Day 63, 16.99 miles

I woke up today with my sleeping bag soaked since I slept on the sand next to the lake. It wasn’t that big a deal as I knew it would happen, and I was able to dry my bag out in the sun before leaving. There were only a few mosquitos out at around 7am, and I was hopefully that the lake would remain pretty skeeter free. That hope got crushed into a million pieces about 20 minutes later... 

The wind had completely died down overnight, and we got swarmed! The mosquitos were the worst I’ve seen yet. Breaking records everyday! Wheezer and Picnic got out of there ASAP, and I just got back in my tent while my bag dried out. The lake was very pretty in the morning, it almost looked like a different place without any wind on it! 

It looks a lot smaller with no wind chop

All that yellow on the sand is pollen that all blew onshore yesterday

The one “good” thing about get swarmed by mosquitos is that when you start hiking and only see a few occasionally, it feels great! Until you have to stop again... My solution: Don’t stop! I took a late start today, hiked at a slower pace than usual, and stopped for about 10 minutes on a semi-mosquito free ridge to eat lunch. Other than that I only stopped to collect and drink water and take pictures! Even the lunch ridge had a few, but wer’e talking 10-20 instead of hundreds...

The beginning of the day held a 1500 ft climb over just three miles, which is pretty steep! The rest of the day was again either all up or all down. In just 17 miles I went up over 4,300 ft and down over 35,000 ft! Although for some reason, I didn’t really mind it compared to the last few days. My body is definitely pretty strong, I can’t wait for the trail to flatten out a bit so I can start crushing the huge mile days! 

I hiked alone all day today, aside from passing 20 Prime, Wheezer, and Picnic, I only saw maybe 4 or 5 other hikers briefly all day!! I think I might be in between bubbles and I love it! I met a hiker named Magic today and I hiked/talked with him for about 20 minutes towards the end of my day. He told me that last night he was sleeping in his tent, his barefoot was touching the fabric at the end of the tent, and he got three mosquito bites on his big toe from getting bit through the tent fabric! 

So, I haven’t used earphones to listen to music or podcasts since Lone Pine almost 250 miles ago. Partly because my earphones suck, but mainly because everything has been so beautiful, I’ve just wanted to take in all my surroundings and listen to all the animals and things happening around me. Today there were a few monotonous ups and downs, and since I was hiking solo, I used the new earphones Claire gave me and it was great! 

View after climb 1

SUPER green!! Pretty ferns

Lakes for days

Rivers for days

Here, the trail was a stream for about 30 feet!

My tree!!

Water snake

(While reading this, Claire just went “No...”, and scrolled down fast! Haha)

Wilma “Wilmer” Lake

The trail was very pretty today. I really like all the granite mixed with grass and dirt. I can definitely tell that we’re getting out of the high country, and slowly transitioning back into just normal forests and rivers. The temperatures have been nice and warm! I’m wishing I had my shorts and T-shirt to hike in, although I would keep my long sleeve set just for the skeeters. Maybe when I ditch this bear can I’ll try carrying both sets for awhile.

Not sure if I told you guys, but I sent Claire back home with the stove as cooking proper meals is very time consuming, and with this warm weather I’ve decided to go back to cold-soaking my meals. I really really enjoy this method a lot. Today for instance, when I stopped for lunch, I started coldsoaking some cheesy rice and broccoli with some dehydrated refried beans mixed in there. About 6 hours later when I got to camp for the night, I had a great meal ready to go!

Yum!!

No standing outside to cook while getting swarmed by these mosquitos! Just got to camp, set up my tent, ate inside and then put my bear can out for the night! Since it’s not as cold out and I normally stop by ~ 6-7 so I can do my blog, having a super hot meal isn’t as important, and if I have my soaking jar on the outside of my pack in the afternoon, the food is usually a bit warm anyway! 

