Day Sixty Seven

Today's miles: 16
Total miles: 958

Katie and I packed up this morning and went down to the Tuolumne Meadows store one last time. We had breakfast, chatted with Papa Bear and his niece, and tried to pretend we weren't stalling just so we could say goodbye to our friends one last time. We had a deadline to meet, though, and we knew we needed to hike an average of 15-18 miles in the next four days to make it to Sonora Pass on time.

Reluctantly we left Yosemite at noon, leaving behind old friends. Once again Katie and I were hiking by ourselves, and it felt strange. It was too quiet and lonely in the woods. Too many thru-hikers were taking a zero in Yosemite Valley, so the only people we met on trail were sweet-smelling tourists. We were silent and morose as we trod along the path through the park. It was hot and humid and it was difficult to get into the rhythm of hiking again. We stopped several times in the first few hours to jump into small lakes and rivers to cool off, but the experience was odd - we felt like we were breaking some kind of societal rule because we were surrounded by so many dayhikers in their swim suits and picnic lunches, and here we were in our underwear trying to get cool. Even peeing in the woods felt forbidden, somehow, and I wished we were out of the park for good. I needed to be back in my world of trees and mountains and away from a world where people camped in their RVs for the weekend and pretended they were "roughing it."

After six miles we passed a small resort campsite called Glen Aulin, and after that, the number of tourists we passed drastically dwindled. Apparently hiking six miles to camp was as far as most people got. It was a relief to be on our own again, but it made our lack of hiking companions even more apparent. Katie and I made small talk and pretended we didn't already miss the company of Sansei, Rotisserie and Papa Bear.

After a few hours we ran into TwoBadDogs taking a break. They were the first people we had seen in ages, and it was a relief to be in the company of old friends again. We had known TwoBadDogs since the early days in the desert, but never really had the pleasure of hiking in tandem with them. We discovered their real names were Lynn and Art (an older married couple whose trail name defined both of them) and that they were avid birders. It was fun hearing them get excited over bird noises and sightings, and Katie and I quizzed them about the birds we had been seeing in the past few weeks.
"What's that bird that makes this noise: 'cheese--bur--ger...'?" we asked.
Lynn laughed. "That's a mountain chickadee."

The four of us had dinner together near a stream, 13 miles into our trek. We decided to push on another mile or two past the next river ford and try to find a campsite together. Katie and I went on ahead and crossed two different fords before finding a camp spot in the woods. We waited for TwoBadDogs, but they must have camped a little earlier, because they didn't join us. It was the first time Katie and I had camped alone together since Wrightwood, and we found it was much too quiet and lonely.

Day Sixty Six

Today's miles: 9
Total miles: 942

We only had nine flat miles to cover today to reach Yosemite, but we needed to cover them by noon because the post office at Tuolumne Meadows closed then and we had resupply boxes to pick up. We meant to leave camp at 8 but got a late start, so we had to really book it. For once, Katie and I were awake before Rotisserie and Sansei, so I peeked my head into their tent and sang a very loud good morning song to them. Sansei grunted at me and Rotisserie laughed, saying, "you have a song for everything, don't you?!"

Katie and I left camp with Papa Bear before the other two and headed toward the park. Since the trail was completely flat we made great time, covering nine miles in less than three hours. I picked up my package from the post office right at 11:45. It was a very open and hot trail through the meadow - the temps are still in the upper 90s and there was little shade to be seen. Along the way we saw a lot of dayhikers and runners on the trail coming from Tuolumne. The strangest phenomenon was that we could often smell them before we could see them - they reeked of perfume, deodorant and soap.

We walked through the park campground before reaching the store, and it was overwhelming to see so many RVs and tourists. The campground was able to hold hundreds of people, and it was completely full for the weekend. For someone who has been in the wilderness for two months, this was complete sensory overload for me. It was strange how disconcerting it was to be in a crowd, and I didn't like it. I wanted to be back on trail.

