Another shot, this one from much earlier in the night, at our Muir Pass campsite. You can still see a bit of residual daylight in the east, on the left.
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;)
That night, after crossing over Muir Pass and camping at a small pond overlooking Helen Lake, the stars were the brightest I had seen yet. The moon was rising later and later, so it allowed the stars to glow in their own brilliance without the moon's light to numb the sky's contrast. This was the highest elevation we had camped at so far, still in the alpine zone, no vegetation save a few scrubby rock-clinging wildflowers. Based on Helen Lake's elevation, I'd guess we were sleeping at 11,700.
Well, I wasn't exactly sleeping. Because we liked to rise early and hike in the coolness of the morning (like wake up at O-FIVE-THIRTY), I would normally be snoring at 8:30 pm, but with stars like this, you have to wait till almost 10 pm to really get the dark sky in full effect, without any residual sunlight in the west. So I was taking short naps as the camera shot timelapses outside, a chemical handwarmer taped around the battery compartment in an attempt to keep the battery lasting in the sub-freezing temperatures. After two or three hours, I'd get up to bring in the camera, then see another shot that I just HAD to have, shoot it in RAW for a bit to get a good still, then switch the camera to shoot a JPEG timelapse, crawl back in the tent and set my watch again. When I set up the posted shot above, it was almost 2 am, and still dark, DARK. I shot the still and noticed something I couldn't see with my naked eye: the glow on Mt. Solomons in the background, a faint hint of the rising moon to the east. I figured this would be another amazing timelapse, so I set her to shoot AGAIN, and took another nap. Shortly after I laid back down, we all woke up as we heard a sudden noise that we didn't recognize, getting louder and louder, very quickly, seeming to come right for us, a herd of bighorn sheep come to trample us? As quick as it started, it began to die and fade, crumpling pepples scattering in the dust as it finally stopped. I heard Brad call out from the next tent, "Did you guys hear that?" Uh, yeah, I'm halfway out of my sleeping bag with my knife cocked and ready to get trampled...or run like the wind. I heard it. The verdict? Rockslide. Luckily, we were nowhere near the cliffs themselves. To quote Ranger Shelton Johnson, from an upcoming documentary on the JMT that my friend Peter Bell is producing with my company, "It was a John Muir moment!" Yowsa!
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Another quick one from our day heading over Muir Pass. Click to view larger.
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Just a quicky today. Yes, the lake was that color. I thought it was crazy too.
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Monday the 2nd, 15th day. Longish day up to Muir Pass. Got a late start after having to wake up to kill an awesome night lapse, Milky Way streaking across the sky. Mosquitoes descended and we bolted out on a nice gradual rise until sharp, steep climb to secondary Evolution Flats, Evolution Lake, etc. Scenery flat-out amazing...
Ate a lot today trying to shrink the food weight. Breaked at Evolution Lake, then again at Wanda Lake, where we saw a few frogs, in that cold cold water! Crazy to think how he survives over winter...Could see Muir Hut from our lunch spot on Wanda, but thought it might be a boulder...
Nice long climb up to the pass, getting a little dizzy and light-headed as the elevation and sun worked on us. Muir Hut was cool, good window light, and then down just a few hundred feet to an alpine camping spot near Helen Lake, next to one of Helen's small upper ponds.
Jumped in while the sun was still above the ridgeline, seemed a bit crazy to walk through snow to go swimming...but we managed a minute or two. Getting cold now that the sun has passed, should be good stars tonight!
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Not a whole lot of time to post today. Here's Brad and Julie hiking by another lake on the way up to Muir Pass. Click to view it larger.
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Pictures can lie, as I've said many times before. At first glance, you probably wouldn't assume that the trails on either side of this shot are actually the same trail, but in reality it forms a straight line from the hiker on the left to Brad and Julie on the right. Another near 360º panoramic, with me standing on a rock in the middle. Click to view larger, which is still quite small compared to the original.
This kind of post-work can be excessive, it takes a while both in terms of the automatic processing, as well as the hands-on work to get the final result. Here's a screen shot of all the individual pictures that come together to make the panoramic. Again, click to view larger.
Did I mention that this place was beautiful? No? Well, it was.
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Go ahead and click it. You know you want to make it bigger. More, after the jump, including a mystery photo.
