Four am came much too quickly after staying up past 11 pm last night getting ready to return to the trail. Anxious about returning, I got dressed and quietly slipped out the front door of the house. Driving myself to the Portland International airport seemed almost routine as I finally am comfortable with the route and have learned the roads. In the short term parking lot I left the car, locked except for the rear left door. In the trunk I left the car key hidden in a plastic bag inside the recycling bin that was filled with other recyclables. Hopefully when Eric flew into Portland this evening the car was still in the lot so he could retrieve the key from the trunk and drive home!
The Southwest flight left the gate at 6:15 am and arrived in Reno, NV right on schedule at 7:35 am. I walked down the concourse hoping that my backpack had survived the inspection process by TSA. On the previous flight to Portland it had been completely inspected, ransacked, and left in total disarray. Last time I flew, it was July 7th, and London had just experienced the subway and bus bombings. This morning as I was preparing to board I learned that once again London had experienced another round of bombings. Strange coincidence!
Doodlebug surprised me from behind just as I cleared the security zone walking to the baggage area. What a great friend she is! She had left Bridgeport, CA this morning at 5 am to come pick me up and to drive me the two and half hour drive to the PCT trail crossing at Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. We had lots to talk about during the drive. Doodlebug has fought physical setbacks since starting the trail and never really felt well during her entire journey. In addition, she missed her boyfriend back home and felt a core desire to go back home to spend time with him nurturing and developing their relationship. I am really happy for her that she is at peace with her decision to stop her thru-hike to follow her heart and return home.
So meanwhile the miles rolled by and we made a quick stop at a Lowes in some town before losing civilization entirely. I needed denatured alcohol to fuel up my stove for my backpacking meals. Then we made a second stop several miles farther in Bridgeport, CA. Doodlebug dropped me off at the small general store so I could buy a lighter (now banned from flights entirely) and some film since TSA told me that the film that had been stored in my backpack would have been exposed when they inspected it. She drove a couple blocks down to the motel room she and Nitro had split last night. There, she visited with Nitro for a few minutes and borrowed Nitro's maps and guidebook of my upcoming section since I wasn't convinced that those items would be at my Tuolomne Meadows mail drop by the time we got to the post office to retrieve them.
Back on the highway, we drove up to Yosemite, arriving at the main gate and fee station at 11:30 am. They wanted $20.00 for a day pass into the park. Doodlebug explained that she was just driving 8 miles into the park to drop me off so I could resume hiking the PCT, and asked if the fee could be waived. The ranger let us in, under the provision that Doodlebug return to the gate to leave the park in 40 minutes. So we arrived at the Tuolomne Meadows store and grille and quickly bought our lunch and joined some other hikers eating at the outside tables.
I met a thru-hiker named Razz who had spent some time with Bad Moon, Happy, Phantom and Whoop Ass and he knew of my plight with the infected foot. Seems trail news travels and works its way up and down the trail just as it did on the Appalachian Trail. There was also a thru-hiker who started at the kickoff and had skipped the Sierras to hike south from Oregon and was now about to hike the Sierras south to Kennedy Meadows. Sisyphus (trail named for the Greek mortal who was condemned to roll a rock to the top of the mountain only to have it roll down to be moved again perpetually) was giving updates on trail conditions to our north all the way up to Oregon. Basically he said that he had been hiking in mosquito hell for the last 150 miles, that the next section is full of steep ups and downs, and that he has been hiking in snow ever since south bounding except for three days. Sounds like the PCT we've already experienced in the Sierras coming north!
After Doodlebug left to return to Reno to catch her flight home I retrieved my post office boxes and letters. Thank you to mom and dad for the card and spending money! Also, thank you to Ken and Marcia Stern for the card, photos of Ken as a much younger boy enjoying Yosemite, and for the trail goodies! Also, a special thanks goes out to young vivacious trail angel Sarah Clardy, a future thru-hiker from Charlotte who hopefully will follow in her sister's footsteps and will have the good sense to attend UNC-Chapel Hill after graduation from high school, who took the time to bake a huge tub of brownies then sent them via Express Mail to Tuolomne Meadows! Even though they had been there a little longer than planned thanks to the unlucky Rabbit's foot, they were amazingly tasty and I was able to share them with both section and thru-hikers who were all grateful. They didn't last long!
