we… should we…”. I was sure he was going to ask about drinking some of the bourbon he was carrying or smoking marijuana, but then he said, “Should we have some hot chocolate?” It was one of the sweetest things I had ever heard! I said that sounded good to me! I had my own mix and Sexy Legs tried to figure out how much water he needed to boil for three people. It turned out to be not enough, but it was still nice. We went down to the creek to collect our own water before it got too dark to see and then headed to bed. I felt like naming this little area “Sleepy Hollow”. I felt so safe and content with these boys. It was a good night!

Day 54: Back up Kearsarge

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Wendy

Day 54
June 11
Kearsarge Pass
7.6 miles

I didn’t sleep so well because we had agreed to go get breakfast in the morning and I didn’t want to sleep in too late. We both wanted to get a real egg breakfast, so we skipped Schat’s and found a little restaurant. While I used the restroom, Otherworld found a couple to chat with who were seated next to us. They were very interested in hearing about our journeys. I hoped they were interested enough to want to give me a ride back to Independence, but the timing wasn’t going to work out.
We decided to head next door for a smoothie afterward. Otherworld was disappointed that it wasn’t a “real one” like she makes herself every morning back home. That was one thing I knew I wanted to start doing when I got home! Otherworld, who had recently gotten engaged, was having trouble deciding if she actually wanted to hike to Canada or leave the trail when her fiancee came to visit in 10 days. She missed him a lot. I encouraged her to keep listening to how she felt and that either way would be okay. I knew that this was her chance to do it before she started a family, though. It was good to have someone to talk with about meaningful things.
She wanted to look for a town dress while she was here, so I went to a thrift store with her and then back to the outfitters while she tried on dresses. I forgot to look for a second camera battery while I was here last time, so I stopped in the camera shop, but they didn’t have what I needed.
When we got back to our room, all I could do was stare at the bed and wish I could go to sleep! I felt so tired! Otherworld checked the guidebook to see if she still had a chance to get to Tuolemne Meadows by the time Brian arrived. Then, she set to work rolling toilet paper. I decided to take a nap and ended up sleeping hard! It was the deepest sleep I had had in a long time! I guess my body was finally able to relax enough. I got up around 11 and packed up my gigantic, overflowing pack once again and then walked over to the lobby to say goodbye to Otherworld. She needed to stay in town to do chores.
I walked down the road just as I had done two days ago with Bambi and Whistler, stood across from the gas station and stuck out my thumb while I ate my apple. I was prepared for this to take awhile. After about 20 minutes or so, a man stopped. He didn’t know where Independence was, but I told him it was about 40 miles down this road. He agreed to take me. He was driving 9 hours to Southern California to visit his sister and wanted some company. He had been a hippie in the 60s and 70s and told me a lot of stories from his earlier days. He offered me some marijuana while we drove, which I declined. I wasn’t very comfortable with this guy, but figured I could reason with him if he tried anything.
Everything turned out fine and he dropped me off on the main street in Independence. I called a trail angel to see if he was available to drive me up the mountain, but he was working and said he could only take me after 5. I asked him where the road that lead up to the mountain was and decided to stand there and see if anyone was headed up that way. The first car that passed was a couple that lived in the neighborhood. The second car pulled over. The man got out and started grumbling. He was upset about the road being ripped up ahead and I assured him that it was only like that for a small stretch and was fine to drive on. He grumbled some more and told me that he was driving around, trying to sell his book. “Do you have any money to help me out?”. I told him I would give him $10 if he drove me up the mountain and he seemed happy. I asked him what he would be doing once he got up to the trail head and he said that he was going to camp there overnight. As we drove, he told me that he was a seer and that he was awakened to the truth by a test of fire when he was 44 years old. His skin was burning and he heard voices telling him to “put on the lotion, put on the lotion”. He was told that the religion he had been taught was all a lie and now he wants to travel and spread the truth. He handed me his book and told me to read through it as he continued telling me about his experiences. All I wanted to do was get back to the trailhead. I patiently read through the poorly written book and nodded in agreement at the things he said. I think he was expecting me to argue with him. He told me that he hadn’t had any companionship in a long time. As we drove up the curves of the mountain, he would stop the car and stare at the mountains. “Look! A dinosaur spine! Do you see it?”. He told me that he would also like to hike the PCT one day.
Finally, I arrived at the trailhead and got out of the car. It was a beautiful afternoon and I was finally going to climb back up Kearsarge! I took my pack out of his car and noticed that one of my snow baskets on my poles was already missing! I told him that it must have fallen off in his car, but he said it wasn’t there. A group of three women who had just come off the mountain told me that someone had dropped a snow basket on the trail and that I could take that one.
My driver commented on how big my pack was. “You look like an ant with 10 pounds on its back! Next time, you might want to carry a smaller backpack!” I asked if he could take a picture of me and wished him a nice night of camping.

Then, I started back up the mountain. I felt strong and happy and was so glad that it was a nice day!

It wasn’t long before I saw two thru-hikers coming down. I told them they would have no problem getting a ride, thinking the three women could take them into town. I continued to climb, noticing things I had already passed when I tried climbing this part in the storm. I found the snow basket the ladies had mentioned, but it soon fell off my pole, too. The wind picked up and blew my visor off, leaving me in a moment of panic. Luckily, I was able to chase it down and retrieve it before it blew off for good. I passed a young couple who were out for a couple of days and slowly worked my way up. The climb wasn’t as bad as I had been dreading on the way down, even with such a heavy pack.

I made it above treeline and kept my eyes on the pass, knowing I would be there shortly.

And then, I was there at the top!

I took a break and watched the marmots play around me before heading down the pass and into new territory. The terrain flattened out and was dotted with pretty pink flowers and square granite rocks. I stopped at one of them and ate a power bar, as my energy began to fade.

I walked on, stepping over a small stream and then walked along a ridgeline. A man headed my way asked me how far the water was. He had set his tent up further back in a stand of trees, a good distance away from the water. I walked on into the evening, and grew more and more tired. Eventually, I reached an intersection. One path lead to a lake with a bear box. I chose to stay on the PCT. The sun was setting and I just wanted to find a place to sleep. I walked across a meadow and headed up a hill to my right where there were large rocks and trees and found a flat space to lie down.

I munched on a bagel and another power bar and got into my sleeping bag. I was so tired that I didn’t even want to look at the stars. I was in a bad mood! This was going to be a tough stretch ahead!

Day 53: From Lone Pine to Onion Valley… And Back to Bishop?

