Day 63

Base of Mather pass to campground - 19.5 miles

Total - 836.2 miles

This morning was chilly! Plus my pad is continuing to deflate throughout the night which isn’t helping. We got up and we’re basically the last ones out of camp to go conquer Mather pass. We were told last year this was the pass where the most amount of people got injured since it is so exposed. That didn’t scare us so we started cruising towards the top. There was one very exposed snow switchback that had gathered a line to start to ascend it so we were waiting maybe 5-10 minutes as the group wanted to space out just in case something goes wrong. A woman goes next and she’s about half way through the first switchback when her bear can pops out of the top of her bag and tumbles down the steep slope. Luckily it landed in some jagged rocks stopping the fall but there were no boot tracks to the rocks and she was above. The bear can was right in line with where the snow transverse started so one of her friends in her group offered to transverse across. That was also scary as there were tons of sun cups on a steep steep cliff where if he falls, he’s getting hurt BAD. He took his time and was cutting into the icy snow to create some steps so it would reduce the risk. The girl was still above but found a rock to sit on allowing everyone else to go forward so we passed her offering her some food if she can’t grab the bear can. After the scary snowy switchback, we had a loose rock scramble straight up back onto the trail. Again one wrong move could send you tumbling down. Scary but doable. We made it to the top and was congratulated with amazing views of more snowy capped mountains. I liked this pass a lot as it wasn’t a mind numbing trudge up hill. You had to actually think and focus on where your placing your feet. It also was nice that it was only 1.3 miles uphill. We decided to head down right away and not stay at the top as now we have a routine of pass, go down, lake, eat first lunch. It’s a glorious plan. I went to go look over the edge and the same bitch that gave me sass yesterday gave me some more, telling me if I was looking for the trail it was the upper one. I kindly replied “I’m just looking at the scenery.” Which I was. I know she was just trying to be nice but come on twice in a row? I know I am being dramatic. Oh well! We headed down which was scary as I don’t full trust the spikes even though they haven’t proven that I shouldn’t trust them. I took it slow and followed the steep boot tracks all the way down with dads encouragement. We then trudged to the first river crossing, crossed it and then ate 1st lunch. Delicious. It’s also fun to see how people think when trying to cross a river and their thought process. Do they go through socks and all? Do they take them off? Which way over do they go? Everyone paces while thinking. Good TV. We then headed down after 1 at lunch into a gorgeous lake filled with golden? Trout, green grass surrounding, and waterfalls all providing the lake wirh water. Marmots were fucking everywhere. I think we saw 50 of them. Oh to be a marmot in the summer in the sierras. If someone were to ask me what animal I would want to be, it would be a marmot currently. They look so cozy just munching and laying in the grass. So fuzzy and cute. It was a sight to see! We then headed down probably 50 switchbacks into the valley of trees. We cruised through there for awhile before stopping at the bottom to eat a lil snack. Dad was a lil hangry but so was I. So we kinda butted heads but we still understand each other. We then got going as we still had 8ish miles left all uphill. The first 7 were beautiful as we passed marshes with a lazy river flowing right through it. It’s almost like a moose or a BEAR should be there munching on who knows what. It was also mostly in the shade as trees towered over us making dad very happy as he doesn’t do well in the heat (his words). We kept looking up on the hills trying to spot any wildlife but couldn’t find anything sadly. The wildflowers were also starting to pop up in purple, yellow, and pink. We followed the bubbling river all the way up the canyon, waterfall after waterfall. Probably one of my favorite days. The last mile and a half kicked our asses though as it was straight up hill and Rocky. About 0.3 from our campsite we pass probably one of the prettiest meadows I have ever seen in my life. Again the water fall turned into a lazy river which curved and flooded throughout the green grass where purple flowers popped out to create a spark of color. The sun shimmered off the water and bugs flew in and out of the sunlight creating a magical feel to the already brilliant setting. The mountains towered over the meadow with snowy peaks (no surprise). Ugh a sight to see. We then pushed to our campsite, tired and hangry. We set up and got to eating before washing off in the frigid water. Dad was also very passionate about how he doesn’t think the FarOut map is giving us the correct likes. He’s about to calculate it later and I will let you guys know if he or the map is correct. Omg and I almost forgot! We saw three deer today, very up close, used to seeing deer but cooler when you aren’t in a city. We also saw a family of grouses! I saw the babies first which looked like lil chickens. They were moving slowly and trying to hide and then I spotted the mom who was leading the way. Called dad over and showed him. We’ve been hearing their calls for two weeks basically. It sounds like a whomp whomp as they are rubbing their wings against their pissed chest I believe? That’s what dad said at least, so it was really cool to see one finally especially since it had a bundle of hatchlings with it!

