It is nice to wake among the trees again. First there is the twilight which gets me half awake. Then the birds start their racket. Then the early hiking crowd starts shuffling by. No point trying to sleep through all that.
I left a respectable deposit for the forest before I left. That should get the ecosystem going.
Zach’s crew left ahead of me.
The terrain is definitely improving. The trail never dips below 5k now. Also the trail is following some rugged mountains with steep drops and lots of exposed granite. It might sound odd, but I can feel the Sierras seeping in. These trails feel more and more like what I’m used to there. The winds can be nasty, but only over the peaks. There is a nice chill in the air. I’m crossing streams that have decent flow, versus the pathetic springs over the last 200 miles. I’m almost home….I can feel it.
Ran into various hikers on the way up. I am now in sync with a group running for the next logical campground (Fox Mill ). On the way up I ran into Zach’s crew taking an early lunch. Here is a pic of Zach in his ideal resting pose. Face down with his hands tucked into a special warm place.
The highlight today was this exposed ridge line at 676. Coming up to it is fairly protected, but I could tell it was going to be a nasty crossing. Took this video before I got into the exposed section.
The ridge is a saddle between two taller peaks. All the wind is being compressed by a huge valley to the west and then getting pushed up and through through this narrow section. Just looking at the trees, you could tell this place is often a wind tunnel. To the east, it is a straight down drop…so if you get picked up by the wind something bad is going to happen when gravity takes over.
Sure enough, crossing did not disappoint. The wind was a constant 40 mph with nasty gusts of who knows what speed. I was crouched down, leaning west into the wind running from tree to tree trying to time the gusts. Most of the time I had my hands touching the ground scrambling. Cold and scary. Got to the other side and below the worst of the wind I stopped to put on my gloves and warm up.
Others popped out while I was there. We were all coming off an adrenaline high. Shaking either from the cold, the fear, or a combination of both. Wish I could have taken a video of some folks going through.
Anyway, after that it was a pleasant downhill run to Chimney Creek. Zach’s crew was there with Sinatra and a few others. I managed to Yogi some Ramen and a bag of crushed cheeseits from a gal (Monarch) who had food to spare. Sinatra borrowed a couple handfuls of the Cheeseits to spread over a flour tortilla covered in mustard. It seems gross writing about it, but at the time I thought it genius.
After a bit, most of us loaded up and took off. Zach and Seabiscuit stayed to rest for a bit but that rest turned into an overnight stay for them. Last I saw Zach he was face down in his classic resting pose.
Hauled ass up to Fox Mill Spring and joined one of 3 large groups of tents. Sinatra was setup next to me. Finally ran into a gal named Unicorn. Been waiting for weeks to find someone named Unicorn so I could tear off a piece of my unicorn duct tape to stick on his/her pack. Turns out she already had some…..figures.
Unbeknownst to me, the group of tents I parked next to was giggling girlville. Apparently they call themselves the hobo’s and every night someone reads a chapter from Harry Potter to the group. Sinatra volunteered for that and was doing his best to imitate the voices of the characters. Oh how lame cute.
It was cold, I was tired, and could care less about Harry Potter’s ass. I zipped up and went to sleep to Sinatra’s poor attempt at Dumbledore’s voice.
Did a 20 today. I’m at 683. Tomorrow it is 20 more miles to Kennedy Meadows, the gateway to the Sierra !