One thing I DO miss is my extended stretching and yoga that I was doing everyday when I would arrive at camp. Now more than ever my body needs to stay stretched and limber. I’m still able to stretch a bit inside the tent, but there are a few things I can’t do in this confined space. “Why don’t you just stretch outside?” See all previous mosquito rants... As I type this it’s 7:00pm and there’s about 40 of them on my tent, waiting for me to go outside and brush my teeth!! 

Although all I want to do is bust out some 30 mile days and get up to Oregon as soon as possible, I’m going a bit slow on purpose. For one thing it wouldn’t be a great idea to go too hard after taking 5 days off trail. That would wreck my body! And the other reason is I’m supposed to meet Ron and Cheryl at Sonora Pass Thursday at around noon. If I went 20 miles yesterday and today, I would’ve arrived there Wednesday night. This way I only have to do ~18 tomorrow and 10 the next day! 

Thanks for reading!!

Post Script:

Alright, sorry in advance. I know you guys are sick of my mosquito ranting, but I had to update this blog post for that reason alone. This is THE craziest mosquito-infested place I’ve EVER witnessed. Just earlier in this post I said that Benson Lake had the most mosquitos yet on trail. That record just got shattered... Tenfold! 

I geared up with gloves, long sleeve, puffy, socks, hat, underwear, and pants, with my headnet cinched down so tight around my neck it was hard to swallow.. I got out of my tent as quickly as I could, grabbing my bear can and toothcare gear. This took me about ~6 seconds. When I came back, after my chores, I jumped in as quickly as I could, taking ~4 seconds. In this 10 seconds of having my tent fly open, there were not 3, not 5, not even 10, but 28 mosquitos that had entered the body of my tent!! What the heck?!? 

While I was collecting water near the river, there was a comical amount of mosquitos swarming me and hanging out on my body. It quickly got to the point where swatting did nothing. A palm smack placed anywhere on the body would kill at least 4-5 of the monsters, and 4-5 more would immediately land on the hand and try and bite. 

I realized that I had to brush my teeth inside of my mosquito headnet, as I tried to just lift the net but they would fly into my nose and mouth if I lifted the net for just a second. I tried to cinch it around my wrist while brushing, but 3 mosquitos snuck in and I now have two new bites on the forehead and two on the neck! Ahhhhhh!!! Although I though I was completely covered, I got two new bites on my lower back between my pant line and shirt bottom. That must be only 1/2 an inch of exposed skin and only when I bend over! What is going on?!? 

Right now, as I’m lying in my tent with 28 mosquito bodies lying around me because I don’t dare to open my tent to remove them, there are at LEAST 200 mosquitos in sight, on or flying around my tent.. TWO HUNDRED!! I feel itchy just being in here! This is insane.. I wonder how many people quit this trail solely due to mosquitos! I’m definitely not ditching my long sleeve gear any time soon... 

Just thought I should let you guys know :)

-Thanks for reading

Day 62, 17.73 miles

When I woke up this morning there were only about 10 mosquitos on my tent instead of 100! I was so relieved! I quietly got out without waking any of them up, and was able to eat and pack up and hit the trail by 6:30am! 

I started my day off with a pretty sketchy log crossing. I didn’t wan to get my feet wet so early in the morning, and the log was wide enough, just very high off the water, and slanted upwards. In times like these I just pretend that that log is on the ground instead of a few feet above a river, and that the risk isn’t really there. Since I could easily do the crossing on the ground, mentally it usually makes it easier when over the water!

The trail today was basically always either up or down. There were a couple small meadows and lakes, but the flat never seemed to last very long! The views were constant however, almost like mini-rewards for each 500-1000 feet I would climb or descend. At about 11 miles in, I hit Benson Pass, it was a really steep one and took my breath away. There is however, no snow on trail at this time.

Mosquito Lake

Mosquito Valley

Mosquito Ridge

Mosquito Pass

Mosquito Meadow

Did I mention there were mosquitos today? At Benson Pass I took lunch at the top, figuring they wouldn’t be too bad way up high and with a nice breeze. This was the worst I’ve experienced them yet. I’ve realized I need to just get my gloves on and headnet out, and just accept the fact that they’re here. At one point I could see 30 mosquitos in my direct field of vision, and at least 12 of them were on my headnet...

