Impossible Uber Ride Saturday April 9, 2022

Every time we get into town, we take everything out of our packs. We need to find our dirty clothes to wash, find garbage to throw out and replace the pond scrum we’ve been drinking with clear tap water. Town trips are not relaxing. We had a 6:30 breakfast, but we weren’t ready to leave until our packs were stuffed.

We called for an Uber and we were off in his Rav 4 by 9:30 and should should have been on the trail by 10:00. The driver was listening to the hits of the sixties and complaining that they only play what are considered commercial hits when there are better songs. He asked me if I wanted him to turn the music off. The volume was so low I couldn’t make out one song. I should be happy riding with someone older than me, but now I worry about possible cataracts, or some dementia because he thinks he can hear the radio.

It was a twenty-seven mile drive to Romero Trailhead. We had to go in through a state park. We stopped to pay the fee, and I asked the ranger if we could get to Romero Pass from this park. “Not anymore. It’s closed for repairs.” The only other way to get to the trail was on the other side of town on the road we came from last night. In fact we would have to resume our hike where we left off with the eight mile climb now starting after 11:00 AM in the mounting heat. This was now impossible because if we couldn’t make it in one day, we’d be too late. We wanted to be in Oracle by Sunday evening.

So we asked the driver if he’d drive us the 29 miles up the mountain to the small town of Summerhaven. He capitulated. He seemed to regret the decision as the road slowly wound it’s way up. We passed many bicyclists conquering this steep incline. Our driver hated bicyclists and became more vocal about it as the miles mounted, along with the cost, finally reaching $116.

We were dropped off in the middle of this cute ski town, well ski town for about two days a year. He let us out at the cafe where all the hikers we had met were milling. You can imagine how we felt emerging from a car all fresh and clean as the other hikers had earned a rest and we had bought one. We left post haste with our tails between our legs.

This hike should have been been easy. It was only ten miles. After a long uphill, it’s followed by a down hill. Ha! Up we went. Sharply. Any downhill break was covered with breakneck rocks trying to take us down. And all the while the wind blasted. If our Uber driver read this he’d say, “We’ll you signed up for this.”

It seemed we should be near. In truth we had only made it four miles. When we saw a couple of flat spots we pitched the tent and whipped out the Jet Boil. It was a kale and white beans with rice night. We’d pay for this mix later. As we were cooking in the tent, hiker Colton called to us, can I share this spot with you? Sure. We had just met him at the cafe. He is an ambassador for Six Moons backpacking gear. Amazingly he’s hiking with Cystic Fibrosis. The wind was howling and continued all night.