We had 8.5 miles to go this day to get to Crabtree Meadow. I think it ended up being closer to 9 (according to Jeff). Jeff decided that it was time for him to pack up and move on to Crabtree Meadow himself. What a coincidence...hmmmm. He said he was friends with the Ranger up there and wanted to visit him.
We left the Kern Canyon and Jeff behind and started a slow tedious climb. We climbed all day. Switchback after switchback. I was exhausted. I began thinking I was too tired to climb Mt. Whitney. In fact, I was cursing Mt. Whitney. Nancy powered on through those switchbacks, keeping a steady pace despite the steep ascent. Jeff soon caught up with us. We paused to take pictures- he took pictures of us with our phones and we took pictures of him with his camera (and my phone). He wanted pictures for his son and girlfriend back home. He had a lot of tips on how to cook fish in the backcountry.
We came to a stream crossing and Jeff drank directly out of the stream with his tin cup. He's probably immune to giardia since he spends so much time out there. He gave Nancy some tips on crossing the stream and helped her across. He told us we "only" had about a mile more of uphill and the terrain would level out. We were beginning to think that maybe he wasn't a serial killer after all but just a well-intentioned stalker.
Jeff blazed on and we fell far behind him. The trail kept going up and up and up. We thought surely we've gone a mile, when is this crap going to even out?? I'll tell you when- NEVER! It was uphill switchbacks the whole 9 miles.
We reached 10,400 feet and turned right where the Pacific Crest Trail, The John Muir Trail, and The High Sierra Trail all converge into one. At 10,800 feet we turned east to follow The John Muir Trail/High Sierra Trail route. We saw more people since we hit The John Muir Trail -even a couple of women. These JMT hikers are insane. They do 20 mile days and go super fast. I just don't know how they do it. Nancy said we could do it too if we were 20 years old. One JMT hiker had a huge bag of peanut M&Ms in the back of his pack and I felt like tackling him to get those tasty treats.
At this point, I should probably talk about the mind games I played with myself. This effort was very much mind over matter. Singing was my number one technique- mostly to myself but sometimes out loud, to Nancy's chagrin, I'm sure. The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah, was one of my favorites. I also tried to sing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall but substitute Switchback for Beer. I could never quite get the rhythm to work out in my head though. I repeatedly sang Put One Foot in Front of the Other from the Christmas cartoon Santa Claus is Coming to Town:
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor.
You put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door.
You never will get where you're going
If ya never get up on your feet.
Come on, there's a good tail wind blowin'
A fast walking man is hard to beat.
Here's a Youtube in case you don't know what I'm talkin' bout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OORsz2d1H7s
One I belted out near Guitar Lake was my beloved White Snake's Here I Go Again (just the chorus out loud- the rest I sang in my head since I know ALL the lyrics). Nancy said she had never heard this before. What?! I'm sure she has. It was just my bad singing that confused her.
I don't know where I'm going
But, I sure know where I've been
Hanging on the promises
In songs of yesterday
An' I've made up my mind,
I ain't wasting no more time
But, here I go again
Here I go again
Tho' I keep searching for an answer,
I never seem to find what I'm looking for
Oh Lord, I pray
You give me strength to carry on,
'Cos I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
An' here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known,
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone
An' I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time
I'm just another heart in need of rescue,
Waiting on love's sweet charity
An' I'm gonna hold on
For the rest of my days,
'Cos I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
An' here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known,
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone
An' I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3MXiTeH_Pg
Another technique was attempting to disassociate my mind from the pain. It was sort of a meditative state that occurred as a sleepy, zombie-like quality as my mind seemed to hover near my body and observe the pain but was not in direct connection with the pain. If that makes any sense at all. It was nearly impossible to achieve but a few times this served me well. It usually didn't last longer than 10 minutes but it was enough for me to take a few more steps.
And of course I prayed. My prayers went like this: Please help me take one more step, Please help me get up these switchbacks, Please get me to the destination, Thank you for the beauty that surrounds me, Thank you the ability to move forward, Please, Please, Please.....
I would also imagine a tether attached to Nancy's backpack and tied around my waist. I would envision her pulling me up and over the mountains. Did you feel me piggy backing, Nancy?
At some point during this day, in the afternoon, we heard a distinct growl. Nancy stopped dead in her tracks and asked if that was me. Altitude makes you fart up a storm so she thought maybe I had let one off. No, I said that was definitely a growl. We scanned the hillside looking for movement. I was looking for bear and she was looking for mountain lion. Then she said she thought it was just the trees groaning. No way, that was definitely a growl. We hightailed it out of there but looked over our shoulders quite a bit and felt very uneasy.
We reached Crabtree Meadow at 4:45pm. I seriously could hardly take one more step. I had to sit for quite some time before I could set up my tent.
Jeff found us and said how impressed he was with the great time we made. We were like, huh?! He made it to Crabtree by 3pm. He told us about a spring where we could get water and showed Nancy the bear box and an outdoor pit toilet. I sat like a lump on a log and ate a bar. He said if we wanted to come up to his tent and socialize to feel welcome. His ranger friend was not there. I didn't want to socialize.
We got everything set up and our dinners eaten. The clouds were looking pretty ominous. We had just crawled into our tents when a thunder, lightening and hail storm rolled through. It was so scary! The lightening lit everything up and seemed very close. I thought about yelling over to Nancy to see if she was okay but she wouldn't have been able to hear me anyway.
My last thought as I drifted off to sleep was, Jeff won't try to kill us when it's thunder and lightening outside.....
We slept at 10,700 feet.
This is Jeff.
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