At lunch there were a few people around on the Pass. I asked if anyone knew Trout, and one of the hikers had seen him that morning, just two hours prior! I knew he was just ahead, but now I didn’t know how far! I just hoped that he saw my last text I had sent him about meeting him at Benson Lake, just 7 miles past Benson Pass. It would be so cool to see him and hike with him!

Smedberg Lake (funny name, but still better than Mosquito Lake)

The last 3 miles of my day were VERY steep down! Definitely testing out the longevity of my knees! The trail descended down down and way down some more. On one of the last switchbacks, I was able to see a glimpse of Benson Lake, the location that I had planned to get to tonight and was hoping that Trout might be at.

Benson Lake (Looks like a pretty standard alpine lake right?) 

This was not your average lake!! There’s a huge white sand beach, the sand drops down gradually for about 30 feet before getting real deep and cold. Because of this the shallow water is still fresh and is about 10 degrees warmer than other Sierra lakes! There is also a nice onshore wind, beeezy enough to keep mosquitos away, but not too breezy that it’s cold! This place is heaven! I had it all to myself for about 1/2 an hour! 

In the water looking towards shore! Sorry about the thumb...

I felt like I was back in Hawaii for a second. Except 30 miles from a road or trailhead, 7,593 ft up high, huge granite mountains and domes surrounding me, with real Aspens growing on the sand!! What a trip! I had raced the 17 miles to the lake to be able to swim and decided if I wanted to stay the night. Although it was only 2:30pm, I instantly decided I would stay! 

About 1/2 an hour later, I saw Wheezer (Weezer?) who also decided she would camp at the lake. Then about an hour later, I saw 20 Prime and Picnic, who I had each briefly met a while earlier on trail. 20 Prime decides to get a few more miles in after he took a dip, and Picnic decided to stay as well. 

A couple hours later, we met a scientist that works for the park whose name was Tim. Tim is awesome. Amongst a variety of other things, it’s currently Tim’s job to go out into the park, once a month, and collect data and check out the Meadows, to see if they will allow stock grazing for the upcoming season. In the summer he backpacks around, and in the winter he hikes, (sometimes snowshoes), and skis!! He had two official Park Rangers with him today. He is teaching/training them how to collect all the data and basically do what he has been doing for the last 5 years. It was so cool to talk with him and pick his brain about this great place!

Wheezer and I learning about all the secret spots in the park from Tim!! 

Ah this place is so cool! I wouldn’t have known about this place if it wasn’t for Ron! I met Ron an Mt. Latina waaaaaaay back at mile 42. He was hiking a portion of the trail with his wife following him in the camper! He and his wife Cheryl let Trout and I set up our tents in their camper site so that we didn’t have to pay an extra fee! He said that when we get to Sonora Pass, he’d pick us up for resupply and we could stay at his close by cabin. I sent half of the food mom sent Claire down with to Ron. This way I’ll have food for the 5 days between Sonora Pass and South Lake Tahoe without having to go into town and spend money! In our email exchange he told me about Benson Lake and highly recommended it! I’m so glad I came down here!

We hung out for a while with Tim, but when he left to go set up camp with the rangers, the three of us turned into our tents as well. The sun was setting and since the wind died, there were a few mosquitos popping out.

Just a few..

The weather was very hot today, toastier than I’ve experienced in the Sierra so far. With all the ups and downs I did today, it’s a recipe for sweaty bottoms and pants rash! I really miss my shorts but I am happy that I have mosquito protection. If it gets any hotter, I might just bite the bullet and make the switch back. Today I have some bad rash on my left hip at pantline. I try and roll my pant line down so it doesn’t irritate the same spot, but then it’s too lose down below and rubs on my inner thigh. Then mosquitos are able to attack my fresh pantline between my shirt bottom and start of the pants. And that’s how I ended up with two huge mosquito bites on my right pant line, which will probably get super irritated tomorrow and start to rash. Man, an endless cycle!!

