The High Sierra Trail - Day 4

Nancy and I have backpacked together many times and already had a good routine.  In the morning, we start stirring around 6:30am, sometimes she is up earlier than me.  We make coffee first, of course!  Then breakfast.   We take about an hour to do that, get dressed, and slowly start moving around.  Then we start packing up gear.  We are usually ready to start walking right around 8:30am. 

On this day, since none of my laundry was dry, I wore my running shorts and strapped on the wet bra.  Brrrrr!  We both had our laundry hanging off our packs to dry, hobo style.

We had 8 miles to go to get to Moraine Lake with a 500 foot climb out of the junction, through thick, shady forest.  What an enchanting walk!  We made it to the top and began a pleasant descent. 

Moraine Lake is not on the High Sierra Trail.  We took a little side loop that would take us past the lake and then the next day would hook us back into the HST.

We got to Moraine Lake right around 3pm with plenty of time to take a dip in the lake and relax on its sandy beach.  For the first time, I was really able to relish the serenity of the wilderness.  I enjoyed the sunshine and the breeze and said prayers of gratitude.  It felt like we were in paradise.  I dunked down to my neck in the lake to rinse off and it was pretty cold.  It felt like bliss to my poor little toes.  This was one of my favorite days of the whole trip.

We had a nice leisurely dinner sitting on our z-pads and resting our backs against a log.  Cinnamon whiskey and honey bourbon flowed.  Mainly with the prime purpose of lightening our pack loads.  My favorite part of the day was being able to sit down on my z-pad and sip on a cup of hot chocolate as the sun set.  Ahhhhhhh!

We had another bear box available this 4th night.  A bear box is a metal container that you can put your items in that won't fit into your bear can.  We thought we would only have access to one of these the first three nights so it was a nice surprise when we saw one available at Moraine Lake.  It would turn out we would have bear box access all nights except for the last two.  In hindsight, we could have totally used our small bear cans instead of the large.  Nancy said "We'll know for next time."  I went into peals of laughter at that one.  "Nancy has jokes," I replied back. 

We slept at 9290 feet.

















Mole skin over the blisters, covered in duct tape.  Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talkin' bout!

The High Sierra Trail - Day 3

Morning came at Hamilton Lakes.  We took turns filtering water since one person needed to stay with the packs at all times in case of bears.  I lost myself sitting on the edge of Hamilton Lake, gazing into the water, admiring the sheer granite cliffs and Angels Wings- granite outcroppings that look like the wings of an angel. I came out of my daydream and realized Nancy was probably wondering what the heck was taking me so long. 

We had 8 miles to go for the day to reach Big Arroyo Junction.  I had the beginnings of blisters on the inside of each big toe.  I have never gotten blisters wearing these boots.  We hypothesized that it must be the pack weight (although Nancy didn't get any blisters).  We had to climb up 2500 feet over the Great Western Divide and Kaweah Gap.  This section of trail is extremely rocky and has many "step-ups" that work the quads and glutes to exhaustion.  We climbed and climbed and climbed, switchback after switchback.  When we reached Precipice Lake, I had to sit down and eat a bar.  Truthfully, we should have just eaten lunch there but my thought was that we needed to get up and over this thing and then we would take a nice break for lunch.  Unfortunately, that thought process doesn't work in the wilderness.  2 miles could take you more than 2 hours. 

We saw Nate (a guy we met the first day) emerge from behind some rocks and he was limping.  He was going to Mt. Whitney and hoped to be there by Friday.  Despite his twisted ankle, he was still faster than us.

From this point forward, we would only see 1-2 people a day until we reached the John Muir Trail.  None were women.

Anyway, we sat down to eat a bar.  Nancy sat on a rock and promptly fell over sideways.  I just sat on my rock, munching my bar, and watched her struggle to get her hip belt undone.  I made no move to help her.  When she had herself upright, I asked if she was alright.  She said yeah and sat in the middle of the trail and ate her bar.

Precipice Lake was stunning.  I could see it's beauty shimmering through the haze of my pain.  I thought about Ansel Adams carrying all his camera gear out here to take his famous picture back in 1932.

We continued on, only to stop again about 15 minutes later to eat lunch.  We rested at a no-name lake and soaked our feet.  I had blisters that needed attention so I engaged in wound care, filtered water and ate.  It was a wonderful delight to soak the feet.  How refreshing!

All told, it took us about 6 hours to climb 2500 feet over a 5 mile pass.  We finally made it up and over the Great Western Divide and Kaweah Gap at 10,700 feet.  I count this as one of the hardest days.  My legs were toast.