I got a text from Caleb and Marc that they might try to catch up to us sometime in the future so they were asking about Mather pass. I have them my intellectual advice stating that it’s sketchy as hell but doable if you have the energy and confidence. I got a text later that they did it. So not only did they do the pass we did yesterday but also the pass we did today. Absolute units. I asked how far they were thinking of going which they replied probably 6-5 miles from the pass we plan to do tomorrow. MIND YOU, we are camped about 3.5 miles from there and we did 19.5 miles today. These guys are doing probably 30+ miles today? They are insane, but I fully respect it. That would break me but clearly they are truly built different. We didn’t even do a 30 mile day (well Marc did 1) in the desert which was lower elevation and easier miles overall. A 30 mile day in the sierras is like 40 miles in the desert. I am truly so impressed by them.

On another note, I had a better day today as my pack is lighter and I was able to feed myself in the morning a breakfast puck which had 490 calories in one dense bar. Had to choke it down still. I feel like I need to explain that even when I am having bad days it doesn’t mean I’m not having fun. I knew going into this that it was going to be hard but it’s two different things of knowing it’s going to be hard and experiencing it. I knew my pack was going to be hella heavy in the sierras making it difficult for me physically and mentally. Experiencing it is a whole other thing. There are three types of fun. 1. Having fun in the moment and enjoying it right away. 2. Struggling and then enjoying it later. 3. Struggling, not enjoying it in the moment and not enjoying it after. This hike is type 2 fun. It’s a mix of enjoying it in the moment and enjoying it after the struggle. Every step is worth it whether I want to cry, laugh, or yell out of anger. There has never been a day that I have wanted to quit as I know it always gets easier whether I get more in shape, my pack gets lighter with less food, or the trail levels out after a hard climb. This journal is more of a venting experience for me. After a hard day, I always write my entry recalling the day which still has a lot of emotion surrounding it. Lots of people write a couple days later on trail recalling what happened but my entires are more in the moment, where I don’t care about spelling or grammar or the amount of fucks I’ve written because it is what I am feeling after a long hard day. I can bitch about it like anyone can bitch about their job. Doesn’t mean they don’t like their job just because they had a hard day. This journal is just a therapy mechanism for me to write down how I am feeling, process it, and move on to the next hard day. You guys get to experience what I am feeling day to day emotionally. It’s hard and I am loving every second of it. If I wasn’t having fun, I would quit. Why would I do something if I wasn’t having fun? The other thing is 35% of people complete the trail. Most people quit bc of injury and/or they can’t handle the mental struggle of it. This journal is helping me deal with the mental struggle allowing me to put down my thoughts. I am challenging myself physically and mentally during this trip and goddammit imma win and fucking take this trip by the balls and finish it.

One more thing, dad had a good point stating that we need to stop calling natural things after the white man. Every mountain does not need to have a white man’s name even when they had no influence on the surrounding area. When naming something you should know something about the area by its name. His example of a lake in Washington I believe where it has a Native American name that basically tells you what happens at the lake. In that case it creates a ton of fog so the name was based off that. So many of these passes that we are cresting over don’t tell you anything about the area. We passed through a valley with a million marmots. It could be called Marmot valley. Or yesterday we pass through another valley that had been taken out by avalanches, so in turn it could be called avalanche valley. Just some food for thought on our conversation we’ve had on trail.