Left hip

Right hip

These things aren’t the absolute worse; I just include some of them in the blog from time to time to break the facade that everything is going 100% perfect all the time! 

Wow, this is pretty crazy.. So as I’m typing this, I hear some sloshing in the water just behind the main sand bar. I couldn’t quite see what it was so I asked Picnic, who was camped a lot closer to the water. It was a deer! They saw Picnic and got spooked and ran through the water away from our tents. So cool!

Tomorrow I don’t plan to do a super huge day, I might relax here and leave mid morning, making 17 or so miles again. 9:06pm, past my bedtime!!

Thanks for reading!! 

Day 61, 12.46 miles

Today was such a blast!! Claire and I left our forest camp this morning and headed over to Lee Vining for some breakfast. As we approached the area, we joked that the restaurant would be in the Mobil gas station. It turns out it actually was!! The food there was pretty good though, and we felt great heading into Yosemite.

What made us feel even greater is that when we told the person working the entrance booth that I was hiking the PCT and that Claire was just headed in to drop me off, he let us go in without paying the $35 entrance fee! Woo-hoo! We were ready to pay it to get in, but I figure I’d at least ask and it paid off!

We drove right up to the PCT on Tioga Pass Road, and we decided to go ahead and hike Lembert Dome. It was a pretty short hike, maybe 3.5-4 miles round trip, we made it into a little loop. The hike included a little granite scramble to get to the top, and the views were great! On the way down we joined up with the PCT for the last mile to head back down to the car. 

On the false peak, headed to summit!

The view from the drop-off

The drop-off!!!


We made it! (Photo from Claire’s phone)

A cool dad and daughter from Italy took our picture a couple times at the top! (Photo from Claire’s phone)

After our fun hike we went to the Tuolumne store once more for some food and for me to check if Trout had made it there. There was no sign of him. I had been in contact with him and it sounds like he is in the proximal area. He might be a day ahead or behind, but it’d be great to pair up with him! 

Claire dropped me back off at the Lembert Dome parking lot, and the spot that I had veered off the PCT and onto the John Muir Trail to head down into Yosemite Valley to do Half-Dome and to finish the JMT. It was time to say goodbye! Again, I’m so glad that Claire came to visit me, and the time off trail was greatly appreciated! I love you bebita!

I must admit I’m feeling a little nervous. I can hike solo no problem, but now that I know Julian isn’t on trail, I don’t have a buddy to catch up with or to wait for or to camp with and talk story with. I’m sure I’ll catch up to some of my friends, but for now there are no familiar faces in my immediate area. It feels strange!

I remember walking the first mile or so with Dad and Micah and Claire back in 2016 when they picked us up for a few days off out of Agua Dulce. It was really pretty then, but now I wish we had gone a few miles more and they could’ve witnessed what I saw today! I only went 12 miles today on the PCT, but it was some of the most scenic miles yet! IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL OUT HERE!!!

In the Sierra, you can always count on the horse poop to lead you the right way! 

This was a big guy. I’m guessing ~60ft!!

Ahhhhh!!!

A meadow as beautiful as Tuolumne, but with zero other people!! It’s crazy what 8 miles out from the roads will do the the crowds :)

As you can see, the trail was absolutely beautiful today! The ONE thing.. the one and ONLY thing that was not so great about it; were the dang mosquitos!! These is no safe place! There is no wind constant enough, no repellant strong enough, no head net invincible enough to stop them! I’m seriously surprised that I don’t have Malaria yet.. 

I knew I wanted to do less than 15 miles today to get warmed up and used to the trail again. I had envisioned stopping around 5pm and getting some blogs done with a sweet view! Reality: I stopped at 5pm, tried to eat, ran into my tent to reorganize my bearcan (yes, I’d rather fight a bear because I smell like food than deal with these dang mosquitos), and am now still holding my pee and waiting to brush my teeth. It’s 9:30pm and there’s still over 50 on my tent waiting for me!