After picking up our boxes, we sat at picnic tables with the Chain Gang, sorting through food and care packages. We bought lunch from the little store, charged our phones and hung out for the afternoon, discussing plans. Tuolumne Meadows was the final destination of the JMT trail and the Sierra mountain range, and it seemed to be a crossroads for a lot of thru-hikers. After two months on trail together, becoming closer than family and lifetime friends, suddenly everyone was moving in different directions. Some people were taking a zero day to explore Yosemite Valley, some were moving on down the trail, and some were getting off trail entirely. It was heartbreaking to see so many of our friends, good, strong hikers, moving on with their lives. But the mantra of the Trail is to Hike Your Own Hike, and for some, this means starting their lives anew. They made it nearly 1,000 miles through the desert and the Sierras, and for them, this was enough. Suddenly they realize what they want to do with their lives. They discovered their passions, their drive, and unfortunately, it no longer is the Trail. For others, it was an issue of money, or injury. For still others, it was a natural goodbye as they started a new journey. A new chapter of their lives.

We said goodbye to so many good friends today: Boulder and Scooter were moving back home to take up their true passion for the rest of the summer: climbing. Pickles and Irish were embarking on a biking trip in the midwest for a few months (poor Milkman was devastated). Sunset and Sour Cream (one of Starfox's Wolfpack) ran out of money and needed to go home to get jobs for the rest of the summer. Lunchbox and Sneaks were leaving trail to go back to school, which started in August. And Dog was flying home to Pennsylvania due to a painful stress fracture in his foot. It was so hard to say goodbye to such good friends, and we knew they would be sorely missed in the coming months. The Chain Gang was down to three members: Dance Party, Buffalo and Sunshine, and Katie and I were losing half of our crew, too.

It was particularly difficult for me to say goodbye, because I knew I wouldn't see many of them until I returned home from Europe, and the others I may never see again. Katie and I had to say goodbye to Rotisserie and Sansei today, too, as they took off on their own adventure for a few days. Sad and lonely, we set up our tent in the Tuolumne campground near Papa Bear and TwoBadDogs and tried to think happy thoughts about all our friends, now gone. So much about our hike will change from here after, but we can only hope the journey will still be an adventure.

Day Sixty Five

Today's miles: 18
Total miles: 933

It was unpleasantly warm last night, so I had a hard time sleeping. So, too, did Rotisserie and Sansei. So much so that they got up at 3:30 am and packed up to leave. They told us they wanted to hike the remaining eight miles to the trail junction with the PCT and then take a nap there. They were hoping that by hiking at night they could avoid the worst of the mosquitoes.

Katie, Papa Bear and I slept until 6 and then got on trail by 7:30. The mosquitoes were already bad and they drove us out of camp. We hiked as quickly as we could to escape them, but once again it was hot, humid and uphill.

We passed by several beautiful lakes on our route today: Shadow, Garnet, and then Thousand Island Lake, beside the trail junction. I was so overheated at this point that I stripped and jumped in the lake with Katie, and it felt wonderful. It was also the only way to temporarily escape the bugs.

Rotisserie and Sansei weren't at the junction, so we figured they must have hiked on, since it was noon at this point. We had lunch with Papa Bear beside the lake and then rejoined the PCT north over Island Pass. The trail finally leveled out a little after that, so the afternoon was very pleasant. We passed by lovely lakes, meadows and rivers, and eventually caught up with Rotisserie and Sansei later in the day.

Our last climb of the day was over Donahue Pass, which began very gradually and got steep right near the top. As usual for mountain passes, though, the view from the top was breathtaking. It was a perfect spot for a break.

We met up with Boulder, Scooter and Sunshine and enjoyed lounging on the rocks and watching storm clouds brewing in the distance. Sunshine was enjoying an extravagant lunch of hamburger patties that he had packed in, and the marmots were enjoying the bits he left behind.

After an hour of lounging on the roof of the world, we hiked down the north side. The descent was beautiful and involved several cold water crossings (we christened one ford "Lake Cold Toes"). We dropped down into a lush valley afterward, trying to get as close as possible to Tuolumne Meadows so we could arrive in Yosemite tomorrow.

We camped nine miles shy of the National Park near a raging river. Sansei made another fire, but the mosquitoes weren't as bad tonight. As we ate dinner, the five of us - Rotisserie, Sansei, Papa Bear, Katie and I - lamented that it would be our last night together for quite a while. Rotisserie and Sansei planned on going into Yosemite Valley after Tuolumne in order to climb Half Dome and Cloud's Rest (a side trip off the PCT). Papa Bear would be meeting up with his niece in Tuolumne to hike with her for two weeks, and he expected to do fewer miles than usual and drop behind us. As for Katie and I, we had a deadline to catch. In a week Tanner was going to meet us at Sonora Pass to pick us up. Katie was going to go to Lake Tahoe for a few days to visit friends and hike with her boyfriend Bryan when he came down to visit in two weeks. As for me, I've had a trip to Europe planned for a year, and it happens to coincide with the middle of my PCT hike. For two weeks I will be off trail hiking around Mt. Blanc in France, Switzerland and Italy. After my European tour, I planned to meet back up with Katie in Northern California and continue toward Canada.

