Well, we made it through the high sierras! Right now we're at a trail angel's house (Superman) in South Lake Tahoe, mile 1094! The High Sierra's were everything we had hoped and heard about. Yes, there was a lot of snow and I mean a lot of snow. The mountain passes did require all of our attention. Our gnarliest pass was Mather but it was also our favorite. We had rock scramble up to the top of the pass and then cross two snow shoots and then throw ourselves over a snow cornice at the top of the pass. Right before we made it to the snow cornice I post holed and hit my shin on a rock. Clinging to the snow, another person in our crew used his poles to help me pull myself up. The pain in my shin hurt like no other. I looked over at Cerveza and asked her if I could cry and she told me "You should wait tell you get to the top and then you can cry all you want." I put myself together and tried to forget about the throbbing pain in my shin and continued up to the cornice. I never did end up crying, but my shin did take over a week to heal.
Probably the scariest creek crossing was Wright Creek, a day after Mt. Whitney. The current was very strong and since it was one of the first creeks we had to cross it really got us mentally prepared. The last hundred miles we've been crossing deep creeks but the currents haven't been that strong.
Most of the way we've been lucky to even see the trail. Its been under so much snow we end up using our maps to find out where we need to go and then just cross country it to that spot. We've been lost many times, but have gotten comfortable with that feeling.
We've lost quite a bit of weight. I've lost about 15 lbs and James lost about 20 lbs. We're trying to eat everything we can, but we just can't seem to keep the weight on. In the desert I didn't lose anything, but right when we started climbing over all the mountain passes the weight started to fall off of us and to top it off we were short on food from the section between Kearsarge Pass to Mammoth Lakes.
Last week we were just in Yosemite. Both James and I had a problem with our trekking poles so we hitch hiked down into the valley to the Yosemite outfitters. The hitch was totally worth it. Next to the fact that Yosemite Valley was a mad house it was a beautiful place. James was kind of sickened by the amount of cars and people, but the geography is like nothing else. After filling our bellies and getting James trekking pole fixed (they didn't fix mine) we hitched back to the trail to start the next section.
One interesting thing that happens on the trail is that there is a lot of hype. It is scary sometimes but it all seems doable as long as your paying attention. I've gotten to the point were I'm extremely happy that we got a snow year. It's so much more of an adventure. Each day we face challenges and each day we solve them. I know it's not for everyone, but I sure do feel that all of this is doable and not as bad as everyone saying....then again we may just be hitting at the right time. But I recall before the sierras all the people scaring each other about the conditions and I've learned that the hype is not true. The only other explanation is I'm way more hardcore then I think I am, but I highly doubt it (I'm still scared of heights;)
Here is a little taste of the passes and crossings. If you'd like to see more I got more on facebook. www.facebook.com/djalowe8
Sonora Pass Video
Waterfall Crossing
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