Mom Says I’m Running Away

Day: 303

Sequoia National Park contains the worlds 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th largest trees (by mass). There are taller trees like the California Coastal Redwoods which get up to 391feet or some very squat trees in south western Australia which get much bigger around, but I found these mammoth trees named after dead American Civil War generals to be astounding none the less. I did have trouble trying to capture the sheer size of these in photographs though.

We basically wondered around the base of these beasts all day, until the girls were completely drained and physically scraped up and headed back to camp. Another thing I realized is that Regan is a much better outdoors-woman than Madalyn. Madalyn was pissed that we had been walking through the dirty woods, while Regan just proceeded to climb everything.

Day: 301

After a day in one of the world’s excessively liberal cities, my family felt like it needed a little balance and I went along for the ride. We headed up to the Christian summer camp where my brother works and has worked for the last five summers. The majority of my family classifies themselves as Christians; but Matt and I land on either extreme end of that spectrum. He is a theologian, studying for advanced degrees in Divinity/Theology in Alabama and I am a wandering Agnostic/borderline Atheist; Needless to say that holiday dinner conversation is always lively!

After being put up in a cabin we all headed down for the nightly meeting on the lawn where Matt played drums and acted out skits about assorted biblical tales. Since it was the first night of camp the theology wasn’t being pressed as much as the idea of having a good week at camp (from personal experience as a camp-going teenager I know this is saved more for the end of the week).

My nieces sung along to both the generic camp songs and the worship and seemed to be enjoying themselves though; I sat on the back of the lawn reading a fantasy novel and watched the sunset. I do find the ideology a little scary, when it is packaged to children who’s minds are still immature to make rational choices on religion for themselves.

Day: 300

I know, I know, every time I hit a round number post I give myself a big congrats and that you for all reading. So I thought, I’d do it again (I guess I just did) and let you all know that I also crossed the 300,000 line on overall hits on this site. Impressive that so many of you are out there, even if I never hear from you.

Today was family day in San Francisco. Lots of wandering, eating, checking out boats, eating, drinking beers in paper bags, and eating fancy ice cream sundaes. Also, in case you haven’t noticed, I absolutely love my new Gitzo tripod.

Day: 299

This morning was much like every other morning for the past two weeks, coffee, breakfast, cold… etc.  We called my sister and found she had the same idea as us to drive up and surprise my brother on his birthday, and she was already en route.  Instead of having to walk we were able to pile into the truck and drive.  The first hour or so seemed rather relaxing, but then my muscles started to twitch for something to do. My body wanted to hike.

After five hours in the car (including some afternoon Sacramento traffic), we arrived in Roseville where Matt’s girlfriend (Nicki) lives.  A few phone calls and we found ourselves a department store to buy some fresh clothing; because unfortunately all we had clean was the one change that we had left in the truck.  Today may have been Matt’s birthday, but Mom realized she missed mine while in Tibet… Which means, Shopping Spree for me!

I got some new jeans and shorts, a couple of shirts ad a new Guess! watch to replace the one that was absconded with in the middle of an April night.

We found a cheap hotel room and soon, during some well needed showers my sister showed up with my nieces in tow. Soon we were off to Nicki’s house to find Matt, who was adequately surprised to find almost his entire family show up on his girlfriends doorstep 500 miles from home.

A short reunion and introductions to Nicki’s mother and we are off to a moderately nice steakhouse for drinks, celebration and beef.

On another note my alcohol tolerance has gone to shit… 2 beers, a shot of bourbon & a glass of red and I was drunk… Weaksauce.

Day: 297

Well now the spreadsheet has gone to hell. After the first four miles uphill this morning, Mom whispered, with tears in her eyes “I am not going to be able to finish this…” It hung in the air like a verdict.

It wasn’t the fact that she wasn’t enjoying herself, but her body has just quit and refused to move on. If we were able to keep the same pace we’ve been at, with the same amount of food resupplies, she could probably keep taking those little steps until Judgment day. The problem she is facing, is that the day after tomorrow we start the last 110 miles of the JMT which has no place to resupply for 10 days. Which means our packs are full of 10 days worth of food (as opposed to the 4 at a time we’ve been carrying), a roughly 12lbs gain over when our packs were full leaving Reds Meadow.

