Day 2: Almost Hypothermic

Thursday, July 9


BAM!

rumble...

Well good morning to you too Little Yosemite Valley. It looks as if the storms we were supposed to get last night were delayed until this morning. It's 6:00am. What a way to start the day.

Drip. Drop. Pitter patter.

Wait. Why am I getting wet? Seriously? You have GOT to be kidding me. You mean to tell me that my new tent is leaking? The sole shelter I have for the next 26 days? This can't be happening. I need to figure out why it is leaking.

Flash.

BAM!

rumble...

And so it goes for the next 20 minutes. It's now 6:22am and the rain finally starting to let up. The sky has lighted up a little and I can see better now. What I can see is that the floor of my tent is floating. It seems as if I am in my own little water bed. Well that was genius of me. I must not have recognized the depression I had set up my tent in last night. All of the water has collected underneath my tent. At least I know that my floor is waterproof! I would have been soaked if I were in a SilNylon tent. Thank God I chose to bring this one!

I need to take advantage of this lull in the rain and run to the bear box to grab my stuff. Under the direction of the ranger who was camped out there for the night, we were to put all of our belongings into the bear box as an added protection since there was a bear roaming around camp. I couldn't pack up any of my things in the tent until I went and fetched my pack. I put on my Marmot Precip jacket and my ZPacks rain kilt. I'm determined not to get wet today.

As I step out into the slight drizzle that the storm has turned into I see that all around me camp was still quiet. The Boy Scout group was gone already. Man, they must have gotten up early. Either that or they ended up packing in the rain. Kim and her hiking buddy were still sleeping. Don and Val were not out of their tents yet. Seems as if everyone took the rain as a sign to sleep in a little. Not me. I'm excited and ready to go! I head over to Bobbi and Alex's campsite to where the bear box was. I could hear them talking in their tent. "Morning!" I yelled out. They replied and started shuffling around a bit. I knew they'd be out of their tent before I left and I decided that I would stop back before hitting the trail. I grabbed my things and scurried off to my tent. I wanted to hurry and pack up before it started pouring again.

Once I had everything from inside my tent secured in my pack I decided to assess my tent situation.  I realized that I didn't take a picture of my tent site last night. I pull out my phone to snap a quick pic. This picture now serves two purposes: to show my campsite as well as the puddle I ended up camping in. I started to take down my tent. What a flipping mess! I tell you what... I'm not completely sure why a tent would have an all no-see-um mesh flooring. It was absolutely disgusting. Everything that could stick to the mesh did. Granted, I'm sure that the tent is not designed to be set up in a puddle, but still. I rolled my tent up and fastened it to the outside of my pack. Usually I put it inside my pack, but it was sopping wet and filthy. I am pretty certain that it also weighed at least 2lbs heavier due to all of the water.

Well, I'm all packed up and ready to go. I have my rain jacket and kilt on and my pack cover. I'm prepared for it to rain all day and I'm not worried or bummed in the least. It's all part of the experience. I was fortunate enough to have beautiful skies for the week that I was on the trail last year, but I had heard horror stories about the rain that came in the weeks after I had got off the trail. I knew that rains could be serious in the Sierras, so I was ready! I threw my pack on and started over towards Bobbi and Alex. Don and Val were up by now and I said good morning to both of them in passing. Bobbi and Alex were just sitting down to breakfast when I arrived. We spoke briefly about our plans for the day. I was headed to Cathedral Lakes and they were off to Clouds Rest, though the weather was very sketchy (I believe they decided not to go because of that reason). They both got a kick out of my rain gear and I had them take a picture of me. I do look like a bit of a goober.

Goodbyes and Happy Trails are said and I'm finally off to start my hike for the day. I see that I'm the first one (of the people I'd been talking to the night before) to leave camp, and though I'm alone I am feeling quite confident that I know where I am going since I did this portion of the trail last year. Except... I can't find the trailhead. Goodness. I'm going to do real well today if I'm already lost before I've even begun! I asked a passing lady and her son and they pointed me in the right direction.

