6/8 & 6/9 & made it to Mammoth!

 Crossing Mono Creek our way to silver pass. 

DG getting a well needed shower from Silver River. 

Near silver pass looking south. 

The bubbies  at Virginia lake. 

This says it: 900 miles down.  And many more to go!

A New challenge 6/7

Today DG woke up the most tired she has been since starting on 4/4. She felt she could have slept much longer but this wasn't going to happen. Yesterday we hiked 13 hours and went to bed without dinner. This morning was an UP morning as far as direction of travel. You would think that after this many days of hiking we would be getting fitter. NOT!! Sucking wind this morning DG realizes that at a certain age you do not get fitter. There is only so much a 59 year old heart can perform or 59 year old muscles . No matter how hard they work their 40 year old heart is gone, not to be reclaimed. They kind of knew this from climbing experience. DG and TC are not going to get faster. They may be able to walk longer but not faster. They are thinking It may NOT get easier which is a bummer. They will not be doing 30 mile days like the twenty year olds. There is no pain (except when they do something new like leg sucking) and every morning they feel recovered (TC thinks this is realitive & we would need to rest a week before we really knew)  (except for this morning) but there are limits to what a body can do. Surprise, surprise. 

      They have crossed the two hardest passes and as of today they have crossed the most dangerous rivers. Today they forded Bear Creek which is wickedly fast and full. They were into it up to their thighs but the river was moving so quickly their hiking poles were more dangerous than useful. The hikers were having to fight to keep their poles steady. The anticipation of River crossings has been TC's greatest fear but she did well, staying focused. DG was ready to jump in if something happened but all went well. It should all be downhill from now on right? 

        DG had a drug-like experience (as in "far out") today. She brought her MP3 player on the trip but has not listened to it. Today TC listened to Adelle for awhile 

(only her second time listening) and told DG to try it. As soon as she was plugged in listening she totally disconnected from her body which resulted in dizziness, a bit of hysteria and a total loss of power. For over two months she has been 100 percent connected to her breath and the sound of her sticks hitting the ground. Her breath rate has controlled her pace. Hearing her breath has kept her grounded and in touch with her body. Listening to Adelle she couldn't hear her breath and that disembodied her. She knew she was moving but she couldn't feel it- like she was walking in place and going nowhere. Her head was filled with music and she had no body that she could feel. At first it was amusing and extra-terrestrial but it became irritating and she had to turn off the music. While listening she heard every nuance of the music: the orchestration, back-up singers, one bar guitar riffs, subtle changes in rhythm. She had never heard music so clearly. Wearing eArplugs tunes out everything else but she couldn't do both things. She has been studying the mind- body connection for years never realizing that the body needs the mind and is pretty messed up without it. She thinks that with this plug -in generation gig we are all becoming more and more disembodied. Our bodies would like more attention. They want the importance of the breath to be understood and appreciated. What DG understood from her immediate disconnect was that the breath is what links  body and mind.

       In less words than this, DG shared her experience with TC. TC quietly looked and her and said. "Freak". This is not the first time TC has called DG a freak. Apparently TC did not have the same experience listening to Adelle.

Looking back toward Gable Peak. 

What the F...k 6/6

TC cranking it uphill. 

John Muir Hut at the top of same pass. 

Rest break. Needed refueling. This was the last 12,000 ft pass. 

This segment may contain a profanity here and there. Please do not read if you hate that kind of language. 

      TC gets up at 4:30am to do her business and we are climbing by 5:53am. Snow is everywhere but at that early hour it is hard. We walk on top of it. We mistakenly cross a river hoping to avoid a snow field but have to re-ford it...in our bare feet. The angle of the snow field is too steep for us to remove our packs without the fear of losing them. We tried to cross with our boots on but the move from one rock to another is too  big and there is ice on the rocks.Too risky so we take off our shoes and we are standing in the snow waiting to cross. There is a river raging under us and the snow bank could cave in at any moment. Across we go. It's all we can do to stay upright. We make it to the other side and our feet are frozen. Holy shit, that was close. Up we go with our micro spikes on, sucking wind like we are on Everest. There has not been a path for the last half hour so we are going straight up. We make it to the shelter at the top of the pass and take a short break. It's now 8:30 and we are aware of the sun starting to melt the snow. Add this to the list of things that make you run with a backpack on...impending snow melt.

