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June 13, 2015
Day: 20 Daily Miles: 36 Total Miles: 914.75 Hours Hiking: 14.2
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| Just passing through tree line on the easy climb up to Silver Pass. |
June 13th...I made it 36 miles to point 315893 E 4173098 N UTM... So this is the day that I actually got injured...and I did not record a journal for this day, or the next...I am currently 6 months later, in January of 2016, trying to get a trail journal put together online, so I figured I'd least put a quick summary of the days events so I post this with the rest of my detailed trail journals.
The day started off not to far passed the Lake Edison, VVR ferry, probably 1-2 miles at most. That morning I got up at about 4:50, got on trail and started the majority of the climb up to Silver Pass, which is about 7 miles or so...gorgeous morning...blue skies, when you get up to the valley near Silver Pass, in the shadows, the lakes were reflecting the sky, so you get this very nice blue contrast [reflection]. I probably passed about 5 people camping out along side the creek on the way up. As I got up to the saddle....Silver Pass is basically two different [stages]...you reach one saddle, but then you have to go up higher to the actual highpoint where the actual trail goes over...there were probably 5 guys camped out at the lower part.
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| The alpine lakes reflecting the sky while still in the surrounding mtn shadows. |
Just as I'm getting to the top of Silver Pass, the sun is still low in the sky, but nice and warm, with golden light...it was a really nice morning, great views...I really enjoyed it actually. It was nice not being chased by thunderstorms and still being fresh. My goal that day was to get passed Reds Meadow on my way to Tuolumne Meadows...make my miles to reduce the amount it would take to go see Leah actually in Tuolumne Meadows, because she got off trail...but was going to meet me there since it was an easy access point. But, I needed to get to Reds Meadows to call her to double check, to see what time and where she will be, to facilitate meeting up. So I was pushing it to try and make more miles as fast as I could. After Silver Pass, you head on down and on to the river...then up to Tule Hole...it was pretty uneventful...I passed a couple more people...it was a really nice morning still, not hot, in the trees and shade. The climb up all the switchbacks up out of Tule Hole was in the sun, but there was a breeze, so not bad....Getting up on top, on the ridgeline...it was beautiful...it was just a really nice day.
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| Happy me on Silver Pass! |
At least in my remembrance from 6 months ago, I had a good day. Heading over towards Duck Lake though, I remember feeling kind of too hot, kind of that typical fuzzy feeling I get...I know I mentioned it in the previous journal...you kinda just fall into this zombie mode and I started feeling that way again, coming out of Duck Lake. There was another hiker in front of me going pretty fast, so that actually kept me pushing myself to keep up and to pass them, which did eventually help me get over the feeling...but definitely still felt off on the ridgewalk from Duck Lake to Reds Meadows. It was a bit of a struggle, even though it was downhill or fairly flat...it was one of those, you just have to keep your feet moving and you'll make it. I did hit my 900 mile mark at about 1:10 pm or so, so I had made 900 miles in 19 days and 7 hours, which doing the math is 46.6 miles per day at that point. So, I was on pace, I was above pace, which is great. I was feeling good, much much better than 2012. So, things were looking up.... About an hour after I hit the 900 mile mark, I made it to...I made a little detour into Reds Meadows, where there was cell service and a pay phone. My phone worked and after a couple attempts I did contact Leah and she was in Tuolumne Meadows exploring Yosemite that day, so we were going to meet up the next day around noon or so. After that, I got a soda and ice cream [expensive!] from the store there and talked to a few people. There were about 10 hikers there, relaxing...I then headed back out to trail, a little 0.25 mile detour.
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| Chief Lake below Silver Pass. |
Somewhere right around where I got back on trail, I pulled something in my left calf. It just all of a sudden....I didn't do anything special, I was just walking and then BAM....my tendon or whatever in my left calf just decided to get hurt...get angry....I was in a hurry because I felt like I had wasted a little too much time in Reds Meadows, so I actually missed the PCT, went down a little side trail...and then probably less than 0.25 miles down that, I realized that I wasn't on trail and had to backtrack...and the whole time my leg was just hurting...my leg was just hurting. I was like " Huh...???" And, it didn't get any better for the rest of the day. I had a good 6 hours for the rest of the day... I could walk, but I couldn't walk fast. On certain steps, it would be this huge...this intense pain that literally make me wince and gasp. Typical pains are types of aches that are just constantly there, and they don't make you pause and think about it...you are just like "oh, my foot hurts....OK, my foot hurts". But this, if you would step just a little wrong, it would be this lighting bolt in my leg and I would be like "AHHH OOOOooo uggghhhh". I was hobbling along, going really slow. At that point, I had 27 or so to get to Reds Meadows....I was on pace for a great day, but from that point on, the knowledge that I was hurt and that it wasn't just some little passing thing, it really started to beat me down. My morale tanked.
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| Lake Virginia after the Tule Hole climb. |
I knew in the back of my mind that this was probably going to end my speed record attempt...and it did of course... That didn't help me that day, that afternoon. On multiple occasions, I stopped to rest, because my leg hurt, but also because I was dejected, that I had put in 20 days or so of hiking and crushing myself...(laughs)..to get to this point and then it would be over....Sure, there are points at which I had already been like "Ohh , why am I doing this? This sucks! I wish I would stop..." but, deep down, I didn't want that, that was just the time of the day and it was hard...I mean, what would be easier than doing the hard thing? is to not be doing the hard thing...I made it through Devils Postpile, slowly. I got to the stream crossing...I had though about bailing, because I was right next to the road leading up to Mammoth...but I figured that from the point I was at to Tuolumne Meadows, where I had a car, had a person waiting for me, where I could literally leave trail...that I should give it one more day...even if it was a slow painful day, I needed to see if it [my leg] gets better. If had stopped early, and then a day or two days later while off the trail, I'm fine, that I would be kicking myself and regretting my decision to get off trail. So, I did push on. I made it another 10 miles after Reds Meadows, to about a mile up above Agnew Meadows. I found a nice view, stopped early for the day...I figured, that if I am going to be hiking another 26 miles to Tuolumne Meadows the next day, I might as well give myself a little more rest, just in case it would help my leg. I stopped, I watched sunset....another hiker came in and asked if he could camp with me...I said sure....so I had good company for about 4 hours that night. I went to bed, really late, but at the same time, I figured my hike was more or less probably over, so I might as well enjoy the last night on trail.
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| The sunset of my last night on trail. =( |
That was the day....it sucked. Having the hindsight of 6 months now, I was really on pace to break the record. Know that the other guy ahead of me, who was attempting the same things, that...he actually got off around Sisters Oregon and was completely destroyed....that makes me regret it even more...at least at that point, had this not occurred, I feel like I would have broken the record...just because of the way that I had felt and that I was doing much better than I was in 2012, and in 2012 I had made it up to Crater Lake, but stopped due to the snow and not physical things. I had made it there, so the next day basically I'll record that on my next one.
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| Silver pass in the early morning sun, looking north, Sierra Nevada Mountains. |