So that's the same meadow shot, now well after dark. I set up a timelapse shortly after taking this picture, framed a little to the right. Looking back through the frames now, I have found a strange picture. It may not seem strange at first, but let me explain. There's a light in the frame that seems to travel from the top of the mountain in the distance all the way to the grasses on the other side of the river. The shutter speed was set to 25 seconds, with a 30 second interval set on my intervalometer, so the shutter would open for 25 seconds, close for 5 seconds, then take another exposure. It looks at first like a headlamp might if someone walked through the frame, but the distance would be impossible to cover in 25 seconds. The frame preceding this one has no evidence of the light, and the one after it has a little bit up on the top of the mountain, but nothing like this one. There are no cars, no roads, anywhere near here. Click the picture to view it at full size, it may take a second to load it all up. Can anyone tell me what this is? I have a theory, but that's all, and I want to hear what you think. The fact is, it's downright creepy to me.
Update: After another look at the preceding frame in the timelapse, I found one small, almost pixel-sized light in the hills far away that isn't there in other shots, and therefore I'm pretty sure is NOT a noisey pixel (which there are a lot of in these long JPEG exposures). It may not be related, but I'm posting the small and large version so you, dear reader, have all the facts and besides, it gives you the shot WITHOUT the big mystery light so you can see where it is actually appearing. The little light is circled below.
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As the sun set, the mountains of the Sierra Nevada would hold the light long after we were shrouded in darkness in whatever valley we had chosen to sleep in that night. John Muir called it the Range of Light for a reason. See the previous post to see how the peaks looked as the last direct light of the sun hit them. After the shadows finally crept all the way up the faces of these giants and the sun was officially gone, then they would slowly take on a strange red glow, which would grow more saturated for a few minutes, then quickly fade away and it would officially be dark. This picture is taken after the sunset, and exposed such that the shadowed foreground doesn't seem 'twilightish', but in reality it was quite dark at this point.
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Since we had the privilege of being in this meadow for most of the afternoon and all night, I was able to capture a few incarnations of the light on the mountain backdrop that we would be hiking into the next day. The last post is a wider view of these same elements in the middle of the afternoon, remarkable how different it can look in a new light. Next, the Alpenglow.
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;)
Let me just take a quick sec before the journal continues. Despite my best halfassed efforts, I've fallen pretty far behind on the blog since getting back from the John Muir Trail. I've realized this is because I'm not exactly taking the path of least resistance, that is, posting one photo a day (like a traditional 365). In an effort to illustrate my journal entries fully, I've been posting quite a few photographs for each day corresponding to that particular day on the trail. I really want to show you all these photos, and I've never been great at editing my own work down :) But the time spent post-processing and creating each entry is getting a bit out of hand, and now finding that I'm at least nine days behind, I'm going to stretch out these next few rounds to help me get caught up. I hope you, dear reader, don't mind the change in pace. Also, thanks for all the support and comments here and on the social networks, please, keep it coming. I'm nothing if not a sucker for validation. Ok, back to the journal. Let's see, where were we...
Sunday, August 1st, our 14th day on trail. Long, leisurely morning before setting out this AM. Nightlapse was ok, firelight was kinda cool on the tree. Hopefully more to come. Moon is rising later now, so more stars are visible in the early hours of the night. In the shade of a large dome, our camp stayed cold until 8:30 or so, when we finally left. Gradual uphill for three miles, still very Wild West-looking, then steep switchbacks up to Evolution Meadow.
Pushed a bit further to McClure Meadow, beautiful little valley up in the high country, around 9640 ft. Had a swim in the river, wait, actually first had a nap that started as soon as I laid down in the tent to check if the placement was level, as in, before the stakes were even in the ground. Bri cooked some quinoa with miso and tuna as I napped, then we ate and slept some more. Felt like I never wanted to get up at all, and the thought of swimming was borderline repulsive. Finally forced ourselves up and into the river, which wasn't too cold, compared to some swims we've had so far.
By the time we had sunned and dried and walked back to our camp, Brad and Julie had arrived via the Piute Pass trail [Brad is an old friend I met while hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2001, Julie is his new bride]. Cooked with them, sun set and lit up the peaks over the valley, gorgeous, and the mosquitoes descended. Shot as many pics as I could of the alpenglow on the peaks before the bugs really got to me and I bailed to the tent. Tomorrow, 10-12 to Muir Pass and over to Helen Lake.
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
Saturday the 31st, our 13th day. We did see Babu for the last time today...his knees were getting to him, and he was generally tired. Decided he didn't like the idea of hiking out of Muir Ranch with 9 days of food on his back (and I don't blame him; I don't like the idea either), so he's hoping off the trail and hiking the four miles from Muir Ranch back to civilisation. Was sad to see him go, and I think he was sad too; he said, "Goodbye, children," as we finally parted, which is true, he's old enough to be our grandfather, but he was a good, fast friend out here and we're going to miss him.
