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| Mono Creek west of JMT |
Friday , July 6th
I was really tired last night. I boiled
up some cous cous, dried peas and dehydrated tomatoes all together in two tablespoons
of ghee for dinner , then promptly there after feel asleep. I am thankful that I am not bothering with a
tent this trip, because setting up and taking that thing down every day gets to
be a tedious chore. For the first time, I slept straight though the night and awoke to the sounds of my
chirping birds totally refreshed thinking this is what it feels like to be
totally alive – felling that I am getting connected to the Earth again.
Today I will be making a side trip
to the Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR).
The VVR is at the west end of Lake Thomas A. Edison and there is a ferry
boat that meets people at the east end to take them across and back for $20.
The other option is to hike the 7 miles around
the lake, which I am thinking of doing as a training run.
I feel that I could use the running
miles.
Before I go though, I am planning
on washing my clothes and hanging them on a line to dry since I will be gone
most of the day.
I am camped close to a
fast running stream and despite the fact that I can’t see any signs of fish, I
go grab my fly rod.
I do this more out
of wanting to explore the stream than wanting some fish for breakfast.
However, after an hour of fruitless casting using
both a parachute adams and a gold ribbed hare’s ear I call it quits. For the
first time this trip, I didn’t even get a bump nor did I see any sign of fish.
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| Laundry Day |
With the
laundry done (I just rinsed my stuff out mostly) and hanging on the line and I
get the camp all tidied up as I will be leaving my backpack and most of my
things here and run done to the VVR. I will be only carrying only a light shoulder
bag with a few essentials. VVR has a
free battery charging station so I am bringing my Trent battery, Cell phone, Garmin. I also need to bring some clean clothes to change
into after the shower and that’s about it.
There is a restaurant over there so I won’t need to carry any food.
I start
running down what I imagine will be a fairly level easy trail as
it follows the lake. Somewhere, somehow
I forgot that there is nothing easy around here and even though the trail
follows the lake, there is a lot of uphill and downhill due to granite
outcroppings that need to be traversed. While flying down one incline, my feet quickly and gingerly sensing out the terrain
of rocks, soil and tree roots, I am suddenly confronted by a towering
figure in front of me. A NFS ranger is
sitting up in his saddle leading a pack of mules down the trail. Thankful that I didn’t startled his horse and
mules, I pull aside and allow them to pass.
I push onwards and complete the 7 mile trail run in 80 minutes, a very
good clip for me through this difficult terrain between 7,500 and 8,000 feet
altitude.
The VVR
can be reached by road from the west and there are quite a few people out here
today picnicking and camping. I excuse myself and interrupt one of these picnicking
families and ask them where the store is.
They point me down the hill and toward a road I can see in the distance. The store carries the typical fair of junk
food along with some hiking supplies but no fresh fruit or vegetables – oh,
well I wasn’t expecting much. I buy 4
trail bars they have on sale for a buck each, a few packs of hot chocolate which
will be a nice treat in the evenings, a box of raisins I can add to my food and
one more fishing lure identical to the one that has been so successful so far,
just in case I lose it. I plug in my devices
at the charging station, then pay for and take that much talked about shower.
After
the shower, I head over to the restaurant which has a very friendly feel to it
with an outdoor patio and long wooded bar and stools that surround the
perimeter. There are three other hikers
sitting at this bar talking with the waitress and I join them. Two of them were PCT solo hikers, George and Kelly,
who were both kicking back taking a day or two off from the trail while the other guy was
just out here camping for a few days. I ordered
fish and chips which turned out to be a great choice as they were thick and
meaty with a batter that wasn’t too greasy and went really well with my free
beer. George told me me that all hikers
get a free beer, so I looked at the waitress thinking he was joking but she
replied, “sure, go ahead and grab yourself a beer out of the cooler” in a “yea,
that’s right” voice. I’m still not sure if that was one of the resorts policies
or I ended up stealing that beer not but I was grateful.
After
lunch, I went back to the store to rent the computer and check email.
I was glad to see that Amy is doing well in
Spain and I send her a note telling her that things are going well for me too
and I wished she was here.
I haven’t
been successful in talking Amy into doing one of these trips with me, but I am
going to keep working on it.
I know that
once I get you out here dear, you will be just as addicted as me.
It’s 2:00 PM and the ferry leaves at 4:00 PM
so I decide to just wait for it since it will take me almost that long to run
back.
I might as well experience the
ferry too.
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| East Ferry Landing |
I am
back at my campsite by 5:00 PM, and everything appears to be just
the way I left it in the morning.
Contrary to the impression that many people
have, the wilderness is one of the safest places to be.
If someone comes across someone else's stuff,
they won’t mess with it.
We are all
having a hard enough time carrying our own stuff, so how would you carry someone
else’s stuff too.
Plus you could really
put someone’s life in jeopardy.
There is
a true camaraderie among backpackers/campers/hunters and anyone out here in the
wilderness and everyone is quick to help out if someone else is in need.
We all know that there could always come a
time when anyone of us could become dependent on someone else for his/her
survival and there is no shame in admitting it.
As far as wild animals go the only thing that could hurt you up here are
rattlesnakes and those are pretty easy to avoid.
Bears really don’t harass hikers as much as
they use to since the NFS has started requiring everyone to keep their food
locked up in bear resistant canisters.
In fact, I hear that when bears come across these canisters they just
leave them alone because they already know it is impossible to get in them so
why waste their valuable energy.
Bears
just don’t associate people with food that much anymore and as a result you don’t
see them around.
I keep hoping, but as
of yet, I have never even seen a bear in the Sierras.
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| Camping on a granite shelf |
That
evening I get in some more hiking before dark and find a place to camp up on
Bear Ridge (nope, didn’t see a bear up here either.) It was quite a climb up from 7,800 to almost
10,000 feet but I cover the 6 miles in a little over 2 hours feeling confident now
that I do have my mountain legs and lungs.
There are a couple of other guys camping on this ridge as well and we are all
rewarded for our day’s hard work with one of these most spectacular vistas and
sunset s of the trip. I am also thankful
to these guys for sparing me 6 sheets of toilet paper which I had run out of
and neglected to buy at the store – well 6 sheets are a lot better than pine
needles.
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| Sunset from bear Ridge facing north |
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Sunset from Bear Ridge facing south
Experiment with some time lapse video - sunrise at Bear ridge |
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