Monday Day 65

5.28.2018

923-931

This snow stuff is kicking my butt. Another day that I am reminded how thankful we didn’t push on that snowy Monday (outside of Independence). Yesterday was tough. Today was just down right brutal.

Now I say that because I think I had a teary moment this morning before leaving camp. I think having this sinus crap while I’m out here is really breaking my spirit. Yes, I thought about staying in town when it was creeping up on me, but that would have gotten me nowhere. So again, I didn’t sleep cause I was all congested. I didn’t budget enough TP for blowing my nose all day long!!! 😝 So anyway, I tried to will the sinus crap away all day but it still got the better half of me. Not to mention being thirsty while trying to climb a mountain with grossness in your throat. The good thing is, I feel it making its rounds in my head so hopefully I’ve gone through the worst of it and it’ll be over in a few more days.

And back to the trail. Laura and Andrew broke camp pretty early. I think they were out before 6. I know they had hoped to make it over Donahue Pass (11074ft) and take break at mile 933. Unfortunately I think the warm sunny day wreaked havoc on their plans.

Justin and I left the campsite right around 7am. I had been up pretty early (545am) and felt a bit out of sorts trying to pack all my stuff up so I didn’t worry about a Justin sleeping in. What I did know was that the later we started hiking the more postholing we’d have to contend with.

Which brings me back to Laura and Andrew, as they had hiked in front of us, we were able to follow their footprints through the snow most of the morning. The snow was warming quickly today and was slushy in most spots by 11am. We were in and out of our snowshoes most of the morning. There was a long snow field that led to Donahue Pass that was the shining moment of our snowshoe purchase. We were able to walk most of the snow field without postholing. It was still slow but it helped a great deal. Little did we know the snow was too slushy for Andrew and Laura and they hollered at us from their campsite around 130pm. They are in a prime spot to attack the ascent in the wee hours of the morning.

Justin and I pushed on as our traction was good. It felt really awesome going up and over Donahue Pass. Tons of snow but not super technical like Forester Pass was. After slogging our way to the top we followed the few footsteps in the snow that led us to a steep decent. I watched from up top as Justin started his way down. It was slow going but it looked like we’d make it just fine. Well, just seconds later I see what looks like Justin skiing down the hillside and then a tumble. He was fine but it all happened in slow motion I didn’t know wether to laugh or cry. When he gathered himself and found his trekking poles and water bottle, I decided it was worth the trek and made my own glissade down. Super slushy snow works great to slide on! I popped my snowshoes off and held one in each hand and made it down the hill an easy 20-30 feet. It was so much fun!!! It really was my highlight of the “low moral” kind of day that it was. Justin followed suit as he saw it was a way easier way down.

After that fun, we decide to cut the trail a little bit because of the snow. Good idea but kinda sketchy. But we survived. At one point we lost the trail and I just happen to look up and some crazy hiker is following us–we hadn’t seen anyone other than Laura and Andrew since yesterday. That guy just bombed down the hill like it was nothing, no crampons no snowshoes. He was practically running!!! We both just shook our heads.

So with that defeating moment over, we dropped down to the tree line of Yosemite National Park (I guess I should say that we entered the park when we summited Donahue Pass). This is where the day went sour. What we should have done was camp at the bottom when we hit the tree line but we both knew it was too early to end the day. So we put ourselves through some terrible postholing. Postholing so bad I had to dig myself out a few times, once including when I fell directly between two rocks so deep that my snowshoe got lodged underneath. It sucked to say the least. The trail is still covered mostly by snow so route finding in the trees was mostly impossible. There was a lot of cursing today. But again, we survived.

We were both exhausted and agreed that the next spot we saw we’d make camp. Of course I had to cross another log to get there. Log crossed and we were setting up tents by 6pm. We were joined by a guy named Phoenix, he’s from Switzerland. Nice guy, super fast tho, he started April 14 and made it through the Sierras.

I’m so tired. And sore. My body definitely took a beating today. I had some severe doubts today about “finishing” the trail. And then I reminded myself of “Never quit on a bad day” and so I won’t. I know there is more snow ahead but we are done with the high passes. We did cross a total of two logs today that frightened me so no, I still haven’t gotten over that complex. I had to explain to Justin that I was the kid who NEVER jumped off the diving board in swim school. Nope, never. Just don’t like it.

Anywho…. I’m going to hope for some great sleep tonight and a waaaaaay better day tomorrow. Oh yeah, the scenery and weather were a bonus today so I can’t complain about that at all. Goodnight.