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Wendy

Day 53
June 10
Attempted to climb Kearsarge, but had to turn back
Zero official PCT miles

By 7:30, my stomach was growing very hungry, my body was growing restless, and still, there was no sign from Muk Muk. I texted her and asked if they were ready and soon after met them in the lobby and headed across the street. The waitresses were very familiar with UB and Muk Muk by now because they had eaten there so many times in the past few days! UB set up his video camera and started filming us, much to my chagrin. Muk Muk loved her time in Lone Pine so much that she wanted to stay there and start a family with the three of us!
The owner of the place even told us that he was tired of running it and wanted to sell it. He suggested we could take it over, with Muk Muk acting as the hostess. He asked UB if he was protecting us out in the woods and he replied that Muk Muk was the one who wore the pants. As scared of the dark and the animals (and even going to the bathroom outside) as he was, UB definitely wasn’t the one to take care of us, as nice as that sounded! The owner ended up giving him a super-strong marijuana joint that he said would knock him out if he tried hiking after smoking it! UB thankfully tucked it into his coat pocket.

I headed over to the post office, wanting to be first in line to finally get my resupply box and package that Amanda had sent me. She was worried that the contents would be spoiled by now. I was still nervous about interacting with the post lady! Fortunately, a visiting postal worker from Mammoth was there on this day and he retrieved my packages with no problem! (Even the one that Amanda had sent to “General Delivery” without my name on the address!) He even said he would see me when I got to Mammoth in about a week!
I made the trip back to my room with heavy arms and began the sorting process! I had to work quickly! I was dismayed to find no socks in my resupply box. I had asked for them in my Kennedy Meadows box and was disappointed when they were none in there, but now it was becoming a big problem! Once I sorted through everything, I needed to go to the outfitter and see if they had any toe socks, and then go to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription for flagyl, as well as some probiotics. The outfitter had only one pair of toe socks. They weren’t in any packaging and didn’t have a size on them, but would have to do. The clerk told me that I could check with the hostel to see about getting a ride to the trail. I returned to the pharmacy to get my prescription and randomly chose a box of probiotics from the shelf. Then, I headed back to my room to do my final packing and begin my search for a ride.
No one was at the hostel. I finally called the number and the lady cleaning the rooms said she would be down in a half an hour. She gave me the number of a man who I could try calling in the meantime, but there was no answer.
I didn’t have any more luck when she returned. She just pointed me to the bulletin board where there were three options for getting a ride back to the trail. The first one cost $210! I said no thank you and before I could hang up, the guy warned me that the others didn’t have insurance, which would have big implications for me if they got into an accident on the way up the mountain.
I finally found a man that would be ready to take me in a little over an hour for $55. I headed back to the ice cream shop for a breakfast sandwich and coffee and told Muk Muk and UB that I had some pecan square crumbles for them from Amanda. They were just checking out and getting ready for their own ride. Muk Muk continued to blog and UB worked on editing his videos and soon, it was time to separate once again. UB asked if I wanted to go back with them and hike Whitney again. I thought about it for a couple of seconds, as it would be nice to have some company on the trail, but I had already hiked that section, and Dust Bunny was right- the coldness of Mt. Whitney was too much for the body to handle twice. I needed to stick to my own path. He started to sing new words to “He’s So Vain”- “She’s so fast.. We’re prob-ly never gonna catch her…”. He said they needed a way to slow me down. I told him I’m already hurt (my calf muscle was still causing pain from climbing Whitney) and my stomach was also hurt! “You need something more!” he said. Muk Muk said that they would probably see me in Oregon. “Oregon?! That’s 1,000 miles away!”. We hugged each other goodbye several times and I told UB to take it easy on his knee.
I met my ride at the hotel and then I was on my way to the trail head. Ominous dark clouds overtook the skies as we drove. I could see the rain falling on the mountains. My driver said I was headed right into that. Then, he noticed that there was a clear patch that happened to be right over the part of the mountains that I would be climbing! Maybe I was going to get lucky after all!
We wound up the mountain and when we arrived back at the parking lot, he let me out just as cold drops of rain started to fall. I had to take everything out of my pack to to find my raingear. It turned out that I hadn’t gotten so lucky! The rain fell harder and the air grew colder. I used the toilet in the outhouse and then started the climb back up Kearsarge. A couple of dayhikers were headed down. “Heading right into it, huh?”.
“Yup”.
I stopped underneath a tree to put my camera and phone in a ziplock bag and make sure things weren’t falling out my pack that was too full to close. My hands were so cold!!
I continued on and began wondering if this was such a good idea. I was climbing up to 12,000 feet and already it was turning to snow and hail. I looked back down and saw an RV below. Maybe they would let me sit in there until the storm passed? Or at least I could hunker down in the outhouse. Maybe I could even do some journaling in there while I waited for the storm to pass! I turned around and headed back down. When I reached the outhouses, I discovered that I was not the only one who had this idea! Delaware Dave and Craig were also hanging out there, waiting for the storm to pass before they started their climbs. I abandoned my journaling plan and stood with the others so I wouldn’t be hogging one of the restrooms, but I was getting even colder standing around. We looked up toward the trail and saw two figures coming down. Delaware Dave said that one of them looked like the Abominable Snowman! He was right. The figures made their way down the switchbacks and headed towards us. I realized that the Abominable Snowman was Abbi (Otherworld)! “Is that Wendy?” she asked.
It was so nice to see a nice, familiar face, especially in these conditions! Thoughts of getting off the mountain and getting into town where they could warm and dry kept Otherworld and Luckyman happy. They both had good attitudes. Craig realized that he had left his phone in the car of the people who had given him and Delaware Dave a ride up the mountain. Luckily, Delaware Dave had their number and was able to let them know. They said they would turn right around and come back up the mountain to deliver his phone back to them! Otherworld really wanted to go to Bishop and asked me if I wanted to go with her. Since it was 40 miles from the trail and I had already been there, I really did not want to go back there. The thought of getting warm and dry was appealing, however. She went into the outhouse and changed out of her clear plastic rain outfit and into her down pants and jacket. I started to think it might be nice to go back to town with her, but hoped we could stay in Independence.

The car returned with Craig’s phone and he asked the couple if they could take Otherworld, Luckyman, and myself into town. “Of course!”. So we loaded our packs into the back and got into the backseat. It turns out that this couple, who lives 70 miles from Death Valley, spends their wedding anniversary in the Sierras every year just so they can help shuttle us PCT hikers around! Amazing! Otherworld asked if there was any chance they could drive us to Bishop and the man said that would be up to the boss. His wife agreed and we were soon speeding down the highway. My sleeping pad was flapping around in the wind and the driver pulled over to make sure it was secure.

Once back in the car, they commented on how we all got quiet all of a sudden and saw that we were all transfixed on our phones. They said we were just like their grandchildren! We offered to buy the couple dinner, but they declined.
They dropped us off and we said our goodbyes, and then Otherworld went to find us a room in a motel that she had visited often on family vacations. Unfortunately, they were all booked up, so we headed back to the Rodeway. Seeking and Razor were still there in the same room! They were planning on having sushi again, so we joined them. Luckyman had an equally hard time with Razor. When he went to the restroom, Luckyman said, “Now I know why they call him Razor. Because he cuts through everyone’s conversations!”.
We headed back to the room and Otherworld went outside to call her boyfriend. I barely unpacked my things since I didn’t need to do any sorting here. She ended up talking to Razor and Seeking outside the room for awhile and also ended up getting frustrated that she wasn’t given the chance to answer the questions she was being asked.
After she came back in, I finally fell asleep.

