Miles: 1094 to 1127.1 Mileage: 33.1 Day: 43 Up before light, I crawled out of my sleeping bag and found my way to the rental car. I decided to change into my hiking clothes from under the protective waves of engine-generated heat. Richard drove me and the bike to the gate across Barker Pass Road. […]
Miles: 0 Ok. I hope this is not a trend. Today was not complicated by illness but by logistics. We slept in to allow a little more recovery time and left the motel around 10 a.m. We planned to drive about 2 hours north to the Lake Tahoe area for 2 or 3 days of […]
Mileage: 0 Never mind the miles, my body said. You’re not going anywhere. And so I sat, and Richard sat with me, in our motel room for another day and night. Time was spent on the toilet, listening to podcasts and catching up on lost sleep and fluids. Around 10 a.m., the unprepared cleaning lady […]
Miles: 789.9 to 789.9 Mileage: 0 Day: 40 Coming down out of the Sierras for real world business and a week of slacking*, we knew we would need a solid day to get the logistics in order. *Slacking, or slack packing, is when thru hikers cover miles on the long distance trail they’re hiking but […]
Miles: 778.9 to 789.4 Mileage: 10.5 (plus, 7.5 up and over Kearsarge Pass to Independence, California) Day: 39 Neither of us slept well thinking about the pass all night. Would it go? Would we have to turn around? Plus, it was cold. We set up our tent on snow and really pushed our lightweight summer […]
Miles: 774.2 to 778.9 Mileage: 4.7 Day: 38 And still up next, Forester Pass. Half awake in the middle of the night, I tried to scooch my head toward the end of the tent. I tend to slip down my sleeping pad as I switch positions. The only problem was, I couldn’t. The end of […]
Miles: 769.9 to 774.2 Mileage: 9.3, plus 13 in Whitney summit attempt Day: 37 The alarm went off at 4 a.m. With the temperature in the 20s and our information about the climb limited to its elevation, we decided to wait until light. That way we could see. The alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. […]
Miles: 755.9 to 766.9 Mileage: 11, plus 1 mile to camp Day: 36 We moved slowly today. The cold kept us in our sleeping bags until 7 a.m. We waited until the sun rose over the ridge and started to thaw the ice that had formed on everything. Even though my pack felt lighter, my […]
Miles: 730.9 to 755.7 Mileage: 24.8, plus .2 to water Day: 35 Man, the Sierras are cold. I generally like cold and I definitely like it when I’m prepared for it, but I was under the impression that we were nearing summer. Nope. Still winter up here. I guess I should have figured on some […]
Miles: 702.4 to 730.9 Mileage: 28.5, plus .8 back to the trail from the Kennedy Meadows General Store Day: 34 Do you know what’s heavier than 30 miles of water? 10 days of food plus a bear canister. In an attempt to make the next section of trail less complicated, we opted to hike as […]