I spent the whole afternoon sitting at the tables beside the Tuolomne Meadows store talking with Todd (a thru-hiker I met briefly at the Saufley's back in Agua Dulce...he took 10 days off and also has struggled with altitude issues in the High Sierra's...maybe it's because he too is 43 and left handed?) and Sisyphus. We talked trail talk and eventually Sisyphus left the table, returning in a few minutes with a six pack of Sierra Nevada beer to celebrate us being in the Sierras and my return to the trail. It was heart warming and a great feeling being back in the hiker community with new friends that I had only spent a few hours with.
So much for not having experienced any rain on the PCT! It sprinkled on us twice and we heard distant thunder all around us as we sat during the late afternoon hours enjoying our hiker time. Around 4 pm, Whuppin Stick and Luke, two thru-hikers I had met briefly at Kennedy Meadows, hiked up to the store area. So more trail talk ensued and I was beginning to wonder if my plan to hike 6 miles out to a campsite with bear boxes was going to happen.
All of the other hikers were planning to stay at the hiker site at Tuolomne Meadows, where Phantom's group had experienced the bear coming into camp two days ago that stole Whoop Ass's snack foods from the open bear box in broad daylight and sat a few yards away from camp enjoying the tasty treats while being pelted with rocks. Since Todd and Sisyphus were planning to take a zero mile day tomorrow to visit Yosemite Valley, I really had no temptation to stay and wait until tomorrow morning to head north.
So at 5 pm I knew it was time to get hiking if I was going to make 6 miles before dark with some time to setup camp. I said my goodbyes to the hiker group and began the hike north. Soon, maybe within the first 15 minutes, it began to rain. At first it was just sprinkles with lots of lightning and thunder occurring at nearby higher peaks. I could see some heavy rain moving my way about 15 minutes later so I stopped on the trail to put the pack cover on the pack. Sure enough, it soon began a deluge and for the next hour I hiked in on again, off again, heavy rain, lightning and thunder. It would stop for about 5 minutes, then resume with a vengeance. The pattern continued three or four more times. The lightning never ceased for about an hour and a half. Thankfully most of the lightning was bolting cloud to cloud with only an occasional bolt reaching the ground. Then the wind suddenly picked up and it began to hail. The hail didn't last long but the pieces were fairly large and the pelting was stinging on my arms as I extended them to place my hiking poles on wet ground and rocks while hiking along the rushing Tuolomne River.
Finally at 7:15 pm I arrived at Glen Aulin camping area, soaked to the bone including wet shoes and wet feet. Razz, who I had met earlier at the store, was standing by the entrance to one of the numbered campsites as I hiked by looking for a site to put up my shelter. We spoke briefly...he told me that he had just been fined by a park ranger $150.00 for not having a bear canister (food container required by Yosemite National Park in the backcountry). This was the first time I had ever heard of a thru-hiker receiving a fine for not carrying a canister, even though it is required. The reason for the fine....Razz made the mistake of lying to the ranger when he was asked if he had a canister. He told the ranger that he indeed was carrying one. The ranger then asked him to produce the canister from his pack. His bluff had been called, and he was forced to tell the ranger the truth. So the ranger told him that the reason for giving him the fine was because he lied to him....moral of the story.....tell the truth!
I am not carrying a canister either, they are heavy (3 pounds) and expensive and practically useless for thru-hikers because we carry so many day's food it won't all fit in the canister anyway. From reading and talking to so many other thru-hikers who have hiked the PCT or the JMT, I understood that the rangers are generally lenient on the canister rule with thru-hikers, especially if when asked the thru-hiker has a plan for protecting the food and explains that plan to the ranger.
So I setup my tarp tent in another rain shower as quickly as possible. I then collected all my food and smellables to put in the bear boxes provided in the camping area. Next I retreated to the tarp tent with wet clothes, wet body, and wet backpack still on. At least my other clothes and sleeping bag and Thermarest were toasty and dry! My foot took a beating from being wet for over 5 miles and I wasn't particularly happy with Mother Nature for greeting me the way she did for my return to the trail. Hopefully the wet skin will dry overnight and the opening to the wound won't split open as it did just a little while hiking tonight. If it worsens...well, I'll have to consider getting back to Portland for more time off to heal further.
So....I'm wet, chilled, tired from a very long day of travel and reindoctrination to trail life, as well as concerned about the condition of my foot. But I'm also happy and excited about being back on the trail! The hike itself was stunningly beautiful, even in the deluge.
Today's weather: Partly cloudy, then thunderstorms. Today's mileage: 6.0 Cumulative mileage: 883.2
