Day 65, 6.30 miles

I woke up this morning on the nice windy ridge way up high on the pass. It was colder and windier than the night before, and yet again I had slept in! I’m starting to see a pattern here! (I guess I need blistering hot weather again to motivate me to get an early start!) Just kidding, I’ll knock on wood!

The trail down to highway 108 and Sonora Pass was beautiful! The top of the ridge line and pretty much almost down to the road had a strong and cold biting wind, so I ended up putting on my rain jacket and gloves as a wind buff. Here are 5 pictures of essentially the same thing :)

It was so cool!

I had cell service for a few minutes and quickly entered a world of confusion, sadness, anger, selfishness, shame, and regret. I won’t get into such personal matters here, but let’s just say I’ve had better mornings. Rest assured, as I type this tonight I’m feeling a lot better, and I’m thankful to all parties involved for their understanding and help with the matter. You know who you are and I genuinely thank you.

Anyways, enough about me! I got down to Sonora Pass just about 10am. I was planning on meeting Ron (Retro) and Cheryl around mid afternoon, but I took rested in the shade under a tree and talked to some other hikers every once in a while. While I was there, Keglegs got dropped off from a hitch, on her way back out North on the trail! I hadn’t seen her since VVR so we caught up for about 10 mins before she headed off.

The view from Sonora Pass parking lot

Someone came up from the highway while I was in the parking lot and said “Your ride is coming Two-pack!” Music to my ears! Sure enough, a couple minutes later a huge Sprinter van rolled up and Ron and Cheryl (and Lily!) were here! I can’t even explain how great these guys are! I’m now at mile 1017; I met them at mile 42! They told me that when I got to Sonora Pass, I was welcome at their cabin and we could even go to a big grocery to resupply. When they arrived, there were two other couples that had just gotten to the parking lot too. Ron jumped into trail angel mode, and brought beer, cherries, chips and burritos for everyone! He asked if they wanted to join for the night in the cabin and resupply, and they were all down to join.

Left to right: Cheryl, Ron, and the two other couples!

We drove west for around an hour in the Sprinter, swapping stories and just being glad to not be walking in the wind. We entered a sweet small community of cabins, and soon we were home for the night!

Porch pack explosion 

We hung out there for a bit, before heading out to the grocery store about 10 minutes away for some resupply. It’s a little resort town called Twain Harte. The store was surprisingly big and had great prices! I haven’t great fresh produce at a good price in a while! I picked up a couple perfect avocados and a honey crisp apple!

Mmmmm!!! 

Love cheese! Should I?

While we were in the store picking up some items, Ron was next door picking us up some Chinese food for all of us! This guy is too good to us! We went back to the cabin and the ravenous beasts came out of all of us. The six of us ate around 10 entrees and a tom of rice. I stood as “The Finisher”, and went back for fourths after everyone was done.

Yes I had 4 plates that looked like this!

Ah, what a good night! We talked on the porch for a while, and I even got to call Claire and talk for awhile! I had some service there and she sent me some cool pictures from our visit! 

Ron and Lily!

Lily’s been posting about me! I love the hashtags..

Pics from Claire 

Well, it’s been a great day! I’m lying happily on a hide-a-bed in the living room. Tomorrow we’re going to a cafe early and then hitting the trail! I should be able to upload my blog tomorrow morning! 

Thanks for reading!!

Day 64, 21.12 miles!!

Man, whoever came up with the term “Happy Camper” was not experienced mosquitos at the time. Whew! This morning they were baaaaaaaaad! I don’t get it... let’s say you love pizza right?  If you were walking around and saw a giant, 1000 foot pizza, but it had huge arms, and 50 dead humans smashed all over it, would you try and go up and take a bite or just leave it alone and go look for less-deadly pizza?! Like go find a deer or something that won’t kill you! Argh!!

Anyway, enough about skeeters. That was only 1/2 my day and I’m putting that half behind me! Today was a great day filled with mile markers, beautiful sights, changing landscapes, and new friends! 

The start of the day was super swampy and wet, but there were still beautiful things to see and try and take pictures of as I hurried through the morning without really ever stopping until noon! It was a gradual uphill for the first 7 miles or so, and the only way to keep from going insane from the mosquitos was to keep moving!

I apologize in advance; my camera on my phone is really going downhill... all pictures are coming out blurry, there’s red lines half the time, the focus doesn’t work, and the general picture quality is suffering because of it. I really don’t know what I can do while out here on trail without taking a lot of time off to try and fix it in a bigger town. This saddens me because I’m out here in such a beautiful place, and I’m not going to do it again, and none of the pictures I’m taking are coming out the way I’d like them to and the way I’d like to remember my hike. So, knowing that, excuse the blurry photos! 

