Easily Forgotten Archives - Page 3 of 5 - My New Life on the Trail

Day 28, Thursday July 29. Squaw Lake Outlet, TM 1767.1–(14.5 miles)

It’s the small victories that offer the greatest reward…yes, I’m talking poop

It’s the small victories that count most and today, only two of us started with that victory. Bunny and Bear shot blanks while Sassy and I tasted sweet relief. (Yes, members of tramilies probably do know too much about each other. And, yes, I probably shouldn’t use the term taste when talking about this subject.)

I’m not sure if we climbed over a pass today, but we did have a gentle rise of 4 miles that took us over 10,000’. There was an additional bit of rain as we were dropping down to Purple Lake that kept us pinned under some trees for quite a while. It was actually quite a chilly rain and pretty intense for a while. So much for “it never rains in California.”

We then passed 2 work crews that continued to work in spite of the rain. I was quite amazed because I would have been more than willing to set up our tent and stop for the day even though it wasn’t much past noon. I was wet and cold and not in a good mood. If it hadn’t been for Bear, that is where we would have stopped, but Bear was “mildly” persistent in maintaining our schedule. We had stopped about 5 miles short yesterday, so we couldn’t afford another short day without running short on food.

A dedicated trail crew worked on through the rain

Climbing out of Purple Lake, one of the work crews warned us a ranger was lurking in the woods ahead checking permits. Up the hill, we first encountered a dog tied to a pack pacing back and forth. I assumed this was the ranger’s dog. A few steps further, we encountered our 5th ranger in 4 days who asked for our permits. It was still misting, so I pleaded with him to not make me drop my pack and dig out the papers. I also offered that we were PCT hikers and had CA fire permits (lesson to self, never offer more information than asked for). Although we are required to have CA fire permits, fires are not allowed in most areas. The state is a bit flame jumpy with the extensive drought and early wildfire season.

No camping allowed…just as well, Bear might have had a minor meltdown if we stopped so soon

Last night, a group of horse riders violated the fire ban and built fires. (We never have the energy or desire to build a fire at the end of the day.) With the recent rains, the wood was wet so it smoked quite a bit. To show that fire spotters are on the ball, they did, in fact, see the smoke, and called out a helicopter for a flyover. Additionally, THIS ranger had to also go inspect. Needless to say, he was a bit ticked, and, rightly so, wrote a ticket to the group. If there’s any justice, they should have to pay for the cost of the helicopter in addition to a hefty fine for causing us to get a lecture about fire safety. Bear wasn’t with us, he was still down at Purple Lake (probably talking to some hikers) so we told the ranger when he sees a walking pumpkin (orange rain jacket and black kilt) he’s with us.

This might be a nice cool off spot if it were hot

The true goal for today was to make up the 5 miles we had stopped short yesterday. Ultimately, we stopped 3 miles short of that new goal having only made up two of the miles we lost yesterday. Maybe everyone else could have kept going, but 0.7 miles out of camp, I knew I was about out of gas. With 0.5 miles to go, I was done. Because of the angle of our final climb, I could see Sassy walking back and forth at Squaw Lake Outlet. I still had 0.3 miles to go. My plan was working…Bear will have plenty of time to scout the entire area and find us the perfect camping spots.

All genuine smiles—rain can’t dampen this crew

As anticipated, Bear did locate and secure 2 LNT compliant spots well below the lake and off the trail. Rather than attempt to go through another “vestibule interaction” exchange, they let us have the bigger spot (that could have held two tents for less picky hikers). Showing that we were thankful, we invited them over to our place for supper (a bring your own meal).

It took us a while to get set up. My energy level was extremely low and my brain was only firing on a single cylinder. We finally settled on mashed potatoes with BBQ chicken, green beans, followed by M&Ms. The M&M counting has become quite the ordeal. Bunny is afraid that I might slip an extra one into my hand if we don’t have a silent, all eyes focused, witness verified account. It’s getting very difficult to steal even a single M with this new procedure. I usually have to wait until I return the bag to the bear canister to slip one by her. I carry them! I deserve a bonus M for “martyr” every once in a while.

Our location on the side of a cliff facing west afforded us our most beautiful sunset to date. There were still rain clouds in the distance which caused the setting light to diffuse. Because we’re camping well above 10,000’, we couldn’t manage to stay out until the sun was completely down. It gets cold and my teeth start to chatter…MMM.

EFG

Day 27, Wednesday, July 28. Deer Creek, TM 1752.6–(5.7 miles)

It’s always difficult leaving a town

The aim was to get out as early as we could. That would be catch the 9a bike bus up to the ski area then hop on the bus to Red Meadows and get there by 10:30. Easy peasy. The whole plan hinges on breakfast. The Breakfast Club opens at 8 and it’s only a 10 minute walk from the hotel. We’re golden.

At 8, we headed towards the Breakfast Club. When we arrived at 8:13, there were only 4 people seated but two groups totaling 10 waiting to be seated. I wasn’t hopeful. There were two people just picking up pastries at the counter waiting to get checked out. It was not a seat yourself place. One waitress, one cashier, one cook, and no organization at all. At 8:25, I said screw it when they told the first party of 4 that it would be 10 minutes before they could be seated. We’d already wasted almost a half hour with this place. We moved on to Good Day Breakfast even though we said we wouldn’t go back because of their charge policy.

The breakfast was ok, but not $70 good for 4 people. I did get my fair share of coffee, but it was clear our early start was shot. We left the restaurant a little before 9:30. Bunny and I headed for the trolly while Bear and Sassy headed for the Rite Aid for a final purchase. They made the same trolly that we were waiting for. Yada yada yada, we left the hotel at 10:20 to catch the trolly to the Village where the bike bus was just getting ready to leave. We got the last 4 seats.

The ravages of a forest fire probably a decade ago

We got to the ski area right at 11. The line for Reds Meadows was already long. Bear and I got tickets for the earliest shuttle we could get. That would be the 12-1 hour. What the hell? We lined up in the hopes we might get an earlier ride if there was space. It only took 3 buses before we were headed up and over to Reds at 11:30. I thought we were doing kind of decent, considering.

When we caught the bus from the trail, Bunny and I were jammed in the back of the bus, surrounded by a bunch of kids. We just couldn’t see out. Today, we had front row seats on the opposite side of the bus. We could see what we missed the first time. If I had seen what we missed on the way out, I would not have gotten back on the bus. The road is narrow, winding, and falling off the mountain in several places. There’s no guardrails. There’s 2 way traffic on a one lane road. I saw several drivers with their wheels half off the road, sweating bullets, hoping the bus wouldn’t nudge them the 1/16th of an inch it would take to roll them down the mountain.

