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Click "Play" below to listen to the Day 18 audio journal.
June 11, 2015
Day: 18 Daily Miles: 38 Total Miles: 833.75 Hours Hiking: 15.8
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| Golden morning light on the way down to the big bridge. |
June 11th, today I didn't do soo well, I only made it 38 miles...that's really not that bad considering what I did and being in the Sierras...My goal has been a 40, so not really that short of my goal. I'd would have liked to had 40 as my lowest day...no 30's, but, so be it. I made it to point 0354311 E 4109008 N UTM. Where to start.... I had my nice little camp under a tree next to the trail, right next to that water source on the way down from Glen pass, about 4 miles from the big suspension bridge, before the climb up to Pinchot Pass. I got up, it took me about an hour to get everything put up, because I had my shelter up, it didn't rain that much overnight, which was nice....I got under way about 6:00 am...I burned through those first 3 miles or so and then crossed mile 800, just after the bride....and then...began the Ohhh sooo much fun stair-stepper climb up to the summit of Pinchot. I started near the bottom and counted....that's my method to help take the mind away from climbing...and more climbing...and more climbing, to just let the body work. I believe I topped out at about 11-12,500 steps or so, for about 7.5 miles. The first part isn't bad, you're paralleling a creek, you just do some ups and downs....then, you hit this one area where it's basically step after step after step, up through these trees until you reach a little bowl area, whereupon, you still climb. You can't ever really see where the summit it, you're just always wondering where it is...You slowly curve around [the mountains] and can only see it when your at about 11,000 ft out of the 12,000 ft top. There were beautiful views coming up to the top.
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| Just after the suspension bridge next to mile 800! |
There are still a bunch of clouds around, so the morning sunlight was spotty at best...I had my shirt off the entire climb, because when I hike fast, I get really hot and there is no point in being sweaty, then reaching the top and being really cold, because you're wet still. Lots of beautiful mountain landscapes, where the top portions of the big crags are emblazoned in sunlight, with big puffy clouds and blue sky behind...reflections off snow ponds...and all kinds of good stuff. I passed two ladies, another guy at the very very top. It took me about 2.5 hours for me to climb that, which was within my goal when I started at the bottom...it wasn't the fastest, but who cares, it's a pass...they take a little more out of ya. From there at the top, you can pretty much see down and across....you can see the valley for Mather Pass, you can't quite see the pass itself. In a good 8 miles I would be next pass, so I started off. There were a few snow patches to navigate through to find the trail. Lots of good water and the sunshine finally came out on that side of the mountain so I stopped for about 25 minutes and dried out all myself...had another 'yard sale'. I fixed my feet up and got everything wrapped up and kept on truckin' on down to the creek. The creek was much easier to cross this time than last time, but that's probably due to lower water levels [snowpack]. Somewhere down there at the bottom, something happened... my stomach started not feeling well, my face got all flush again, which had happened the previous day as well...it typically seems to happen right around 11:00 am, or so. I don't know if it's the amount of hiking I've been doing, which makes it land then or what.... I don't even know what it is... it happened today, the day that I am recording this, it just happened a little while ago, at 11:00 am... my forehead is hot, my cheeks are hot, literally to the touch...when I put cold water on it, it feels realllly good. Maybe I have a fever? I don't know...Anyway...it just sucked the life out of me.
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| Reflections on a snow pond on the climb up to Pinchot Pass. |
I didn't feel good and kinda went into the zombie, disconnected way of being...I don't know how else to describe it. I don't feel like I have complete control of everything. Maybe, it's a little bit of...I don't think it's confusion, it's just there just something missing between the normal present me where everything is sharp and in focus, versus the not quite right me where everything kind of fuzzy and has this kind of static... that persisted for a long time. Mather is a fairly easy climb, it's sloped and gentle, so you can hike pretty well, the 4 miles to the summit. Even though I didn't feel well, I just put my head down and started counting and hiked and hiked...I had to take a few more breaks than normal...at one point I stopped and sat down on a boulder, I closed my eyes...I feel like I almost fell asleep just sitting there. I got dizzy...so I really don't know what it is, but I kept going. I passed a couple more people that were stopped. I did the last few switchbacks up to the summit, stopped and ate....I had a beautiful view of the Palisades [mountains] and Palisade Lake. The clouds were wreathing the tops of the Palisade mountains...the sun was flicking in an out across the valley and the lakes...so it was reallllly picturesque. It was just one of those sights that blows you away.