All of our journeys took us in different directions for a while, so it was a sad evening as we reminisced together. Rotisserie, Katie and I had been hiking together for over 600 miles, Sansei a little less than that, and we had been hiking with Papa Bear since our very first weeks in the desert. It was hard saying goodbye, even if we hoped it was only temporary.

Day Sixty Four

Today's miles: 15
Total miles: 915

Since we covered such good mileage yesterday, we only had six miles left to reach our next destination today: Red's Meadow. Red's Meadow was another little retreat in the mountains, similar to VVR, but it was a pack-horse barn. It was also the jumping off point to get a bus to the larger ski resort town of Mammoth, but since we had just resupplied in VVR a few days ago, we decided to skip Mammoth to save some money.

We arrived at Red's Meadow just in time for second breakfast, and we ordered large plates of pancakes and eggs (PANCAKESANDEGGS!!) to eat. Once finished, we all agreed that we could totally order a burger lunch and fries and demolish that plate, too.

For most of the afternoon we hung out at the resort and caught up on phone calls. We socialized with other hikers coming in and out of Mammoth, including TwoBadDogs, who we hadn't seen since Agua Dulce! We stayed long enough that we ordered lunch from the restaurant, too, and then decided that we needed to get more than six miles in today.

We hiked out of Red's Meadow at 5pm with TwoBadDogs and on the way passed by the geological wonder "The Devil's Postpile," a columnar basalt formation. Several miles after we came upon a junction in the trail where the PCT and JMT split. Since Mt. Whitney the PCT and JMT have been the same trail, but for the next 14 miles they diverged and then came back together before reaching Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. We had heard that the JMT section of this trail was much more rewarding than the PCT, so we opted to take that route. TwoBadDogs, having section hiked the JMT several times already in the past, opted to take the PCT route.

We very quickly learned that the JMT may not have been the best option. It was all uphill. All of it. It was still hot and humid (a heat wave of over 100 degrees was hitting the valley this week, according to the cashier at Red's Meadows) and the climbing was brutal. Even worse, the mosquitoes were horrendous. Before now they had been somewhat tolerable, usually leaving you alone while you're hiking and disappearing at night when it got cool. But today the heat made them come out in droves, and no matter how fast we hiked, they wouldn't be left behind. Even though I was pouring sweat, I had my sleeves pulled down to my wrists, my pants tucked into my gaiters, and my headnet on, but the bugs were still biting through my clothes and landing all over the tops of my hands. I had to run down the trail, waving my hands back and forth to keep shaking them off. They ignored bug spray. I had to knock the mosquitoes off my hat, brush huge swarms of them from my legs and shoulders, and couldn't stop even for a water break because they landed all over me in a huge cloud. It was awful.

I was hot, exhausted, climbing steep inclines, and couldn't slack my pace for even a second because the bugs would eat me. At one point, when we were three hours into our climb, dripping sweat and still covered in bugs, I paused to throw my head back and scream in frustration:
"ARRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!"
My scream echoed back against the hill and Rotisserie, a few switchbacks above me, looked down at me in knowing sympathy.
"THIS IS MY PERSONAL HELL!!!" I wailed. And it was. I was not even having a little bit of fun.

After we had gone nine miles, we found a campsite near Rosalie Lake and quickly made a fire to try and ward away the mosquitoes. It didn't help. I learned that Rotisserie, Sansei, Papa Bear, and Katie had all had similar frustrations with the bugs. Sansei had been running the trail at 3.5 miles an hour and still couldn't escape them; at one point he had thrown himself, fully clothed, into a lake to escape the mosquitoes and they had still followed him.

We sat as close as we could to the smoke from the fire, but it helped only a little. The mosquitoes still found us, and they were vicious. We had to wear our rain jackets just to keep them from biting through the fabric of our clothing.
"Rotisserie, I'm sorry about screaming earlier," I joked with her over dinner. "I was in a very dark place at the time."
She laughed. "I completely understand. It has been a difficult day."

We shoveled down food as quickly as possible and dove into our tents for the night. The only redeeming quality of the evening was the beautiful sunset over the lake. If only we could pause to enjoy it....