I should have taken that as a sign that I wasn't meant to hike by myself that day. After about an hour or so on the trail, I realized that it didn't look familiar to me anymore. I also wasn't seeing anyone else on the trail. Surely the JMT should have more people on it than this. Why doesn't this look right? And where is everyone else? I stop. I get out my map and reevaluate where I am. This is right. It has to be. I couldn't have gone on any other trail. Right? Wait. Maybe I'm further ahead than I thought I was. Maybe...

Oh look! A person! I was so thankful to see another person, but I got quite curious as to why he did not have a large pack on. Don't most people who are this far into Yosemite on the JMT have a larger pack? I stopped the man to ask him if I was still on the JMT. His reply was "NO, you're headed up to Half Dome" WELL CRAP! I AM further than I thought I was and I must have missed the junction. But how, because I really don't remember seeing a junction. Fine, I'll just turn around and go back. What harm can that do?

Here's what harm it can do... It can give you an extra 2 miles to walk when you walk a mile back and run into your friends who tell you that you ARE going the right direction. So you get to turn around and walk that mile for the 2nd time. That is precisely what happened to me. I turned around and started hoofing it down hill. Keep in mind, I had been climbing out of LYV for the past mile. My map was in my hand and my eyes were peeled so I didn't miss the junction again. Next thing I know, I run into Val and Don. I explained to them what happened and they assured me I was on the right path. While I was very thankful for this, I was a little disappointed that I didn't trust myself and just keep going. I thanked them, turned around and repeated that mile climb, this time enjoying the company of others. The junction sign for Half Dome was about 1/2 a mile after the spot where I met that man. I hope the misinforming guy felt bad when he got to the sign and saw that he WAS indeed on the JMT. I get it though, he was on his way to Half Dome and probably had no idea what the JMT even was in the first place to know that he was on it.

As we neared an area that I remember so clearly from last year, I found several other people who had no idea where they were. Some of them had gone off in the wrong direction. It is a very tricky spot indeed. You come to a nice camp area with a stream that you are to cross. Once you cross the stream, there is a sharp right and then a turn left. A person shouted to me if I knew where the JMT was. In this moment I shined.  I very confidently said "Oh yeah, that's not the path. The trail is actually over here." In a matter of moments our trio was now a group of about 7, though that wasn't to last long. In the next mile those four had taken off and left Val, Don and I in their dust.

I decided to go ahead of Val and Don. There was only a couple intersections left at this point and I was absolutely sure I knew where I was and didn't even need a map. They wanted to stop to eat, so we said our goodbyes and I went up the trail. Man, it started to look very very different. Very sad. The fire from last year destroyed so much of what I remember. I didn't recognize a single thing. I started to panic because I came to a pond that I am almost certain was not there last year (It had to of been though because it was too big to be new). At this moment panic sets in. I hadn't seen another person since I said goodbye to Val and Don. Nothing looked familiar. I whipped out my map and frantically looked for a sign that I was in the right area. Nothing. I saw nothing. According to the map I should have been fine, but why didn't this look familiar? Why was there a pond? There! I think that may be the pond! Wait!!! That's on the Cloud's Rest trail. Did I make a wrong turn somewhere? Why is this happening again? Tears. Here they come. Streaming down my cheek. I checked my phone. Reception! Ok. I'm not alone. I called Donny. Crying, I explained to him that I thought I was lost. Well, not lost, but not on the right trail. I turned around and started walking back, downhill again, to where I had just come from. To the last point where I was confident I knew where I was. He's asking me questions: Did you pass the junction for Half Dome yet? Yes. Did you pass ____ yet? Yes. Did you pass _____ yet? I DON'T KNOW! STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS! Poor guy. He was just trying to help me as best he could over the phone. I decided to just hike to The Valley and take the bus up to Tuolumne. He thinks that's a silly idea, as he's sure I'm on the right trail. I think it's the only idea that gives me an absolute possible solution. We say our goodbyes. I tell him I'll update him when I can. In a matter of seconds after hanging up who do I run into again? Val and Don. THANK YOU JESUS! The tears streaming down my face give me away immediately and they ask me what is wrong. I explain everything to them and ask if I can just hike with them for the day. They welcomed me with open arms and I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd be ok today. I called Donny right back and told him I was with Val and Don. All was ok now.

