Elevation: 1800ft gain
Altitude: 9600ft
Some days are hard. And other days an end is not even in sight. Everything went wrong after the relaxing sunrise morning hot spring to aid the aches of age. We found ourselves opening the resupply care package of chaos at the drop spot. This place, Muir Trail Ranch, was not much more then that, but having hauled 1,000s of hikers food bucks up a rugged mountain and on a boat for a hefty fee, they were a happy sight. Out spilled 30lbs of everything I was glad to see and also never wanted to see again, which included whiskey and way too many packets of oatmeal and dehydrated chili. We must have been the laughing stock of the bunch surrounded by seemly pro hikers, clueless on what we should have brought. In the midst of embarrassment my German counterpart points, talking to Ralph about the exciting bag of dehydrated carrots just for him. Having to explain Ralph is only real to us, maybe these long solitude days were getting to us. We met travelers going everywhere in these mountains all conjuring over meals. Trading potato flakes for what I dreamed of, banana chips, money meant nothing in these mountains.
It was two southern bros in their late 20s that really did me for a number though this day. Boosting about their 20 mile days, it were as if suddenly we were at the races, a game I like to play. That topped off by a late 11:30 am start, the heat scorched us with its rays, and learning to splint an ankle with bandanas and sticks, I had punished myself for not wearing in my new boots. We floundered behind the "dudes". The miles weren't particularly long this day, but they seemed to drag like 8am History class on a high school Monday morning.
With 8 days of food to carry, we crossed into Kings Canyon National park and the boulders suddenly scaled were rough and the slate granite rocks tiring. Angry, defeated, discouraged we weren't as efficient as the dudes, my lovely pals ahead reminded me that they may be fast, but did not have the fortune to make out like teenagers under the starry sky, they did not carry the extra 4lbs of a splendid reindeer who cheers us on, and it isn't always A to B that matters. As my dog would say, it's the amount of flowers you smell, number blades of grass you piss on, and the uninterrupted moments of rolling in the grass on a warm spring day.
Feeling completely defeated, that the boulders were just to big, at the exact time the towel dangles to be thrown in, the valley below opens up. We hiked till 6:30pm as the sun fell through the valley below and suddenly the meadows of yellow light up with the pale softness that can lift smiles. Peaks crossed days ago in the distance restore hope and the river we trailed all day gushed its water off waterfalls and straight into our mouths. The kind that comes in $5 bottles at your local market.
In the distance afar sits Muir Pass, a 20 mile climb over sometimes late august snow banks. The beauty of it all, tomorrow all we have to do is walk, all day, up its beautiful mountain walls and by sunset reaching a top the sun will fall over all the passes we have summited and we we carry on to the next.
