Day 57

The normal bliss which accompanies crawling into my bivy at the end of a tough day is nothing compared to the feeling of doing so after being swarmed by mosquitoes for the intervening period between walking and bivy. This is the feeling with which I lay down to write this blog post.

Today was another shorter one, just under twenty five miles to end at Mile 974.2, though unlike yesterday this one was according to plan. I rose from another night of poor sleep at 5:30 and was hiking at 6. There were three climbs today, each around 1,400-1,700’. The first was quite mellow, weaving through meadows and forest quite pretty in the morning light. I dropped down to three major creek crossings within one mile. Fortunately, they turned out to be not so major, so the only thing to report from this stretch is the pair of unspookable does I encountered on the far side of Return Creek. Funny stuff.

Thus began the second climb, up to Miller Lake. I decided that I would Listen To My Body today, so that meant going two miles an hour up the steep climb and taking a long break at the top. The way down was steep and rocky with patches of snow, so I also had to take my time here to avoid blowing my whole gas tank.

At the bottom I took a nice long break and prepared for the final climb over Benson Pass. I was still feeling sick, probably moreso than yesterday, but spirits were high. I turned on Watch The Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye and found myself crushing the first two miles and 1,000 feet of the climb in no time as I bumped my head in tacit approval to Hov and Ye’s decrying of monogamy, enumeration of their cars, watches, and models bedded, and insistence that they are both, if not gods, tantamount to Jesus Christ. The final part of the climb was nearly 800’ over 0.9 miles—read: steep. This was a slog, especially with the appearance of snow, but I still made it to the top by 2:00, my goal this morning. The view from the pass was nice but certainly not comparable to most of the passes preceding it.

The descent—six miles and 3,000’—was steep steep steep and had a nice little 300 foot pointless up and down (PUD) thrown in for good measure. My fatigue caught up to me here big time, forcing me to walk much slower than my typical pace.

Finally, I made it to the bottom, crossed two creeks, and made camp on what I hoped would be a windy ridge. I thoroughly dried my thoroughly macerated feet, an issue I briefly dealt with in the Southern Sierra now back with a vengeance. Tomorrow perhaps a big day, but also perhaps not, since the eighth day nero mentioned yesterday is feasible with my current food underconsumption/overpacking. Here’s the view from my camp.