The Last Week

Finally leaving Yosemite

So we finally got out of there!  We slept in again but then hit the trail!  What we did not realize was that we were walking into the worst mosquito experience we may ever have in our lifetimes.

6/26 - miles 942 - 962- 20 miles - day 62

We headed out on the trail this day after not doing any PCT miles for 3 days.  There were a lot of dayhikers out on the trail but they disappeared once we got about 6 miles from the trailhead.  We were back on the PCT and cruising!  had a couple of tough climbs and but we had a lot of fun.  At one point we came to a fork in the road and we had to choose between two different paths.  After consulting the maps we chose the one on the left.  After a couple of minutes of downhill walking I got a terrible feeling that we had chosen wrong.  I looked at the maps again and just did not know where we were so I dropped my pack and sprinted down the hill after MudD to tell him that I wasn't so sure we had chosen right.  I thought MudD would just be around the corner but he is a lot faster than even I knew.  I got nearly all the way down to the bottom of the hill when I stopped him, showed him the maps, and he said, "Fran, we're right here... see?  We chose the right way."  So I then started the long walk back up the hill to get my pack only to come back down.  It really wasn't that bad.  And that's really the only exciting thing that happened during they day so hey, it wasn't too bad.  That night when we got into camp the mosquitos were pretty bad.  We set up the tent and started a fire.  We spent that night with Goodall, The Blur, Hummingbird, Dinnertime, and Keno- not knowing we would spend every night this week with most of these people.

6/27 - miles 962 - 983 - 21 miles - Day 63

We woke up to a mosquito free day... but it wouldn't stay that way too long.  By the time we got to the top of our first pass at 9 am, the mosquitos were terrible.  We had our bug nets on, pants, rain jackets, and bug spray.  I don't think we were getting bit by the mosquitos but we were still pacing back and forth trying to get away from those bugs.  Luckily MudD found a bug net at some point during this day.  That night, the mosquitos were even worse than they were the night before.  We decided that night we had to wake up early the next morning, before the mosquitos were up so we could pack up in peace.

6/28 - miles 983-1,007 - 24 miles - Day 64

Our plan to wake up early to skip the mosquitos and pack up in peace failed because the mosquitos were already out at 5 in the morning.  And they were biting like crazy and they did not stop the entire day.  It was my least favorite day on the trail so far.  It was terrible!  Everything we walked through was wet.  My feet were soaked, not from river crossings but from just walking down the trail which itself became a river at times.  Easily the worst it got was when we were passing by this one lake.  I had reapplied bug spray a million times it seemed that day and still they were biting me.  At this lake though, I could feel them flying and hitting my calves by the hundreds.  MudD got his wiffle ball bat out and started swinging it around in the air and he said he could hear them hitting the bat, one after the other.  We literally could not stop walking this day.  They were bad enough when we were moving, I didn't want to know what they would be like when we stopped.  But I started stumbling and nearly fell a couple times and even though I didn't want to stop, MudD insisted that we take a break, drink some water, and have a little snack.  That break helped a lot and gave me the energy to get to the top of the pass we were climbing where we finally left Yosemite National Park!  Finally!  We had been blaming all our mosquito problems on Yosemite and maybe it was all in our heads but I swear the mosquitos let up just a bit as soon as we passed over the Yosemite National Park line.  We passed that line at mile 998 and only had two to go until we made it to mile 1,000... which we completely missed.  We passed by the rocks that were marking the huge milestone so that was pretty anti-climatic.  That afternoon we experienced our first afternoon storm scare.  These clouds looked nasty!  But it was hot out so I was hoping it would actually rain.  The clouds went right by us, never actually going over us and we would not know it then but this would happen to us several more times that week.  That night we had a nice campfire with Hummingbird, Dinnertime, Keno, and our new friend, Caveman.  Besides Caveman, we had camped with these guys every night that week so far... and not because we had planned it that way, just because we all happen to have the same plan every morning when we woke up.  

