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| The melt lake below Glen Pass, south side. |
June 12th, it's about almost
12pm. I have made very few miles today. I made it up and over Glen
Pass, came out of the valley from Forester, but my foot today is
still hurting A LOT. On top of Glen Pass I stopped for a good half
hour and tried to see exactly – figure out what's wrong. Because if
I can't fix it myself, then that means I'll probably have to get off
trail if it doesn't heal itself on its own, which good luck. I
managed to pop one other little spot – deeep blister, but its still
oooooch. I stopped for about 5 minuted and got back up on it and
wooooh, it really hurts. It kinda goes away after hiking on it for a
while, but it's still definitely there. If you get a rock in the
wrong spot, it hurts quite a bit. So today I made the decision on
Glen Pass to just keep going. I have 5 days worth of food, so I
should be able to make it pretty much anywhere. I'm not worried about
running out if I needed to get out. I'm just going to see how far I
can get and see if it gets better. I'm probably not even at 10 miles
for today and it's almost 12pm. I hope to make it up the next pass
and make it 25-30 miles for the
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| Just after the Rae Lakes. |
day. But right now if no improvements
occur, I might be getting out at Mammoth, or maybe Tuolumne if I
really feel like pushing it. I'll just have to see how this foot
goes. It's almost like the final straw - mentally, physically I'm
alright with doing big miles, but kinda of emotionally, it seems to
be like - I'm in the Sierras, it's spectacularly gorgeous right now.
I mean it's like a whole month ahead of schedule {seasons} and it
really pains me to have to go flying through here and not be able to
stop and take it all in. Ya know, its just one of those things that
the trail, obviously hiking isn't easy, but for me, I'll put the time
in, the miles in and it's done. It's not like its super hard. But on
the other side its like comparing hard vs. fun and it has been not
that much fun. Which it's not really supposed to be I guess. But I
feel like whats the point if you're not stopping and absorbing and
enjoying what you're doing. I mean I could be walking on I-5 if I was
just trying to break a record. Thats just kind of the difference I
feel like, why walk somewhere beautiful really really fast if you're
not going to enjoy the beauty. You might as well be somewhere else
doing that or just doing something else. So, basically coming over
Glen pass I've stuck myself into the Sierras and we'll see where I
go. I might be able to have my foot get better and keep on trucking
or I might just have to get off trail. So I'm planning on, if it
doesn't get better, get off at Mammoth, get a hotel, call Scott, get
my ass picked up sometime and go from there. Or if I have to get off
earlier then VVR, or Muir Trail Ranch, something like that. We'll see
how the days go. I just want to make it over Pinchot Pass today, ohh
its gonna be a bitch. That's all.
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| 300 degree panorama of Glen Pass. |
June 12th, Day 19. I hiked 31.75 miles
ending at mile 818.75. Just about a 1.5 half down from Mather Passin
some trees next to a little creek. I stopped at point 0369432E
4101047N. Ohhh where to start about yesterday... It was my lowest
mileage day yet, which does have a little bit to do with having done
3 passes yesterday, each one above 12,000ft. Glen Pass, Pinchot Pass
and then Mather Pass. I started off at the bottom of the climb up to
Glen Pass, so that was about 3,000 to 3,500 ft climb. That morning my
foot just hurt, my left foot, right on the ball between my little toe
and the next toe, this shooting sharp terrible pain, which I didn't
know if I could figure out what it was. I had tried the day before
with no avail. I managed to get a little something out. I stopped at
the top of Glen Pass after going pretty dang slow because if I kept
going, I'd be stuck in the Sierra with no real easy exit. But, if I
turned around I could go out Kearsarge Pass that was only about 3.5
miles back and get out at Independence. It would have been the easy
way to get out. Otherwise, I
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| The long long up to Pinchot Pass..can't even see it yet! |
sat up there for a good 30 minutes and
really looked over my foot and eventually managed to pop this super
tiny little blister right in the area where the pain was. I had
popped one earlier, it's kind this disjointed large blister -but I
don't know, you can't really..... {Helicopter noise, me chuckling} It
looks like they {Park Service} is transporting a bear. There's a
helicopter flying over with a big cargo net hanging from the bottom
and it's black....Anyways, I got that popped and my foot still ached.
