Day: 293

Hike, Hike, Wait.

Hike, Hike, Wait.

Hike, Hike, Wait.

After my third round of this I found myself sitting next to a bridge over Lyell Creek, just before Donohue Pass.  It was pushing 2:30pm and we had already covered 5 1/2 miles this morning.  It seemed too early to quit for the day, buy when Mom and Mike arrived we discussed our options.  Either camp here and do the pass first thing in the morning or continue on today and tackle 6 more miles plus 1700 feet up; attempting to make it to water and camp by dark on the other side of the pass.

Mom decided she had it in her to hike the rest of the day, so we powered down a lunch of cold SPAM (yum!) to save cooking time and set off uphill.

They met me at the top around 6:15pm, with the sun starting to sink low in the sky and us all exposed on an 11000 foot piece of granite.  Still 2 1/2 miles to go until “Alan Castle” – as Mike refers to him on a first name basis, as opposed to the title of the JMT guide book, which he wrote – says there is a decent camp spot.

By 7:30 we may have made half that distance down the gigantic stone steps, Mom had fallen once and Mike looked sunburned and slightly dehydrated. I realized something had to be done or we’d soon be setting up camp in the cold dark.  I added their tent to my pack and took off to find somewhere to start getting camp set up.

After about 20 minutes I found a lumpy grass meadow, next to a mosquito infested pond, which was still over the 10,000 foot limit for campfires to be allowed.  Not pristine, or anywhere near a good campsite, but it was flat and had some mucky water we could filter.

By 8:20 when my battered hiking companions arrived, I had both tents up and some freeze-dried veggie lasagna underway.

I ate, bundled up for the night, and was completely inundated with lumpy sleep by 9:15pm.

Day: 292

In an effort to conserve battery power on my 5D and Mom’s 20D (my old camera) I looked through the menu options and found one that I had never used.

:Auto Power Off>

1 min

2 min

4 min

8 min

15 min

30 min

OFF

Well, “OFF” sounds good, no need to burn power for even the normal minute…

Famous last words.

Auto Power Off > OFF, actually means that the camera never powered down. At first I thought I thought it was the cold nights sapping the energy of the battery cells (I went as far as sleeping with them in my sleeping bag). Then I thought it must be some of the long night exposures I’d been doing. Finally, when after only three days, we had burned through our three spares and were each 1/2 way through our last batteries; I retraced my power conserving efforts and realized my mistake. and ARRGGHHH!

Anyhow, now after a two hour/5mile hike into Tuolumne Meadows store/post office we picked up our resupply bucket and get to sit around all day drinking beers/ reading while we wait for all five batteries to charge on the single charger I carried along. My ass, if I am going to continue on without a working camera! Especially if said camera still has to be carried on my back.

Other than the much needed bacon-cheeseburger, my 4th day on the JMT ended up as more or less another day of leisure for Rob, followed by a short 3 mile hike and a cold night.

Day: 291

Just to clarify that I wasn’t just bitching about Moms speed, this morning as we were packing our camp for our third day of hiking a hunched over, overloaded, 76-year old man with socks on his hands passed us on his second day up the mountain. Mom just giggled when I pointed this out. He was a day ahead of us and almost as old as Mom and I together!

I set out with my new plan; walk an hour, wait, walk an hour wait, etc., etc.

-After the first hour I waited on Sunrise peak for 53 minutes.

-Another hour and another 40 minute break. Then lunch.

This continued the entire day, and although we did make it 8 miles to Cathedral Lake over the course of eight hours, I was only on my feet for a cumulative 3 hours and 45 minutes. The New Plan is leaving my body refreshed (i.e. plenty of nap time) and my novel looking dangerously like it wont last this endeavor.

Day: 290

After a terror filled hike back from Half Dome last night, I found that a bear had been strolling throughout our camp site.  At least I didn’t have to fight him with my stick.

Anyways, today was rather mellow, it was planned as Mom’s recovery day while I climbed Half Dome, but since I did that last night we decided to move on-

At the exceptionally slow pace, similar to that of a wounded bison -Moms second day speed- we made it four more miles, found a stream and campsite just before a 1200ft/2 mile climb up to Sunrise Peak.

I plan to break away tomorrow and travel at more of my own speed, then wait for them to catch up.  I figure one of my steps is roughly 2 1/2 of hers, so if I travel at her speed I end up lifting my boots twice as often, and stand around with my bag weighing on my shoulders much more.  Personally, I’d rather walk for an hour, then nap for an hour…

Oh, yeah. Another bear was wandering about tonight eyeballing our campsite.  Woohoo!  Bears everynight! I might get to fight one soon.

Day: 289

First things first, we had three small bears running all over at dinnertime last night. Didn’t really bother us, mostly just pestered the car campers with ice chests.

Our first real day on the trail and our goal wasn’t mileage, but elevation. A 3000 foot gain past a bunch of waterfalls, and two primary reasons to get so high; The valley floor has been running Gobi-hot @ 95 and, two; we have to get past the back side of Half Dome before our permit allows us to camp. Our morning started out at 5:30am and we made it out of the site and headed towards the trailhead by 6:45, as it took that long for Mom to repackage her bag for the eighth time.

“Should I put the bear canister at the top or bottom?”

“Sleeping bag…hmmm…” followed by stares at her pack like its a foreign creature.

“Maybe if I….?”

