Song of the post – “Right back where we started from” by Maxine Nightingale
After a resupply in Mammoth Lakes, Cliff headed north on the PCT. I stayed a little longer, I simply was tired of hiking. Anyway, we headed north toward Yosemite, this time by trail. We are leaving the higher elevation climbs, but still alot of up hill. Also, mosquito swarms are increasing. The solution, just keep moving and they leave you alone.
Still so much beauty.
Cliff and I met back up in Yosemite, about 35 miles up trail. Where we’re hiking is considered Wilderness. It’s not quite as picturesque as Yosemite Vally, where you can view El Capitan and Half Dome. It’s more remote, and is spectacular in a less obvious way.
**Be Warned** The next morning (day 67) we head out early, hoping to get at least 23 miles, which will set us up to hit the 1000 mile marker the next evening.
2.5 miles into the hike Cliff is crossing a creek on a log…and falls on a broken off limb sticking up from the log. He spears his rump.
I have a picture of the wound/hole, and have been denied permission to post it. For now I will honor this request, but I have it if anyone wants to see it.
After dealing with the bleeding, faintness and some mild shock, we decide to hike back to the trailhead to get him some medical attention. Now understand , we are 15 miles on this section of trail, there are no roads to shorten our hike, so we have to hike the full 15 back. Also, no cell coverage, AND we are in a national park, so no easy access to scheduled transportation. Char Char is standing by via our satellite/GPS device (gotta love your personal trail angel).
Anyway, 8 hrs later we make it back to the trailhead. We are very lucky because a tour bus pulls up. After a brief sob story to the driver, we’ve secured rides to the only place nearby where we can address the wound, Mammoth Lakes. So 4 days, 70 plus miles of hiking, and an ass wound later, we’re right back where we started. Hence the song of this post.
Cliff is fine, in fact he was a trooper the entire day. Everything seemed to line up that day, I mean after the skewering of course.
Because of the various delays and commitments, we’ve fallen behind on our schedule. We’ve decided to jump forward on our hike to a later section of the PCT, and will come back to complete this section at a later time.
So, right now we’re on a bus to….
Tomorrow we take a train and than hitch a ride to Donner Pass, where we start hiking again. Yay!!
Mammoth Lakes is a great town, but it began to feel like we would never get out of there. Kind of like we were in that movie Groundhog Day.
