Le Conte Canyon to Lower Palisade Lake
After the great flood of Ally’s tent, I woke up with my feet still in a lot of pain. Even stretching them while laying in the tent was extremely uncomfortable. But feeling around inside the tent, I was relieved to find that the inside of the tent and, more importantly my down sleeping bag, was DRY!
Getting up and moving around, the first thing I told Omar was that I was getting more worried about my foot. I don’t know what kind of response I expected, but he laid it out pretty cut and dry: either we move forward, or we look at bail out points. Well, being stubborn is something I’m great at, so bailing out wouldn’t be an option. That was the cold shower I needed to get me moving again. As we were packing up, I looked through a small clearing in the tree branches and saw the sun hitting the mountains on the other side of the canyon – finally, some alpine glow!! Of course the light hitting the mountains in different ways had been gorgeous up until this point, but I hadn’t yet seen the alpine glow that contributes to the nickname for the Sierra Nevada, the Range of Light. I saw a beautiful bright orange against the granite. Okay, it couldn’t be all that bad, I just needed to take a moment to remember my gorgeous surroundings. We got packed up, and were leaving camp when Topo was just starting to break down, and Claire was just starting to stir. We had to get a move on to make up the mile and a half we were already starting behind on. Plus we apparently had the Golden Staircase to master today. If I thought the Mist Trail was a stair master on steroids, I was in for a rude awakening later!
The morning was fairly monotonous, but I thought we were making fairly good time. When we finally got ready for our break, Omar pointed out how little ground we had actually covered. Until then my foot had been hurting but thought I was doing a pretty good job of ignoring it and keeping on going, and we had pretty level, and even a bit of downhill terrain to work with. The fact that we had only gone about half the distance I envisioned in my mind absolutely crushed me. Until this point, I had cried off and on, but it was a little sniffling and self pity then moving on. This was a full on torrent. I plopped my stuff down, sat on a rock, burried my head in my hands and sobbed. Omar let me be for a little bit, then said we needed to get moving. I was, and am still grateful that he didn’t ever get super sympathetic (at least not showing it), because he didn’t give me an opportunity to wallow in self-pity. So, we kept going, starting to climb into an upper valley, working our way towards the golden staircase. At some point along the way, I, of course, managed to do exactly what I shouldn’t have done, and stepped on a sharp rock. That KILLED it hurt so badly, which only made me limp along slower, and grimace even more. I was completely absorbed in concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other when I looked up to see Omar giving me a very calculating look. It was time for some tough love. He threatened, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn’t going to keep walking if I tried to look as pathetic as I could. I either needed to grin and bear it, and keep moving forward, or he would hit that SOS button on his GPS right then and there. I must have done a shocked double-take, as he repeated himself. Well, as much as my feet hurt, and I wanted to stop, I was certainly NOT going to let him his that SOS button and call in the cavalry, making mounted rangers, helicopters, paratroopers…whatever happens when you push that big red button. That would be far too humiliating. And as callous as it may sound that he said that, it worked. It helped me really channel my stubbornness and inner strength and keep going, even moving a bit faster. I remember a few minutes later seeing him looking back and getting a nod of approval from him. I don’t even know if he knows he did that, but it meant a lot, and it helped me keep moving. I was doing the right thing, and making him proud (or, at least, less annoyed).
When we stopped for lunch, still before the Golden Staircase, we talked a bit. We (I) realized that, even if I was moving quite a bit slower, we still had time. With our early morning starts, we normally got into camp between 2 and 4. That still left several hours of daylight left. We might be more tired, get a little less rest and down time, but even at a slower pace we weren’t in danger of having to hike in the dark by headlight. It would be OK. That was a good thought to hold onto as we crept closer to the Golden Staircase.
I was in much better spirits heading into the Golden Staircase, even though I knew the tough climb I had coming, I was looking forward to it. It was pretty spectacular. The main portion of it consists of a 1500′ climb cut right into a near vertical rock face. So very tight switchbacks that seem to somehow go straight up, but aren’t all that bad (just seemingly never ending!) once you’re on them. This was apparently the last section of the John Muir Trail to be completed. Just like when I was at Muir Hut, I was amazed at the amount of effort it must have required to actually complete the gargantuan task.
Now, silly me, after all the hype I’d ever heard about the Golden Staircase, I thought that was it for the climbing. Wrong! There’s still a lot of other switchbacks to make it up before getting to Pallisade Lakes. It took me a while, and I envisioned Omar waiting at camp for hours before I would finally arrive, but it wasn’t that bad. Again, Omar was my rescuer and just when I was asking myself “aren’t we there YET?!” Omar came around the corner and took my backpack from me. It was only about a half mile from camp, but I was relieved all the same!
It was much later in the day, probably around 5:30, but we’d made our mileage, about 14 miles. On my hurt feet. If you’d asked me on that rock sobbing into my hands if I thought I would make it to camp that day, I would have said absolutely not, I’m going to sit right here forever.” We only had 6 days left on the trail, and I was sure I could push past the pain for the remainder of the trip. It might take 10 hours of hiking instead of 6 or 7, but I could do that. Unfortunately for my foot, the terrain was only going to get steeper, longer and worse, but the views and scenery were a worthwhile trade-off.
Tomorrow we would hit Mather Pass, finally a pass over 12,000 feet in elevation! I tried to end the day with some positive thoughts, something Omar told me I should do when I felt myself sliding back into self-pity mode. I came to two big realizations.
1. My asthma is SO much better than it was at the beginning of the trip. Not gone by any means, but significantly better. Walking through LeConte Canyon, at about 8000 feet, I had been carrying out a normal conversation with Omar while walking. Granted it was mostly even terrain, but at the beginning of the hike even walking around Yosemite Valley at a decent pace and keeping up conversation would have resulted in a bit of wheezing. That was certainly a big accomplishment worthy of being proud of myself and my body.
2. I really have lost a ton of weight so far. No way to know for sure how much, but I could tell by the way everything was fitting, and noticing some of my trouble spots shrinking. Not gone, but a lot of progress! I packed some clothes for when dad would pick us up at Whitney. One of the outfits included a pair of denim capris that I hadn’t fit into for years. I was pretty sure I would fit into those easily by the time I got back, and now couldn’t wait.
With the good, came the thoughts of things that I was feeling nostalgic for….mainly two things. One – my dogs. I missed coming home and having them SO excited to see me every day, and of course cuddling with them for warmth! Two, a SHOWER. My hair feels absolutely horrid. I feel like I could take the hair tie out of my hair and it would just stay that way anyways. Ugh.
After I was already resting in the tent, Claire made it to our camp spot, and set up camp next to us for the night. It would be the last night we would see her – so it was nice to hang out again, and enjoy good company. I called it quits early so that I could get some sleep and hope that my feet would be better in the morning instead of the same or worse. Went to bed hopeful and with my fingers crossed!