When I was in Nepal, I rode on top of a minivan with my feet dangling over the side, and all I could hold on to was the luggage rack under me. I would sooner ride that minivan again than I would this bus. I looked at the driver to make sure he had a good thirst for life. What I saw was an old man, about 100# overweight, that had made worse life decisions than I have… We’re all going to die.

Bunny refused to give me an Ativan. I pleaded for a pot gummy…”those are for my hip pain.” I tried looking to Bear and Sassy for support. They refused to lift their eyes off of their shoes. They had seen the abyss on the way out. I focused on all the little kids on the bus. They were calm and looking around. They have never died in a big fall in a previous life. I’m sure I have. I’m also pretty certain I’ve once died in a horrible human waste accident…that might explain my fascination with proper poop handling.

It’s important to not let Bunny lead with a storm approaching—she runs!

Spoiler alert: we made it. The hiking began right at 12:30, only 2 hours later than planned. This was an uphill dominant section of trail, so Bear led. It had rained on us on the way up to the ski area, but we felt confident the storm clouds would be contained on that side of the ridge. Wrong.

Meteorological Bear kept an eye on the sky and kept replaying weather radar while he had signal. He kept saying we’d be fine. We’re going to walk right between the two storm cells we could see above us. The radar showed the storms heading north. For a while, it looked like we might slip through.

We made it just over 5 miles and were stopped at a stream. If we continued on, the next 3 miles would take us to over 10,000’ which had much fewer trees to protect us. While we were trying to decide what to do, we recognized the woman behind us getting water. We had met her and her brother the day we left Tuolumne Meadows. They were taking 3 weeks to hike the JMT. The brother saw us and told us to come camp by them, it wasn’t worth the risk. We had seen lightening, so we already knew Bunny’s vote—get inside at sea level.

While we watched the sky continue to grow darker, Bear and I said, maybe 10 minutes to rain. We could actually here the rain coming towards us. We ran down, threw up our tents, got all our gear, and Bunny inside before the rain started. I finished setting up the tent while Bunny started making the beds. I was going to get water, but the rain was here. I jumped in the tent just as the hail started.

The lightening and thunder were still more than 2 miles from us, but the time between flash and thunder was growing shorter. It didn’t take long until the storm was directly on top of us. Bunny had handled herself pretty well up to now. Once she got in the tent, she covered her ears and eyes and tried to burrow underneath me (just like she had taught my once brave dog, Nutiket, to do. Both of them used to lock themselves in closets during electrical storms).

We ended up dozing for about a half hour until the storm passed. Once it stopped raining, I got up, tightened up the tent, got water, prepared everything for breakfast, packed lunch for tomorrow, filtered water, and prepped for supper. When I was done with all this, Bear emerged from the tent. Sassy and Bunny were in no hurry to wake up. It took prepared meals to coax them out of their tents.

We had a pleasant supper under clear skies. This was supposed to be the day with the highest chance of rain. We stopped hiking after just 3 hours so we missed our target by 5 miles. We’re going to have to put in longer days for the next 3 days to get back on track.

We don’t have any fires or trail closures in front of us, yet. The Dixie fire has burned Belden and south for 30-40 miles which means we won’t be able to finish the trail this year. We have about 120 miles between Belden and Truckee that we were planning on doing after we made it to Walker Pass. We haven’t officially pulled the plug on that section, but we probably will when we get to Bishop. The Dixie fire is over 200,000 acres and less than 30% contained. It’s pretty doubtful the trail will get reopened this year. The PCT doesn’t want us to finish…ever.

EFG

Days 25 & 26, Monday & Tuesday, July 26 & 27, Mammoth Lake—(Double Zero)

Dine and dash? Never too old!

Part of the tramily trail negotiations include lots of give and take. Bear gives options. We take the ones we like. Sometimes, we counter-offer until a solution is reached. Bear’s original offer was to skip the Zero in Tuolumne and take a Double Zero in Mammoth with one of the days being a bus trip down to Yosemite Valley. We liked the Double Zero option right off and accepted that, but I wasn’t interested in spending 4+ hours riding a bus to Yosemite (as can be seen, we did end up with a zero in Tuolumne). All these negotiations resulted in was Bear losing a day of cushion from his, already tight, schedule.

Mammoth Lake is a cute, expensive, ski town. Bunny and I immediately liked it. There’s only 8,000 permanent residents even though there is easily housing for 100,000. Logic says real estate prices MUST be low. This turned out to be not true.

Although we did meet, and get to know, most of the local drunk residents of the town (thanks to the free trolley system), this mislead us to local real estate prices. Even the drunks in town are pretty wealthy (by our standards). The “ghetto” in town is a bit misleading. One of the more sober drunks told us they didn’t even realize they were living in the ghetto because they had spent $400,000 for their condo 20 years ago. He then was asked by the trolley driver to get off since children were starting to get on. His roommate graciously escorted him off the trolley and gently laid him in the grass outside of the complex before rejoining us on the trolley. Mental note, drunks sleep in the grass near the trolley stops in the ghetto.

Other than riding the trolley all around town to get a feel for what’s here, we did manage to perform the usual town chores: laundry, eat, shower, eat, resupply, eat, nap, and eat ice cream. By the time we had to check out and return to the trail, we were on a first name basis with 3 different trolley drivers and a half dozen drunks. Sadly, we didn’t meet any of the large house owners on the trolley system…go figure.

The trolley stops would make outstanding shelters on the trail

There are a couple of big benefits from traveling with Bear and Sassy—gluten intolerance and smooth talking. It works. Really!

Act 1: Gluten Intolerance: When ordering, Sassy makes it clear that she will paint the walls brown if she gets gluten. It’s really amazing how many servers don’t know what gluten is. We went out to a restaurant for supper and the only option open to Sassy was a salad with ahi tuna if they left the soy sauce off (why soy sauce has wheat in it…). The server brought out our meals and the soy sauce was all over the tuna. In fairness, it was the kitchen that screwed up. Easy solution, remake the salad and bring it out. Not so easy result, just take the salad away and never bring a new one out (now the server gets some blame for lack of follow up). The rest of us manage to eat our meals before Sassy gets her salad. In fact, the salad never makes an appearance.

