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Journal - June
| 7 June |
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This has been a long week for all of us. We left Kennedy meadows in small groups, I was with Lara, Jason, Sophie and Aaron. Ahead of us were Jonathan, Nathan and Frank and then in another group Bryan, Kurt and John. By June 2nd it was very cold, the trail was at about 10,000 ft consistently and it had started to snow. The first morning of this cold snap, in which Sophie and I had shared a tent to stay warm, we were all just emerging from our tents, trying to warm out toes and fingers when John appeared from the middle of a boulder field- alone. He gave his usual warm "Heloo everybody" and explained that he was supposed to meet Kurt at the tarn above us but he hadn't shown. He kept warm by crawling between a fire and his tent fly and eating MandM's. The next day my group made an attempt on Mt. Whitney but turned back due to heavy snow fall and white out conditions. That afternoon we passed Bryan and Kurt at a stream- they were camped early and had built a fire to dry out Kurts clothes as he had fallen in trying to cross the river. He said John gave us all his blessing and had turned around to go out a pass to the south as he had had enough of the cold and snow for this week! The next morning we were up at 4:30, and planned on hiking over Forester Pass and Kearsarge so we could be in town by nightfall- we were running low on food and wanting a warm night. (Sophie and I had been sharing my tent, with her tent wrapped around us for warmth, it was reportedly 7 degrees at least one of these nights.) Around 8am we saw Nathan hiking towards us- his group of three had left the day before to cross Forester (a 13,200ft pass) but had gone up the wrong gulley around 7pm the previous evening. Instead of downclimbing they attempted to cross a snowy boulder field to find the trail. Nathan fell down the boulderfield and landed safely, but Jonathan and Frank spent the night stuck on the slippery 65 degree wall. By mid morning, after we had tried to talk Frank down to no avail, Jonathan had left him all his extra food, water and clothing and downclimbed himself. Frank wanted professional help, so we continued on our 24 mi trek out to town. Lara and I cut steps across the top of the pass and after glissading down 1,000 ft, we spent the rest of the afternoon post holing down the "trail". Nathan and Frank had planned on meeting their families at the trail intersection that goes across Kearsarge Pass, but when we got there, only two other hikers were there- not family members. So we left Nathan and Jonathan there for the evening and proceeded up the pass around 5:30pm. At 6pm we ran into five of the family members and explained to Frank's daughters where he was and that we were going for help. Just then, one of Nathan's sisters fell and hurt her ankle quite badly. I helped her as much as I could but was anxious to cross the 12,000 ft pass ahead before dark. [Later we discovered she had broken it in two places]. Finally after descending 3,000 ft, over a boulder field and through soft snow, we hit the trail head at Onion Valley around 10pm. A hiker had a car at the trail head and drove us 40 miles to Lone Pine where we spent the night in a hotel talking to various rescue personal. The next morning an officer came by to tell us that Frank had safely been airlifted and we could go pick him up...he mentioned they were busy with two other rescues- one a dead body. This made me anxious and later that morning when I saw one of the rescue personal in town I asked her if she knew who they had found dead- she said an older unidentified man. I went to the ranger station to see where the rescue was being performed- it was right where John had been planning to hike out. So on my way back to the hotel I flagged down the sheriff and gave him a complete description of John, and told him I was concerned because John had not shown up in town yet. An hour later the sherif came by the hotel to tell us that it was John's body they had found...he was dead. John had gone off the trail, he knew the area well but the trail to the pass he planned to go over had been changed. He took a 50-200ft fall from a boulder field and was found in his sleeping bag, both legs badly broken and with head injuries he had attempted to treat.
We have spent the last couple days in town trying to deal with the death of this wonderful man. John was one of the most inspirational men I have ever known. Deeply spiritual and comfortable in every way with the world around him. Compassionate and caring, he is one of the only older men I have ever learned to trust and love.
His family is here now, and there is a hike planned this weekend in the Laguna mountains where his ashes will be spread. God bless.
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| 9 June |
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Last night several of us headed up to Whitney portal- only 11 miles from Lone Pine where we've been staying, and hiked in four miles to spend a cold night before heading up the mountain this morning. Sophie and I started out around 7am and summited around noon. The climb was beautiful, up through frozen blue lakes, across steep snow slope (the trail is still covered in snow) and across ridges with stunning views of the Sierra Range and across the Owens Valley. Com\ming down included a 1,500 ft glissade and the warm light of evening in the mountains. Overall a very therapeutic day. Yesterday we also had a small ceremony in the park with John's family- it was wonderful to have everyone there, telling stories about his life from all different times in his life and helped us all say good-bye with both tears and laughter.
Meg [my sister] arrives tonight, and we'll head up Kearsarge Pass in the morning with six days of food, headed to Vermillion Valley.
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| 22 June |
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Toulumne Meadows. Headed out with Sophie, Aaron, Jason and Lara on an eight day trek toward Tahoe. Spice (Bryan) was reportedly dragged 30 feet by a bear while still in his tent last night! The bear definitely wanted to make a burrito out of Spice because even when another hiker, Jeff, yelled at the bear it kept dragging the tent. Finally a large boulder deterred the bear and Spice and Jeff packed up and headed out of the Taco-express campsite they had been occupying.
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| 24 June |
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Another wet day of hiking. Starting with our crossing of the large swollen Piute River this morning. We were forced to camp beside it last night after trying to cross the beast last night. The guide book describes a sandy beach but all we found was a raging white torrent! This morning however it had gone down about 2 feet and where we crossed was merely belly-button deep. I don't like getting my stomach wet at 6am! We warmed up after hiking straight up hill for an hour through a pass and then down the other side. Traversing along the Karrig Canyon was scary because the snow slope the trail was supposedly under was quite steep and still icy, 60ft below was another raging torrent...which would have been lethal to fall into. Crossing the Karrig further down however was not so bad, just cold. A long lunch break in the sun was very restorative. Finally at the end of the day we came to Wilma lake. The trail literally went through the lake. We slogged along a causeway knee deep in glacial melt and then had to cross the lake outlet by crossing a precarious log bridging a gap in the causeway. Below was a black abyss of moving water! Another 1/2mile of slogging through the lake landed us next to another uncrossable river at 7pm. So we hiked up along the river for another hour and have found a nice granite campsite, hoping that the water level will once again go down by morning.
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| 29 June |
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South Lake Tahoe. Arrived exhausted and hungry. Glad for a few days of fruit and rest. Had a foot injury looked at, and letting hands recover from bad sunburn/frost nip. Ready to send home the ice axe and warm clothes...Sophie flew home from Reno last night, we all miss her and her blue sleeping pad (that made her identifiable from 6 miles away.) The trail between Toulumne and here was snowy and hard to find- I think I used my compass every day, I'm hoping the way to Sierra City will be a bit more gentle.
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