Day 52: From Bishop to Lone Pine

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Wendy

Day 52
June 9
zero

One of the tourist destinations in Bishop is Schat’s bakery, where no one is allowed to take photographs of anything inside. It’s a huge place that is filled with every kind of pastry imaginable, and has a separate room devoted to breads. Bambi and I headed over there for breakfast and looked around. It was like being at Disney World at first- everything was big and new and shiny. But, my sick body didn’t actually want any of that. I ended up buying a multi-grain roll and a single packet of butter, along with a latte. I was planning on sitting inside, but Bambi wanted to eat outside in the sun. When I walked out, I found an Indian man, clearly in despair, seeking help from Bambi. “You’re going to be okay, man,” Bambi was telling him, calmly. He turned to me and began enlisting my sympathy. I couldn’t understand him very well and thought his reservation was being taken away and his sister was soon to be homeless. He had tears in his eyes and kept shouting out his pain, wanting us to do something about it. All we could do was tell him it was all going to be okay. I went back into the bakery and asked Delaware Dave if he could come outside and eat with us, as we needed his help with a situation. He agreed, saying that anything interesting is good. When Razor walked out, the Indian man immediately called him Chief, which I found amusing. Razor said something dismissive and demeaning in return. The presence of the others succeeded in getting the man to leave. I realized that he had a new audience each morning outside this bakery. Bambi informed me that his sister was going to be put into a nursing home, and that was why he was so upset. He had repeatedly called me “sissy”, which I didn’t find so nice, but Bambi said he actually meant “sister”. Whistler came and sat with us, which made me happy. I showed him my Mt. Whitney jumping photo and he stared at it just as incredulously as he had stared at the rice krispy treat! “You have the best expressions!”, I told him. He had a very laid-back, easy-going demeanor and I liked being around him. He reminded me of my brother. I asked him where he was from and if he had ever been to the White Mountains. “I can see you working in the huts up there,” I told him. He had actually already hiked the AT and knew just what I meant. Because he had to get back to school, he was on a tight deadline to finish the PCT by August 26, which I found extraordinary. He had already lost a precious few days by getting lost over Glen Pass, and hiking it backwards after he had hiked it northbound. Because this mistake had caused him to be low on food, he had to make the additional unplanned trip down Kearsarge Pass and into town. I knew I wouldn’t be seeing him again after today.
We headed back to the room to start packing. Bambi was heading back to the trail and I was heading to Lone Pine. I texted Muk Muk and asked what she was doing and she replied that she and UB were eating sundaes at 8:30 in the morning! She was looking forward to seeing me and said they were planning on taking me to the ice cream shop once I arrived!
Bambi showed me his photo at the starting monument. On our descent down Forrester, he was telling me how stiff and awkward he looked in that picture. “My hand was gripped into a claw.”
“And how do you look in pictures now?” I asked.
“Rugged and cool.”
It’s fascinating to see the change that visibly occurs in us after only about 10 days of hiking. Our entire demeanor changes as the things that control us in our other lives slip away from our bodies.
He asked me if my arms were so toned from doing yoga. I didn’t know how to answer that because it had been a long time since I had done any yoga! The only thing I was doing now was planting my hiking poles into the ground with each step. Bambi had just gotten 2 poles for himself and was practicing in the room. He had no idea how to use them and looked like a stiff geriatric man with canes!
I wanted to bring his leftover pole that he had found in the hiker box at Kennedy Meadows to UB, who had thrown his poles (as well as his cooking pot) over the mountain on a day that his past reared its head and overtook his self-control. When he told me the story at Kennedy Meadows, I told him that when that happens, he just needs to get calm and breathe and let it pass. And if he stills needs to throw something, he can throw some sticks or rocks. “Throwing the things you need down the mountain just hurts you more,” I said. (And the environment…).
“No!” he quickly shouted back. He said he didn’t need to get quiet.

Whistler was also ready to head back to the trail, but wanted to write some postcards first. I decided I might as well make use of the pool while I waited and again saw the family from last night.
Finally, we were all packed and ready to go. We walked to Main St. and stuck out our thumbs. Bambi turned into an extrovert and was doing all sorts of actions in hopes of getting someone to stop. No one did. After lots and lots of attempts, someone told us we would be better off trying to hitch down the road, closer to the interstate. So, we slung on our packs on another roasting hot day, and walked down the street. “Who wants a smoothie?” I asked as we passed the coffee shop. Bambi had told me that I need acidophilus and that the yogurt in a smoothie would be good for me when we came in yesterday, but after he read some information about flagyl, realized there was a high chance that I am now lactose intolerant and that yogurt would be bad for me! Great!
We walked down the shadeless street, wondering where would be a good place to try our luck. It seemed to go on forever! We finally stopped on a street corner only to be later told that we would have better luck up the road, across from the gas station. So, we moved on. There was a single tree in front of a municipal building that I wished was closer to the road. I put my pack down and joined the guys in sticking my thumb out. We were having no better luck down here! Why was it so impossible to get a ride around here? Bambi continued his antics of waving the cars down, kneeling down on the pavement, and holding his hands in prayer. “You know you want to give us a ride!”.
Finally, a van pulled up and asked us where we were headed. He said he was only going partway. Bambi decided to take him up on it. I got in the front seat and the guys sat on the floor in the back. We were driven about 10 miles down the highway, at which our driver needed to turn into a ranch to prepare for the rodeo coming into town. He asked us if we were going to be okay.
As the cars whizzed by at over 60 mph, we realized what a huge mistake it was to have accepted a partial ride. We were in an even worse place to try to hitch than when we first started trying! Bambi started doing russian splits at the oncoming traffic! No one cared. I texted Muk Muk and let her know that I was still far, far away from Lone Pine. Not only did I need to get this impossible 30 mile hitch from the middle of a highway, but I also had to find another 15 mile ride once we got dropped off in Independence!

Luckily, the driver of a pick-up truck took pity on us and pulled over. We were so happy! He was holding a mason jar of water between his thighs and would pick it up ever so often to take a sip. I was envious of the refreshing-looking water! ‘Wagon Wheel’ came on the radio and I looked back at Whistler. “The AT song!”.
As we drove by the Sierra mountains, our driver talked about Fossil Falls and the petroglyphs you could find there, as well as the bighorn sheep that lived in the area. There were so many things I didn’t know about and so many things you could see if you weren’t constrained to one path with a very limited time frame in which to hike it! I wanted to come back here and have a chance to explore the area.
He dropped us off at the gas station in Independence. Whistler asked if he could get a hug. “Of course!”. I figured I better give one to Bambi, as well, even though it didn’t feel nearly as natural. Bambi asked for my number and I told him not to text me because I get charged if it’s not from another iphone! Then, I headed down the road to start the third part of my hitch.
Luckily, this was the easiest one of the three by far! A couple that I had made eye contact with as I was looking for desert last night and they were leaving a restaurant recognized me! “We saw you in Bishop!” they said. They were super nice and brought me right to the Dow Hotel, where Muk Muk and UB were staying. I checked into my room, happy to have my own space again, and immediately headed over to the lunch place with 10 minutes to spare before they closed! I texted Muk Muk after I placed my order. I got some refreshing lemonade with my burger and it came in a large glass mug that reminded me of our driver’s mason jar I had been envying! Happiness!