Act 2: Smooth Talking: Bear gets into action. When we were seated, they actually walked us part way through the kitchen. Bear gets up and walks into the kitchen. I’m put on standby to watch for police being called. If police show up, the 3 of us disappear, eventually we’ll bail Bear out if he doesn’t show up at the hotel by 1a. Fortunately, we’ve never had to bail him out. While in the kitchen, Bear encounters the owner and explains the situation (over an hour and a half and no salad, gluten free, yada yada yada). The restaurant is slammed, the owner is frazzled, and Bear is majestically calm, yet persistent, in detail. I’ve seen it. He can go on and on, and gently drive the receiver down to dust. The owner needs to get to work. The easiest way (not involving police) to get this guy out of the kitchen is to comp all the meals. Bear comes back to the table and tells us we should leave ASAP. I was looking forward to dessert, but free also works.

I’m not 100% certain we didn’t “dine and dash” but police never showed up. I know this to be a fact, because we crossed the street for a meal for Sassy while the rest of us had dessert. 3 desserts, drinks for 4 and one meal was over $200. If you were to include the 3 meals we didn’t pay for, (thanks to another persona of Bear, Yogi), we’re looking at $400 for an evening meal. And these were average restaurants in Mammoth. Free shuttle included, Mammoth turns out to be outside of Bunny’s and my price range even if we were to opt for the ghetto side of town.

EFG

Day 24, Sunday, July 25. Red’s Meadow, TM 1746.9–(9.2 miles)

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Even though it’s a town day, we managed to sleep a bit later than usual. The thought of a shower should have caused Bunny to awake before 6, but yesterday must have taken its toll. She slept until 7. Even with her coffee ready and at the proper temperature, I knew I was taking a risk when I shook her awake.

I took the precaution of getting out of the tent as quickly as possible. I had my morning chores to attend to: packing, filtering water, taking down the tent, and the most important of all, my constitutional. Just as I had filtered the water and was getting ready to head out to empty my guns, another ranger (that’s the 4th in 3 days) walked by the camp. I was already approaching the waning moments of my window, so I wrote today off. We talked to the ranger for about 15 minutes before she moved on. I was done for, so I took down the tent and was ready when the rest of the crew was prepared to move on.

Horse corral next to trail, aka “marmot buffet”

The trail was downhill and it was a town day, so I took the lead. It’s the one day I can hike fast enough to stay ahead. Not even a mile into our morning hike and we came to a parking lot with pit latrines. I thought I might give it another try. It turns out, my window was only mostly closed. When it’s mostly closed, that means it’s slightly open. All I had to do was find out what was so important that I had to open the window again. I yelled into my pants, “Hey, what’s so important that you need to reopen the window?” Softly came the reply “to shart.” “That hardly seems worthy of reopening the window” I replied. “LIAR!” Sassy screamed.

One’s definition of beauty changes based upon immediate needs

It was then that Bunny knocked on the door and said “stay focused!” I must have been acting the scene out loud. I did manage to get a finger or two in the crack (metaphorically, no fingers left the light of day) and heave open the window. I was afraid I might have burst a blood vessel in my eye with the effort it took, but I did manage to fulfill my mornings’ dream and relieve a bit of intestinal pressure. When I came out, Sassy asked how I managed to stay in there as long as I did when it smelled so bad. I hadn’t noticed any smell until AFTER I made my contribution to the pool.

The rest of the hike in was a blurr. Literally. I was feeling so good and moving so fast that I generated my own wind whirls. The only time I remember stopping was around Devils Postpile National Monument. All I can say is the Devil gets a lot of credit for creating interesting features around the country. Just in Southern Illinois, there’s Devils Smokestack, Devils Icebox, and Devils Food Cake.

Bunny and I have seen a similar feature to Devils Postpile when we hiked the Wonderland Trail around Mt Rainier. When a volcano erupts, sometimes, if the lava cools slowly enough, hexagonal columns of basalt are formed through a process called “jointing.” In this case, this formation is less than 100,000 years old (or roughly 15 times older than the earth if one believes the literal interpretation of the bible and refuses vaccinations as Devils Work…there he goes again, getting more credit). Glaciers came through the valley last ice age to expose and polish the formation. This formation is many times the size of the columns we saw in Mt Rainier (coincidentally, the Mt Rainier hexagons were adjacent to one of the most interesting pit latrines on the trail…it’s interesting how everything ties together through poop). I would put the formation at almost 1/4 mile long.

It’s difficult to get the scale, but these columns are more than 60’ tall

From here, we had less than 2 miles to make it to the turn to Red’s Meadow. It was all fine and dandy to see some of the Devil’s handiwork, but I wanted food that didn’t involve boiling water. As close as we all were in hiking formation, and the speed at which our train progressed, I was not alone in that opinion. Bear had researched the bus schedule for Red’s Meadow and knew we needed to get to stop #9 before 3p to avoid an extra 1/4 mile walk to the next bus stop. We made the stop well before 2p.

Our biggest concern was that the sky was starting to cloud up. We weren’t worried about getting caught in another storm. We were worried people out dayhiking might get worried about getting caught in a storm and they would return to the buses early causing us to be delayed getting to town food. No damn dayhiker was getting in our way without a fight (might this be considered a food fight?). Not to worry, we were first in line at the bus stop before a group of 11 other hikers showed up. They weren’t cutting in front of us. We were prepared for all out war. Fortunately, 7 of the group were under 10, so not only would we win hands down. We’d end up with a lot of extra candy if it came to a fight. They saw the fire in our eyes and backed away (or maybe it was the smell from 11 days without a shower).

Bridge over Joaquin River…they take their Batman serious in CA to rename a River after the Joker

A section hiker had already given us a heads up on how the bus system works. We had to catch this bus which took us to the Mammoth Ski Area. The driver would collect $15/each for this ride. Once we got to the ski area, the city ran a free bus service to carry bikers to and from town. Once in town, the city also offers a free trolley service which would take us to our hotel. We made the transition from the first bus to the free bus JIT. Going down to Mammoth, we were about the only ones riding so the driver pointed out things for us. When she dropped us off in town, we realized we were only a few blocks from our hotel, so we walked rather than wait 20 minutes for the free trolley.

Checkin time isn’t until 4. We didn’t care since food was first priority. The closest pizza place was only a block past our hotel. Since we had to pass it, we thought we might see if we could leave our packs there. The hotel was a family owned Indian hotel. We prefer Indian hotels to big chains because they tend to be more friendly and less expensive. This hotel was no exception. They let us into our rooms 2 hours early.

