I was worried Bunny was not going to make it today. Right out of the box. There was a lot of humidity in the air from the last two days of rain combined with camping right next to the lake…everything we had was soaked. We took a little extra time to dry things out which gave Bear his biggest thrill of the trip. He finally got to come over, sit down, and watch us pack up. Just because I’ve done it to him a time or 19.
Back to Bunny. The old Gray hare just ain’t what she used to be. I know she didn’t sleep well last night from all her flipping around. Her hip was bothering her this morning (as it does nearly every morning). What got her was the 1100 foot climb in the first 1.9 miles. This was the one we almost attempted last night, but I knew we’d fail if we tried. It damn near took us out this morning. Bunny is now feeling like I did the first week and Sassy did last week. She is seeing the results of caloric deficit eating combined with a high loss of salt yesterday…her electrolytes are out of whack.
It took us nearly two hours to make the climb. Bunny was struggling and overheated. She couldn’t walk more than a few steps at a time. Somehow, we had started hiking before Bear and Sassy (I think Sassy was stretching when we left). They passed us just as we were starting our climb. Sassy already knew our electrolytes were messed up after yesterday’s 3000’ of climbing and sweating. She gave us each a salt tablet as they passed us.
I wasn’t doing much better than Bunny with my glasses fogging up from the heat my body was putting out. But she was very weak—frighteningly so. When we got a to a shady spot, I had her drop her pack so she could cool off a bit and drink some water. I took as much stuff out of her pack as would fit in mine, maybe 5 pounds worth of stuff. My pack was actually pretty light because we only have a day and a half worth of food left. This helped some.
Once we were over the top, she was back to her old self. When she’s heading downhill, she goes so fast I lose my breath trying to keep up. We agreed that she would take in as much salt as she could today. She ate an entire bag of beef jerky and a roll of Gu energy chews and half a Snickers. She got the salt and carbs she needed for an immediate rebound as well as the fat and protein to make it a sustained recovery.
We hiked another 4 miles before stopping for lunch. Bunny lead the entire way with a pretty fast pace. I tried to get her to slow down but she claims that was her most comfortable pace. After lunch, we had another 1100’ climb. Bear was doctoring a blister so we got a head start. I was hoping we could make it at least halfway before they passed us. Bunny was a new hare. She got into a groove and barely stopped all the way up. We made it all the way to the top before they caught up. That 20 minute head start made all the difference.
Yosemite is stunning, in all directions. We climb from a valley floor at 7,000’ elevation to find another meadow and valley at 9,500’ elevation. Both just beautiful. We ended up at Miller Lake at 9500’ and just had to stop. There was a shaded spot next to a sandy beach that was just too inviting. We would have liked to go for another swim, but we had some ground to make up after our poor showing yesterday.
We still had another 4 1/2 miles to make it to our target camp for the night. The bad thing about the site we’ve chosen is that it’s small, relatively high up the rim of the valley, and dry which means we’ll have to carry all the water we need for supper, breakfast, and hiking tomorrow. Between Bunny and me, we carried 7 liters of water (15.5#) uphill for 500’. We were ready to stop.
As we were climbing up, we heard a hiker talking “thank god I’ve finally run into other hikers. I’ve been nervous about heading north.” Pretty much all of the thru-hikers have passed us by now (at least those who have any serious chance of completing the trail). He was worried about a fire north of Sonora Pass that was encroaching on the PCT. The way he described it makes us believe it was the fire we reported last week. One of the benefits of hiking in the Sierra is absolutely no contact to the outside world—no cell service, no internet. We can relax and absorb all the nature.
Sassy asked “how will we know when we reach the camp?” I thought “by the two tents set up next to the trail.” I was convinced we were going to get pimped out of the site since there’s no designated camping spots or water sources for the next 8 miles. We lucked out and got two beautiful spots just 1/10th of a mile from the top of the climb. We should have an easy 12.8 mile walk to Tuolumne Meadows tomorrow for a hamburger for supper. We’ll head down into Yosemite Valley the next day. We’ve been in the park for 4 days already and seen more than most people even imagine is here.
EFG