Monticello

 It's good to be back in civilization, if only for briefly. Blanding is a decent sized town complete with a full size grocery store, auto parts store and a diner that seems like a good place for local teens to hang out on weekends. It's the biggest town since St George 2 weeks ago. 

I got to Blanding around 12:30. Still plenty of time, I figured. I plugged in the car and crossed the street to the diner and the philly cheese stake sandwich for lunch. The crisp fries and generously portioned philly stake sandwich was enough to bring me back to life. I must've drank 3 refills of 32 ounce drink as well. Nice little retro-looking diner. You should try it if you ever have chance to pass by Blanding.

Then it was back to fridge business. I try to fix the 12v line before I left Santhrax campsite to no avail. The voltage was flaky and then went completely to zero and didn't come back. I figure the fuse finally gave up; I had to get to Blanding, access the Internet to research Tesla fuse and buy a replacement. 

It was a struggle, but I finally managed to get to the fuse box under the glove compartment and replace the fuse. I still don't know why 30A fuse blew. The fridge only draws about 4A. Unless there was a short somewhere, it's just not possible for 50W fridge to blow 30A fuse. Just in case the cigarette lighter adaptor is the culprit, I replaced it as well. Let's cross fingers and there will no no more fridge trouble in the remainder of the trip.

So now my fridge all restocked and I'm all freshened up after a bath here in Blue Mountains by Monticello. The temperature is in the 50s this evening; I had to dig up long pants and fleece jacket. A large deer the size of donkey is grazing just outside my tent. This will be my home for the next 10 days or so. I'll tackle Needles district of Canyonlands and Monument Valley from here. Then I'll commute to Moab for Islands in the Sky district, Arches National and Dead Horse State. Tesla superchargers are conveniently located both in Blanding and Moab, so I can fill up on the way back from either directions.

Capitol Reef

 I'm sitting here surrounded by sandstone hills at Santhrax site off UT-95 with coffee and laptop at 7AM typing away, still fresh after hiking Escalante and Capitol Reef. I can peak at Henry Mountains to the West in the direction where UT-95 will take you back to Capitol Reef and Escalante. This is turning into a trip of lifetime.

You think of Utah, you think of desertscape. Or flat salt lake. At best, the bare-looking Wasatch Mountains around Provo is what you think of. But parts of Utah is incredibly lush. Colob Terrace north of Zion on the way to Cedar City was like that. Boulder Mountain is even more so.

But you have to pass through some incredible desertscape to get there. Follow UT-12 from Escalante to Torrey and you will know why UT-12 is famous. Before you get to Hog Back Ridge which everybody should drive on at least once in their life, you can look West past the vast sandstone field toward Boulder Mountain and Henry Mountains.

By the time you reach the town of Boulder, the white and orange sandstones give way to greenery. It's a beautiful ranch town surrounded by red rocks and forested hills. Imagine smaller Sedona with more greens. And it's greener because the lush Boulder Mountain starts from there. 

From there, you climb up following UT-12. By the time you get to the peak, the temperature drops into the 50s. A hailstorm must've passed through when I was there. The ground was covered was thick blanket of hails making the drivng treacherous. 15 mph was all I could muster without risking sliding off the side of the mountain. As I descended, the temperature dropped further into low 50s, perhaps because of the weather: I was following the storm.

Just when I got off the mountain and thought I was out of the hails, a incredible storm hit. My wiper ran at full speed and I still couldn't see through the windshield. This time my speed went down to 10 mph. It went on like that for about 20 minutes till I finally got to the town of Torrey.

Torrey must be bigger than Escalante -- it has Subway Sandwich just as you enter the town at the end of UT-12. I wasn't going to cook for dinner since I was sleeping in the car, so I grabbed a foot long sub and went up UT-24 looking for the camping site. There was no Bea's Lewis Road at the GPS coordinate. But there was a short dirt road leading to a wash. I went into it, parked and spent the night there.

My plan has changed since I spent extra 2 nights in Escalante tending the fridge business. Instead of camping 3 nights in Torrey, I'm sleeping in the car for one night and moving on toward Monticello. I'm doing Capitol Reef on the way. That way, I don't have to come back to Torrey and therefore save the EV juice. It's 180 miles to the next Supercharger in Blanding and I need to conserve every electrons as I can.

