Mantra: if it was easy everyone would do it.
Yesterday I was brilliant summiting Kearsarge: steady, smiling, heroic. And today? Today I feel like someone has wrung me fresh out of mojo and I have no will to live this life that requires constant movement. Waking me was probably one of Booms biggest mistakes on the trail, and we all would have been better off if I had slept clear til noon! My was I cranky.
And so the hiking of the Sierras commenced! Uphill! Onward! Every day out here pretty much goes like this: wake up, hike uphill several thousand feet, lose all feeling in your legs as you cross a river barefoot, risk your life crossing a river over some shitty log, summit a pass, risk your life trying to climb down the other side which is inevitably covered with snow of varying slush factor, stumble across loose rocks, find stunning lake and cry at its beauty, repeat.
[the art of the glissade]
And so when we got to the top of Glen Pass this day, we opted out of the stumble walking one must do across the snowy trail and decided instead to glissade down a realuy7ly long, steep mountain. Naturally we let Capi go first. 24-year-old boys are good for that. If he disappeared we would know the snow was too soft; if he broke his tailbone, we would know there wasn't enough snow over the rocks. (Please keep in mind that mountains are just piles of rocks with a layer of snow on top. The thickness and hardness of the snow varies so that "postholing" is always a risk - when your leg goes clear through the snow into the rocks beneath.) And so Capi flung his youthful body down the mountain, even riding his pack like a bucking bronco at one point, flinging through the air like a rag doll. Looks good to me, I thought, so down we slid on our butts, which lifted my spirits momentarily.
What lifted my spirits even more was rounding a corner to come upon a beautiful lake, where many beautiful people were gathered - our crew! - and Will was fishing for dinner. It was afternoon. We had hiked 2.8 miles, a record but not the good kind.
We hiked on another 5 or so that afternoon, feeling shocked at this new reality of low miles, and Boom started vaguely speaking to how if we don't make it to Canada it's okay, etc. Later Will showed us how to roast the fish over the fire and we slept so, so well.
[struggle bus, fishing, my trail bff, the trail itself, bridges are a luxury, mountain views]