Backing up, we hit the trail about 6:30am and did roughly 5 miles into Muir Ranch by 8:30. Strange place, ideal spot for a resupply, which they make good money off, considering each 25 gallon bucket of food is $50 for them to recieve and hold it, and they had 130 come in just the previous week, on top of the hundreds they had in their storage shed. Very remote though, so they have to recoup the cost of bringing in all the buckets via pack mule. We got our bucket and began divulging its contents as well as rummaging through the 8 or so 'hiker box' buckets, free reign for all to pick from, and constantly shifting in content as hikers take what they haven't got and deposit what they don't want anymore. We salvaged some good booty: I had a Mountain House lasagna for lunch, Bri had a dehydrated cantalli, spinach and carrot stew that someone had created and sealed at home, but also a whole jar of nutella (the Russians found and gave to us!), Italian tomato paste in a tube, Clif bars, etc. Left behind falafel and hummus mix (normally a standard camping dinner for us, but somehow a disaster meal days before - I blame altitude), some Sunbelt bars (NOT the fudge-dipped ones, kept THOSE), extra powdered milk, rice dinners, some bullion cubes. The Russians had no resupply sent there, but were easily able to restock from the buckets. Cookie of course had shipped himself six Guinness to finish off the hike with. I love that guy.
After lunch and packing 9 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks into and overflowing from our bear canisters, we grudgingly walked up a tic to a shady spot and shot the shit with Babu one last time. Sat there for a looooooong time TALKING about starting hiking and never quite moving far enough to put on the pack. Finally, in the heat of the day, we hugged Babu one last time and set off through some amazing, if steep, canyonland. Maybe it was because my shadow had a cowboy hat, but I was really feeling the Wild West scenery: hot traverses between patches of shade underneath Jeffery Pines; dry, sandy trail littered with baseball-sized chunks of rock, steep granite domes on all sides, but all far away. Beautiful, but the three miles to camp took a while, as we are headed up a long ascent to Muir Pass, almost a three day climb. Camped on Piute Creek after a steel bridge, early, no bugs, gorgeous. Dipped in the fast-moving water in a small hole off the larger rapids, sunned on a rock. Lounged by tent watching two chipmunks really try to get to our food (which they successfully did, right next to us, as we swam).
Darkness is falling now, made a nice fire to write by. May try a night lapse in a bit, try to get the stars behind this big tree above us in the firelight [see the top picture]. Too pretty today to put into words, something out of another time, something so far removed in spirit from our lives back home, yet so home-like in its comfort and sense of peace and belonging...
;)
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
Friday, July 30th. No entries for the last two days. Wednesday morning, we got up early, but not as early as hoped for, and set out at 6:30 to hike seven miles before 9am. Pace was fast as it could be, lucky it was almost all downhill, though some of that was so steep that it slowed us down more. Couple dicey river crossings, but made them safely. Last 1.4 was real fast, never jogging, just speed hiking.
Made it to Edison Lake at 9:02. Whole crew was there, Cookie, Babu, Ashley and Sam, Biaa, Beach and Bearclaw, swimming and soaking in the sun. Ferry didn't show till 9:45, long enough for us to go for a swim and for me to lose my eye glasses in the lake. Had a bit of a freakout, but have 2 sets of contacts that will have to get me to NC and thru an eye exam. Embarrassed that it happened right at such a triumphant moment. Felt like an idiot, tried to find them, but couldn't see shit underwater. No goggles at Vermillion, no where, so never went back to search. Born free, and so they shall return.
Ferry to Vermillion was amazing. Beautiful lake, nice to be on a boat! Things got better up at Vermillion, as we had breakfast (3 eggs, hashbrowns, english muffin, bacon, and coffee!) and hung out with the whole crew. Hung out at tent for hikers, then down to Lake Shore. One free beer per hiker, but they used a tally for entire stay, so grabbing more beer was way too easy. Lots of good stuff too. Played horseshoes with Cookie (using THREE shoes apiece, apparently Boston does too, and we in NC must just be poor). Won with a ringer. Dip in lake, more beer. Folks working there over the summer were nice, had a bit of an island community. I asked what it was like to live in this small group, and they asked if I'd ever read Lord of the Flies, haha. Said they already had Piggie picked out.