Muk Muk said they were going to get pizza and wanted me to join them, but she and Lion King ended up coming in to meet me. The energy was centered around Lion King, who was complaining about hiking in the heat. He was doing small sections of the PCT and had hiked a southbound section to meet Muk Muk in Lone Pine. We headed back to the motel, where Muk Muk wanted to take a nap, and agreed to meet up later to get the ice cream sundaes, as promised! I gave her a big hug and ended up lifting her off the ground! She had gotten so tiny since the last time I had seen her!
I wanted to take a nap as well, but decided that I had better write postcards that I promised I would send. That took quite a bit of time! 5:00 arrived and there was a knock on my door. I opened it to find UB with Muk Muk and got a big hug! Then we headed over to get our sundaes.

Mine ended up hurting my stomach more and more and I wasn’t able to even finish it, while UB got a second one (his third for the day!). I think the flagyl had made me lactose intolerant! I felt awful!
UB wanted pizza for dinner and said we could share one later in the evening, but I knew the cheese wouldn’t be good for me. It felt so sad to not be able to eat the foods that all of the other hikers were enjoying! UB headed back to their room on his own, leaving Muk Muk and I to our “girl talk”. After a couple of stories, we headed back ourselves. Muk Muk stopped it in at the outfitters to inquire about getting a ride back to the trail by way of Horseshoe Meadows. There was already a couple of people signed up for that ride, so she and UB were able to join in. There were no rides back to Onion Valley trailhead, where I needed to go, however.
We walked down the street and I saw 5-Star and Purple Haze in the window of a restaurant eating dinner! I knocked on the window pane and waved and they invited us in to say hi. They had not yet met Muk Muk, and were delighted with her exuberant personality and Australian accent, as all men were. I asked Purple Haze how many days it had taken for him to feel better after taking the flagyl and learned that he had taken the antibiotics for five days! What?! I told him that Bambi had said it was one dose, but Purple Haze said, “no, you need to take it twice a day for 5 days”! Before I had received the dose from Bambi, I was planning on asking a college friend who is a doctor if she could write me a prescription. After talking to Purple Haze, I knew I still needed to do this!
We returned to our rooms and agreed to meet up later for pizza. Muk Muk placed a delivery order and came down to my room to share it. She talked about a lot of guy stories on her journey so far and seemed to understand that they were happening to teach her a lesson, but she hadn’t yet figured out what exactly the lesson was. We had talked about these kinds of things at kick-off and she wondered how I knew so much about keeping boundaries. I told her that I was forced to learn those things on the AT! The same kinds of awful behaviors kept showing up! Because Muk Muk is so naturally open and friendly, a lot of people think they can get things from her. I encouraged her to keep thinking about the way she was being treated and perhaps change her behavior a bit to better protect herself so she wasn’t being taken advantage of. I was very dismayed to hear that Lion King had made her pay for his hotel room in Lone Pine! After we finished the pizza, I gave her my neon yellow fleece jacket, as I now had a black one that I felt much more comfortable with! The yellow color looked much better on her!
We wished each other a goodnight and agreed to meet for breakfast in the morning. All of this hitchhiking and moving from town to town was exhausting!

Day 51: Shifting over to Bishop

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Wendy

Day 51
June 8
zero

Doug said that breakfast would be available at 8:30, which is late in the day by thru-hiker standards, but you do what you gotta do. We had gone to bed late and I didn’t sleep so well (as usual for the first night in town), so I didn’t mind lying around a bit longer. It turned out they were ready for us earlier than expected. I walked down to the breakfast room and found a table of thru-hikers already finishing their breakfast- Delaware Dave, Seeking, Razor, and a younger guy that I had never met. Bambi and I sat at the next table. Strider had heard that I was suffering from giardia and wanted to know if the bigger portions that they gave to thru-hikers would be okay on my stomach. I said yes and turned to Bambi and said, “We didn’t even get dinner last night.” My thumbs were still badly cracked and I was desperately in need of band-aids. I spent a good part of breakfast wondering if anyone would be able to spare some. I finally asked Delaware Dave after we had finished and he said that he would see what he could come up with. I took a shower and was actually able to enjoy it this time, rather than furiously scrub off as much dirt as I could before Bambi wanted to use it. We were both in a similar predicament of being stuck for post offices to open on Monday- his in Independence and mine in Lone Pine. The other group of guys was moving over to the bigger town of Bishop, 40 miles away, as it had a lot more to offer than the couple of restaurants in Lone Pine. I wondered if I should do the same.

After I showered and packed up and decided that I would try to hitch to Bishop, I took my pack outside and saw Bambi sorting through a ton of food that he had received in his resupply boxes. “How did you get your boxes already?!”. He had walked over to the post office to see if there was any way he could get them, knocked on the door, and was given his packages! Now he was free to head back to the trail! Bambi’s sister-in-law had made him tins of chocolate confections. I had never seen anything like it before! How lucky! He offered me a couple of them as he continued to sort and thought about what he was going to do. The sun was baking already baking us. I wondered how anyone could stand to live in the desert!
He decided to hitch into Bishop with me after all. The other guys had had amazingly good luck getting a ride, so I was hopeful. We walked down to the gas station in the mid-morning heat and stuck out our thumbs. Car after car passed. This wasn’t so easy! Bambi was still holding his Christmas tins. We waited and waited and waited as the sun glared down and caused sweat to roll off our skin. Why wasn’t anyone stopping?
Finally, a beat-up car pulled over. The skinny young driver said that he would have to make room for us and opened his trunk to start shifting things around. Burnt cigarettes were pouring out of the pocket on the driver’s side door, and I didn’t know if this was a car I wanted to get in. The guy explained that he was just coming back from a music gig and that’s why his car was so packed. We all fit in and headed off to Bishop. The concert in the desert hills apparently wasn’t very successful, and the guy was running on no sleep. He could tell that we were suffering in the heat and needed help, though, so he decided to stop for us. He turned out to be really nice. He let us look through the Burning Man program for amusement and later told us about his experiences with DMT. His stories seemed to agree with a lot of things that I have learned from yoga, and when I asked what he thought about that, he agreed. I liked the guy more and more. He told us a little about the area and how LA had taken all the water from the area and sucked it dry. He said this one area used to be green with trees and now it was all brown grass.
As we turned into Bishop, he asked if it was okay if he dropped us off at the coffee shop. I told him we would buy him lunch or at least a coffee, but he said that his family owns the shop, so he was all set. I got a smoothie, a cookie, and a chocolate croissant and ate it in the cushy chairs in the air conditioned inside, while Bambi sat outside. We had to figure out what motel to stay at. The cheapest one was on the other end of town and felt way too far to walk to. I suggested we walk across the street to the Rodeway, where I knew the others were staying. We found Whistler (the young guy I didn’t know) using the computer in the lobby. Bambi offered him a rice crispy treat from his sister-in-law, and I found Whistler’s reaction priceless. He gazed at it in incredible amazement, wonder, and gratitude before putting it into his mouth. Bambi got us a room that turned out to be a couple of doors down from the others.