It's an ambitious plan. I've done Calf Creek Falls the day before and it was a bit more than I planned. It wasn't strenuous, but it was 5.7 miles long. And I did it almost without stopping other than 1 hour break at the fall itself. Doing Grand Wash meant that I'd be doing two 5+ mile hikes in 2 days in a row. But I'll be mostly driving the next day and I'll have a full day of rest once I get to Blue Mountain in Monticello.

Where should I begin? Let me just say that Grand Wash was spectacular as any canyon I've seen so far. It's a part Yosemite and a part Zion Canyon. Imagine Zion Narrows, make it a little wider in the middle and opening up at the either ends in an hourglass shape. As you enter and exit the narrow, the view of towering cliffs is reminiscent of Yosemite except that they are made of sandstone rather than granite. Inside the narrows, it is Zion except that you are wading in mud and gravel rather than water. 

It's a greatest hike you've never heard of. Why, I've never even heard of Capitol Reef till I started researching for this trip. It is a totally underated and you should do it at least once in your life. It is about as long and strenuous as Calf Creek Falls. The sun was also as hot as you enter and exit the narrows. But it was cool in shade inside the narrows.

I was done before 3PM. I had less than 100 miles to go this day, so I had plenty of time. The first order of business was to stop at Hanksville, have early dinner, plug in the car in their RV site and fix the fridge problem.

Coyote Gulch

 If you relish desolation and get high on solitude, Escalante National Monument is your heaven. I car-camped at the mile 26 of Hole in the Rock road by the dried creek and a tree on Sunday night. Not a sole went by all night long. I viewed the sunset and then walked up on the creek bed in the dark all by myself. The next day I still didn't see a soul while hiking Coyote Gulch, marveled at the vastness that is Escalante all by myself, and struggled to make it back to my car all by myself.

Hole in the Rock could well be the one of the most, if not the most, scenic dirt road in America. All 42 miles of it. Soon after you turn off UT-12, the Grand Staircase plateau spreads out, seemingly endlessly. It is not unlike Eastern Sierra, but only with flat topped, horizontally stripped cliffs -- hence the name staircase -- instead of jagged granite peaks. On the opposite side of the staircase where Coyote Gulch is located is a mix of powdery red sand, igneous rocks, and sandstones, which spread out over thousands square miles.

Soon after I turned to the Hole in the Rock road, the car's front left suspension started making the most horrible creaking noise every time I hit a bump and the car gets twisted. I thought the suspension finally gave up after so many miles on the dirt road. I couldn't do more than 8 mph without triggering the noise. 42 miles at 8mph, you do the math. I called Tesla roadside assistance, and all they could offer was to tow the vehicle. The closest Tesla service station is either in Salt Lake City or in Colorado, hundreds miles away. That would cost me a fortune in towing. If I turn back now, I might gimp my way to Colorado for the service. It seemed hopeless. But then, I came all the way out here for Coyote Gulch and the prospect of giving up, yet again, wasn't palatable. It was going to be Coyote Gulch or bust. I drove 8 mph for a while and then relaxed a bit when noticed Escalante Staircase unfolding to my right. Soon, the creaking sound disappeared and I could do 15 mph! I have no idea what happened. Maybe a pebble got stuck in the suspension and then eventually dropped out from all that shaking. It still took me more than 2 hours to get to the tree at the mile 26 by the dry creek. It would be another hour to get to Moki Stairs where the Coyote Gulch hike is supposed to start.

I was so aroused by the desolate scenery, I had difficulty falling asleep. Next morning I got up well after 6AM. After the coffee and oatmeal, and some more picture taking, it was well after 7PM. I got to Moki Stairs at 9AM. No problem, I'll still have plenty of daylight to complete either 6 or 8 mile hike. I set out for the butte, the first milestone marker toward Hamlin-Jacob Arch. I waded through the powdery sand, then walked over the rocky terrain that looked like cauliflower head sprouting from the ground, and then skirted the butte. The next milestone was supposed to be the black igneous rock and it was nowhere to be found. It may have eroded and disappeared. The YouTube instruction was either wrong or was too  old. No matter, I set out to the general direction of the Hamlin-Jacob and soon found cairns showing the direction. More staircase rocks, and soon I could see the Hamlin-Jacob Arch. You can't miss it, just look for a white bat and black flying fishbone carved on the cliff. 