We descended the east side of the Divide and had nice easy, winding trail that re-entered us back into the trees.  We walked alongside the Big Arroyo Creek for awhile, enjoying the ease of the terrain. 

We made it to Arroyo Junction in time to do some laundry.  Since we smelled like a petting zoo, we thought it was a good idea.  We had to sit on a log first to rest because our legs and feet were so tired.  I tried to stand up and immediately fell over the log with my pack.  This sent me into fits of laughter that I couldn't control.  This laughter phenomenon occurred several times during the trip and I can only attribute it to exhaustion.  It was either laugh hysterically or sob uncontrollably.  

I did all my laundry and, of course, none of it dried by the next day.  I wore my running shorts and borrowed a pair of Nancy's socks because she was smart enough not to wash everything.  We truly looked like vagrants with all our crap hanging off our packs to dry.

We slept at 9600 feet.

This is my "What did I get myself into?" face.



Hamilton Lake







Bear poop















Precipice Lake

















Coming down the east side of the Great Western Divide.





Our laundry hanging off tree branches.

The High Sierra Trail - Day 2

We awoke the next morning at Merhten Creek to discover that Laurie was having extreme nausea.  She was not able to hold down any food at all.  She would try and then throw it up.  Not even coffee would stay down.  We took our time getting ready to go, hoping as time passed, she would be able to eat.

We started walking at about 10am with 8.5 miles to go to get to Hamilton Lakes.  As we were climbing down off our high perch above Merhten Creek, my feet slipped out from under me and I went down.  Pine needles on granite make for a slippery surface.  I started sliding head first down the granite slab toward the creek but was able to thwart the descent by grabbing onto a protruding tree root.  I could see Nancy standing on the granite above me and she called down to ask if I was okay.  I undid the hip belt and was able to right myself, then just sat there and tried to gather my wits.

Laurie agonized over the decision to continue or not.  It really tore us all up and I know she struggled immensely with the decision.  We hoped that as she started walking, maybe taking a bite here and there, she would start to feel better.  Her breathing was labored and the altitude was really bearing down.  The nausea grew so bad that every step was a struggle.  Just shy of 9-Mile Creek, she made the decision not to continue.  There were campsites and a bear box there so she felt she could stay there for a few nights to acclimate a bit more and feel better, then walk back out.  We didn't know how she would get home from Crescent Meadow but she was confident she would find a solution (that story later).

After lots of tears and hugs, we left Laurie.  Guilt consumed us as we walked away.  For the rest of the trip, we thought about Laurie every minute and wondered what she was doing and if/how she had made it home. 

She gave us Flat Stanley to travel along in her place.  Flat Stanley was made by an Alzheimer's patient and Laurie takes pictures of him during her adventures, then sends the pictures to the Alzheimer's care group so they can live vicariously through her.  It's a great program and there are a lot of Alzheimer's Flat Stanley's out there.

What I remember from the rest of that day was the heat, the uphills, pooping alot from the antibiotics, and exhaustion.  The little gnats that swarmed around my face really started pissing me off too.

We leap frogged with a couple of young dudes and passed them up at Bearpaw Meadow.  They were going to stay there and eat and then see if they felt like continuing to Hamilton Lakes.

The book calls the climb into Hamilton Lakes a "steady ascent".  I call it a lesson in pain.  We were pushing the pace to get there before dark and the climb up seemed to never end.  My hips, knees, and feet were throbbing.  We did make it and set up our tents right near the bear box.  Got water in the dark and ate our dinner in the dark.  We didn't mess around that night.  Once we were in our tents, I realized I had forgotten Nancy's birthday!  I yelled, "Nancy!!"  She said "What!?" thinking something was wrong.  "Happy Birthday!  I can't believe I forgot to tell you that!"  She said "Oh you scared the crap out of me but thank you!"  Nancy turned 58 on the trail that day.  She was a machine!  I think she could have just marched herself on over to Whitney Portal without taking a single break.  She was ceaseless, kept a steady pace, stopped when I needed to stop (or poop), ate when I needed to eat, and had an iron will and extreme mental fortitude.

The young dudes had come into the camp about 30 minutes after we did and they were exhausted so that made me feel better :-p  There were also 3 British dudes and a German.  We told them all about Laurie and they said they would look for her on their way back to Crescent Meadow.  We told everyone we met on the trail about Laurie and everyone said how smart she was and made the right decision to turn back.  There were times when I wished that I had turned back with her...

The elevation at Hamilton Lakes was 8235 feet.