Day #14 Obstacles

High Sierra Trail Part 3/8 – from Hamilton Lake to Moraine Lake (12.6 Miles)

I am so tired. Everything hurts. Especially my feet hurt. If you need more details – my ankles, heels, toes, soles and ligaments hurt. I think I hit a new record for my body today. I‘ve never hiked 12 miles (19 kilometers) with a 35kg (55+ pounds) backpack before.

I started early to avoid the sun on the steep way up and away from Hamilton Lake. Lots of obstacles came up: in the morning I got my period under cramps… always such a pleasure! Then came balancing over wobbly rocks and fallen trees to cross rivers, endless ascents on granite stairs, trotting down meadow trails full of mosquito swarms, crossing over patches of snow. There was even a blow out of the trail, meaning that a huge rock had slid down into nowhere, making the trail hardly passable – I was lucky because a family was in the spot and helped me with the giant backpack.

Otherwise, the trail was beautiful and in hindsight my favorite part of High Sierra Trail. I passed lakes filled with icebergs and snow fields who looked like from Ice Age.

Finally, I stood at Kaweah Gap – a mountain pass connecting the valley in which I started my hike with another, incredibly beautiful valley. It looked alpine to me – it could almost have been in Austria or Bavaria…

I also hit an animal variety record! I saw marmites, squirrels, ground hogs, a mouse, several snakes, a small black raptor, another cheeky deer, big insects that chirp when they fly (not the usual cicadas or grass hoppers), and of course lizards, blue, black, brown and striped.

The trail asked a lot of me – two long ascents in one day – that‘s a total of 9 hours of hiking. I had a one hour lunch break next to a waterfall, but the „break“ was filled with tasks: putting on sun lotion, washing hair, applying kinesiotape on blisters, filtering water, studying the map…

I set out with the goal to reach Moraine Lake and I did it. The last three miles were incredibly hard – the trail was mostly flat but my feet hurt so much, I wasn‘t even feeling the backpack anymore. It‘s interesting how I can turn into a coach to myself – usually I’m coaching other people. I kindly pushed and motivated myself to reach the goal. I could have given up and camped way earlier but there were too many mosquitoes anyway and here, at Moraine Lake, there is not a single one miraculously.

When I discovered the bear box and the campsite, I was full of joy. But then I heard an infamous sound not far away and a beige rattlesnake looked at me while winding through the sand.

I backed away to give it space and it disappeared. (Finn’s Brain Off-Voice: Is that good or bad? Will it come back and gnaw through the tent wall? Will it grow and swallow me as a whole and digest for months? 😱)

Silence surrounds me as I’m the only person camping here (gulp). I‘m putting in ear plugs with music to block out any creepy sounds. I’m off to sleep anyway! It‘s already 8pm!