We continued to hike together for the rest of the day. As we walked through the burned area, I told them of my attempt to hike this last year and my failure to finish. I talked about some of the things I experienced on the trail and how I took my experience from last year to really prepare for my hike this year. I was going to finish this year, and that was that! They talked to me about their kids, who were around my age. Don told me that he's hiked some of the JMT before, but wasn't going to do it all this year. He was just hiking to Donahue with Val and then turning around. Val would continue on without him to finish the trail. I took a lot of pictures during this time. I found the burned area hauntingly beautiful. I had never walked through an area that was so freshly burned. There was no green anywhere.

Such a beautiful view. You could see how far the fire went, as there were burned trees on the mountain across the valley as well. 

My heroes of the day! Val on the left and Don on the right. 

Remnants of a burned log. 

Slowly, our surroundings started to green up and we began to see signs of life in both vegetation and wildlife. The trail, at one point, went through a small field of purple flowers (Yes, just like in Mile... Mile & A Half). I had taken a picture of this section last year, as I thought it was amazingly beautiful, but I must have forgotten to take a picture of it this year. We saw a mother grouse and her four chicks. They were running all over the place while the mother just sat on a log. We probably spent nearly 5 minutes just taking pictures of the birds. 

We saw this mother grouse and 4 of her babies. 

A baby grouse. A grousling? 

Not too long after that we had another steep climb up through rocks. There was a stream running along the right side of the trail and I decided to stop for some water. I put my pack down and mosey on over to the stream. I found a really good pool with a nice flow into it and I started to climb up to where it was. 

SPLASH! 

In I went! I slipped on the wet rocks. I let out a yelp as I went down and a groan as I stood up. I wasn't completely soaked, but I was definitely wet enough. My entire right side of my body from my pants to my shirt sleeve. Fantastic. Don and Val yell after me to make sure I'm ok. By this point I'm just laughing at my stupidity and yell back that I'm fine. I take my shirt off and hang it on the back of my pack. I know my pants will dry quickly and I'm hoping my shirt will dry too. This will be a good test to see how well it dries. 

After a few more minutes, we finally conquer our climbing struggles and reach the summit of whatever it is that we were climbing... which I think was nothing really. It was just the end of the incline out of LYV.  The clouds started rolling in at this point and since we were so high up, we were beginning to be surrounded by them. You could just see them meandering in and out of the trees. It was so very magical, like being in a Disney movie. I tried to capture it on video and in pictures, but there was no way to truly take it from that place. It is something that you just have to experience in person. 

Upon our decent, we did find some of that sunshine, so we took full advantage of it! We stopped for a lunch break and a dry out session. All of our stuff was soaked from the night before, so we set up our tents and laid out our rain gear in hopes that we could get it dried out a little. If anything, it would lighten our load to not be carrying around so much useless water weight. I'm sure we spent an hour or so at that spot. I don't remember what all I had for lunch that day, but I do remember digging into my honey mustard and onion pretzels. I even shared them! 

 

Once we were done with lunch and had dried most of our gear, we were ready to continue on our way. There weren't too many miles left before getting to Sunrise Camp, which is where Don and Val were stopping for the day. I decided that I was going to walk on to Cathedral Lakes. I really wanted to camp there, as I didn't get to camp there last year. Plus, that put me a mere 5 miles from Tuolumne and if I got up early enough, I could get to the permitting station and try to get walk-in-permits for Saturday instead of Sunday. Yeah. That seemed like a pretty good plan to me. 

We passed several people on our way to Sunrise Camp. Many, like us, were taking advantage of what little sunlight we had to dry out their belongings. We heard stories of tents completely failing and people getting soaked. Sleeping bags were left out to dry. People had their last resort clothing on because their clothes were wet. It was a brutal night for many. 