Sat and ate dinner with the Russians, as we call them, who had passing English, enough to make the conversation challenging but very fun. The rest of the crew was inside, drinking all the wine that the place had in stock, in decreasing shelf height. Babu even sent a bottle out to us, what a guy! Double-fisted the cab sav and my beer, yummy.
Next day, had braindead morning, but killer breakfast, porkchop, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, Bri's bacon, Sunrise's sausage, coffee. Missed 9am ferry, so took Bear Creek Trail to join JMT, about 10 miles with cut-off trail. Brutal day, hot, tired, sweating out alcohol. Had a nice swim in Bear Creek, but uphill was so hot it made you forget how cold the water was. Finally got back on a buggy JMT and set up the tent near the Russians. Passed out hard after some Pastini with alfredo and cheese.
Today, early rise, nice hiking past Bear Creek, several river crossings with higher water, many people stopping to take off shoes. I left my boots on for all, barely felt any moisture penetration. Hate to deboot for a 10 ft crossing! Was hungry as hell after yesterday's stomach-stretcher breakfast, so by 9:30 we had stopped, and I cooked a pouch meal that I had salvaged from Babu's giant mail drop. Hiked up a bit, after SamAshley and Cookie caught us and passed, but waited with Cookie for Babu to show. Finally he did, and we shot up to Marie Lake, and took a long break with everyone. Then Selden Pass, another lake timelapse, and the beautiful section coming off Selden, like a wild west canyon with waterfall and rock faces on either side.
Stopped at Upper Sallie Keys Lake, with great windy campsite over water, but I hiked on without pack to find the Russians and a calmer, beautiful campsite area on the lower lake, full of fish. No luck on the fishing, but we don't have the right bait, so oh well. Getting hungry, but still very early. Will hike out early to hit Muir Ranch and some hot springs, and possibly see our other friends for the last time, before they shoot ahead of us permanently.
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This photograph is a stitched 360º panoramic (notice the same mountain in the background on the far left and right sides), please click the picture to view larger.
Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
July 27th, a Tuesday, our 9th day on trail. Short day from Purple Lake to Silver Pass Lake, roughly 10 miles. Still got me all sorts of tired, still took till 5 pm, though we did have a late start, almost 2 hours later than normal, or more. Most everyone we camped with last night is past us today; we sit on the edge of about 7 miles of downhill to Edison Lake. We will try to bust that out tomorrow, before 9 am perhaps, to catch the ferry to Vermillion Resort, where thru-hikers get a free beer!
New pain in right foot got bad out of nowhere today, about 3 miles in. Wasn't really feeling it till I stopped for a sec to talk to a northbound PCT hiker, then it got worse and worse. Was swollen when I took off boots to soak feet in Fish Creek. Had a long soak, some leg stretches with Bri, then another soak, and some Vitamin I, and it felt fine for the next 5 miles, which I took very slowly, both because I was tired, and because it was a big climb up to Silver Pass (10895 ft), even hiked through our first snow and ice. Soaking the foot again as I write in the lake, which isn't too cold, in fact I could stand a dip, if the air itself wasn't so cold and windy.
Scenery today incredible, from the woods to above treeline; shot a lot of panos. Switched to JPEG for most of the day, will save some space for later. Hate doing that, but I guess we did it for years with lesser cameras, and there's still some good photographs from back then.
PS- Took a dip anyway. Shortest one yet. C-O-L-D.
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
Monday, July 26th. Day 8. Been out for a week now. Crazy how long a week can be when on trail. So many new experiences, so many memories, compared to back home, where days can seem to blend into one another, monotonous in that way that lets weeks go by unnoticed, without any major milestones counting off the time. Yosemite seems like forever ago, because so much has happened since then. And then again, it's all been roughly the same too, in its own way: hiking has its own monotony. Left, right, left, right.
But today's top milestone was an encounter with two coyotes, a few does, and a wounded fawn, hunted and taken down by the coyotes. Bri saw the tracks in the pumice trail we hiked on, thru a massive burn area, started by lighting years ago. Beautiful hike despite the dead trees, as all the reclamation species were blooming and loving the sun. Bri mentioned she saw deer tracks and that someone must be hiking with a dog also, as she noticed the paw prints. As we entered the forest, we came upon the two coyotes, circling around us, and I shot some pics as quick as I could.
