Today was an emotional rough patch, you guys. I awoke (in my BED, if you'll recall) around 7:20am and soon the lot of us headed to breakfast. Tricia had left earlier in the morning, so we were sadly without her company today. I have discovered my favorite breakfast is some variation on the one I had in Curry Village on Tuesday: scrambled eggs, meat, any iteration of breakfast potato, and toast. Today, the Lodge's kitchen blessed me by trading up the toast for some pancakes. I never knew a short stack of pancakes to be anywhere near as low on the totem poll of breakfast sides as toast, but I'm not going to argue. Gimme that syrup and we are good to go. It seems I inherited my dad's black hole of a stomach, because I comfortably finished what Maddie and Liam left behind of their meals as well. Sorry I'm not sorry.
It was during breakfast at our communal table that we stuck up conversations with our fellow diners. They were all friendly and quite impressed by our undertaking, but one moment thoroughly puzzled me. Here I am, minding my own business mooching off of Maddie's continental breakfast and devouring one of my top 5 favorite cereals—Apple Jacks—and the woman next to me stares intently before asking in the most judgmental of tones, "now what kind of chemicals are in there?" To which I respond happily, "the delicious ones, I don't care what they put in these." For the record, I'm trying desperately to keep myself from losing weight this trip because I have a wedding tuxedo with my pre-trip measurements waiting for me when I get home. I solve this with the elegantly simple and altogether indulgent practice of stuffing my face at every possible opportunity. I, like the bears and woodland critters I now share a temporary home with, am an opportunivore: if there's food to be had, I'll be having it. Back to the story: this woman then proceeds to reach for the Apple Jacks lid and recite the ingredients list out loud for all to hear. Replete with dramatic pauses, her recitation dripped with disgust, as she ever so clearly annunciated words like "partially hydrogenated." I stopped eating to let her finish, at which point she sort of tried to shrug off the shame she had just brought down upon me. The aftermath felt as awkward as you might imagine. Do I keep eating? Do I push the bowl forward slowly and frown? Do I throw the bowl in her face? Remembering my stated trip objective earlier in this paragraph to keep weight on, it won't surprise you that I downed that sucker in mere moments. I really wanted to stand up at that point, toss the bowl carelessly in the air, and say "how do you like them apple jacks?!" But I didn't. I just shoved a chemical-filled mini-muffin into my my mouth instead. She meant no harm, I'm sure, and she really was pleasant company otherwise--I just thought it weird.
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| Our sweet tent cabin |
Anyway, wow, it's late and I'm not even done tellin' you about breakfast! Okay. So Liam and Anne went down to Tanaya Lake while Maddie and I dried our clothes in the sun and packed. By the time we left, it was about 1pm, yikes! We walked a little ways back to the trail, at which point we said some tearful goodbyes with our trail angels and companions. Thank you again, Anne, for all you have done to help make this leg of our trip spectacular. We are so grateful!
And to Liam: you are a truly wonderful hiking companion, my friend. It's probably the biggest bummer of the trip that you are not here with us in Lyell canyon right now. Thank you for the laughs and your positive attitude every step of the way! When I get my next resupply I will most definitely refrain from using too much tuna on my tortilla—you have my word.
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| I'll see you later, or I'll see you on another time city slicka! Missing the banter and copious sheep sounds you make already! |
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| Sibling Love |
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| Aaaaaaaaand cue the water works.... |
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| Goodbye to our trail angel! |
Needless to say, Maddie was...emotional...for the next couple miles. Goodbyes are always tough, and I just let her work through it, assuring her that it would get easier as we move through such a beautiful landscape. And beautiful it was!
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| Entering Lyell Canyon was epic |
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Believe it or not, I forgot to take a selfie today
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| We be strollin' |
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| Just drinking some snow melt, no big deal |
The trail was flat for the next 7 miles or so, which allowed us to just cruise pretty swiftly upward toward the base of Donahue pass. The trail was great and all, but if there's one thing to get us hiking over 3 miles per hour, it's mozzies. I'm not referring to the hilarious and lovable character on White Collar. I'm talking Mosquitos. It was on this day that we realized Liam's most valuable contribution to our group: mosquito bait. With him gone, they swarmed us at several places along the trail, and it was at those moments that I was grateful for having heeded ranger Dave's advice by bringing the strongest DEET we could get. I really really really didn't want to have to use it this trip, but what can ya do. As much as I love feasting on anything out here, I hate being feasted on about a bajillion times more.
And so Maddie's sadness after having left her mom and brother turned to a blubbering borderline meltdown over the mosquito hell in which we now found ourselves. The day's objective then changed from making miles to comforting her any way I could. It turns out that Maddie had her own self remedy for melancholy and mosquito frustrations: hike really fast. We hauled through the canyon and shot straight up the switchbacks to Lyell fork. She was such a champ the way she pulled it together! It was a long day for us, but the climb brought us back to life.
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| Stopping for pictures became secondary to getting out of Mosquitoville |
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| But that scenery though! |
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| Rushing water is a pretty delightful soundtrack! |
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| Log crossing |
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| Cool trail markers |
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| Almost there... |
So after 600 feet of fast climbing we got to a camp site only to find: MOSQUITOS! At this point even I was now on the verge of flipping out, as all I wanted to do was get us somewhere peaceful. I should have known, but I guess this is just one of those days where we have to suck it up. We cooked an absolutely delicious Outdoor Herbivore meal (we would eat this stuff in real life!) up on a perch somewhat out of their range, but chores around camp were no fun tonight. The plan now: no breakfast tomorrow, just get the hell out of here. One place they won't be: on top of our first major pass! Atop Donahue pass we'll eat, organize, and plan our night's camp.
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| After the climb and entering a mosquito-ridden camp! Ugh! |
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| The soundtrack of the river for the night offers the slightest of redemptions for this campsite |
No couples selfie to cap this one off tonight. But I'll show you what a tough climb at the end of the day does to a sprightly young hiker:
Disclaimer: she gave me permission to post this. I am not the meanest person ever.
On that note, at 10:40pm (geesh blogging takes a long time), I bid you goodnight!
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