But I decided that I had plenty of food, so I might as well just keep
going through the Sierras, even if I had to take it slow, I could pop
out at Mammoth or find some other way out if I did happen to run out
of food. I mean if that was going to be the end of my trip, I might
as well try and go through the Sierras and enjoy it going slow at
least. So I pressed on. The pain really didn't go away, didn't go
away. I got down to the Rae Lakes it was still there. I made it a
little bit passed and I stopped at a tree and tried to plan out my
leaving the trail - ya know like how many days of food, how many
miles, especially if my foot didn't get better. Then I just kept
slowly trotting on, with no real expectation of sticking to the
record because my foot was just aching. But about halfway through the
day, my foot
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| Pinchot Pass conquered, view south! |
started not hurting anymore. I wasn't super energetic, I
knew I had a huge climb up to Pinchot Pass. You drop down to about
8,500 ft then go back up to about 12,500 ft and it's just a long long
exposed climb. You can't see the pass until you're right on it, so
you never know where you're headed to, and you just kind of wind
around, so it's not very fun. But, you know, I finally made it to the
top of that around 4 or 5 O'clock and it was only mile like maybe 20,
so I was going realllllly slow. But I was at the top and was feeling
good - nice views. The last time I was up there it was totally white
out conditions, I couldn't see anything and it was cold and snowing.
So it was big difference. There is zero snow up there. The two lakes
on the back side - the north side - in 2009 were completely frozen.
This time there was no ice, no snow. It's really... the difference
between these two years - an average year and this year is really
immense. But I kept going, down, down, down. I met a few people. My
goal was to at least get up to Mather Pass to make it a 30, because
the top of the pass was right about 30. I met a big group of about 10
people, all thru-hikers, and was like "what the hell', they were
all kinda camping together. The approach up to Mather was really
nice. It's just gentle, not
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| Lake Marjorie on the way down from Pinchot Pass. |
really ever steep, the switchbacks at the
top are great. But before I broke out of the trees, I actually saw
Not A Chance - the girl who I gave that name too in 2009 in southern
California. I knew she was on trail, she's been hiking pretty much
every year I think. Somewhere along the line we knew we were going to
cross, and we crossed. So I spent about 20-25 minutes chatting with
her. They were really stoked at what I'm doing. And I'm like "I'm
trying!" This is a lot harder mentally or just emotionally.
Mentally, I'm like go and just do it, fine. Physically my body is OK.
I have noticed a big weight loss. Which isn't very good because I
don't have much to lose, therefore, I don't know whats going to
happen coming up for the next half. But yeah, it was dark, I was
night hiking. I got up to the top of Mather at probably about 9:45pm
and just sat there for a little while. The stars were super bright,
no lights anywhere else, the moon hadn't come up - it's just a sliver
now anyways. It was jut really really peaceful. Ya know being at
12,300 feet, the starts just look extra bright. I hiked down a little
ways until the first set of trees with a good little campsite and
that's where I parked it for the day. Phew. It was a low mile tough
day with 3 passes, that's for damn sure. I really wish I would have
gotten more so
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| Looking south a few miles before Mather Pass. |
that I can keep up a little bit more it would have
been a little nicer so that I wouldn't have to take the Reds Meadows
detour or have to wait or whatever for it and actually arrive in
Tuolumne Meadows without having to worry about the store being closed
and getting my packaged next. So that's really just my next goal, get
to Tuolumne and decide from there. I mean mentally I'm hungry, I'm
tired - I mean I just need sleep. My body is....my brain is tired. My
body feels OK, it just keeps going and going and going. But mentally
it's just like ugggghhhhh! I wish I could walk and sleep and eat.
I've been dreaming about, or day dreaming about buffets all day long.
I just want to eat and do nothing. {Laughs} Actually one of the
things I talked to Not A Chance about was "I've almost
considered getting off trail just so I can sit around and do nothing
and eat." I mean it's really that big of a pull. We'll see,
we'll see. Ya know, it's one of those... It's not necessarily
enjoyable. I really like where I'm at right now in the Sierras, but
I'm still having to put in the miles and go fast. It's just the
culmination of everything is just uggggghhhh, this weight on your
shoulders. You know you're stressing all day long about miles and how
they impact the future. Ya know, I don't think about time as an
hour....I don't think of an hour as an hour anymore, I think of an
hour as somewhere around 3-4 miles, which is a total change in
perception. It's really strange actually, to think of it that way.
Anytime you're not moving, are miles that you're not making.
Basically part of the record that you're not going to break by more
time. So, it's stress, it, it really is stressful. Just for the fact
that you're tying to do something withing a schedule and you're
trying to make the deadline. It's like having this huge deadline but
you have to think about it every day for 60 days before it's due. Add
on top of that, you just have to keep on moving, skip things and not
rest and it's a pain in the ass.
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| 360 panorama of Pinchot Pass. |