I wanted to go to the outfitters to look for a couple of things, but I also felt very tired and wanted to take a nap! Bambi suggested we go to the outfitters first. I saw a lot of desert hats and started trying them on, even though I didn’t need to buy one then! I picked up another platypus container, as mine already had a leak in it, and looked around for a black fleece. They didn’t have any of those. I ended up buying a pair of dangling earrings and a bunch of postcards instead! On our way back, we checked out another outfitter that had used clothing. I found a hooded, pullover, small black fleece for $13!

We returned to the room and both decided to take a nap. Bambi fell asleep, but I did not, as I wasn’t feeling comfortable in that space. We had talked about joining the others for Sushi later on. My stomach had not improved at all and Bambi asked me if I wanted another dose of flagyl. “Another one?”. He said that he had looked up the dosages and found that one dose was usually only about 30% effective. He was actually carrying four doses with him, so I agreed to take the second dose with dinner.
Razor was clearly in charge and loves to expound on his knowledge of various topics. I was having a tough time with him and tried to be polite and get through the meal. I was happy to finally get a sushi dinner after craving it for the past 8 months, though! The last time I had had sushi was years ago!

Bambi told everyone my jackelope story, complete with my earnest demeanor as I told Doug what I was sure I had seen. I laughed so much listening to someone else tell the story- especially when they described what a jackelope is. I was still laughing about it when we left and Seeking thought it was great that I could be amused so easily!

I wanted something chocolate for desert after dinner and walked down the street alone to see what I could find. I didn’t find anything, so I returned to the room. Bambi and I both decided to make use of the outdoor pool, staying on opposite sides. Now that the sun had gone down, it was too cold for me to go all the way in, so I just sat at the edge and watched a mother and daughter interact. After awhile, they included me in their conversation, which was nice.
I went back to the room and took a shower to warm up and texted Muk Muk to let her know where I was. It turned out that she and UB were unexpectedly in Lone Pine because UB had hurt his knee! She didn’t know if they would head back out tomorrow or if they would stay until Monday. I told her if they stayed tomorrow, we would be able to see each other! After a little communication and updating people from home, it was finally time to go to sleep!

Day 50: Forrester Pass, Kearsarge Pass, and a dose of Flagyl

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Wendy

Day 50
June 7
mile 774.3-788.9 plus 7.5 miles to get over Kearsarge Pass
22.1 miles

I had no need to get up super early because it was Friday and the post office in Lone Pine was closed on Saturdays. There was no way that I could possibly get there by 4 this afternoon, so I would be forced to wait until Monday morning when it opened again at 9:30 am. Neither Bambi nor Jug, who was suffering from swollen eyes, were in a rush to get going, either. Bambi didn’t hike Mt. Whitney because he said he didn’t have enough food to do so. He told me that he had already completely run out of food at one point on the hike and ended up eating 50 fish oil pills in one day for energy, as that is all he had left! Disgusting! I asked him why he didn’t allocate his food and he said that he didn’t know how much food he needed each day and ended up eating it all much faster than he anticipated. I was glad that I was good at planning and rationing and that I always had extra food in my pack by the time I got into town.
I told Bambi about my giardia and he said that he was carrying antibiotics with him and asked if I wanted some! Yes! He is a nurse and was carrying two doses of flagyl with him. I was very perplexed as to why he didn’t offer them to me back at Kennedy Meadows. He was there with me as I complained about my inflamed stomach and the pain I was in. I guess he didn’t realize it was from giardia, when everyone else was suggesting it was likely stemming from a host of other things. He told me that it was one dose, which made me happy, and handed me two pills. “I should take these both at the same time?”.
“Yes,” he said.
I held them in my palm until I was ready to eat breakfast, went through my food bag and offered some of my extra food to Bambi in exchange for the antibiotics. The boys packed up and Bambi said he would see me on top of Forrester. “But I’m not ready to leave yet!” I said. I was hoping to be around someone that could take my picture at the top. He said he was planning on taking a long break up there and would most likely still be there when I arrived. I still had to finish eating, find a place to go to the bathroom, and pack up. I headed out about twenty minutes later and soon came to the creek that I had advised everyone to wait until morning to cross. I was amused to see that it was actually no big deal to cross. (I was still anticipating the freezing cold, thigh or chest high waters I had heard so much about!). The morning hours were pleasant and I moved through a landscape of Sierra trees and grass that shifted into open spaces between huge granite mountains.

I stopped to take off a layer and spotted two deer in the distance and watched them for several minutes. I liked being alone with the animals. As I climbed into the more desolate rocky environment with ice encrusted ponds, I looked ahead to see if I could figure out where Forrester Pass was. In a snow packed year, I strongly doubted that I would ever be able to find the trail. It was only because I had seen a few pictures of Forrester that I was able to vaguely figure out where I was headed.

I saw a hiker ahead of me who I had never seen before and guessed that he must be hiking the John Muir Trail (from Mt. Whitney to Yosemite). He seemed to be hiking pretty slow. I took a break and looked up at the Pass, where I could make out a figure at the top. I still had a long way to get up there and hoped they would still be there! I moved on, taking many pictures of the incredible views around me.

The altitude was not allowing me to move as quickly as I wanted and I had to keep telling myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I passed by a plaque that was dedicated to a young man that had died in an accident while building this trail. Pretty alpine flowers poked out from the rocks lining the trail and gave me an excuse to pause and catch my breath for a moment before it was taken away again with the next few steps.

I finally reached the snow-encrusted cornice that in some years is extremely treacherous to cross. This year, it was no problem at all, especially after Ned Tibbets chopped out steps for us to cross it! It was only a few more minutes until I made it to the official high point of the PCT and found Bambi and Jug still there!
Bambi had cut some of his foam sleeping pad off to help Jug make some temporary “sunglasses” by cutting slits into them. For some reason, Jug had decided not to hike the PCT with sunglasses and now seemed to be suffering from the symptoms of being snowblinded, although we hadn’t yet come across much snow at all. The north side of Forrester pass was a different story, though. The sun had not yet had a chance to melt a good deal of snow on that side of the mountain!

I asked Bambi if he could take some pictures of me. We watched Jug wobble down the mountain with his funny blue glasses and gallon jug of liquid in one hand. Bambi imagined his encounters with section hikers as he walked like this and how crazy they would assume we all were! Jug looked like he was having a tough time getting through the snow and it made me wonder how I was going to get through it, myself! The slower man reached the top and quickly started the descent. He was clearly much faster on the downhills! Bambi informed me that he was actually trying to thru-hike the PCT. I decided it was time for me to get going and Bambi followed behind until I worried about slowing him down and let him go ahead.

