Day 84: Mile 942.5 - 959.8
This was a day in two Acts.
In Act the First, we headed out from camp early--relatively early, around 7:50am (still before 8am!)--and hiked from Tuolumne Meadows Campground to Glen Aulin. This is a hike I'd done before, with Kyle Stewart et al, as just a day-hike. And this was a portion I was actually excited about, because I remembered how nice it was. From the initial flatter portion coming out of Soda Springs, where you walk in the woods until suddenly it breaks and you're walking across these massive rock flows as large as entire hillsides, that in one place drops directly into a meadow, split by a river, flanked by conifers, with the granite pinnacles and slopes in the distance reaching for the blue blue sky. It was picturesque when I hiked it with the Kyle Group, it was just as picturesque today! And then the trail rises up onto some rocks, affords a view of an expansive canyon, then turns the corner and begins a dance with the Tuolumne River. The Tuolumne flows down rapidly here, bouncing between the big rocks, tumbling down the mountainside, and the trail follows alongside, jutting in right up against the river, then veering off into the woods, then coming back again, then veering again. Each time it approaches the River, I'm struck by just the power and strength on display, all that water, inexorable, relentless, unstoppable. Some of the falls along the way are magnificient, and I stopped more than once to try and capture them on film. This section ended at Glen Aulin, where--after crossing a bridge to get to the north shore--we sat on a sandy beach, I took my breakfast, and we looked out at the big falls plunging into a wide pool. Lots of folks went swimming (I did not), but talking to some of them afterwards, they felt that this was a really beautiful section, really neat with the river cascading down alongside the trail, and this from folks who've hiked the Sierras, who've seen over 250 miles of the Sierras from Kennedy Meadows South up to here. These people, they were still impressed.
And I'll tell you the secret. I've already alluded to it but here it is: this is a day hike. This isn't some hike you need to backpack in the wilderness for 3 days and cross 2 passes to find. This is a hike where you can park in a parking lot, get out of your car, and hike for 5 miles, and see. Today it was virtually empty out there--although we were going in the early morning before the tourists arrived--but it's here, it's (relatively) easy to get to, and it's magnificent. So why aren't you out here?
In Act the Second, we headed north, out of Glen Aulin, and this section was much more sparse. I remember back with the Kyle Group, looking out over this way and thinking, I wonder where *that* goes (i.e., indulging the First Old Friend), and now I got to find out! And it ascends up through a canyon, flanked to the west by gray granite, to the east by black basalt, then breaks into a wide meadow, then climbs some more through the woods, crosses a couple streams. This section, though, was the first section in the Sierras where I got that wilderness feel, that feeling of really being out there. Maybe it's just a reaction to the Yosemite Valley crowds of yesterday, but in this section, I really felt there weren't that many people. No JMT hikers, a passel of PCT hikers, and some random folks. Maybe it was the contrast with the obvious civilization of Glen Aulin, or maybe it was closeness of the woods, the way hidden canyons would open up suddenly, the granite of the other side just mountains obviously carved by glacier, the rock rounded and smooth and shiny, but this really felt like it was out there, beyond where most people go, the trail wandering into hidden gems, small and private and still wild. I felt like I was walking some old trail--clearly well-traveled, for in some places the trail has been worn down 6-inches or more from the surrounding ground--but perhaps long since forgotten, and we were rediscovering it with each step. At one point there was a meadow that suddenly opened up as the woods broke, pristine and huge, running for over half a mile and stretching clear to the mountain slopes on each side, and as we stopped to stare in wonder, Kahleesi said, ok how many out of 10 and would you frolic? And she had it right: 10/10 would frolic again.
I mentioned this feeling--of finally finding the Wilderness in the Sierras--to Dylan, and I'm not sure he agreed; he maybe understood it intellectually, but didn't feel it. So maybe this sense of finding hidden gems in the mountains is confined to just me. Regardless I found this section, this Act the Second, endearing for that.
And that was the day! We ended at Miller Lake, with most of the group intact: AC/DC and Outlast, Dylan and Uno and myself, and Quiet joined us today as well. As for Lux and Kahleesi, they have a meeting with family around Lake Tahoe (somewhere between South Lake Tahoe and Truckee), so they're trying to push ahead to get there in time. They were planning to push for a couple extra miles after Miller Lake, so they're ahead. Dylan called it the breaking of the fellowship and said his final regards (he's a bit dramatic about these sorts of things); miles are hard to make up, so when someone gets ahead a little bit, and does that again the next day, pretty soon the difference becomes insurmountable. I suspect with the way towns work--they seem to effectively become "fixed points in time"--we might see them again down the road, but they're in racing mode now and the rest of us are not.
-- Tuolumne Meadows Campground > Soda Springs > Glen Aulin > Return Creek > Spiller Creek > Miller Lake
-- Just a little incident: early in the morning, walking out to Soda Springs with Uno, she stopped to blow a snot rocket or two. And then turned to me and said, I don't mean to mock you or anything. Which is sweet: I *can't* blow my nose at this point--not only does it hurt too much, I can't bring up that much breath--but I'm a big fan of nasal breathing while hiking, so that makes things complicated. So her comment, while it may seem strange on the surface (is this some advanced form of, "do you thumb your nose at me, sir?"), in reality is quite thoughtful!
