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Day 50
We don’t see a soul all day. If there is a way to move with grace and ease over the snow, we haven’t found it. In the morning we stumble over sun cups, in the afternoon we posthole up a slushy Pinchot Pass. My grace continues to diminish on the way down. At one point…
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Day 49 (Pete)
I wrote an entry early this morning at the Pines Cafe and I think the day number was forty three. We finished our breakfast, which was excellent, and set about our business. I got Siri on the phone and we had a good conversation. Dylan went to the PO and got our box. We sorted…
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Day 49 (Tape)
K, today’s June 4th. I missed a couple days here. The, the batteries in my microcassette recorder finally out, and that ah led me to figure out that I had been recording stuff on the, over ah, I’ve been recording over earlier entries on my previous tape. So, thankfully, I would’ve done it more except…
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Day 49
The Restaurant Breakfast has become a celebrated event. Filled with confidence and well-being we find a ride back to the trailhead with no effort. A wild looking group in an old pickup offers to take us while their laundry dries. They are travelling the country gathering herbs and spreading the Proclamation of Peace. Our bodies…
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Day 48 (Pete)
Instead of writing anything last night, I decided to hold out for the luxury of a table at the Pines Cafe here in Independence. The Cafe is closed. That means it’s before six thirty in the morning. We are sitting and waiting and this fills the time nicely. Yesterday was easy. We had to climb…
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Day 48 (Tape)
Dylan: This is the evening of June 2nd. And we are now spreading our sleeping bags in a much different environment from last night. Ah, well, Pete what would you say is different about this spot as compared with last night? Pete: There’s no snow on the ground, first of all. (laugh) The stars aren’t…
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Day 48
Our navigational mantra becomes “Trail Schmail”. The more we try to stick to our imaginings of where the trail might be under the snow, the harder the going gets. So we give up and just go where we’re going. Trail Schmail. Going up Kearsarge Pass Pete has a conversation with a nearby coyote. They both…
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Day 47 (Tape)
Okay it’s Saturday morning and our first task… the sun is still behind Mt Whitney, the fields are covered with frost, and our first task of the day is to, Oh God, (painful laugh) walk barefoot across a freezing cold Whitney Creek. Pete: And here’s how cold it is: Oh Jesus! (Screams shrieks and moans)…
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Day 47
The events of today are far and away beyond the means to experience vicariously through words. Being, however, that it was one of the most exhilarating, full, and altogether surreal days of my life, I will attempt to make a record of it. I’ve never been a coffee drinker. Some people like it as a…
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Day 46 (Pete)
I was wrong about two things. The climb was 8.7 miles and a 4,150 ft. altitude gain. That’s one. Sneaking past the ranger station wasn’t the crux of the day. It did, however, come right off. The prospect of wading icy cold Whitney creek and clambering up on to the frost caked far bank at…