We stepped in ankle high snow patches that would later become calf high, knee-high, and even mid-thigh level. I watched Bambi fall into the holes and then I would fall onto my butt, as well. It was kind of fun, although very slow going!

Bambi got farther and farther ahead and I fell back into my own space, looking around in wonder at the scenery around me. It seemed as if the views were getting better with every few steps I was taking!

I walked along a ridge and then headed down into a new valley with water cascading in clear streams. It was time to start releasing my worry about where I would find my next water source and learn to start carrying less water on me. I stopped to collect water from one of the streams and continued on as my stomach pain arose again. Bambi had planned on making it over Kearsarge Pass this evening, but I didn’t have a plan, yet. I would see how the day went. I got a late start and was slowed down by all of the snow we had to get through. I walked out of the granite expanse and back into trees and grass and flowers and sat down exhausted. I was in a lot of pain and didn’t know if I could keep doing this. As tears filled my eyes, I looked around and realized that as much as I was hurting, I was here, in California, in the Sierras. I had known for so long that I wanted to be here, and finally, I here I was. I felt proud of all the decisions and effort I had made to get myself here. More tears fell. I ate a snack, put my pack back on, and continued to walk.
The trail entered the forest and the views disappeared. My stomach was hurting even more. I made it across another creek and stood on the other side with a distressed look on my face, and my hand over my stomach, wondering how I was going to be able to keep walking. Then, I saw a man sitting under a tree, looking at me. I found it very disturbing that he didn’t let me know that he was there! I moved on and soon after, found Bambi sitting under a tree with his mosquito head net on. I turned on my phone to check our location. The signal was poor and it was taking forever. Bambi was still planning on getting over Kearsarge today. Once I confirmed the mile we were at, I felt like it might be possible for me to as well, but I would have to keep a strong and steady pace in order to get there before it got dark, and I was feeling pretty bad. I moved on, following a creek down towards a camping area in the woods. I stopped to collect more water and go to the bathroom and Bambi and the other man came along. I kept up and told Bambi that I might go with him after all.
We had one long and very steep climb ahead of us, after which I thought it was all downhill to Onion Valley. We hopped across rocks to make it over another creek and then started the climb. I stopped to take a break about half way up and asked the other man how far he planned on going today. He said he was going to stop at Bullfrog Lakes. I continued the climb and found Bambi being swarmed with mosquitoes as he tried to collect water. I helped swat some of them off his back and pushed on. Finally, I reached the top of the climb! I took the path toward Bullfrog Lakes and was surprised that the trail was still climbing! I thought it was supposed to start descending! The other man came along and was dismayed to find the no camping signs. Mosquitoes were attacking us and I decided I had to keep going and get over Kearsarge tonight! The man wanted me to check my guidebook and tell him what it said about camping here, but I felt like I was under immense time pressure. I still had seven and a half miles to hike and it was already well after 4:00! He let me go on.
The trail continued to climb… Bambi caught up to me and stayed just ahead. I discovered that my camera battery had died and the only way I could now take pictures was with my iphone. We made it around the lake and up to a point where we could see a couple of hikers making their way UP Keararge Pass. “That’s the trail? Are you kidding me?! Are you sure it isn’t THIS way?” I said. I was out of energy and wanted no more climbing. How on earth was I going to make it up that? I told Bambi that if I had known the trail continued to climb, there was no way I would have agreed to do this! The mosquitoes swarmed us. Even at nearly 12,000 feet, we could get no respite from these relentless attackers. I took out an insect wipe and offered one to Bambi before wiping it on my exposed skin. “At least this will make me smell a little better!” I said.
We started the climb. Up, up, up we hiked as the minutes ticked by. We would not be descending to a highway, but a trail head parking lot, where the chances of getting a ride grew slim in the evening hours. I kept my mind focused on moving forward. Just before I arrived at the top of the Pass, I heard Bambi talking to someone. Maybe he is on the phone, trying to get us a ride! I had heard that there was cell reception at the top of the Pass, but it turned out that neither of us had any. Bambi was just talking to a curious marmot, trying to complement him so that it would come close enough that he could pet it! It never came that close.

We headed down the mountain, intent on catching up to the hikers we had seen climbing ahead of us, in hopes of getting a ride into town with them. Then, we saw that the people ahead of us were actually coming up the mountain! What? Our spirits sank. We asked them if there was anyone ahead of us or any cars in the parking lot. They said there were a few people well ahead of us hiking out, but that we had to move fast to catch them. We thanked them and hurried on. We can do this! We’re thru-hikers! I told Bambi that this is where a young thru-hiker slipped off the trail a couple of years ago in a high snow year and went sliding down the mountain until he hit a rock that broke his leg. Luckily, Ned Tibetts happened to be in the area and another hiker rushed back to tell him. After he activated his SPOT button, Ned made his way down to the teen-ager, helped stabilized the bleeding, and helped keep him calm until the helicopter arrived 12 hours later. Again, Bambi commented on what a super-hero Ned was- chopping in steps for us to walk on and coming to rescue hiker after hiker!
Bambi started asking me questions about my family and even asked me if I was worried about turning into my mother! Thankfully, I said no, I wasn’t.
As we continued to descend, I wondered how on earth I was going to be able to climb back up this same path with 8 days of food in my pack! That was more food than I had ever carried before in my life! I told myself I would be okay after a little rest. I noticed that my fingernails were an incredible pink color and became fascinated with the contrast of this color that I had never seen them before and my tanned, dirty hands.

