Sunday Day 71

June 3, 2018

Mile 1006-1016

We were hiking by 7 this morning. Jazzed to get out of here but not so jazzed about route finding in the snow again. Getting up and around Leavitt Peak was going to be a chore. I pretty much wore my crampons 75% of the day.

The unfortunate part being we were so hopeful we wouldn’t have too much snow to deal with today. I will admit. I was weak and tired. I’m still fighting the congestion in my sinuses and chest. The snow was the last thing I really wanted to see all day long. We figured “anyone can do 10 miles.” But our 10 miles seemed like 20.

With about 5 miles to go, I had a message from my dad asking if I’d talked with my Uncle Walt about meeting me on trail. I knew my Uncle had mentioned meeting me at the next highway, but thought it wouldn’t hurt to see if he was available for a Sunday drive. We were in luck! The one day he actually checked his phone and he was just hanging out at home. He was out the door and on his way to Sonoara Pass to meet us (from Modesto). It’s over a 2 hour drive so when he said he was on his way I was super excited.

The snow was deep most of the way to the highway. As the trail was mostly on that north-facing slope, the melt was hardly in effect. In fact, there was so much snow we talked with some guys up top who had hiked in so that they could ski down. No really, there’s too much snow when you’re hiking in between 2 skiers bombing down the same hillside. We took a short cut down the left side of the trail to avoid some snow about the last mile down. We were both over the whole day. The sidetrail wasn’t much better as it wasn’t really a trail and we ended up on a steep hillside and eventually back in slushy snow only to posthole the rest of the way down. Actually, we did get one glissade in so that made up for the erroneous detour offtrail. I like the glissades.

So in the end, you all know Uncle Walt saved the day and became a TrailAngel!! He was waiting for us when we arrived at the bottom on the trail at Highway 108. We were out of water and low on snacks when we got there. He had brought Snapple drinks in a cooler and already had a place in mind for some grub–best tasting Snapple EVER! He drove us into Kennedy Meadows North to pick up our boxes and then down to the town of Strawberry for a burger and RootBeer Floats.

I should mention, the previous plan between Justin and I was to grab the boxes at KM (which would have been an 8.5 mile hitchhike or road walk to the West). We also discussed going into Bridgeport (30 miles to the East) so that Justin could let his trench foot breathe (yup, I said that, gross) and I could visit a doctor. Uncle Walt upped the ante by offering us a ride down to Modesto (and back of course) and a cozy place to stay. Justin agreed and the rest is history.

By the time we made the drive down from Strawberry, showered and cleaned up, we were ready to eat again. Uncle Walt took us to his neighborhood watering hole, UNOs, for pizza and beer. I went with his recommendation of Cheeseburger Pizza–which is not on the menu–and it was kinda the best of both worlds. Yum!