      Now let's talk about this snow for a moment. It looks like miles of egg cartons or that waffled sleeping pad you see hikers carrying. According to TC the technical name for this pattern is sun cups. The snow is not flat like a blue run at a ski resort. It is lumpy, bumpy, rippled, unstable and melting.The micro spikes work better on hard snow but there is a tendancy to grab and hold so that your knees are cringing in anticipation of a meniscal tear. A fully loaded knee does not do well with sudden  turning. DG is imagining orthroscopic surgery. Your ankles feel like they are having a workout standing on moving balls. It's not a comfortable stroll in a winter wonderland. 

      In addition to the above we now have to deal with the dreaded leg suck (aka Postholing ). We are already suffering from the PTS of the previous leg sucking day. We don't know when we are going to sink nor do we know how far. It's scary like roller coaster scary. You're waiting until you drop so you can scream your head off. Will we plunge to middle earth or just 6 inches. The reaction is to pull your leg up as fast as possible which is difficult and nerve racking. It's not something you can relax into. You have to walk like you are walking on egg shells. DG coined the expression PDA(pre drop anticipation ).We did this for a mere 3 hours! At one point TC is sunk up to her thighs. DG thinks this would be an opportune time for a photo. She asks TC for the camera. TC says "fuck you" . DG is not offended. She waits patiently as TC fishes out the camera. Meanwhile she is sinking. DG takes the shot and sinks herself. It took our intrepid hikers 5!hours to hike 5 miles. F...k!!!

Post hole hell. 

Did we mention fording Evolution Creek. TC getting it done. 

Muir Pass 6/5

Looking down 7 miles toward the Kings canyon drainage, where we are headed. 

Golden Staircase. So named because of the color of the rock. An amazing piece of engineering. It takes us over 1200 ft down a narrow gully. 

DG winding her way down. 

Can you see DG?

Amazing waterworks abound. 

10 miles & 5000 feet of hiking we are back above 10,000ft. 

We're situated about 1,200 ft from Muir Pass. We had time to go higher but   post holing (leg sucking) is not what we are into. We're sure there is a lot of snow up there and it's late in the day so we'll attack early (6am) tomorrow. A bunch of young guys said they were going to camp on the pass but all there is up there is a grungy less than airtight rock mountain cabin, that smells dank  and rank. There is also an overweight bold big toothed marmot. We see him every time we do the pass. He is aggressive and quite self absorbed. No one I want to spend the night fending off. We're happy with our campsite by a lake in the sun and early to bed. Today was a short day (11 hours instead of 12). TC has still not recovered from yesterday's grovelling in the snow. Her quads still hurt in addition to her supplicating knees.

     We saw pink shooting stars in bloom today. Their petals are spread out behind them and pointed downward. The rest of them (the stamens and pollenating parts) point outward ready to take off. They look like those dancing women with their torsos' thrust forward and their heads tossed back. Everything of importance is out in front. What a trusting, confident stance.There are also some tiny break-your-heart fuzzy antena wielding periwinkle flowers arranged in mini bunches for your pleasure. 

       Something to note is that chipmunks, birds, and lizards all move at the same rate and in the blur, can be indistinguishable. 

       DG's name thing... for the sake of continuity and the fact that TC's name is the antithesis ( like Oscar'sand Felix's personalities) of DG's she will keep it but the one she prefers (created by TC) is Can Do. The other contender is Namechanger.

       Well, we have walked 836 miles and we're more than one quarter finished. There is no reason to believe we will not finish. We'll be happy when the snow is gone, like we were happy when the hot waterless desert was done but each day brings something new even if it is a new bruise, or .physical awareness of some achy thing. The water, mountains, flowers, animals, sunshine, trees more than make up for any discomfort we might incur walking a few thousand miles.

Our home for the night. Yes that is snow. 

Post holing over Mather Pass 6/4

What is it? Electron microscope section?