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| Above tree line with Pinchot Pass finally in view (out of the frame on right). |
Again, going down the backside of Mather it was a little tricky...a few snowfields hiding the switchbacks...making me have to dodge this way and that way and cut across slipper stuff...with these road running shoes I have, it take a little more caution to do things like that, because there is just NO grip on them, they are flat, so you have to make sure every foot is planted. But, I made it down through there...from that point, it's a good 8-9 miles of down. So it's fairly easy, nothing to get in the way, to real ups, it's just go, cruise. Because I wasn't feeling well, I wasn't going very quickly. By the time it was about 4:00 pm, I was just under 30 miles........(water noise) I'm crossing a bridge right now over a big loud river...... I got down the Golden Staircase, I was listening to a book and figured that wasn't the right thing to do...started listening to music....music wasn't doin' it... so I finally, with about 2 miles to go before you turn the corner, at the junction of the two rivers where you start to go up towards Muir Pass, I said, you know what...I'm going to eat my lunch while I'm walking...when I'm done with that, I'm going to take a break and take a nap....and I took my first 20 minute nap, well shit, my first nap of the entire trip, right then and there.
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| The still temperamental weather on Pinchot Pass. |
That was really nice..it took me a little to fall asleep, but other than that it was wonderful! ......(trail noise, other hikers) -- Hello --- "What are you saying into that??" me- "it's a voice recorder, recording my daily journal" - "oh, right on!" - take it easy ---.... I just passed 3 JMT'ers. The nap, I was out...my face was hot, I put my hat over my face....where I laid down, I had a nice view up into the mountains...I pretty much...phew....it took me about 3 minutes and I was out like a light bulb. I had set my alarm...with my hat over my face, I could feel the heat of my face radiating off. 20 minutes later...I woke up just before the alarm...I'm not sure I really felt refreshed per se, but there was definitely an aspect of feeling better. I passed a couple people on the way down, and they passed me [while I napped] because a little ways down the trail I passed them again...once I woke up, my goal was to make it up as far up the Muir Pass climb as possible...so I took the other half of my 5 hour energy and knew that it would be good for....they are usually good for about 2-3 hours or 6-10 miles, depending... I put some music on and started bookin' it! Caffeine seems to turn my haze around, but I don't want to become dependent on it, just because it might not work sometime...The weather up until that point had been cloudy and gray, off and on sunshine..., but, as I started up towards Muir Pass, there were thunderstorms...rain-showers, intermittent, just enough to make it really humid...so that was a pain.
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| Looking north at the Palisade Peak from Mather Pass. |
That caffeine did the trick...the first few miles aren't that steep, they are angles up because they follow the angle of the river, but they are easy enough and I made great time. Having looked at the map the previous night, my 40 mile mark would have put me somewhere in a not very nice area up on Muir Pass...it would be about 1.5 miles before the summit at the hut and about 2 miles above treeline. I had determined that when I got close I would figure out if I would push on to Muir Hut, or if I would stop short, because there is nothing up there...there are no good places to camp once you get passed treeline really. So, I was already behind. I got up within about 3 miles of treeline and a big thunderstorm rolled through...I had to get out my poncho...I burned some time sitting under a tree, hoping it would pass. Finally I decided that I would just go up further...the map said there were a couple campsites...the rain pretty much was stopped after about 20 minutes [of hiking in it]. By this time, it was about 8:00 pm and getting dark, so I said I wasn't going to push it more, I'm going to go as far as I can and get the nicest campsite I can and stop there. Low and behold, the last campsite mentioned on the Halfmile maps was empty and perfect!
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| Palisade Creek just before the Golden Staircase. |
A big cluster of trees with a flat area...the flat area was DRY, so I decided I would just throw down my groundsheet, do a normal cowboy camp...and if it started to rain, I would pull my cover over me. (hikers) Hello --- Howdy......So, that's what I did. I actually got to be, probably the earliest yet, somewhere around 9:15 pm or so. The caffeine had run out...about a mile before this climb and I was done, but I was happy to be done. I didn't know I was going to make it that far feeling the way I had earlier. So, I was happy with 38...and I had made it up to about 10,500 ft elevation, so the climb up to Muir Pass in the morning wouldn't be so terrible. Overall, not the best day, but definitely not a terrible day especially since I hadn't felt well. As I was going to bed, I saw a couple stars poking through even, as the clouds swirled about. At about 2:20 am, some little cloud to roll over and sprinkle and rain a little bit, so I woke up and threw the tarp over me and weighted down the corners with rocks and went back to sleep and it didn't last very long.....so when I woke up around 5:00 am, I was dry and everything was fine.
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| The view from the top of the Golden Staircase. At the end of the valley you go right up towards Muir Pass. |
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| A snow pond reflects the clouds and mountains surrounding Pinchot Pass, which is on the right side. |