I’m really stoked about the custom trail mix I’ve been eating. I really love trail mix because I can eat it on the go along with my bars, without needing to stop and prepare anything. It’s a mixture of a couple things I bought plus all the snacks that mom has been sending me:

Peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, cranberries, banana chips, chocolate covered almonds, yogurt covered coconut bits, nutter butters, and pistachios!

Soon I was passing Dorothy Lake, and Dorothy Pass, which marks the official end of Yosemite, and where near canisters are no longer required, woo-hoooo!!!!

Dorothy Lake

End of Yosemite (they had to put one last stagnant mosquito pond in the middle of the trail to properly send us off!)

It was a welcome change for me! Soon, granite trail turned into dirt, the mosquitos magically died down, and there were beautiful small pink flowers all over the place! 

Sooner than I knew it, I crossed the 1,000 mile marker! What a feeling! I’ve walked over 1,000 miles this spring/summer so far! What?! Wheezer and Picnic were there at the marker, and they were able to take a picture of me!

1,000 miles yay!!

I met some new people today, including an older couple named Hotlips and Caveman (they are a cool retired couple who hiked ~1,000 miles last year), Trashqueen (a cool hiker from Alabama), Crinkles (a guy I met yesterday around the same time as Magic), and Keyboard and ______, (a cool European couple, I forgot the girls name!). And although I had met them before a few times, I hiked with Wheezer and Picnic on and off for the rest of the afternoon. 

I hike a bit faster than them, but since I’m not trying to get to Sonora Pass too much earlier than noon tomorrow, I was able to han our and be more social than I usually am. Wheezer quizzed me on the other members of her giant group who are currently a day behind (the group that includes Gnarwhal, and Bits and Cosmo from Portland), and Picnic (who just turned 19), taught us “old timers” all the new hip things going on with the kids these days, and taught me about Generation Z, the new generation after millennials! I’m just 28 now and Wheezer is turning 30 soon, but I never felt as old as I did today! 

Like I said, the mosquitos just magically faded, and the grade seemed a lot easier, and the composition of the ground much more favorable. It was almost noon, and the next water source I saw after the Pass was so inviting that I sat down and took nearly a two hour break! I had already done 11 miles and it was just noon! Some of the other hikers I mentioned hung out there for a while too, but I was definitely there the longest! Haha. First to come, last to leave!! 

The first shaded water source for over 100 miles that I haven’t had to continually swat myself at...

After this the trail started to climb once again into snowy capped mountains, but this time a lot less Sierra like and a lot more Mars-like! It was such a strange landscape and I absolutely loved it! I took sooooooo many pictures during this next section, it was so beautiful! I soon caught back up with Wheezer and then Picnic at the very top.

Loved this tree!!

What an awesome trail!!

I took the “Summer Route” instead of the switchbacking “Winter Route”, but still had to go straight up this snow..

Baby blue tinted granite!!

Wheezer!

Trail continuing forward

Cool picture of me that Wheezer captured!

Looking back

Goodbye Sierra!!

Like I said earlier, this is a welcome change for me as I’m excited for less mosquitos and I’m excited to do some bigger days and see what the new terrain will bring! This last pass-like area felt different from the other Sierra Passes, and had elements that reminded me of Wrightwood area, Cajon Pass area, and some high Sierra Passes all bundled into one! What a cool one!

Soon after the last picture was taken, I came across a place that my Guthooks app listed as the last campsite until Sonora Pass, about 6 miles later. I had already gone over 20 miles so decided to stop. Wheezer and Picnic also had long days and decided to stop nearby. We had dinner together and then walked out past the shelter of the wind blown trees to check out the sunset from nearly 10,400 ft up!

At this point my phone was really acting up, so they both air-dropped me some of the photos they took:

From Wheezer

Love this pic Picnic took, hahaha

What a crazy place!

Ugh, I’m so bummed about my camera! Wheezer and I have the same phone. This first picture is from my phone, and the second is from hers:

My crappy, out of focus, discolored camera

A clear, crisp, good quality from a normal

iPhone 6...

Well, enough complaining from me! Tomorrow I do an easy ~6 miles to Sonora Pass, and meet Ron and Cheryl around noon. Looks like I’m sleeping in again! Although the moon is almost full, the trees I’m camped near block lost of its light, and I have a pretty impressive star-spread I’m about to gaze at before drifting to sleep to the sound of the wind blowing across the ridge.

Thanks for reading!!