Today was a big day in the Sierra- 17 miles and two passes. We decided to  do passes early in the morning since they are easier to do when the snow is hard. There was one flaw in our thinking. If we did that we would be doing some really long days and perhaps extending our stay. TC worked out the details because she is into that. DG is into watching marmots stare at her and quails block her path. So today was exhausting but no one dwells on that. 

      The morning pass was ok. There was some route finding and lots of rivers and streams to ford. DG and TC remove their footware to do this. They prefer dry feet to wet feet. There were about 7 of these crossings below Pinchot Pass. Neither hiker was pleased about this. DG nearly forded the last river in her boots. She was tired of taking off everything, dropping her pack twice each crossing and the putting it all back on. She resisted the temptation and at the end of the day had relatively dry boots. 

       Mather Pass was done from about 2:00 to 5:30 (both up and over). The snow was soft and waiting to suck the the life out of our legs. Postholing is walking on the surface of seemingly solid snow and suddenly losing an entire leg deep inside a hole (sometimes you are sunk up to your groin). This hole holds you hostage until you grovel out of it. This is no easy matter because as you try to lift out the trapped limb you lose the other limb trying or else your arms start disappearing. If you are not careful in the extrication process the only thing above the snow will be your head. DG and TC were holding their breaths, trying to be light and airy. They tried sliding over the snow as if they were skating. Inevitably they both got sucked in. TC developed a way of getting her leg out by kneeling forward with the free knee and the partially entrapped knee. She looked like a midget without legs. DG held her laughter until dinner. It would have been Inappropriate as it was happening. You just can't laugh when someone is struggling to escape a snow hole. DG felt humiliated by her inability to outsmart the snow; to read it properly. The process was exhausting and by the time they reached solid ground their legs were unsteady and had a difficult time trusting and adapting to hard ground. They will try to avoid passes in the afternoon but if it happens again they might try slithering instead of standing upright.

Early morning reflection. 

Almond butter & jam to power us up the last 1/2 mile of Pinchot. 

It is a winter wonderland at 11000 ft. 

DG does her final steps to the top of the pass. 

Glen Pass 6/3

Glen Pass

Such a fuss over Forrester Pass when Glen Pass seemed steeper and harder to descend. We used our micro-spikes and found them useful. It took us an entire hour to descend. What we needed were skies, then we would have gone straight down. Tomorrow is Pinchot and possibly Mather. The Sierra is kicking our butts good. TC took some aleve tonight. She feels a bit wrecked. DG is waiting until everything or one thing really, really hurts. 

      There were a few blooming flowers - pink ones that DG said looked a bit like  columbines but TC said no. They have thin, long petals and when they're not fully blooming they droop and wrap around each other. Fresh, green leaves are sprouting out of bushes and DG did see a fire engine red Indian paintbrush. The Coolest of all was seeing two bighorn sheep climbing a hill across the river from DG and TC. Neither ladies have ever seen a bighorn in California. Of course, DG considers this fortuitous. As in, maybe they'll get this thing done...the hike that is. Marmots and chippies and deer are all the wildlife seen lately. Plenty of bear scat.

      The water falls are big and fluffy. They look like inviting foggy mist, luring you to jump in. DG and TC took their first lake dip today at upper Rae Lake. The water was crystal clear, reflecting turquoise. Fish swam around lazily looking for food and possible mates. 

       We hiked for 12 hours today and only did 14 miles the reason being we climbed to 11,900 from 11,100 then Went down to 8500 and back up to 10,560. That's enough to whip you good. Oh, did we mention the snow. There are switchbacks but what is new in the Sierra are the high stepping staircases made out of strategically placed boulders. It's like doing step-ups on the largest boxes available at your local gym... all day. Now we have to massage each other's feet or else paralysis might set in.

Suspension bridge over Woods Creek. 

Big and fluffy. 

      

Back into the Mtns. 6/2

We are at the top of Kearsage again and before contact is lost DG wanted to warn you that her trail name may be  changing. There is another hiker who is seriously filthy and should have that name. DG is a changeable kind of gal.

  One more thing; for those of you planning on doing this trail, start with the John Muir trail, test your gear, then stay out for a month or so. Some people are more suited to. section hiking. More on this later. Don't do the PCT unless you love cardio workouts, dirt, and carryiing heavy backpacks. Bye for now.9