We dropped our packs, washed our feet, changed our shirts, and put on camp shoes before heading to the pizza joint. Bear, Sassy, and Bunny all got Diet Cokes and I got iced tea. Sassy warned the waitress that I drink to excess, so she brought me a pitcher of tea. I finished my tea and pitcher before anyone of them finished a single Diet Coke. In total, I drank 2 pitchers of tea, devoured a salad, and ate my share of pizza before Bunny and I went in search of new pants for me.

The closest outfitter only had 6 pairs of shorts in the store. I tried them all on before settling on a pair. We also got some fuel and a couple of meals. We then figured out how the trolley system worked before heading back to the hotel for the night. We showered before going to bed at our usual time of 7ish. In all that time I still didn’t have to pee. I might have been slightly dehydrated.

EFG

Day 23, Saturday, July 24. TM 1737.7–(15.3 miles)

Goodbye Yosemite, hello Escher

Last night’s campsite was unanimously chosen as the most beautiful spot we have had the entire trip, so far. Nestled in a few trees in a meadow at the base of a snow melt that has grown into a nice pond. The melting snow is strong enough to keep several streams flowing through the basin. The only competition we had for our spots were from a couple of marmots that call this area “home.”

Not a crappy view to wake up to (I’m sure that’s a grammar violation)

It’s just 1.6 miles and 900’ up to the southern boundary of Yosemite. Bunny and I took off a few minutes ahead of Bear and Sassy, but they passed us before we’d even gone 0.7 miles. I was surprised at the number of people that had camped even higher than we had last night. There were some strong winds, on and off, through the early night. I had considered dropping my tent into storm mode, but didn’t have the energy to get up to do it.

I’m prepared in case Bunny falls in (she never does when I have my camera ready)

It was up and over Donahue Pass that we made a disturbing discovery. This is on the scale of having Jeffrey Dahmer as a next door neighbor—“I had no idea he liked to eat young men. He was so quiet.” There were marmots everywhere in the rocks around the pass. We wondered what they ate to survive. Now we know, and they are not nearly as cute as they once were.

Horses and mule trains regularly go up and over the pass. Don’t forget, the reason the PCT trail grades aren’t bad is because this is supposed to be a “horse friendly” trail. We came around a switchback to see a marmot with a mouthful of fresh horse poop scrambling off the trail. No doubt, he was building a poop-store to entertain desperate marmot women come winter time. Around October, the male marmots get out their bling and try to convince desperate women hanging around dried up horse poop in the trail, “hey baby, I’ve got a huge stash of fresh horse poop in my cave. I’ve got a pinch here in my mouth to prove it. Come on over and we’ll roll in it for a while and then eat your fill.” She’ll get over there just as the snow falls. It’s all very diabolical and predictable. “Baby it’s cold outside.” “I really should go” “Baby I’ve got horse poop” You know the rest.

At Donahue Pass, we leave Yosemite and enter Ansel Adams Wilderness, but it feels more like Escher Wilderness. We just keep walking down rocks that seem to go round and round. We never make any progress. After 4 turns, we’re right back to where we started.

Yosemite, it’s been fun, but we are moving on

By the time we made it over the pass and down to a small patch of shade, we were already beat. All 4 of us said our packs felt heavier. What a difference a 1000 calorie burrito makes for breakfast. We sat in the shade and nibbled on our snacks while the marmots did the same with all the horse poop in the trail. (They almost make me like cats.)

Someone is always wanting something from us. In this case, she’s searching for a fresh, moist, salt-lick

We ended up going over 2 passes (Donahue and Island) today. Not because we want to make miles, but we want showers. It’s will be 11 days since our last showers by the time we make it to Mammoth Lake. We can’t afford even one more day before we start getting confused with mountain goats coming down the trail. (I’m meaning the Royal “We.” In reality, Bunny, Bear, and Sassy are quite gamey. I smell more like like roses. Granted, the roses might have died a few weeks ago and been left to soak in the vase, but, a rose is a rose.)

Bunny and I have been dragging all afternoon. Since we had a moderate climb after a water break, we asked a nobo JMT hiker to have a long conversation with Bear and Sassy to slow them down. That way, we might actually make it to the top of a climb first for a change. (Yes, it’s not a race, but I hate coming in last all the time.) They caught us right at the top. The deadbeat didn’t engage them. No wonder we consider every hiker who passes as “dead to us.” They can’t even do us a simple little favor.

Down hill rock walking is still rock walking

Thousand Island Lake was really good looking, but most of the “islands” were just rocks sticking out above the water. Whatever happened to truth in advertising. I suppose “6 Decent and 72 Little Islands with a bunch of Rocks Lake” doesn’t have the same romantic appeal. It also wouldn’t make a good salad dressing name. We got water out of the lake overflow. It was a good thing we did because that was the last water we saw for a while.

Salad Dressing Lake aka 1000 Island Lake

After passing the lake, we met very enthusiastic female ranger, and her dog who was ambivalent, who asked about our permits. By permit, we are actually only on our 15th day. If she were to do the math, we would have to be averaging almost 20 miles/day to actually be here. The rangers that stopped us in Yosemite hadn’t looked too closely at our permits, or bodies, to realize that wasn’t even a remote possibility to be true. Rather than go into our “factionalized” account of the trail, I said, “We just showed them to a couple rangers coming out of Tuolumne. They’re buried in my pack. I’ll get them if you really want me to.” That satisfied her needs enough to let us go. She was busy moving the “Marmot Buffet” off the trail, i.e. shoveling horse shit and didn’t want to sanitize her hands to check our credentials.

Now, the race was on. We had a long roller coaster section of trail on the side of a mountain and a storm was trying to catch us. It took us over 3 miles of fast hiking where the rain started spitting on us, but we managed to outrun the it. Looking back, we could see Thousand Island Lake was getting the full force of the rain and storm, but we had dropped down in elevation and rounded the mountain to the point that we were free of it.

We found a camp that was just large enough to hold our tents and adrenaline drained bodies. The water source was a little over a tenth of a mile ahead. Bear and I got water while the ladies nest built. The flies in camp were bad enough that we decided to eat in our tents. Bunny heard pecking outside of our tent. Bears don’t generally knock, so I wasn’t too concerned. Looking around, we saw a woodpecker in the tree next to us. It was a fairly peaceful night punctuated with lots of groans and moans coming from both tents. This had been one of our longest days of hiking.

