1000 miles 6/17

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Today we crossed the 1,000 mile mark. Some people think this is a momentous milestone. They do things like shave their heads, perform special ceremonies. There is even a 1000 mile club. We just took a picture of the stone marker and kept walking. After yesterday's hard day today's was a welcoming, mainly downhill trek except for the last 2 miles which were up. We are now nearing Sonora Pass which TC and FC have  done before. It's a lunar landscape up there, stark and beautiful. There will be snow and it is steep. 

Dorothy Lake. Leaving Yosemite behind, as we enter Hoover Wilderness.  

     We have been running into mosquitoes now and then. We were told they were horrendous but the cold snap has tamped them down. They are frenzied and hysterical when the wind dies down. Most of them appear to  be newly hatched untrained juveniles who throw themselves at our faces without proper training in flight etiquette. They don't know how to fly yet so there is a lot of crashing and mis-hits. En masse they frantically throw themselves at exposed body parts.Firecracker feels sorry for them and let's them try and try again. They are just so excited to be alive and doing what they are supposed to be doing. FC tries hard to respect their right to life. She is in their territory after all. It's like the ants that crawl over her every time she sits on a rock or piece of earth. They live on those space and she realizes she is invading them so she no longer gets mad. She brushes them off and is in wonder at the kind of bodies they have that allow them to hit the ground and remain unbroken.. They go around in a circle then take off. If someone flicked Firecracker off the way she flicks them off she would be taken to the hospital in a helicopter because not any hospital would do. Unless she was in a Hollywood movie where people are always bouncing off train roofs while in motion or flying over canyons in their cars walking away with only a split lip. Recall the movie "Gravity" ? That Sandra Bullock must have learned some tricks from the ants in her garden. Ants are true super heroes. Firecracker has seen them fix a twisted limb that looked like it had been put on backwards. It took some time but they straightened it and away they went. Her respect for ants is boundless. 

    Last night encamped with Princess, Mr. Sandals and Glitter. A campfire was made. That was a first for TC and FC. It has been colder here (25 degrees @ 6am) than in higher Sierra we just passed through. Tomorrow we are going into Kennedy Meadows North. We'll be hitching 13 miles west down a beautiful narrow gorge.

      Here's an interesting story. Maybe a week into the hike when we were going up Scissors Crossing a young girl dressed in all black and quite striking was on her way down. TC asked what her name was. "Hot Shot" she answered, and told us to look out for her dad. She had done the PCT last year and had just hiked/carried his pack for a part of the trail. Ken did not yet have a trail name.TC noticed her because it was a scorchingly hot day and she looked cool in her black clothing and because she was quite attractive. Two months later TC sees a very handsome man and for some reason remembers Hot Shot. She asks this guy out of the blue if he had a daughter named Hot Shot. Sure enough. Two months later, for the first time we meet this guy. The threads keep joining together. Firecracker finds it a bit eerie since she barely remembers the girl or what she was wearing. TC is also a bit of a freak.