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Day 54 (Pete)
Today was such a long day its difficult to remember if this morning was yesterday or today. Its really difficult to convey what goes into one of one days. To start, we do a lot of exercise. For the first time in my life, I can have a great day, a happy day, a horrible…
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Day 54 (Tape)
Saturday June 8th. And, we just kind of ah… there’s this little ford, Fish Creek. We are doing kind of an alternate route to the PCT, lower down, out of the snow, because I lost my sunglasses. And we just tried to do this ford. And looking back on it, we might have done it…
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Day 54
Another pass, Silver Pass, I hiked over but never saw. My sunglasses disappeared during a creek ford, leaving me seriously worried about snow blindness. I hiked over the pass in Pete’s footsteps, peeking through squinted eyes. The day is full of emotion: our laughter echoes far below us during a thrilling glacade, we are both…
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Day 53 (Pete)
This morning I turned a bend in the train and saw what looked like a giant fat mangy dog bolting away from me at a lightning pace. A bear! I saw a bear! The first time in my life. It wanted nothing to do with me. We have begun to discover what lower elevations bring;…
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Day 53 (Tape)
Friday June 7th, early in the morning. I’m walkin along the San Joaquin River. Very low elevation. We dipped below 8000 feet here, just barely. At the bottom of this ah, descent. And I find myself, I mean, the walking is easy, the environment is nice. The trail has not even a hint of snow.…
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Day 53
After the hellish snow on Muir Pass, we are dreading Seldon Pass. But it turns out to be fun, we don’t even change out of our running shoes. Next we start to dread the crossing of Bear Creek, which I’ve heard frightening tales about. But we avoid the ford by going cross-country higher up. We’re…
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Day 52 (Pete)
Oh did I wake up in a foul foul mood this morning. It seemed way too early for Dylan to be rolling up his pad. I languished in my bag. The ascent back up into the snow and up Muir Pass was, although reported to be easy, very daunting. Totally sick of snow, I bemoaned…
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Day 52 (Tape)
It’s late in the day, June 6th, Thurday. We are contemplating THE BIGGEST, BY FAR ford that we’ve done. Pete’s doing a dry run without a backpack right now. He’s in to his waist, about. Not even halfway across, he’s having trouble walking. He’s turning around. Looks like the water’s too fast, gets too deep.…
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Day 52
Pete is not in the mood for snow today. I love this terrain, and maintain some enthusiasm for us up Muir Pass. On the other side, though, my force runs out. The snow becomes a patient assailant bent on slowly, unstoppably driving us mad. There is nothing but whiteness around us, no sound but the…
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Day 51 (Pete)
We treaded softly past Yogi curled up in his sleeping bag at a time that qualified as a late start for us. The river didn’t give up anything less than waist deep roaring torrents. Eventually, up river, Dyl spied a large half submerged log spanning the entire breadth. It was ice slick, of coarse. The…