EFG

Day 22, Friday, July 23. Lyell Fork, YNP, TM 1722.4–(11.3 miles)

It was agreed that we would not leave Tuolumne Meadows until after the store was open. Even though the store, Post Office, and grille are very hiker friendly when they are in operation, they don’t have hiker friendly hours…at least for most hikers. We don’t mind sleeping in. The store doesn’t open until 9, but, they have a charging station and fresh brewed coffee. They don’t really have breakfast fare, so I made due with a beef, bean, and cheese burrito. 940 calories goes a long way on a level trail. Bear had a beef pie. Bunny and Sassy both ate conservatively—protein bars (no imagination).

It turns out coffee and oatmeal might not be the most effective laxative. To save time, I had made use of the porcelain in the campground before the store opened, but the burrito/coffee combination proved to be potent and immediate. It was a very pleasant and enjoyable morning (the leisurely pace, not the double barrel, but that wasn’t all bad either). We headed out at 10:30.

Hard to believe Yosemite Valley was so dry with all this water

This was a pleasurable hike out. It was level for nearly 10 miles. The minute we turned on the trail, we saw another black tail doe with two fawns. They were so small, at first I thought it was a little dog running across the trail. We could see all three running, but if we hadn’t seen them enter the trees, we wouldn’t have been able to spot them. They blended In so well.

We’ve seen ground squirrels, prairie dogs, marmots, chipmunks, mule deer, black tail deer, hawks, snakes, all the usual suspects, but we still haven’t seen a bear. We’ve been out for almost 225 miles in the Sierra and are required to carry bear canisters. We’d like to see at least one (at a distance). When we’re out camping on the trail, I don’t worry about encountering them in camp. They are pretty timid. If they see something different than they expect, i.e, a tent, they usually avoid it. It’s when we get in large group settings that I get worried. While in Tuolumne Meadows, we made use of the bear boxes both nights.

There are many comments in Guthook that rangers are checking permits and bear canisters. We encountered several rangers in and around camp, but no one ever asked for anything. We just assumed that since the bubble has passed and the 4th of July holiday is old news, no one cared any more. In 4 years of hiking long trails, we’ve only been asked for permits twice and actually had to produce it once. Today, right after the junction of the John Muir Trail and the PCT, there were two volunteer rangers checking for permits and canisters. They didn’t look at them too close, because, if they did, we would have to be averaging 34 miles/day to be legal. In reality, we started a few days early and about 120 miles south of where we were supposed to. We will make up those miles after we get to Walker Pass. It’s all Bear’s fault for having to get off trail early to teach a college class for a new program he has created.

The walking was easy for 10 miles, so I had plenty of time for my mind to wander. This year is my 40th high school reunion. I won’t be attending as I had few friends who went to my school. I hung out with a few guys that were 3 years older than me. Just before we headed out here, I got together with a couple of friends that I had in high school and all the way back to 4th grade. It was great to catch up with Todd and Kevin. I doubt if more than 10 people from my class even remember me (I am Easily Forgotten for a reason).

The reason I’m bringing this up is because last year when we were hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail, Todd told me my best friend from grade school, Joe, had committed suicide. From 1st to 8th grade, we were almost inseparable. The summer between 8th grade and high school, we had a falling out and said nasty things to each other (too much testosterone would be my guess). I always assumed that one day, we would be friends again.

In high school, we didn’t talk at all. His mom died and I didn’t even know about it until a year after. He left our school in senior year. I never tried to make amends or reach out to him even after I found out about his mom’s death. Looking back, Joe was always in great shape. When we had our falling out, he said he’d kick my ass if we crossed paths again. I knew he could, easily, but, deep down, I knew he wouldn’t. Now I think of the few times he tried to reach out to me, and I didn’t recognize it. Like, when he’d sit behind me in church so we’d have to shake hands in the sign of peace.

Multi use area, not the bear we thought at first glance

Joe killed himself almost a quarter century ago and I just found out last year. I contemplated contacting his brother, but I looked him up and he looked happy. I didn’t want to dredge up old pain for him. I just feel such a loss knowing that the best friend I had for 8 years needed help and I wasn’t there for him. He deserved better from me. He deserved batter from life. He was a great guy, maybe a little shy, but he deserved to be happy and live. I can’t make up for letting him down. I can only try to not make the same mistakes again. Hopefully, one day, I’ll get to see Joe again. I don’t really believe in life after death, but if it’s true, I will find him.

Sometimes, easy walking can be a burden. I have time to relive my mistakes instead of enjoying the now. The last 2 miles of today were not of lot of enjoyment, but the struggle kept me in the now. Bunny’s hip bothered her a little today, but what really got her was the heat. We had some steep sections today with grades over 1000’/mile. She tried to go too fast and got overheated. I should have mixed up some more electrolytes for her to drink, but didn’t. I got her to slow down. About half way up the climb, she finally tried my trick of soaking her sun shirt in a creek and putting it on. It cooled her down enough that she handled the last mile without much effort (although she’d say different).

Bear and Sassy found us a gorgeous camping spot below a snow field. We are camped at 10,200’. As soon as the sun went down, it started cooling off fast. With any luck, we’ll finish the climb up Donahue Pass in the morning before it gets hot.

We ran into lots of people today. Tuolumne Meadows is a popular spot. We met a woman who had just retired 2 weeks ago and was out doing a celebratory loop hike with her son and husband. We will be heading to Maine after we finish the PCT to have a similar celebratory hike with Peter and Marcia. They are our oldest hiking friends (meaning the couple we’ve known the longest). Marcia retired just before we started the PCT and we’ve been planning to hike the Hundred Mile Wilderness when/if she ever retired.

Maybe we’ll get into some snow on the pass tomorrow

I’m a little somber today. I do have regrets in my life. I wish I could be a better person. I think of all the great examples I have: My dad is constantly saying he’s had a great life and he’s thankful for all he has. My brother-in-law is one of the few true Christians I have encountered in my life. I wish there were many more like him. I think of how positive Mizman (from the AT) is. I think of Good Chip Norris always being polite and thankful to everyone we met along the way. Bear and Sassy are always happy and positive. I’m lucky to have so many people of quality in my life. I wish I were more deserving of the luck I have.

