The High Sierra

We are officially in the High Sierra! And it is amazing. I've spent a fair amount of time in the Sierra before, backpacking with my brothers or college friends Tim, Brent, and Kyle. But I've never been as breath-taken as this. Maybe it's the stark contrast with the desert. Maybe I'm just deeper into the wilderness than I ever have been before. Or maybe it's the fact that this place is my home for the time being, not just a spot where I'm spending a long weekend. But I'm amazed. I keep stopping and asking if we are on a movie set.

As loyal blog readers will know (the few, the proud!) my brother Matthew and his girlfriend Alicia joined Justin and me for this ~60 mile section. Longest double date ever. Fortunately, everyone got along great, thanks to the common ground of hot chocolate with whiskey and beautiful Sierra sunsets. From here, Matthew is going to stay with me through Yosemite Valley, and then I'll do my first solo section up to Tahoe. I'll have ~450 miles under my belt at that point, so I feel very confident. Plus, the lure of a hot tub in Tahoe will keep me putting one foot in front of the next.

So where to begin with the highlights of this section? I'll start with the obvious one: I saw a baby marmot and it was the cutest thing ever. Marmots, for the uninitiated, are these high altitude loving mammals. They are squat, long, and kind of like a cross between a squirrel and a beaver, except their favorite habitat is meadows over 10,000 feet. You might be thinking of the "nice marmot" scene in The Big Lebowski. That is actually a ferret. Anyway, marmots are cute and plentiful up here and one day I said outloud that what I really wanted to see was a baby one. And then I DID. It made this adorable "meep" sound and scurried under a log.

Second highlight of this section: the best toilet of my life. As we got near Mt Whitney, we stopped at a backcountry ranger station to sort out the gear we wanted to bring up to the summit with us. There was a sign that said "toilet" and pointed to the woods. We thought that was just a cute way of saying "you're in the wilderness, everything is your toilet." But then Ranger Rob strolled by and explained that there's an honest-to-god toilet back there that has a great view. And he was right! It's in the pictures below. Speaking of Ranger Rob, he was super nice! This is his 23rd summer in Sequoia National Park and he met his wife here 15+ years ago, when he had to tell her she was camping at the wrong spot. She's a ranger now too, stationed at the next station down. Not a bad life. Ranger Rob checked our permits (first time we've had to show them!) and Matthew asked if he happened to know the results of the US-Germany soccer game. Ranger Rob said he didn't. 20 minutes later, he came back from his cabin, said he'd turned on his satellite radio to get the results for Matthew, then pulled out some whiskey for us all to sip in celebration of the men's soccer team advancing in the World Cup.

So besides the baby marmot and an amazing wilderness toilet, what else do I have to report? Ah yes. In the last week, we met up with Matthew and Alicia, summited Mt Whitney, and crossed Forester Pass, the official high point on the PCT! Meeting up with Matthew and Alicia was great. We hiked 2.5 miles off the PCT to a campground that offered bathrooms, running water, and trash cans. Honestly, we may have been more excited for the trash cans than finding Matthew (carrying around all your trash, including used toilet paper, gets old). We had a 36-hour window to meet them, since precision logistics aren't easy in the backcountry. We got to the campsite, sent out the SPOT message, and fell asleep. The SPOT message is for safety - it's a little device I carry with me (thanks, Ginny and Emily, for loaning it to me!) that allows me to push a button each night. This button sends out my exact GPS location to 10 friends/family. As you can imagine, my mom loooves the SPOT. Anyway, we're sound asleep when some total jerks come into the campsite at like midnight! They set up their tent right next to ours and are so loud! What the heck? The next morning, I wake up and poke my head out of my tent. Who pokes his head out of the neighboring tent but... Matthew Albinson! He had received my SPOT message and so knew not only that I'd arrived at the campsite, but also exactly where I'd set up my tent! I couldn't stay mad at him for waking us up for long, especially when I saw the amazing bounty of a resupply he brought (instant hummus! Pesto! Dehydrated corn chowder!).

We spent the next day dealing with logistics: shuttling Matthew's car up to the exit point for Justin and Alicia, buying a few more odds and ends, and getting an amazing lunch at a diner in Lone Pine. But the best part was seeing three thru hiker friends trying to hitch into Lone Pine (on a extremely quiet road) and being able to give them a ride! People have been so gracious and kind to us, it was fun to pay it forward.

Two days later, we summited Mt Whitney! Mt Whitney, 14,505 feet tall, is the highest point in the continental US. It's not technically on the PCT, but it's a side trip that only adds 17 miles, so almost everyone does it. Including us! The trip was pretty easy for Justin and me, as our legs now love walking and our bodies are very used to the elevation. There are a ton of folks on the mountain at any given point though - PCTers, day trippers, and JMTers. It was weird to see so many people! We've also crossed Forester Pass (high point on the official PCT), and gotten a taste for what else the sierras have in store. The next section is going to be very difficult and very awesome.

I also ran into someone wearing a Princeton Outdoor Action shirt!! Needless to say, I was SO excited! Molly just graduated and is doing the John Muir Trail on her own. We had actually met a few months ago at an OA event and it was clearly awesome to run into her at Tyndall Creek in Sequoia National Park.

And a final, important update. Justin and I finally have trail names. I'm Cache Money (because I used to haul around so much water, I was basically my own cache. I've gotten savvier since then) and Justin is Lance-a-lot (because he loves to lance blisters). We haven't gotten totally comfortable with them yet, but I think they work.

Since my picture captions never come through, here they are in a list.
1. Best sunset ever
2. Double date!
3. The Whitney approach with Guitar Lake in the background.
4. Mt Whitney heck yeah!
5. At the Summit!
6. Highest cartwheel in the continental US.
7. Cool rocks need no caption.
8. Alpenglow
9. Molly and the OA shirt!
10. Not a bad wake up view!
11. Albinson family love.