Then I saw the fawn, wounded and bleeding, trying to get up and failing. Looked mortally wounded for sure, and the doe was hanging by, maybe trying to fight the coyotes away, but it didn't look like she had much luck. We promptly left, hoping that the coyotes would return and finish the job. They had run off shortly after we stopped, and no one else that came up behind us saw them at any point, or noticed the fawn, so not sure what became of the scene. He'll get eaten one way or another I suppose. It was tragic to see, but it's the circle of life after all. Coyote's gotta eat too.
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
Sunday, July 25th. Longest day yet, hopefully longest we'll have. 16-17 miles or so. Started off great, pounded out of Thousand Island Lake at 6:30am, hiked three hours without a break.
New, strange pain in my right foot/ankle. Not pleasant. Hurts almost worse when I stop. Soaking in a cold creek did some good, but by mile 11, was really painful and needed a couple Vitamin I's. Tired coming into Devil's Postpile [one of the world's finest examples of columnar basalt], and Reds Meadow, which puts the Reds in Redneck. Caught up to Cookie and Babu, ate a big meal in the cafe. Then, a hot shower in the hot spring-fed camp showers...So delicious, our first hot shower. Lots of new people in the backpacker camp tonight, lots of good stories. Tired, and ready for sleep.
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
Sat, July 24th, Day 6. Slept in past the mosquito window, which incidentally was much narrower than at Sunrise Camp. Apparently it was a very late Spring, much more snow too, so that put everyone's schedule behind, including the bugs. Must secure a hat and some mosquito netting at Reds Meadow, if at all possible. We are some of the only people without a net on all day.
Despite the bugs, the hiking is great. Had a big climb up to Donahue Pass (11,056 ft) this morning, crossing briefly over into the eastern side of the Sierra Crest and entering the Ansel Adams Wilderness, leaving Yosemite National Park behind. Excited to be in a wilderness that was named after one of my idols. Granite turned to volcanic rock as we dropped into Thousand Island Lake.
Mild rain as we hiked, barely noticeable. At our arrival to the lake, storms seemed to be brewing on all directions, so we scrambled to get the tent up on a rocky peninsula right on the water. Brianne doubted the solidity of the tent with the difficult, rocky staking, but we were committed to the location, as it seemed the storms were closing in fast. Never have I seen such odd, impossible-to-read weather. Four storms surround the sky, each seemingly still and seemingly coming right towards us. Successfully guyed out the tent fly before shooting some timelapse of the weather over Banner Peak, an Ansel Adams' favorite. Storms never dumped. Jumped in the lake for a bit as the sun filtered thru the clouds. Great swim. Wonderful campsite with water on two sides, giant peak in the distance, lake reflecting storms, sunsets, rainbows and moon. Even had a bit of a double rainbow for a few minutes, but I refused to take a picture of it :)
Realized today what a fool's errand I'm conducting with this photo mission. The hiking is hard enough, butnow I not only am trying to shoot epic landscapes and editorial-style hiking shots, but also timelapse almost every day! Like doing too many things at once, all suffer. Also realised that our estimated hike time is 23 days with rests, instead of 20, so that throws off some of my calculations (how did I miss that?) re: card space and battery power...though the batteries seem to be doing well, better than my estimates, I am eating into the card space these last two days. May have to switch to JPEG for regular stills to save room. Or shoot less...yeah, right.
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks.
Friday, July 23rd. Day Five. Writing by firelight. Camped up from Lyell Canyon a few clicks, 9500 ft or so. Big pass tomorrow, Donahue, 11,000 ft. GREAT hike out of Tuolumne. Flat for 7 or 8 miles, thru the most exquisite meadow/canyon I've ever seen.
The river ran right thru all day, multiple fly fisherman out there, cool breeze, birds singing...I wept at one point, as my heart was overflowing with it all, too much to take in. That was our hike, all day, till an hour of climbing at the end. After 3 miles or so, came upon a deeper section of river with nice rocks to jump off...was in a good hiking groove, but some things must not be passed up. Water 10º cooler than up the meadow yesterday. HURT, it was so cold.
There are joys in life that are fleeting, and enjoyed quickly: a knowing look from a beautiful stranger. An icey dip in a mountain stream. The seconds between dreaming and waking that bridge the gap. There are other things that we are meant to enjoy slowly, to be savored. The love of a good woman. Fine scotch. A hot bath. And the Meadows of Tuolumne.
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks.
Thurs. July 22nd.
