TUESDAY 9/6 20:30 PDT:
We both made it to the friendly (but expensive) arms of Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) in fine shape -- Tina by pontoon boat across Edison Lake and I via 7-hour drive crossing the Sierras over Tioga Pass (i.e., through Yosimite) and then crawling back into them via the long, rough, one lane seasonal road that leads to Edison Lake. Now we're clean, well fed, and settled into the place's very finest travel trailer -- Big Red. ;-) Turns out that they have a slow pay (100kbit/s) satellite internet connection and so I'm using that to post this. We're taking tomorrow off and so I'll try to do a summary post with pictures then.
MONDAY 9/5 23:00 PDT:
Tina hoofed it 20 miles over Seldon Pass reaching the turnoff trail for the VVR "ferry" (a small pontoon boat) and setting up camp after dark. She reported that she has no idea of her surroundings -- she's simply camped on a flat spot a couple feet from the trail. In any case, she's planning to catch the morning ride across the lake to the "resort" while I drive the 6 hours from here (Mammoth Lakes) to get there by road -- a crow fly distance of only 15 miles!! I'm bringing all her resupply items and we're set to spend two nights in some of their deluxe accomodations .. a trailer referred to as "Big Red" .. LOL .. ;-) .. at least we get a 20% discount because it's now past Labor Day!
MONDAY - 9/5 11:30 PDT:
In spite of hearing considerable bear-foraging noises in the early evening, Tina ultimately slept well at her camp near the Muir Trail Ranch and mile 859 of the PCT and down at 8200 feet -- by far her lowest camp since she's been out. Now (11:30am) she has already climbed back up over 10,000 feet on her way up to Seldon Pass. At mile 879 she'll reach the turnoff to the "ferry" to VVR which comes twice a day to transport hikers across Lake Thomas Edison to and from the "resort". We plan to meet there tomorrow.
SUNDAY - 9/4:
With no pass to climb it was a straightforward day of hiking as Tina moved 19 miles north on the trail to a point a couple miles from the Muir Trail Ranch. She goes to sleep a bit uneasy tonight after hearing a substantial amount of crashing around in the trees near her ("like trees being torn down") and then sounds of big rocks being moved around. So she's probably got a bear or a sasquatch as a neighbor tonight!
SATURDAY - 9/3:
Tina hiked around 13-14 miles to reach Muir Pass, encountering rain and sleet shortly before reaching the top. There she found a stone hut erected by the Sierra Club to honor John Muir. She sheltered in that a short bit but there was already a fellow there who looked like he wanted to spend the night there and so Tina pressed on in the rain/sleet and made camp a couple miles later near Wanda Lake. As expected, the rain stopped as she put up the tent and the clouds eventually cleared for the evening. The forecasts say that the clear days are over with for awhile and so she'll probably have this afternoon/evening behavior all the way to VVR. Nevertheless, Tina is really looking forward to tomorrow. All the southbound hikers have been raving about how beautiful the Evolution Creek area is and she arrives there tomorrow.
FRIDAY - 9/2:
08:00 - GOOD MORNING! SLEPT WELL BUT TOO LONG. PACKING UP.
14:45 - STOPPING FOR LUNCH,
15:04 - MATHER NOT TOO BAD. BIT OF TRICKY SNOW ON THE NORTH SIDE.
19:54 - FINALLY IN MY TENT! GETTING DRESSED FOR BED.
20:08 - COMING DOWN NORTH SIDE OF MATHER STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL. VERY DEEP AND SCENIC CANYON.
Tina had a great day in the mountains today. She made good progress, caught up with some hikers we'd met earlier who started back at Onion Valley about 5 hours before she did, stumbled onto Red Hat -- a fellow 2010 AT thru hiker, and hiked in beautiful surroundings and perfect weather. On the negative side, Tina just ran out of her water sterilization drops and so she'll be drinking straight from the streams and it's getting pretty clear that she won't have enough food to make it into Mammoth Lakes -- she'll have to head to VVR in 3-4 days.
THURSDAY - 9/1:
07:19 - ICE ON THE OUTSIDE OF MY SLEEPING BAG THIS MORNING!
07:25 - SLEPT WELL. COYOTE SERENADE AROUND 5:45 AM.
17:27 - SITTING ON TOP OF PINCHOT PASS. WAS REALLY TOUGH AND NOT BECAUSE I FELT WEAK OR BAD OR ANYTHING.
17:28 - THOUGHT I WAS NEVER GOING TO MAKE IT!
17:34 - OH, AND BY THE WAY, I JUST GOT BUZZED BY A HUMMINGBIRD AT 12,300FT.
WEDNESDAY - 8/31:
06:58 - SLEPT OFF AND ON. HAD HEADACHE.
07:02 - WENT TO GET BEAR CAN THIS MORNING AND FOUND A TENT SETUP ONLY A FEW YARDS FROM IT. COULD EXPLAIN THE WEIRD NOISES.
16:12 - TAKING A BREAK. PRETTY BUSHED. DISAPPOINTED WITH SELF.
16:15 - RAE LAKES VERY BEAUTIFUL
16:22 - PLAN TO GO ON HERE SHORTLY BUT PROBABLY WON'T MAKE IT FAR
TUESDAY - 8/30:
21:12 - STOMACH JUST GROWLED SO LOUD I THOUGHT THERE WAS BEAR OUTSIDE!
21:22 - I FORGOT TO DRY THE TENT OUT. IT WAS STILL PRETTY WET
21:35 - STRANGE NOISES OUTSIDE. JUST MARMOTS, RIGHT?
/David