-- At Glen Aulin there's actually a trail junction. One line goes north the way of the PCT, but the other goes orthogonal, and continues following the Tuolumne River. At this point, the Tuolumne River really plunges--from the bridge across it at Glen Aulin, you can look out west and see the river just end as it disappears over a cliff--and there's a trail that runs along the River, down that canyon. I've never been, but it looks absolutely awesome. There was a couple that I passed on the way in to Tuolumne Meadows the other day--I was racing to get to the General Store so didn't slow to talk at the time, although, from their tone, I think they would have been up for it--and I had met them again at the campground and talked a bit (now that I had more time). And they were doing a backpacking trip along that very trail, I believe. But that's a trip to keep in the back pocket, to mull over and add to the list, because it looks just incredible.
-- I am now gun shy at river crossings. Lux had asked about that once while we were hiking: are you more hesitant at river crossings now? And the answer is definitely yes. In fact, at the second big crossing today--Spiller Creek--instead of making a jump between two rocks (which both Dylan and Uno had just done), I said I'm just getting my feet wet and waded through calf-deep water instead. But my confidence on rock hopping is much much less than it used to be, and whenever I see water flowing that's more than a couple feet deep, the fear starts to kick in and needs to be managed. I think the only way to get back the confidence is over time and crossings, but it's going to be a slow process, I think. (And I'm going to pay for my recalcitrance: the crossing where I got my feet wet was late in the day, with the sun already at a slant, so I had wet feet the rest of the hike, with little prospect of drying. When we got to this lake, I immediately peeled off my shoes and insoles and socks and put them to dry, but the warmth of the day had definitely already passed. And I stuck wandering around the lake--and over the grasses and gravel field where we made camp--without shoes, which wasn't fun!) (Dylan wants to get hobbit feet, so he wanders around camp barefoot all the time--I had that aspiration in college for a few weeks until hot asphalt changed my mind, and have left that aspiration on the shelf ever since!)
-- Speaking of Dylan, he finished the day with a big smile. Any day that's a 3-swim day is a good day, he declared. He had swum at Glen Aulin (swimming right up to the falls), at McCabe Creek (or Return Creek, they're both right there) (and it's where Booming Voice Man said the best seat in the world is right over there, and it wasn't even in the water?), and at Miller Lake at the end of the day. Three swims on the day. And honestly, that's not a bad criteria for evaluating days!
-- While we were at McCabe Creek/Return Creek, we felt an earthquake: a brief one, just a few seconds, rolling the ground a little bit. Nothing dramatic for us, but hopefully anybody climbing--like in the Valley--are fine.
-- At the day's-end campsite at Miller Lake, I did some exploring of the rock bluffs just above the lake. And I found a collection of discarded tent stakes, and a few campsites scattered amongst the rocks and trees. By coincidence, at the lake edge, Quiet mentioned that she had lost some tent stakes. Oh, I found a bunch, I said, and showed her the collection: about 5-6 stakes, different colors and makes, but all looking pretty good. Also pointed out the campsites. And she proposed, well, if you don't have a trail name yet, how about Spotter? Which is a nice name, and I appreciate that it's a positive one, but I don't think it would ever catch on: I'm only occasionally observant, and am so often blind when it really counts!
-- Quiet, by the way, is bloody fast! She left Glen Aulin at the same time we did. Is this the way?, she asked at the junction, and I said, yep, it's that way. Thanks, she said, and took off. I started along the trail myself, looked up to see her in profile, charging up a switchback, looked back down to see my footing, then looked up again and she was gone. Didn't see her again until Miller Lake!
-- Today was pretty hot, and it seemed that Dylan and Uno were getting hit hard by the heat. How do you hike with two layers on?, Dylan asked, referring to my getup of thin black sun shirt beneath with bright green T-shirt on top. And the answer is twofold. First, I'm used to the heat--I hike in southern California. I'm used to hiking with sweat literally dripping from my brow and nose onto the ground, with my shirt sticking to my chest. That's just summer to me. Second, whenever a breeze comes, even if it's just a little movement of the air, I relish and enjoy it: because I'm sweating so much, the breeze does a *lot* of cooling. And luckily, in the Sierras so far the air has been moving; contrast Chino Hills south, or the bit of trail between Tenaja Falls and South Tenaja Trail--in those places, in the mid-to-late summer, the air doesn't move. *That's* when the heat starts to become unbearable. But given that the air moves up here, I'm sticking with my long pants and double-shirt getup. Plus it helps keep the bugs off me (Dylan and Uno were getting bitten by flies who would seemed to be taking a pound of flesh as tribute with each chomp--those bites hurt!).
-- The mileage discussions have begun: while in Yosemite Valley, folks had started looking at how many miles we have to do per day to finish in time, and started getting antsy. On paper, it looks intimidating: my current schedule calls for 20 mile days starting at Kennedy Meadows North, with no zero days, and still just misses the 1 October deadline. Kahleesi thought of it differently: we have 10 weeks left, so we need 150 miles/week. (Actually, come to think of it, Gutfish used to think of it in weeks too.) Either way, the numbers look bad, and the sense of urgency is starting to kick in. For this stretch--the 75 miles to Kennedy Meadows North--the goal is to do at least 15 miles a day, preferrably more. Do resupply in Kennedy Meadows North then take a nero in Kennedy Meadows--sleep just the one night--and head out the next day and push on to South Lake Tahoe. Hopefully if I can do 15+ miles a day in the Sierras, that means my trail legs will be strong enough to do the 20+ miles a day I'll need the rest of the way.
-- Oh, the x-out-of-10 line is a joke from Guthooks. Especially in the desert, people would rate water sources, giving them x/10 and then adding a comment on their flow rate or taste of water or somesuch. So the x/10 rating is a standing joke on the trail. Kahleesi's comment, then, was perhaps more whimsical than might first appear to non-PCT folks, a perfect apertif to frolicking!
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