From ~7pm

I opened my tent twice for a few seconds each, just to throw my stuff in after setting it up. Afterwards, I killed 11 mosquitos that had entered my tent in those few seconds. I spent a few minutes eating outside, having everything covered but my hands and feet... at least 8 bites on my hands and 2 or 3 on my feet! At one point I counted over 40 mosquitos just on the DOOR of my tent, and over 85 on the outside of my whole tent. I’m not even near water!! I collected two liters about 1.5 miles ago, so that I could get to a nice windy, dry campsite... but alas, those don’t exist here! 

Whew!! Sorry for that! Gotta get that out of my system every once in a while... Mosquitos be cray..

Thanks for reading!!

A Super Fun Five Day Break!!

One thing I want to mention before I write about my time off with Claire is that Julian has gotten off-trail in Mammoth. He is not injured and nothing horrible has happened. Ever since I met him at Mike’s at mile 130, he’s been talking about future plans to move out of his parents place and in with his girlfriend, leaving California and finding a cool town in Arizona like Flagstaff. The trail this year showed him that anything is possible and that he should follow his dreams. Instead of finishing the trail, and then having to work for another year to make the move, he’s decided to do it now with the money he’s saved for this trip! I’m selfishly sad but at the same time I’m also very genuinely happy for him! It’s bittersweet!

Some parting words from Julian:

-:—————:—————:—————:—————:-

So, I had meant to make this post while I still had service, but the days I took off-trail were so fun I couldn’t find the time! After staying in Mammoth the first night, I did all my chores I had to do like laundry and resupply. Luckily, my resupply was already done since Claire had driven down a HUGE package from my mom, including food from my sister and dad! I was able to fill my bear can full for the next 5 day stretch, AND send myself the next next 5 day stretch to Sonora Pass!! Thanks family!!

We went to eat lunch at Roberto’s where we had had our last trail meal in 2016. The food was still most excellent! Claire and I had been planing on hitting some local hot springs around Mammoth. One that caught my eye was a little further away, but they had private tubs you could reserve for the night and camp at! Lucky for us, some people had cancelled on the best site on the grounds, and Claire and I were able to scoop it up last minute! 

We first headed over to Convict Lake, by suggestion of Julian. It was very very pretty and Claire and I both took dips in the freezing water!! (Claire went all the way under and I didn’t!!)

Roberto’s still delicious!!

Convict Lake

Claire taking a dip!!

Cool rock formations on the way to Benton Hot Springs


Benton Hot Springs Office

We scored with site #5!

Adding more hot straight from the spring!

(Pic from Claire)

The springs were sooooo cool! The price wasn’t bad at all, there were 11 or so handmade built tubs on a few acres. There was foliage around each for privacy from the others. Our site, #5, was truly the best of the bunch, and who knows how long it had been reserved!! The place was very clean and had a picnic table and plenty of space for the car and tent. We could’ve fit 3 vehicles/tents in there! I highly recommend Benton Hot Springs!

Our great sandwiches, also had avocado!

So sweet!

The only one downside was that since it was a very warm night, the mosquitos didn’t go away after 9pm like they usually do... they stayed up as we stayed up, and bit us ALL.... NIGHT... It was pretty bad, but the private tub was worth getting eaten alive! We DID wish we had one of those mosquito coils to burn to keep them at bay! 

My whole body looked like this... Claire had it about the same. I had over 30 on my back and shoulder area alone... 

The next day we drove down towards Bishop and highway 395. We tried to check out some old mines while trying not to break Claire’s car, went through a really cool red rock canyon, and even stopped at a neat petroglyph site!

This car is a trooper

Road trip through the desert!!

Red rocks

Finding some shade!

Driving through the canyon!

Volcano eruption petroglyphs!

