Kit Carson was in this area a full 2 years prior to the Donner Party. In his honor, the National Forest Service has installed a memorial marker on the exact spot where he carved his initials into a tree. But that’s not all they have done to honor his memory (as if Carson City in Nevada wasn’t enough), they have installed a couple of parking lots with pit latrines. If you want to get a hikers attention, put out a picnic table, give away treats, or build latrines. There are in excess of 3 pit latrines on Highway 88…Kit Carson was a truly great man.
The saddest part of this saga was that we camped 2.8 miles north of Carson Pass. That’s a good hour and a half of agitation on swollen intestines after a healthy morning feed (which always includes a lubricating large cup of coffee). I tried to save a portion for Mr Carson…but I failed and left everything I had behind near our camping spot. Double Barrel Sassy and Bear both kept an honorific load for the pass.
Another significant fact about this Pass: when the Mexican/American War ended (the same war that prevented rescue attempts for the Donner Party), a brigade of Mormon soldiers established the route from West to East back towards Salt Lake City. This became the Immigrant Trail that allowed pioneers to flood into the Central Valley of CA.
Since we went an extra 2.5 miles yesterday, we should have been able to cut our hike down today. Bear and I came up with an idea and presented it to our associates on the trail—if we hike 17 miles today and pull a 20 tomorrow, we should be able to catch an earlier shuttle into North Kennedy Meadows on Wednesday. Since Sassy was under the gluten spell still, the idea didn’t fly. I agreed with the women and did as any good husband will, I turned on Bear and threw him under the bread truck. (Gluten and Bear are very very bad!)
Bear is convinced Sassy is over the gluten she ingested and that she’s now in Imodium hangover. Whatever the case, we are thankful she’s not 100%. With Sassy ill, and Bunny fighting a bad hip, I could just keep up. Bear and I put on a show that we were willing to go the extra miles for an earlier shuttle, but our wives are against it. Of course, we acquiesced and stopped earlier than we would have liked to. There aren’t 2 more saintly hiker husbands than us.
We had 4 descent climbs today. When I say descent, I mean in excess of 400 feet. The last one of just over 500’ took us up to the side of a mountain at 9100’. I am afraid of heights and we had a full 2000’ of exposure in a rock slide field that stretched for well over a half mile. I like to go first in these areas: 1) if I wait, I’ll freeze up, 2) if Bunny is ahead of me, I’ll freeze up, and 3) if I slip, I’m way past Carson Pass where I can honor him in a way that doesn’t include my pants.
I was pretty sure the new sun shirts made a difference for us yesterday. Today, I have no doubts. This simple piece of cloth with a hoodie saved my life. Over the high point today, we walked over 3 miles in direct sunlight. I did sweat, but I didn’t overheat. This will now be a standard piece of clothing for me on any warm weather expeditions.
The modified plan was to get water at the Tamarack Overflow then hike 1.4 more miles to a camping spot by a pond. The comments mentioned lots of mosquitoes, and none of us were looking forward to 🎶 wasting away in Mosquitoville, looking for our head nets and deer 🎶. Bear climbed up the Boulder field and found a couple passable spots. Thanks to his heroic action, we were still able to set up camp, eat, get ready for bed, and get in bed well before sunset.
EFG