I needed to take a break and told Bambi to go on ahead. I was hoping he would hike fast and catch us a ride! I emerged out of the rocks to find three deer in the grass and watched them for several minutes. I felt lucky to have seen them. I could see Bambi on the switchbacks ahead of me, and kept hoping he would hike faster! The road came into view and soon, I saw a car head out. Nooo!! I hopelessly reached out my arm. I continued down the switchbacks as a line of parked cars came into view. Surely, someone would be there to take us into town!
I saw Hooligan waiting at the bottom and waved to him, wondering what he was doing there. It was now about 7:40pm. There were no people around the cars, so I suggested that we walk up to the other area I had seen people head toward. Bambi said that was the campground was and that those people were spending the night there. Hooligan had come back from town and decided that he was going to crash the campsite that U-turn had paid for with his girlfriend. Cowboy and Birdman were apparently there as well. Hooligan said we should join them, but I didn’t want to impose. It was getting late and I just wanted to get into town. Hooligan said there was a motel in Independence that offered rides from the trailhead, so Bambi called them up. It turned out that they charged $40 for the ride in addition to the night’s stay at the motel! He told them we would think about it and call them back. I saw a man heading to his car and asked if he was going into town. “Not until tomorrow morning,” he said. Bambi called the motel a second time to make sure that it was going to cost an additional $40. Yes, it was. He hung up and we thought about what to do. Hooligan headed over to find the guys and said he would tell them I was coming, too. Bambi and I finally decided to pay the money and called the motel for a third time. I told him I better go say hi to the guys or they would think I was rude. Cowboy and Birdman were friendly enough, but no one offered me any of the food they were enjoying or invited me to camp with them. I told them I was headed into town with Bambi and that I probably wouldn’t be seeing them as I was going to be stuck waiting for the post office to open on Monday in Lone Pine. Birdman agreed, “Yeah, we’ll probably never see you again.” I hung my head and frowned and then waved goodbye and ran back to the parking lot. A car pulled up and we headed towards it, but it turned out not to be the person from the motel. Finally, the owner, Doug, did arrive and we loaded our packs into the truck. We drove down, down, down the mountain and watched the digital thermometer rise by about 20 degrees as we descended! We had been hearing about the heat wave in the valley for the past couple of days. It was supposed to get up to 106 degrees the next day! I didn’t realize that the valleys surrounding the Sierras were still desert! In fact, we weren’t so far from Death Valley, itself!
Doug mentioned seeing a roadrunner one time along the highway we were driving on. I stared at him with wide eyes. There is actually such a thing as a roadrunner? I told him that I thought that was something from a cartoon!
I then asked him about the kind of rabbits that lived in the Sierras and told him that I had seen a jackeloupe the other day. He smiled. (It wasn’t until later that Bambi informed me that a jackeloupe is an imaginary creature comprised of half rabbit, half anteloup, and that is why the guy was smiling! What I had meant was a jack rabbit!)
We arrived in Independence and I asked if anything was still open for dinner. Doug said the Subway was our only option this late at night. We pulled into the motel and he asked if we would be sharing a room. I said if it had two beds, we could. He said the only room they had available had just one bed, but that he would double check with his wife. He came back and said that one of the units had a futon as well as a bed, so I agreed. I told Bambi that I could take the futon. It was brand new and the mattress was too stiff to flatten. I asked Bambi if I could jump in the shower first and he said he would go get us some subs. I tried to scrub the dirt off my body as fast as I could, but it was not a quick process! The tub had a ring of dirt around it when I got out, so I had to spend additional time cleaning it! When I returned to the living room, Bambi was sitting outside sipping a beer. “Bad news, Wendy.” The Subway was closed when I got there. I saw a lady inside and banged on the door, but she just shook her head. I got us some apples from the 7-11.”
We were left in our exhausted states to pick through our food bags for snacks and although we were glad to be in town, we went to bed with a feeling of emptiness in our bellies.

Day 49: Mt. Whitney- Here comes the Sun!

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Wendy

Day 49
June 6
Mt. Whitney!
Guitar Lake to mile 774.3
about 19.7 miles

Dust Bunny had let me borrow Pancake’s thick orange down jacket that he no longer wanted to carry with him for the night before she decided whether to pack it out on her descent down Whitney Portal or hand it back to him. I placed it over my sleeping bag and hoped that I would both be able to get a little sleep, and be able to get up just after one in the morning to start preparing for the ascent. Fortunately, everything went according to plan. I slipped the borrowed coat over my layers to keep me warm as I ate a snack, put in my contacts, and packed up my things. I had never woken up this early to climb a mountain in the dark, and I wasn’t feeling comfortable. I summoned my bravery and talked myself through it. I wished I could have worn the heavy coat to the summit, as my layers were not nearly as warm! As I was packing, my gaze caught some tiny lights in the distance and I watched to see if I could determine their source. They seemed to be moving toward me and I soon realized they were a line of headlamps! It was as if 4 little reindeer were making their way to the North Pole! I grew excited, knowing that I would no longer be alone! But they were making good time and I had to hurry! I tore off the heavy coat and stuffed it into its sack, clipped the straps onto my backpack, hoisted it on my back, and grabbed my poles. The reindeer were getting extremely close! I scrambled down off the rock and stepped quickly toward the trail. As I approached, a male voice called out, “Who goes there?”.
“Wendy,” I answered. “Who are you?”.
“Birdman and Cowboy,” the voice returned.
“Yay!”.
People that I knew! Cowboy told me to join the train. They had camped at Crabtree Meadows and had started about an hour ago. It was now around 2:15 and I told them they should slow down so they don’t get to the top too early and freeze. The stars were brilliant overhead and we stopped to take them in. I told them that I had been suffering from giardia since Lake Isabella. “You’re climbing Whitney with giardia?” Cowboy asked.
“Yup.”
He asked me if I was staying hydrated and I told him I was. I followed close behind, exerting more energy than they were because they hardly had any weight in their packs. I didn’t want to leave anything behind at Guitar Lake because I didn’t want the marmots chewing up my gear. When the boys stopped for a break, I continued on, so I wouldn’t fall too far behind. They caught up, one by one, and I let them go ahead. Hooligan, who had been bringing up the rear as the fifth in the group passed me and said, “Now I’m not the loser anymore. You are!”.
“I am NOT a loser!” I said.
The air was cold and my toes and fingers were becoming numb. The altitude was making it harder to take in oxygen and I had to tell myself to keep going, keep going, or I wouldn’t make it in time for sunrise. Luckily, this climb was not nearly as exhausting as Mt. Elbert was. Even though the guys didn’t wait for me and I was left alone to climb, the sight of their headlamps on the switchbacks above me provided some comfort. This definitely would have been a much more challenging experience all by myself. I would stop every so often to take my pack breaks, get some breath back in my body, and occasionally sip some water. But then I would push myself to keep moving, just keep walking.
I caught up to Birdman and Cowboy as Cowboy was taking photos of the horizon that could by seen through two vertical walls of rock. Light was already appearing! We needed to move faster! I told them my stomach was hurting and Cowboy said that altitude makes giardia worse. “It does?”. Great. He offered me a Werther’s candy from his pocket and said they sometimes help soothe his stomach when it is distressed. I happily accepted and continued the climb with something to help distract me from the pain.
As we made our way through a section of suncups, it was now Birdman, Cowboy, me, and Hooligan in a line. Just keep going… It was getting harder to lift my legs. Birdman said we were close, but we weren’t as close as I had hoped. We still had the steepest section to go. Birdman and Cowboy pulled ahead while Hooligan remained behind me. My breath was labored and I had to stop more often than I wanted. I tried to take a picture, but my camera lens immediately retracted and the power shut off. No! Not now!! I tried a few more times with the same result. I was in disbelief, but had to keep moving.
Finally, I saw the summit building. I had made it! I walked over to the rocks and looked over the horizon. It was a couple of minutes after five. U-turn and Jug were sitting in their sleeping bags. We weren’t late after all! We took pictures of each other and then waited for the sun.

The bright orb appeared and lit up the sky in fiery colors.

I grew colder and colder as I watched. Jug wanted to take jump shots and I volunteered to take his picture doing splits over the sun. Then, I wanted my picture taken. No one was able to get a picture of me in the air, though! I jumped and jumped, each time, drawing more and more energy from my legs that felt like lead. This was tiring!

