After nine hours of sleep, I was surprised. How did I sleep so long? I lay until 5:00 am assessing my condition. What should I expect out of this day? Can we make it at our current pace? We don’t know the exact mileage for this hike. We had seen both 53 miles, and 59 miles listed for this trek. It would turn out to be 61 miles for us. Naturally, estimation will play a part in our daily expectations. Prior to our start, we had batted around the idea of twelve miles per day. That would get us there in five days. That seemed a bit out of our range. We were predicting 6 or 7 days. Seven days would put us at an 8.7 mile per day pace, and six would put us at a 10 mile per day pace. Our permit was good until June 21st. If we used all that time, we would run out of food. So, I felt a need to evaluate our pace. I figured we’d get faster as we went along, however my uphill speed was slow and I figured with Muir and Bishop passes ahead, they would slow me.
Robin woke with dry heaves. She didn’t believe she was suffering from any effects from altitude, rather she believed the eggs at Starbucks were bad. Or perhaps it was the restaurant food. I agreed that the food was suspect. But whatever it was, she would need to eat for energy.
We were in Humphreys Basin starting on an easy downhill without too many rocks or obstructions. We stopped for water and took breaks. I’m sure I was nagging about our daily mileage, when Robin became upset that I felt we needed to finish in six or seven days. I thought it over. I didn’t want to feel I was pressuring her. Nor did I want to pressure myself. So, I told her that we have ten days on the permit and if we go ten days, we go ten days. I’d try not to mention this again. We talked about conserving food. The portions were large, so we could try to share them. She still had no appetite. I think she would have given me her whole meal, but she was satisfied giving me more than my share.
Our trail started to ascend. We were leaving the water far below. The trail turned rocky, and the pine trees reappeared. We entered Piute Canyon. We remained unsure where the next water source would be. We were also unsure about how the reported “Pine Creek Pass” would impact us. We weren’t going over it, but would we have some switchbacks? Also, we needed to be on the other side of the creek, which was huge and roaring.
So far, we hadn’t seen anything that looked like a tent site. But there it was. On our left with the creek roaring below, was a tent site. On the other side of the trail was a rock fire ring. Of course, you can’t have a fire, and the wind was so strong, no one would even consider it. We did sit on luxurious logs in front of the ring to eat dinner. And surprise a couple appeared. We had considered the possibility that the Zombie Apocalypse had left only us. We were relieved. They said they were with three others who were behind them. The three, Danny, Katie, and Karin, really didn’t seem to be with them. We guess the first two were the zombies. We leap-frogged with the threesome until our last day.
About an hour later, as we were brushing our teeth, a young man came from the opposite direction. He needed water. He left North Lake days ago heading on a short trail to the left of the Piute Trail. He continued cross country to Goethe Glacier and Darwin Canyon. It was the hardest thing he had ever done. He seemed desperate, feral, half-crazed. We had no water to give him. We were pretty sure he wasn’t more than two miles to water.
Mountain Peace 