EFG

Day 21, Thursday, July 22. Yosemite Valley—(Zero Day)

Tourists for a day

If you visit Yellowstone, you have to see Old Faithful. We’ve been in Yosemite for 5 full days and we’ve seen beauty that the average visitor doesn’t even know exists. When we hiked into Tuolumne Meadows yesterday, we missed the idea of Covid because it was so damn crowded. We had to wait in lines for everything. We’ve been in the backcountry where the only waiting we do is for Bear and Sassy to get ready in the morning and Bear and Sassy only wait for us to climb a hill (be it 10’ or 1100’, it’s sad).

Lambert Dome near Tuolumne Meadows—not to be confused with Lambert, home of the thrower rolls

As always when we come into crowds, we can smell the brand of laundry detergent of the people we pass. Thank god Axe seems to be falling out of favor with the twenty-something males. We present a unified single smell to the tourist, a subtle mixture of sweat, dried urine, and the occasional whiff of dead flowers since we forget we can’t fart in public. I’m thinking we’ve all become pretty deft at the clenched cheek SBD (silent but deadly). It’s fun to walk 50’ behind a hiker in a crowd of tourists and suddenly see the crowd disperse. It brings a tear of pride to the eye.

The Yarts bus schedule said there would be a bus to the valley departing at 8:31. I am my grandfather’s grandson. He told me three things as a little kid: 1) more than a mouthful goes to waste (hmm, that may have been part of my dad’s sex talk), 2) always go to the funeral, and 3) if you’re not 20 minutes early, you’re late. Bear suggested we leave the campsite at 8:15. I countered with let’s be at the store by 8. Bunny and I were cold and lonely until they arrived at 8:15. We all got on the same bus.

One of numerable alpine lakes on the way to the valley

It’s an hour and a half ride down to the valley. Not once do we leave the park. This is an amazingly large and beautiful place. It can also be scary driving by a few controlled burns that are active as well as seeing the results of recent, uncontrolled burns. After 7-10 years, the areas begin to look inviting again.

Other than burns, there are amazing alpine lakes with sandy beaches, stunning views, more granite domes than I ever knew existed, and then, there’s Yosemite Valley. We were expecting crowds: they were there. We were expecting high prices: check. We hoped for cell service and/or WiFi: got it. We thought we had seen the best of Yosemite already: hold the phone, we have and haven’t.

We made it, but…the stuff we wanted to do was closed because of Covid and it was over 100F

Yosemite Valley is a 2000’ deep box. The valley floor is pretty flat, level, and square with the walls. Usually a valley has an arced rise up the canyon walls. Not so here. It’s as square as nature can get. About 100 million years ago…wait, let’s go a bit further back, to pre cell phone times. The domes we see now were once lava flows that pushed up thousands of feet but didn’t break the surface. Over time erosion washed away the softer rock and dirt covering the granite domes. Then, 100 million years ago, (I knew I could get us more current) in a huge ice age, glaciers almost a mile deep pushed through the valley pushing all the sediments off of, and fully exposing the domes and valley walls. When the glaciers receded and melted, they left behind 2000’ of sediment that was trapped in the ice. The valley is actually 2000’ deeper than it appears. If we dug out the 2000’ of sediment, we’d have a granite floor that matches the walls we see. Instead, we have Half Dome, El Capitan, and the other formations we all know by sight, but only in their stunted 2000’ form.

The falls are a bit slim in the current drought

That’s really what we wanted to see, the canyon walls and the familiar formations we all know from Ansel Adams. Since we could see the actual items in his pictures, we chose to visit his gallery to see the pictures of what we saw outside so we could say “I just saw that” and not feel obligated to pay $7500 for a picture that isn’t even framed (did I mention we expected high prices?).

After that was accomplished, we had a few more tasks in mind. Mainly snacking followed by eating, followed by dessert, and another bite to tide us over until supper. We might be getting our hiker appetites after a mere 200 miles of hiking.

Once we got off the bus, we needed a snack to tide us over until we could find a meal. The first place we came upon was a coffee shop with a bakery. Cinnamon Rolls and coffee will work for the 20 minutes it takes us to walk to the Ahwahnee Hotel, a grand old hotel near the base of Half Dome. Here, we could have a semi-sit down meal.

Afterwards, we explored the hotel and took advantage of the presence of cell signal to call family we haven’t been able to talk to for almost 2 weeks and make use of WiFi. It was here that we discovered our Good Samaritan act we performed on July 11 was all for naught. I’m talking about the small fire we reported just off of the trail North of Sonora Pass near the rock formation known as the Nipple. What was a little smouldering burn of less than an acre has now grown into a major burn of 40,000 acres with less than 4% containment. The Forest Service opted not to extinguish the fire when we reported it and the storms about a week ago that pinned us down, hailed on us, and scared Bunny, whipped the fire up and allowed it to jump over the ridge. The PCT is still open in the area, but many hikers heading towards it are rightly concerned.

This would be cozy in the snow, not needed in the heat

We tried to go to the visitor center to see a film about Yosemite and some of the history of the area, but it was closed because of Covid. We wanted to have a canyon bus tour, but they were cancelled because of Covid. So we did what we know best, we had ice cream and I had another cheeseburger to hold me over for the hour and a half ride back to Tuolumne Meadows and supper. I think we ingested enough extra calories to cover our deficit for the next 3 days into Mammoth Lakes. To be on the safe side, we won’t leave until after the store opens in the morning and we can get one more high calorie meal…say a giant burrito and coffee.

I’m glad we did the side trip, but I wish it could have been cooler and non-pandemic

EFG

Day 20, Wednesday, July 21. Tuolumne Meadows, YNP, TM 1711.1–(12.7 miles)

Burgers or bust

As agreed, we all got going early. Sassy voluntarily got moving at 6. Bear started loudly clearing his throat around 6:30 to make sure we were awake. To speed things up, I had prepared the coffee, oatmeal, and orange Julius at dinner last night. All I had to do was boil water. Even Bunny could have finished up this morning since she claims all I do is boil water (all done while she sleeps).

Our neighbors were very quiet last night (and far away)…our alarm cough barely came through

All four of us were ready by 10 before 8. Even more amazing was that we were all at the top of the climb at 8. The race was on. Traditionally, (on this trip at least) we haven’t been hitting the trail until 8:45. We usually go about 3 miles before our first break around 10:30. We put in another 3 miles and have lunch around 1:30. That leaves us about 7 to finish the day sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 so we can set up camp before dark. That’s our typical 13 mile day.