Now, she could probably manage this amount of weight over level ground for 11 miles a day, but she was coming to a realization that it would be physically impossible (in her current shape) to make it consistently over 11 and 12 thousand foot passes. Then the real problem would set in; if she couldn’t make a daily average of 11 miles we would run out of food before reaching Whitney. Not good.

She looked at me and asked: “If I quit are you going to go on?”

My first words were “Of course.” Thinking I could pack light, move fast, and and plow through those 110 miles in about 8 days. Mike decided that he would stay with my mother, whatever she chose.

An air of anxiety hung around us the rest of the afternoon as we slowly hiked a couple more miles to find a place to camp. My mind was racing with thoughts of solo trekking. Mom was moving slower than ever and slipped twice amongst large rocks on the trail, and Mike was constantly inquiring if she was alright.

The weather fit our moods and the clouds were threatening a wet evening and night. After the first few drops hit us as we pitched our tents and Mom climbed into her tent for an early evening nap. I sat around reading and thinking of the days to come. After a while I started dinner of freeze dried chicken and dumplings. Mom got up feeling slightly refreshed and as I served up dinner, Mike headed off a few feet away to put on his thermals…

Sitting around our circle of stones as I dished up dinner, Mom looks over my shoulder and her eyes go wide, and quietly says. “There’s a bear.”

“What?” I asked, barely hearing her over the nearby river’s gurgling.

Wide eye she says again. “Bear.”

I turn and not twenty five feet behind me, there he was, staring at my chicken and dumplings.

Now, this is no little bear, not the cute and cuddly looking cubs that inspired teddy bears to be created; this is the 350lbs-400lbs guy who could rip me limb from limb without breaking a sweat (that is, if bears sweat; a fact which I am unsure of). The king of the forest, able to eat children alive and bring down a deer. This bear staring at my chicken and dumplings is the apex predetor of the North American continent.

And he’s looking me in the eyes as if to say “Is dinner ready?”

I glance around looking for reinforcements; Mom still looks stunned and Mike is standing there in his briefs with one foot in his thermals, still completely oblivious to our guest.

I was on my own.

Rob vs. the Bear

A true match for us both.

My mind feels like a pinball machine as I try to recall what I am supposed to do in this situation.

“Go Away Bear!” I yell and take a few steps towards him. He returns my stare unphased.

“Go Away” I yell again, and take a few more aggressive steps towards him.

By this time Mom has found her courage and Mike, his pants. They join me in the yelling and hand waving.

The bear retreats a few steps and stares back at us all with a “You’re not worth the trouble…” look. A slow walk up towards the lake for his evening stroll and a few glances back were the last we saw of him. He left us with a hot meal and veins flooded with adrenaline.
Bringing to a conclusion a day of one of the oddest mix of emotions of “Mom Says...” so far.

Day: 296

Mom woke up with swollen feet and Mike started complaining about his balls (of his feet).

Today we get to resupply, which means last night and this morning we’ve been gorging ourselves on all the food left in our bear canisters.

Mike has a spreadsheet for this entire endeavor laid out; it lists miles per day, altitude gains, where one should sleep, and when our scheduled “Rest Days” are supposed to happen. Unfortunately, for Mom, Mike (and myself on many occasions), I am not very good at things being planned out. A plan just sits there, teasing me, and every fiber in my being wants to do something else just because I planned it. Today was actually scheduled as a “Rest Day” but I talked everyone into a “short walk” out of town after we took care of our resupply business.

First things first, after a late morning of gorging, we made our way a mile and a 1/2 past Devils Postpile (which looked much better in the brochure, I think it was the overcast) and to the thermal showers pumped straight out of the hot spring at Reds Meadow Campground. The weeks worth of mud that ran off me after seven days without a shower was astounding, and now existed a clean and happy Rob.

Second: We headed another mile to Reds Meadow store to pick up our resupply bucket, distribute it amongst our bear cans and rummage through the “hiker-box” to find more fuel for our stove.

Third: and most important, get a six pack and eat patty-melts at the diner across from the store.

Now, with rain starting to fall on our heads, its 3:30pm, we all have a belly full of beer and greasy meat, our packs are full (i.e. heavy), and it’s time to start our “Short walk” that I had sold everyone on. Unbeknownst to me, 15 years ago this whole area was ravaged by fire and campsites were nowhere to be found. The ground was covered in fallen burnt wood.