6/29 - miles  1007 - 1029 - 22 miles - day 65

Today was our best day of the week.  The mosquitos were non-existent, the scenery was beautiful, and we had some unexpected trail magic!  We spent the morning climbing up to a ridge that we then followed for a couple miles.  It was just gorgeous and we thought we must be going to slow because we kept on stopping to take pictures.  Then when we finally came down from the ridge, some trail angels were at a parking lot where the trail crossed a highway at Sonora Pass.  They made us hotdogs for lunch (including a side of cheesy potato).  I had at least 4 cans of soda and I'm pretty sure MudD did the same.  I was so full but we still wanted to go another 11 miles before the day was over.  So reluctantly we put our packs back on (though we had to loosen the waist bands a bit) and headed off.  It was actually a lovely afternoon.  The climb out of Sonora Pass wasn't even that bad.  We made it to camp, ate again though we were still full from the trail angel lunch.  We thought maybe the rest of our group wasn't going to make it but just as we were about to get into the tent for the night, our friends showed up!  Keno started a fire that night and we stayed up late all telling stories and chatting it up.  Finally around 9 pm (very late for us) we headed off to bed to get ready for the next day.

6/30 - miles 1,029 - 1,055 - 26 miles - day 66

This day was pretty rough.  We knew we wanted to get far this day and so we took off like a shot.  We made it 13.5 miles by lunchtime and sat down to take a break where we both realized we had headaches.  It was really hot out this day and I felt like I could not drink enough water.  On we went, up and over a couple hills.  The hills didn't look too hard or long on our elevation charts but man these things kicked our butts!  We sat back down after crossing a highway with a little less than 6 miles to go until we would stop for the day.  We got out a couple snacks and were hanging out for a bit when Dinnertime showed up and suddenly shouted, "trail magic!" and went off running up the hill. MudD and I followed quickly and we discovered a cooler full of gatorade, soda, beer, chips, and apples!  It was delicious!  And very uplifting after such a hard afternoon.  We immediately grabbed some apples... which immediately made MudD feel terrible!  Maybe it's because we hadn't eaten fruit in so long?  I don't know what happened but MudD ended up throwing up the apple... and I mean just the apple.  I took a look at the throw up when it was all said and done and none of the snacks he ate right before the apple were included in the puke.  So that was weird.  But afterwards he felt great and we kept moving!  And it was a beautiful last couple of miles.  We ended up camping in a beautiful canyon (with all of our friends) and the mosquitos were barely biting.  Great night.  I had a bit of a headache though still so I went to lay down in the tent - thats when the zipper on our tent officially broke.  Oops.  That night we had to sleep with the tent open and in the morning our tent was full of huge insects.

7/1 - miles 1,055 to 1,084 - 29 miles - day 67

Now, we did not mean to do 29 miles today.  MudD and I were both so out of it this morning for some reason that we thought we might only make it 20 miles.  It was hot was just a hot hot morning and there were no landmarks so we couldn't tell how far we had gone yet.  Suddenly at 10:40 in the morning we came across Blue Lakes Rd... which was supposed to be 12.5 miles from where we camped the night before.  We were both pretty surprised.  We thought we were going really slow!  But somehow we were moving!  We took an early lunch, had a beautiful uphill climb and then started up a pass just as a huge thunderstorm was rolling in.  We had amazing views from up high... and then just as we got to the top of the pass, the thunder and lightning started and we decided it was a good time to get off of the top of a mountain.  So we ran down and made it to a building with an overhang just as it started sprinkling.  MudD, Keno, Hummingbird, Dinnertime, and I all made dinner early and then headed out for three more miles where we heard there was good camping.  We got there and there was terrible camping there so we all kept going.  We all felt great from dinner and though we had had a huge day already, everyone of us felt confident to move on.  That night we camped at Showers Lake, home of the mosquitos.  We were too pooped to even have a fire that night.

7/2 miles 1,084 - 1,094 - 10 miles - day 68

After the hellish week we had with mosquitos we were all very excited to get into town.  It was a quick morning and got a hitch in to South Lake Tahoe pretty quickly.  We chowed down on McDonalds and found a cheap place to stay.  It was the Super 8 and it was actually really cool.  We went out to a casino that night with plans of hitting the all you can eat buffet and then gambling a bit in the Nevada side of town.  But after the all you can eat buffet we were pretty done and just went home, watched some movies, and fell asleep.

So now we are still in South Lake Tahoe.  My mom happened to be coming out to California anyway so she met us here and we have been hanging out with her for a while.  Tomorrow (the 5th) we will be heading out on the trail again for more adventures!