8 a and already at the top of our first climb

That’s a problem for us today. We need to get 13 in before 5 if we want to get a hamburger from the grill at Tuolumne Meadows. We had motivation to get up early, but would that be enough to ensure we make it on time to order burgers.

It’s a good thing cows are ahead or these bad boys would be in real danger from the killer bunny

After cresting the hill, we let Bunny lead because she tends to be fastest hiking downhill. We agreed to have a break at 10 to check our progress and make any necessary adjustments. When we stopped at 10, we had 5.2 miles in. We were smoking. Behold the power of beef!

Don’t let that sweet smile fool you, her hips hurting and she’s hungry…BE AFRAID

The next agreed upon stop was Tuolumne Falls which was a total of 7.4 miles from our camp, leaving 5.3 miles with a half mile road walk. We have not eaten a single lunch this trip before 1. We were done with lunch and hiking before noon. Granted, our lunch was quick because we didn’t have much food left. Bunny had a pack of tuna, I had a pack of chicken, and we split a beef stick. Between breakfast, lunch, and snack, Bunny and I could not have had more than 500 calories. We also skipped all electrolytes in our drinks. We were “all in” on the burger and fries. If we ate a week like this on the trail, we would be walking zombies (if we could still walk).

Getting close to our lunch spot on the Tuolumne River

Now we were in the home stretch with less than 6 total miles to go. Our goal was no later than 4, but now we faced some uphill hiking. It was time for the A team to take the lead. Bear took over pole position with me in caboose. Bear had us knock out the climbs in a 4 mile uphill section in about an hour and 45 minutes. This is phenomenal if you know how slow Bunny and I handle inclines.

This is an area not seen by the majority of park visitors

We had less than 2.5 miles which was mostly level to downhill. It was hot. We were wearing sunglasses. Our hoods were up. It’s put up or shut up time. Who do we turn to? Bunny had the lead. Normally Bunny is not too food motivated, but after yesterday’s caloric scare on the first big climb, she was primed for a cheeseburger. In pilot vernacular, Bunny was a dot.

Bear claimed people were jumping off the trail as we passed them and then they would ask Bear “what’s up with the two smelly hikers flying down the trail?” He explained that we were trying to finish the PCT and that we have been out for 3 weeks, and that Bunny was not a vegetarian rabbit. There’s a cow in danger and the rabbit is taking it out. In other words, she’s a killer bunny with huge nasty teeth.

We made it to the grille a bit after 3. We needed to pick up our resupply boxes. We needed to find out about camping. We needed to make reservations for Mammoth Lakes. We needed to repair the bleeding gash Sassy had put in my leg when I slowed down unexpectedly. But all that could wait until we had burgers. Bear and I took our places in line while the lady folk found a picnic table and guarded our food. I ordered cheeseburger combos for us which included potato wedges and UNLIMITED refills on soft drinks. We had won the lottery again.

When we got our food, I was crushed. Our burgers were great. That wasn’t the problem. Bear and Sassy had gotten double burgers and bacon. It was devastating to see them get so much more food. Then Bunny proved why I love her. “If your still hungry, get another burger. Oh, and get me a twist ice cream.” She knows the way to my heart

We lost the trail along here causing a brief food panic

As I was heading back to the line, Bear said “get me a twist as well.” What about Sassy. “She doesn’t want one.” Wiki Task Force, what’s wrong with that woman. Little did I know, we were facing a major crisis. Sassy had ordered a gluten free bun—very good thing. Sassy plus gluten equals bad times for trees along trail. What none of us paid attention to was the potato wedges were breaded. If she gets another gluten exposure this close to the last, she could be out of the game for days.

It’s difficult to feel stress with this view

I came back to the table with the ice cream and Sassy was gone. Bear filled me in on the potato crisis and told me Sassy was in the bathroom. I enquired if she might induce vomiting to get rid of the gluten. “She might. I’ll check on her once I finish my ice cream.” Sassy came back from the bathroom with no obvious signs of recycled food on her clothes. She started reaching for straws. “Maybe they used rice powder in the breading.” Right!

Bear went in to check (once his ice cream was gone—creating an additional crisis by wasting ice cream will not lessen the first crisis). The first answer was they didn’t know what the breading was. The wedges come pre-breaded. Bear got a bit more persuasive and said “we ordered a gluten free bun. We have someone seriously effected by gluten we need to know (or she will paint your grille brown).” The guy went back and cut the ingredients label off a box of fries. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t rice flour and tapioca. Code brown averted!

A throw back shot of the falls from lunch

Now all we had to do was get our resupply boxes and camping worked out. We ran into Train who was with us at Kennedy Meadows. He already had a site and told us what we needed to do to camp. Bear went to find cell signal to call about hotels in the park (no chance!). Bunny and I got our resupply box from the post office. Whoever put it together did a phenomenal job. We have everything we need. (Actually, our Trail Angel, Digit Alice, came through again. She had acquired the majority of food for us, but I put it together and mailed it because she is recovering from hip surgery. This was a group effort.)

We set up camp then returned to the store to buy salads for supper. We sat at a PICNIC TABLE in our camp (high living on the trail) and talked with Train while we ate supper. Bunny called Sarah to find out how her grand baby is doing. The baby is fine but Sarah has major morning sickness and has already declared “one is enough.”

Advanced trail civilization…picnic tables and toilets!

EFG

Day 19, Tuesday, July 20. YNP, TM 1698.4–(13.3 miles)

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.

The pass is in the upper left…that’s our goal this morning

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.

But it’s taking a heavy toll on the Bunny

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

Day 18, Monday, July 19. Smedberg Lake YNP, TM 1685.1—(9.6 miles)

Bunny and storms mix almost as well as oil and water

Last night was our best night’s sleep on the trail so far. We were all glad we stopped short yesterday. A hiker came by camp as we were getting ready and told Bear that today’s weather was going to be just like yesterday’s but we’d probably see more rain. After today, we should have really good weather for a while.

Bunny was convinced this was a bear hole (not to be confused with a Bear orange bag hole)

Last activity before leaving camp involved a quick trip to the woods. I could see the path of the trail, so I headed uphill away from trail and people. I was in deep concentration when I heard a voice near me in the woods. It sounded like it could have been Bear, but it also sounded like someone might be getting water. In either case, it was too close for comfort so I closed up shop early and headed to camp. When I got there, Bear was gone. When he returned I asked him if he was talking in the woods. He said he was checking to make sure we had safety barrier between us but it didn’t matter because he had zig zagged around to the point that he couldn’t see me, but he did have line of sight with Bunny. Fortunately, she didn’t look up and see the orange mass in the woods (I’m assuming he meant the bag and his shirt and not that he had overeaten pumpkin).