I tried to subtly remind her that this might have been a good thing to figure out at home, but all she said was she had to be “up here” before she was ready to figure it our. She may be my mother, but that doesn’t stop her from being strange.

Fortunately, I am a man of infinite patience…

The days other tragedy was the weak GPS signal that was lost in the granite valley walls, leaving us lost via satellite. Aside from GPS’ing fun and sunrise bag packing , we did manage to make our seven miles past Nevada and Vernal falls, around the back side of Half Dome and settled into camp by 3:30pm.  With the rest of the afternoon I formulated a plan to solo-climb half dome with the setting sun.  Mom and Mike were beat so I was on my own to see one of the worlds great rocks at sunset.  After a few hours bumming around our site, blogging (i.e. writing in my journal) and reading, I packed my bag with water, my fleece and my camera/tripod and set out.

Pouring sweat by the time I reached the “cables” up the last 300 feet to get me up to 8836ft. I took and break and looked around… hmmm.. oddly I was completely alone. Surprising.

Now, if you had one of the worlds most spectacular rocks all to yourself, what would you do?

Of course! Thats exactly what I thought too! Find a ledge over a 5000ft sheer drop and take naked pictures of yourself!

After a while of complete solitude, the skies began to darken.  With only my (moms) headlamp to lead the way I set off down the 60 degree incline, sliding more than walking holding the aircrafts cables for dear life.  By the time I made it back to the trail proper the skies were black and only a sliver of moon lit the way.  My lamp offered no comfort from the ominous black, with two mile to go in bear country.

Within minutes, everytime I’d glance into the woods I’d see beady green eyes staring back at me.  Every noise made me glance around in fear and I nearly shat my self when I came across a garder snake lying on the trail. Every horror story of the woods I have ever heard came back with a vengeance. Felt like the Half Dome Witch Project.

I was scared.

I found a bear beating stick. About as big around as my wrist and a couple of feet long. Flimsy as it was, it was all I had.  Every noise had me checking behind me to make sure a I wasn’t being stalked by a puma (i.e. mountain lion).  I just imagined myself in a pitched battle with a vicious North American apex predator, me and my stick vs claws, teeth and speed.  I was sure I’d never make it back to my tent.

I carried my weapon all the way back to the protection of my paper thin tent…

Day: 288

The concrete floor of this tent-cabin holds all the environments cold and causes a chilly sleeping space… (I guess I should have lit the little wood stove). I would easily prefer the dirt and rug combo of a Mongolian Ger anyday.

Back to the car and backtracking to Tuolumne Meadows to drop off our first food resupply and find some breakfast. Sitting there, enjoying my sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, I developed in my mind an easier JMT route that just might be possible. Instead of coming up from the valley floor to where we were currently sitting, we could start here and work our way down (saving 4000 vertical feet!) then catch the park shuttle back up here and hike the other way towards Mt. Whitney. A quick discussion and we decided it wouldn’t be cheating since the we’d still see the whole trail.

We wrapped up breakfast with a new hope in our heads and headed off to the permit office to see if my fictional route was plausible.

And guess what? IT WAS! Yeah us!

Unfortunately, it was possible, but only if we had made reservations six months before when we booked the rest of our trip…

DANG…

We recanted our hopes and settled back into the thoughts of our first day, 3000ft gain in 7 miles.

Driving into Yosemite Valley proper, we found the backpackers camp (of course the furthest site from tomorrows trailhead) and headed off for one last lunch at the Ahwahnee (a sweet looking hotel) with my sister before she left to head home and hang out with her daughters.

A lazy afternoon, with an air of nervous anticipation was spent puddering around our camp site.

Day: 287

In the seven hour drive from home to Yosemite, a thought crossed my mind; I realized I have been away from Yosemite for the better part of 15 years.  I have always know it to be one of the planets most amazing places, but in my adult life I’ve never taken advantage of my own state, always opting to find myself exploring somewhere else.

Now I am back with my 50 year old mother, who is glowing like a 12-year old on Christmas at the sight of granite and pine trees (the same one who dragged me all around the Sierras as a kid and I realize not much has changed) and my overzealous-GPSing-Step Father who tells everyone we meet about our intent to hike 222 miles.  I stare in disbelief at the astounding scenery that is very reminiscent of southern Patagonia just 350 miles from my house.
My day started loading up Sarah’s car with our assorted packs and heading north up the 395.  A quick stop outside of Lone Pine to drop the truck off at the trails end (Whitney Portal) then Mom and Mike piled in the back seat for the second half of the drive.  Soon after a greasy lunch in Bishop the back seat comes to life with the beeping and chatter of a hand held GPS unit.

“Wow, Rob, you are driving at 63.4 MPH!”

“I hope no ones cold, I have to get a signal (Mike waving the GPS out the car window)…. We’ve traveled 353 miles so far today.”

“Etc. Etc. Etc.”

Even without the benefit of todays advanced technologies I was able to navigate us over Tioga pass into Yosemite Park using only old fashioned street signs… Quite a feat, I know.

At the parks gate a smiling, blond haired ranger, handed me a map and told me to “Enjoy your visit.” as if it was an order.  I figured I would do my best to comply.  I tossed the maps to the back seat navigator with a smirk to my sister and pointed the Bling-mobile in the direction of the tent cabin Mike had found us for our first night here.

A couple six packs and a wander with my sister finished off the night in the White Wolf area.  Only one more day until we start the trail proper.