It didn’t take long for the mosquitoes to find out we were awake. Both Bear and Sassy woke them when they snuck out for their orange bag experiences. We contemplated mugging a passing hiker and stealing their food so we could stay another day at this spot, but decided that might be a bit hypocritical since we ratted out the couple that looted Billy Goat’s bear canister.
Bunny claims she didn’t sleep well last night. I was awake for a lot of her snoring, so I doubt the premise. What I will say is that I know she has a hard time getting comfortable after a day like yesterday. She’ll flip and flop like a fish out of water until she finally falls asleep. I won’t make her roll over for snoring on nights like that. St Easy, I am well aware.
Today was just 2800 feet up and 2600 feet down, so it was basically level. If you run up and down the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) twice and end up on the ground floor where you started, did you exert any energy? I’d have to say, “yes, quite a bit.”
The PCT wants you to see as much of Yosemite as possible. It’s my belief they are trying to make sure we hit every valley. When we reached the top of our first 1000’ climb of the day, we could spot a couple smoldering spots in the forest across from us. We had already been warned by several hikers that we passed as close as 20 yards from these slow burns. One hiker told us that a load of water had been dumped on them yesterday. We saw a helicopter fly over and check on its status.
Before we even started hiking a couple weeks ago, we checked “inciweb” which is the forest service’s fire map. There were 7 fires reported in Yosemite already. Most were under control or so remote that they were of no concern to us.
Nearing the top of the second 1000’ climb, Bunny began to feel a bit dizzy. We had eaten lunch at the bottom of the climb and she had taken some pain meds for her hip. The weather was working with us by providing a cloudy sky to keep things cool. The meds must have kicked in just as we finished the hard part of the climb. We took a short break at the top and she felt better.
The biggest surprise to all of us was the descent from the first climb. We actually took longer to come down than it took for us to go up. It was a difficult, rocky climb down. A lot of effort was put into making this trail go up an exposed granite face. I affirmed my opinion of 3 things god got wrong and I can’t let him off the hook for: 1) mosquitoes, 2) flies, and 3) gnats. At the top of every climb, a gnat picks a hiker and tries to annoy him/her/non-binary to the point of falling to death and feeding the swarm for a season.
Because of the longer time to descend than we anticipated combined with the two big climbs, we were about 45 minutes later getting up to the spot we eventually decided to camp. As we started this last ascent of the day, it started to sprinkle. We thought for sure if we stopped and put on our pack covers, it would stop. It rained lightly all the way up. It helped cool things off and lower the amount of dust we kicked up. This was our fall back position. It was almost 6 when we got here. If we pushed on, we’d have to climb another 700’ in 2 1/2 miles. We were all for it, but the sky does look a bit threatening, and we didn’t want to end up in an electrical storm on an exposed ridge at over 9200’.
We quickly set up our tents in the rain and threw all our gear inside to keep it dry. While Bear and I went after water, Sassy and Bunny did their usual tent preparation. By the time we got back, we thought the rain was stopped enough that we could eat outside. Instead, it picked back up and we had cozy retreats in our tents for a hot supper.
Many of the thru-hikers we’ve talked to said that this section of Yosemite has been the hardest for them because of the constant up/down between valleys. Also, we hit some short 1000’/mile grades today, but had sustained grades of over 800’/mile. We know we will hit steeper grades ahead, but these did us in today (all except for Bear, we haven’t managed to wear him out, yet, in a single day of hiking). We’re getting stronger. In another week, I think we’ll be able to consistently put in 15-18 mile days. God, and Sassy, willing, we might even throw in a 20 just to say we did.
EFG