So we kept hiking… and the rain fell… then we hiked some more… and the rain let up… then hiked… then it rained… this vicious cycle continued until finally, 3 hours/4 miles/1600ft later we found ourselves at Upper Crater Meadow and set up for the night.

Once again I destroyed our plans with my crazy ideas.

Day: 295

It started out being a single short pass up from Ruby Lake (where I was up for some sunrise pictures), then a supposed 10 miles of downhill.

Then the second pass appeared on our 3rd mile, then the third… by the fourth Mom and I stopped believing about Mikes mysterious rantings about this downhill into Devils Postpile National Monument.

After 14 miles we wandered (Mom staggered) into the campground at Devils Postpile National Monument; only to find the backpackers campground occupied by the CCC (California Conservation Corp.) and closed to us.  We shelled out another $14 for a regular spot, in which I set up my tent on the spot to park our car (which we didn’t have) because it was the flattest.

I proceeded to receive numerous mosquito bites on my forehead to go with the blisters on my toes…

Day: 294

Didn’t do much today; after yesterdays sunset debacle we weren’t quite ready for an early start. A two cup of coffee morning (as they were beginning to be called) and a post 10 am departure.

A couple of miles & 700ft got us through Island Pass and down to Thousand Island lake for a freezing swim and mashed potato lunch.  A couple more miles got us to an amazing campsite and an eventful afternoon of laundry.

In other exciting news; I am the proud recipient of my first blister today! Good Times!

Ansel Adams once said something along the lines of:

“There is nothing good to photograph more than fifty feet from the car.”

My feet are starting to agree with him…

Day: 293

Hike, Hike, Wait.

Hike, Hike, Wait.

Hike, Hike, Wait.

After my third round of this I found myself sitting next to a bridge over Lyell Creek, just before Donohue Pass.  It was pushing 2:30pm and we had already covered 5 1/2 miles this morning.  It seemed too early to quit for the day, buy when Mom and Mike arrived we discussed our options.  Either camp here and do the pass first thing in the morning or continue on today and tackle 6 more miles plus 1700 feet up; attempting to make it to water and camp by dark on the other side of the pass.

Mom decided she had it in her to hike the rest of the day, so we powered down a lunch of cold SPAM (yum!) to save cooking time and set off uphill.

They met me at the top around 6:15pm, with the sun starting to sink low in the sky and us all exposed on an 11000 foot piece of granite.  Still 2 1/2 miles to go until “Alan Castle” - as Mike refers to him on a first name basis, as opposed to the title of the JMT guide book, which he wrote - says there is a decent camp spot.

By 7:30 we may have made half that distance down the gigantic stone steps, Mom had fallen once and Mike looked sunburned and slightly dehydrated. I realized something had to be done or we’d soon be setting up camp in the cold dark.  I added their tent to my pack and took off to find somewhere to start getting camp set up.

After about 20 minutes I found a lumpy grass meadow, next to a mosquito infested pond, which was still over the 10,000 foot limit for campfires to be allowed.  Not pristine, or anywhere near a good campsite, but it was flat and had some mucky water we could filter.

By 8:20 when my battered hiking companions arrived, I had both tents up and some freeze-dried veggie lasagna underway.

I ate, bundled up for the night, and was completely inundated with lumpy sleep by 9:15pm.

Day: 292

In an effort to conserve battery power on my 5D and Mom’s 20D (my old camera) I looked through the menu options and found one that I had never used.

:Auto Power Off>

1 min

2 min

4 min

8 min

15 min

30 min

OFF

Well, “OFF” sounds good, no need to burn power for even the normal minute…

Famous last words.

Auto Power Off > OFF, actually means that the camera never powered down. At first I thought I thought it was the cold nights sapping the energy of the battery cells (I went as far as sleeping with them in my sleeping bag). Then I thought it must be some of the long night exposures I’d been doing. Finally, when after only three days, we had burned through our three spares and were each 1/2 way through our last batteries; I retraced my power conserving efforts and realized my mistake. and ARRGGHHH!

Anyhow, now after a two hour/5mile hike into Tuolumne Meadows store/post office we picked up our resupply bucket and get to sit around all day drinking beers/ reading while we wait for all five batteries to charge on the single charger I carried along. My ass, if I am going to continue on without a working camera! Especially if said camera still has to be carried on my back.

Other than the much needed bacon-cheeseburger, my 4th day on the JMT ended up as more or less another day of leisure for Rob, followed by a short 3 mile hike and a cold night.