In the end, there was only one shot of my body in the air and it would have to suffice. Cowboy was next with a straddle split jump. When everyone was done, I asked who would like to help me make some coffee, as I was getting dangerously cold and needed help. Jug volunteered since I took such a good jumping photo of him. I asked him if we could make it in the hut. My fingers were so cold that they could not function. Jug had to open the clips of my pack straps, dig out my jetboil, canister, and coffee, and start it up. It didn’t ignite after a few tries and I started to worry. Luckily, he had a lighter and I showed him where to place it. We had a boil! I added two packets of via and some powdered milk and we shared the coffee. I was still too cold, however. I told him I needed to drink some more hot water. Jug was sitting on his sleeping bag and all I could do was stare at it and wish I could crawl inside. I had brought mine with me, but it was all the way at the bottom of my pack, and my fingers were too cold to get it out. I finally asked him if I could get inside his and offered him mine to sit on if he dug it out. I had seen that he had gotten in his bag with his shoes on while the sun came up, so I asked if he minded if I kept mine on. I was way too frozen to even try to undo my shoe laces. Hooligan came in and told us that he had learned a method of keeping warm in Nepal and started to demonstrate by bracing his hands on his thighs. “Uddiyana bandha!” I said.
“How did you know?” he asked in amazement.
“Because I do yoga!” I said.
He still didn’t understand how I knew about that! (Maybe now he wouldn’t think I was such a loser). I was still freezing cold and patiently waiting for some circulation to return to my body. Jug took out his iphone and pointed it at me. “Are you taking a picture of me?”.
“Yes,” he said. “I want to show people that there was a girl in my sleeping bag,”. Someone else came into the hut and Jug said, “This girl is a beast. She climbed up here with a full pack AND she has giardia!”. Cowboy and Birdman had signed the registry outside the hut and were ready to head back down. I didn’t find the idea of holding a pen in the freezing cold at all appealing, so I didn’t even try to find the register. Jug said he was getting ready to go, too, so I got out of his sleeping bag, warm enough to start the descent, myself. (Thanks for saving me, Jug!)

We reached the suncups together and then he took off and left me to my own pace. Since this was the first time that I was seeing everything in daylight, I stopped often to take pictures. By now, the trail was becoming busy with hikers climbing up Whitney Portal from town, and thru-hikers that didn’t want to make it to the top for sunrise. Two of those were 5- Star, who I hadn’t seen in quite awhile and Purple Haze. I chatted with them and found out that Purple Haze had also gotten giardia in the desert, but was now completely recovered. I told them I hoped to get some antibiotics in Lone Pine. We headed our separate ways and I continued to greet the ascending hikers. I was really glad that I was able to summit the mountain as a thru-hiker with the ability to get there for sunrise and share the space with only a handful of other thru-hikers.

I met another thru-hiker climbing up who told me that if I waited long enough- usually around 10 days- the giardia will go away on its own. “Really?” I happily responded. He said that he had picked it up a number of times in his overseas travels and often wasn’t able to get antibiotics for it. I had already been suffering for nearly 10 days, so maybe I could wait it out. (Then, I thought back to how I tried to wait it out when I got it after the AT and nothing resolved until I took antibiotics weeks later. My body is very slow at healing).
My calf muscle started hurting on the descent. I hoped the pain would dissipate. It was taking forever to get back to Guitar Lake!

Finally, I reached the stream that ran toward the lake and stopped for a snack and collected water. I still had 2.7 miles to get back to Crabtree Meadows to retrieve my canister. Those miles dragged on as well, seeming to be even longer than the first time I had hiked them!
Finally, I crossed the creek and came to the bearbox where my canister was waiting. The rest of the guys were resting in their tents that they had kept up while they climbed Whitney. I walked over to the little area across the way that I had contemplated spending the night at, and although I wanted to put in some miles, my body was extremely tired and needed some rest. I decided I could lie down for about an hour. I saw Cowboy take his pack and head towards the creek and suddenly felt like I needed to get moving, too! I had to remind myself that I didn’t need to keep the same pace as anyone else. When I finally got going, I saw that Cowboy had just gone down to the banks of the creek to nap. So, I was the first one to leave after all.
I never did see Yardsale. I guessed that he had made it all the way up to the summit last night and slept in the bivy spot partway down. I didn’t get to give him his bandana, after all.
The day grew warm and I had to change back into my short sleeved shirt. I made it back to the PCT and walked alone for several miles. Cowboy and Hooligan caught up while I was taking a break and Cowboy was surprised to see me. He thought I had planned to take Whitney Portal into town, for some reason. Hooligan wanted to hike all the way over Forrester Pass by this evening, which Cowboy and I thought was absolutely ridiculous. “That’s dangerous!” Cowboy warned him. He didn’t seem to care. Birdman came along and wanted to take a snack break, so the others joined him as I moved on.
I later came to a rushing creek that didn’t look easy to cross so I decided to take Ned Tibbets’ advice and follow the creek upstream to see if there was an easier crossing. There wasn’t. In the meantime, the guys had made their way across. Mosquitoes were coming out in droves and were making the evening unpleasant. I made it across the creek, walked until I needed a break, and then as I moved on, noticed that Cowboy was behind me, somehow. He looked tired. I thought he would catch up to me, but never did. I saw a rabbit run off in the distance and noticed that it was a different type than the bunnies I had seen in the desert. I thought that it must be a jackeloup. I walked on, and Cowboy stayed well behind. Birdman and U-turn were waiting for him along the trail and I took the opportunity to take my pack off for a moment. They wanted to push on as far as possible in order to hike down Kearsarge tomorrow. That was a long way to hike and no part of me wanted to do that! I asked them why they needed to do all of those miles by tomorrow. U-turn said his girlfriend was coming to meet him. Cowboy just looked at me.
I moved on, crossing an open landscape, as I grew more and more tired.

I knew there was another creek crossing coming up and I told the guys it would be best to wait until the morning to do that. When I reached a bear box, I decided I was stopping there for the night, even though it was just after 5. I was done!
The sky had been filling with threatening grey clouds, and I decided it would be smart to set up my tent in case it rained. I scoped out the area and picked a tree to camp next to. I had a lot of trouble setting up my tent, however! Apparently, it had been so long that I had forgotten how to do it! The walls were not at all taut, but I didn’t want to struggle with it anymore. Birdman, U-turn, and Cowboy all passed by and kept hiking. Jug later came by and decided to stop here, as well, however. I asked him if he could help me lock my bear canister, as I couldn’t seem to do it (I had lost my quarter) and was trying to use my credit card. He was unable to help. I figured that as long as the bear box was locked, it would be fine.
I cooked my dinner and crawled into my sleeping bag as a third hiker arrived. I peaked out through the mesh of my tent and saw that it was Bambi.

Moving Towards Freedom

A path to healing through narrative, nutrition, and movement (yoga and long distance hiking)