Zero Day at Tuolumne. Wasn't sure about it at first, kinda wanted to hike out with our new buddies, Cookie and Babu, but it was worth it to stick around. Breakfast at the grill, then a nap, then pictures and a dunk in the river, also a sweet rapid run! I'm getting more accustomed to the cold water, able to make myself stay in until the body is numb and even feels good. Skin turns deep red as blood flows to extremities, just sure to get out before I turn blue. Feels so good, don't even want to get out. Laid out on a rock in the sun and warmed up. Then lunch at the grill, Mammoth Beer (cold this tie, they fixed their fridge), and some ice cream.
At one point I was walking by myself by the river and I saw a large crowd gathered on the bank. A mother bear and her cub were on a rock in the middle of the river, and a ranger on horseback stood guard on the camp-side of the river, to encourage them to cross back over into the wild side of the river. I ran back up to our tent and grabbed Bri and my camera. Back at the river, the mother was repeatedly crossing the final rapid on their side to show the cub how to do it, but he just sat and watched, looking a little pitiful. She would cross back over and nuzzle him and sit, very maternal and cute. I shot a few frames at my longest focal length, 135mm, but it was too far away to make any significant pictures.
I heard shutter clicking next to me, and there was a Weekend Warrior, with a backpack full of lenses. He complained to me that the water and sun reflections were making for bad pictures, but I suggested that a polarizer would help bring the reflections down and help pop the color, even offering my own off my lens. He said he had one on a wider lens and went to switch out the 300mm he was shooting with. I said, HOOK a BROTHER UP! And so he did, letting me rock the 300mm on my camera (thank science he wasn't a Nikon shooter.). Now we were making some pictures.
I shot a few frames then decided to shoot a bit of video, JUST AS THE CUB MADE HIS MOVE! A bit shakey and by no means professional, but it is cute, and you can see how smart bears are, as when he finally decides to go for it, he moves UP stream a bit to account for the water rushing him down stream, which his mother never had to do, considering her significant inertia.
After the bears meandered back into the wilderness, the crowd dispersed, and we checked our food supply and did some grocery shopping. Bought a watch...lost my first watch in NC on the AT back during the 2001 thru-hike, and never missed t, didn't get another until last year for the Half Ironman, but that was yanked off in a skiing accident on the Chowan later that summer (almost with my arm too). But the timelapses made me feel the need for a time PIECE, so here it is on my wrist. We'll see if I start checking it constantly while hiking...if so, it may need to be stored in the pack!
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Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks.
July 21st, 2010. Slept like a rock in the wrong position last night. Usually toss and turn and wake up severaltimes, but fell asleep fast and woke at first light. Was able to get another fire going, eat oatmeal and get almost ready to hike before someone flipped a switch and the bugs descended on us all at once. Again, worst ever. Dropped down into the Sunrise Meadows, a gorgeous glacial 'meadow-garden' (as Muir would say), but the mosquitoes only got worse down there. Swarms, all around you, landing and biting you thru your shirt, flying into your nose and mouth. Enough to drive me bat-shit crazy. Fastest mile yet across the meadow. Peaks in distance, Cathedral, Columbia Finger, Echo Peaks, Matthes Crest, all gorgeous.
Shot up Cathedral Pass (9700 ft), not too much climbing, and was able to take a shit without too many mosquitoes on my ass. They attacked for the water pumping though. Walked over into the marshy grass at one point to get a reflection shot of Cathedral Peak in a small pond; it was like kicking a hornets' nest, but instead of hornets, it was little bloodsuckers. Beyond anything I've seen. Swallowed a few more while running back to my pack.
Heat was rising, and stopping to swim in was out of the question, so with pushed thru without many breaks to Tuolumne Meadows, about 10 miles total. Got really tired and beaten-down feeling as we got closer. Pack is just too fucking heavy, camera gear is the culprit, but what can I do? Hike thru the large RV/car camp felt brutal, I was DONE. After camp setup, hit the grill for double-bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a tepid Sam Adams. No pole repair kits at store, but our new friend, 2008 AT Thru-Hiker 'Cookie Monster' had a great trick: cut up an aluminum can, use duct tape to wrap can around pole at break. Bonus: had to drink another beer. Worked like a charm on the tent pole too!
Cookie and fellow 2008 AT Alumnus 'Babu Simba' joined us at camp for a bit, then a dip in the Tuolumne River. Cold, but I stayed submerged till my whole body went numb and the water began to feel warm. Shoulder has a wicked knot in it, hopefully a day off tomorrow with more river dunks will loosen it up and give my feet a chance to recover. They need it!
;){kind=link}
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