Hikers were walking past our tent as we scraped ourselves out of the bramble and stumble onto the trail. We had unwound from our bags and tent to head up toward Piute Pass. It proved beautiful. The aroma of lodgepole pines and the graceful movement of quaking aspen prompt us to stop and inhale the moment. At the foot of the Piute Crags, the trail followed the creek. The top half of the ascending trail left most of the trees behind and the glacier carved granite benches and the many lakes dominated. We passed Loch Leven and Piute Lake.
It proved terribly grueling. Robin’s steady pace often took her out of my sight. My push forward would stop me breathless. I recalled the symptoms of altitude sickness and now we both hadheadaches and upset stomachs. As the day progressed our symptoms remained nagging but not alarming. Afterall we were maximizing our exertion level.
The steady increase of hikers began to feel like hoards. Robert and Steve met us as they headed down from the summit without packs, left behind for an easier jaunt to the top. Afterall this is their territory and thus providing them high altitude lungs. Two women of our age were pretty much skipping up the “hill.” They greeted the guys. Granted, they too were unencumbered by packs, which seemed to make it just a walk in the park. They advised Robin to veer left and skirt around the snow to reach the summit. And without much more ado, there we were at the top. Just like magic we stepped down the lip of the pinnacle and left all, absolutely all, of the hikers behind. Along with all the people, our clearly delineated trail was gone too.
Thank God, Paul, Robin’s husband, had loaded the Gaia app on her phone. And even though he failed to give her any training, she patiently poked around on the app until she felt fairly confident she could lead us in the right direction. This wasdefinitely the road less traveled by, so that app made all the difference. This piddly trail did not resemble the highway of a trail on the east side of the pass, so she had to do plenty of deciphering. She was spot on. The entire view that lay before us was wide open granite boulders and benches only lightlypeppered with stands of brush. Luckily, rivers and lakes were plentiful.
We were so alone, we wouldn’t see another soul during the next 24 hours.
We erected our tent on a rock slab at 3:00 PM. We found a clump of bushes to hunker under for shade to read, write, and decompressing. Our first freeze-dried dinners were hard to stomach. Robin was really feeling badly. Still at 10,000 feet, I fell asleep before 7:00 PM with a headache.
Mountain Peace 