We got to Bishop and hung out at a cool coffee shop called The Looney Bean Cafe. They have great, healthy food and smoothies and such! And WiFi! I was able to find a free camping area what I thought would be just a few minutes out of town. It ended up being a pretty crazy and rocky dirt road, but after some explorations and off roading, we pulled up to a nice campsite which we called home for the night!

Buttermilk Road

Our picnic table

Photo by Claire

Photo by Claire

The next day we headed back into the 100°+ Bishop. It was so hot we decided to get a couple nights in a motel. Super 8 saved the day as far as prices go! We had a lot of fun walking around the HUGE city park and feeding the ducks. We went to the Mountain Rambler Brewery to kill some time before check-in, and then bowled 5 games that night! While all of this is going on, you can safely assume I’ve been eating 4-5 meals everyday.. :)

The ducks LOVE Claire!!

Especially Monster. (We named like 5 ducks)

Mountain Rambler Brewery. We had a Sushi Go tournament! And then Claire whooped me in Skip-Bo..

Then a bowling tournament! 

The next day we went to Erick Schat’s Bakkery. It’s a really cool bakery in Bishop that’s basically been there since the town was! The place is HUGE and super busy all the time! There’s pull-apart bread, all types of loaves of breads, GREAT sandwiches, jams, jellies, candies, ANY type of pastry you can imagine, as well as a bunch of chocolates and sweet goodies! Let’s just say we went here 3 times and were 100% satisfied every time!

Schat’s slammed!

And that’s just half the pasties/chocolates! You get the point..

Yum! I ate this whole thing in one day!

Both days spent in Bishop were filled with relaxing and eating! Lots and lots of eating! I ate so much, that... well, I don’t even know I just ate SO much!! We found a sweet Chinese restaurant one of the nights that did NOT disappoint!!

Best Chinese food I’ve had in a long time! Especially the eggplant! (The Long Island Ice Tea wasn’t bad either)  ;)

Yes, I do realize that half of this blog is about food, but hey, that’s half of what I do out here!! Also, I need to be able to have hard proof that I DID actually eat a lot, when I’m 50 lbs at the Canadian border and people think I’ve been starving! 

The next day we headed back over to Mammoth to do some hiking and camping. We drove through the town down to Crystal Lake Trailhead, and decided to do a beautiful 2 mile trail up to the Mammoth Crest and back down. The hike was great! Way up high there was a lot of red cinder and it reminded me of Mauna Kea back home on the Big Island of Hawaii. As we were at the top we started getting smoked out by a fire maybe 3 or 4 miles away. I took a picture in case it hadn’t been reported yet, but it seems like it’s been smoldering for quite some time after lighting struck earlier this month..

Mammoth Crest

#model

Crazy!

Our view from the top

Fiyah!!!

Going down!

A silly Tee in a tree.. 

(Photo by Claire)

After the hike we went down into the town and to Mammoth Brewery. I had been in contact with a few people to see if any other hikers I knew were in Bishop or Mammoth. I just missed Alon by one day, but Claire and I were able to meet Smoother and Gazer at the brewery! I hadn’t seen them since ~mile 550! We also saw Ben whose trail name is now Chicken of the Sea. I haven’t seen him since Idyllwild! (Mile 150!)

Ben with a mighty flight! I forgot to take a picture of/with Smoother and Gazer...

We left the brewery just before dark and found a nice spot to camp about 10 minutes towards Lee Vining. Our plan was to camp the last night and get into Yosemite fairly early, do a small hike together, and have Claire be able to leave by noon, so she can make it up to Grants Pass tomorrow, and then to Portland the next day.

Nice spot of an OHV road

Tomorrow is my first day back on trail! It will include whatever Claire and I do in the morning, plus however far I get on the PCT. after that, it’ll be back to daily blog posts on trail! I’m feeling well rested, and really happy I got to see Claire and spend some time with her. Thanks for being patient guys, and as always:

Thanks for reading!!