Well, day one of our John Muir Trail hike went better than we could have hoped.
Although the lead-in to hitting the trail didn’t go at all as we’d planned, I won’t attempt to do the story justice by thumb-typing it here, let alone without a full pictorial accompaniment. Just know that it involved a bar, 2am four-wheeling, a huge pit of mud, a stuck truck, two frontend loaders (one which also got stuck), a tractor, a hefty amount of future body work, and, of course, a late start on Sunday’s drive-a-thon to park our exit car and get to Yosemite.
But, we made it after all. And, since you’re reading this now, you’ve likely figured out that we ended up having cell (and data, of course) conerage at our first camp location. As an aside, we met a fellow here at this same campsite who camped last night near wher we intend ro camp tomorrow (providing things go as well as they did today), and he said he had coverage there too. So, seems like I may be able write fairly often in these first few days.
As for trail-talk, today was all about ascent. Some 3,100 ft in only 6.9 miles. Both Anthony and I felt good along the trail, although I did sikn a bit near the very end. After that climb, I think I was just raft for some food and a lie-down (lay-down?). Either way, after getting some lunch n me I felt much better. Tomorrow we cover roughly the same vertical distance, but over nearly twice the mileage. The guy at camp who came down that way said the climb is fairly gradual and not overly-taxing. We’ll see about that.
We’ll get to have a fuure at camp tonight, the last place we’re permitted to do so for the remainder of the hike. Stinks, too, since we’ve heard from other hikers that nighttime temperatures in the higher altitudes are dipping into the low twenties. We’re a little concerned about that, and the fact that there’s supposedly a chance for rain on Thursday, but we’re not letting it bring us down.
Well, I suppose that’s all for now, gotta conserve BlackBerry battery. We’ll see what tomorrow holds for cell reception. Until then, sore-muscledly yours…
Also written on this day...
- making room - 2011
- pop-up monsters - 2009
- everybody is different kinds of smart - 2008
- just how i like it - 2006
- of fog - 2003