More climbing today. We started off with an 800’ climb up the spot where we had wanted to stay last night. It was a tougher haul than we had anticipated which strengthened the decision we made to stay put last night. We did encounter a fairly large trail crew out doing improvements. We thanked them for their work.

A small sample of all the rocks we are hiking on

When we did catch up with Bear and Sassy, they were fully rested because they are so much faster than us going uphill. We decided to move on another 1/2 mile-ish before we had our morning snack. If Bear doesn’t get his blueberry pop tart in the morning…we have no idea what will happen because he always gets his blueberry pop tart.

While we were eating, we noticed storm clouds forming above us. The sky was completely clouded over, but the black clouds were very concerning because 1) we were at 9100’, and 2) Bunny is deathly afraid of storms. It started to sprinkle so we started packing up and decided to put our pack covers on. Everyone else was faster than me getting ready, so they took off and left me all alone on top of the rock. It started pouring as I was heading down.

A sample of their work…fantastic job of trail building! Perhaps the AMC might benefit by a visit

Less than a tenth of a mile down, they had found shelter from the rain under a group of trees next to a large rock wall. Even though we were at 9100’, we were surrounded by much taller mountains and large trees. We felt pretty secure. The rain didn’t last long. We were just about to start hiking again when a lightening bolt flashed just above us. Bunny didn’t panic, she just curled up into a standing fetal position and covered her ears. When the next lightning let loose, we could count 5s before the thunder hit us. We tried to assure Bunny things were ok and the storm was moving away from us, but we couldn’t get her to lower her hands from her ears or open her eyes. The whole incident cost us about an hour.

When Bunny accepted the Bear “all clear,” we headed down the mountain to the spot we had picked for lunch. It was a 3 mile walk where we all kept an eye on the sky. We could see the storm clouds forming in the next valley to our east and hear the thunder echoing in our valley. I will say Bunny handled the situation very well, especially compared to the first time I saw her reaction to a storm. We had spent the day tubing down the Current River in MO. (It’s a magical river where you can drink beer all day while floating in a tube and never have to get out to pee. Magical waters! But don’t swallow any of it!) We camped that night and a storm came through. She tried to crawl under me. As a side note, my dogs were never afraid of storms until they lived with Bunny.

We sat by a creek and ate lunch. All the while, the clouds started growing darker again. Since we were at a much lower elevation, we decided it would be prudent to wait out the next storm. We all put on our jackets to get warm while we waited. Then the storm clouds just dispersed and the sky got bright again, it was decided that we would camp hop the rest of the day since we’re supposed to go well over 10,000’ and we didn’t know exactly what the storms were doing. The first camp was only 1.7 miles.

Bunny and I are still not in hiking shape. To our defense, we did climb well over 3,000’ today with grades as steep as 1,200’/mile, but, we are not nearly in as good of shape as Bear and Sassy. The 1.7 miles to the first camp was also an 1,100’ climb. We started before them. By half way, they blew by us. When we arrived at camp, they had already been resting for 15 minutes. We all agreed to head to the next camp in 2.1miles (including another 800’ of climbing.

Nothing like a thick woods to get out of the rain

They waited for us at the high point. While we were climbing up, the clouds started getting darker again. About 2/3 of the way up, it started raining hard, but no lightening, yet. I made Bunny put on her raincoat because it was a cold rain. We alternated all day today between sweating bullets and shivering. The rain did cool things off and keep the dust down. Bunny and I were both struggling towards the end of the climb. Bunny said she could do another 1,000’ climb after this one. I said “let’s just get to the next camp and see what happens.”

It never really cleared up in the afternoon

The four of us rolled into Smedberg Lake around 5 where we had agreed to stop for a snack. I knew Bunny and I were struggling hard. It’s only 3 miles to the next camp, but it involves another 950’ climb. I knew if we pushed on, we wouldn’t get better than 1 mph uphill with another 45 minutes to get down the same amount. We were looking at getting into camp around 8. We finally agreed to stay at Smedberg Lake.

All we had to do was find a good campsite. Bear, Bunny, and I headed back to a spot Bear had seen on the way down. There were 2 good large spots with one big enough for 2 tents (or so we thought). Sassy, for once, picked a spot she liked (by the tree that had a bellybutton). Usually she says she doesn’t care when it comes to site selection. Now we know why.

Even the grouse are confused by how difficult it is to pick a tent spot

What happened next will surely come to be known as the great vestibule interference of ‘21. They laid out their ground cloth, and we laid out ours. Everything looked good so we set our tent up. We’re not too particular, if a spot is fairly flat, we’ll be fine. Bear has a few more level issues. To pick a spot, he will use a water bottle as a level and move it around to ensure that the spot is level in all directions. This process of site selection usually takes the same amount of time it takes us to set up our tent, unpack, and begin inflating the pads.

Our tent is up and settled while the site selection continues

We had our tent set up when Bear decided the spot Sassy had chosen dropped off on one corner, so he moved his ground cloth parallel to our tent. No problem. They set up their tent, but didn’t stake it out, so they could do another level check. Bunny was now getting ready to inflate our pads. It was at this point that our vestibule was discovered to stick out too far for Bear to have his vestibule fully extended.

Pre-storm shot of a moderately happy Bunny

We then tried playing with tent angles so his vestibule would be 100%. We rotated their tent 15 degrees and it almost worked, but one corner was discovered to be 2” too high. Now we lifted their tent (theirs is a free-standing tent, ours is not) and rotated it 180 degrees so Bears vestibule (they have assigned sides of the tent which don’t change, we change pretty much every other night). Sassy’s vestibule would work but the stake would be in our vestibule (again, no problem), but Bear’s vestibule was too close to the bellybutton tree.

Ultimately, they picked their tent up and moved it 50 feet to the other site. Sassy said she learned a valuable lesson—NEVER PICK THE CAMPSITE. The same lesson I learned with Bunny a long time ago. In Bear’s defense, he used to have bad sinus issues and if he didn’t sleep level, he would clog up. Now that his sinus problems are in the past, if he imagines he’s not level, he’ll clog up. Sassy has learned to stand patiently by while Bear measures the campsite with his water bottle.

EFG