Around 4:00 we arrived at the Sunrise Camp. I decided that the weather was holding fairly well and that I could make it to Cathedral Lakes by 6:00 for sure. After all, it was only 5 miles and most of that was flat, right (Wrong. I later found this out, but I'll get to that in my next blog)? After a few pictures, and a final farewell selfie, we parted ways and I continued on my hike. 

The meadow here is so pretty. 

10 miles to Tuolumne. 5 miles left for the day to get to Cathedral Lakes! 

Our final goodbye (for the day) picture. I think this is the first time I used my selfie stick adapter. I was to thankful for their company today! 

A mile into the hike it started to rain. Cathedral Lakes was another 4 miles. Crap! What do I do? Do I continue for 4 miles in the rain, not knowing if it is just a temporary thing or if it will continue on for the rest of the hike, or do I just turn around and find Val and Don again? First thing is first, I needed to get my rain gear on. I whip out my jacket and my pack cover. I decided to just turn around a walk a mile back. No need for my rain kilt if it's just a mile. I'll be there in 20 minutes. What harm can 20 minutes of no rain bottoms do?

It turns out that no rain bottoms for 20 minutes in an exposed meadow can actually do a lot of harm. By the time I reached the camp I was shivering cold. I only had my short sleeved shirt on under my rain jacket because my long sleeve shirt was still a little damp. The pit vents on the side of my jacket had let in some rain and my short sleeve shirt was getting wet. My pants were absolutely soaked clear through and the water was traveling up under my rain jacket, getting the bottom of my short sleeved shirt wet. My shoes are not water proof, so my feet were completely soaked.

This isn't good.

I'm freezing.

I'm wet.

I need to get my tent up now!

I start looking for a campsite, but it seems as if most of them are already taken. I can't find Val or Don anywhere. They must have gone up the hill a little further. I don't have the energy to climb that. The cold and wet has sucked every last bit of energy right out of me. I stop to talk to a lady. She and her husband insisted I set up my tent beside theirs in their campsite. I felt bad for being so close to them, but I was so grateful to be able to stop worrying about finding a place to set up. I get my tent out and the rain is just coming down. I'm struggling to get my tent set up. It requires 10 stakes and a trekking pole. The husband comes and helps me. Thank you! When I go to get inside, there were huge puddles of rain in my floor. I need towels to sop the water up. My towels are wet from trying to dry my tent off earlier in the day (What good that did!). I used my long sleeve shirt. It was already wet right? Finally, the tent is dry enough that I can get my sleeping pad, sleeping bag and pillow out. But first I need to get out of these wet clothes!

I'm shaking. Uncontrollably.

This isn't good.

I have no memory of actually changing or setting up my bedding. The only thing I remember is thinking that I was close to being hypothermic and I needed to warm up ASAP. I know I was extremely worried and a little scared. But knowing that I had people close by helped keep me calm.

It's 7:30pm. I just woke up. I'm warm. I'm dry. I'm ok.

After I took that video I went back to sleep. I don't remember eating anything for dinner that day. I'm sure I didn't eat.

I did take away a very important lesson from this, and it's one that I share with others as a tip for hiking in the rain. Rain kilts are actually quite amazing, but your pant legs still get wet. Even if I had put my kilt on, my pants would still have been wet from the knees down. I decided from there on out that if I needed to wear my rain kilt, I would only wear shorts under them. That way my pants stayed dry for when I get to camp. My legs aren't cold if I'm hiking, even with shorts on, so I don't need to worry about keeping them warm. Also, skin dries much quicker than fabric, so when I get to camp, I can dry off my legs with a towel and put on warm, dry pants. I used this method for the rest of my hike and never had another issue with hiking in the rain.

One thing that I know, and am extremely proud of, is that not once did I want to quit the trail. Not once did I say "I can't deal with being wet and cold. I don't know how many more days of rain we have coming. This is for the birds." I was confident that I could handle it. I was confident that I was capable of making the right decisions to be successful on the JMT.