So the first portion of the hike was completed with relative ease. Now the fun part of roping down to the gulch, and that was done with relative ease too. 

When I got to the bottom, I went left and meandered toward the grand cavity that is Hamlin-Jacob Arch first. My aim was to find the pool that people filmed skinny dipping. After all the work of getting to the gulch, pool dipping would've been a lovely break. I walked up for about 15 minutes, and then returned upon not finding the pool.(The pool was actually at the Natural Bridge, not Hamlin-Jacob Arch). I came back to Hamlin-Jacob arch, had lunch and rested in the cool shade of the cavity for a while. 

I figured, since I've done a mile up the "wrong" direction, maybe I should do half the distance to the Natural Bridge. But I was walking at a pretty fast clip on the flat terrain following the creek. Soon I was at the half way mark and it hardly took any time. I wasn't turning back. I made it to the natural bridge, waded in the water for a while and then turned back. It was 2:45PM then and I was sure I'd get out of the gulch before 4 and make it back to the car before 6. 

My rope was still there when I got back to Jacob-Hamlin. I donned my biking glove again and tried to climb up while hanging on the rope. I was tired by then and pulling on the rope was just impossible. My heart rate went up to 180 after a few try, but I haven't made any progress. I looked up, and thought maybe I better press the SOS button. Then I found another spot that I could walk zigzag while hanging on the rope instead of pulling on it. It worked to my relief and I started make small progresses. I had to stop every 15 feet or so and rest. By the time I got to the end of the rope I was totally exhausted. And I still had another 100 feet to climb on my hands and knees to get out of the gulch.

It took me almost an hour to completely climb out of the hole. And guess what? the climb continued. In the morning I didn't notice that I was descending so much amidst marveling at the desolate scenery and clicking the shutter. Coming back, you have forced to notice. And it climbed all the way back to the butte and then some more. It only flattened out about half mile away from the water tank of Moki Stairs. 

By the time I got to the butte I was totally out of water. I took half a gallon but that apparently wasn't enough. I could've used at least another quart. I had a half left when I got out of the gulch. I figured it'll be another 2 hours and I'd be fine. It was instead another 3.5 hours. I had to stop every a few hundred feet and rest. The sun was beating down and I had no place to hide. I pulled out the space blanket, pulled it over me and naps 5-10 minutes at a time. 2 miles, stop every a few hundred feet, you do the math.

When I got back to the car, it was 7:30PM. It was 10.5 hour hike and at least 8 miles, possibly 9. Next day I was cramping all over, all day long. It took 2 days to recover, but I did not get sick. There is no doubt that I'm no longer sick with CFS. At least not while I'm traveling.

Fridge Trouble, Again

 You pay almost twice the price hoping for a better quality. Yet ICECO breaks just as fast as cheap Chinese ones. In fact, Iceco JP40 is exactly same as several Chinese ones except for the Sepco compressor they use instead of Chinese one. But 5 year warranty on the compressor is no good if something else fails. And something else fails it did.

The fuse blew not because of the cigarette lighter adapter that I installed. It blew because the fridge drew inordinate amount of current. It also blew the fuse on the Tesla's socket which is rated at 250W when it's supposed to draw 50W. When I directly connected the 12V source, the voltage dropped to 2V. All that means the fridge has a short somewhere in its 12V circuit and it is no longer working off 12V, fused or unfused.

I've been talking to ICECO since yesterday. They will ship the replacement for it, but it would normally take 10 days. I've been working them to ship it express but I haven't heard from them yet. Meanwhile, I'm staying in Escalante for 2 more days I planned because of it, hoping that the replacement fridge will arrive in that time. 

I needed more rest to recover from Coyote Gulch anyway, so all is not lost. I did a short hike to Zebra Canyon today, a rather anticlimactic one after Coyote Gulch I have to say.  I'll rest tomorrow and then do Calf Creek Falls and  move on to Capitol Reef NP as planned. Hopefully, the fridge will arrive before then. If not, I'll have to move on. Maybe I'll come back from Capitol Reef to pick it up.

Life in Bryce

It's been raining just about everyday since I arrived in Utah. It's the monsoon season in this part of the country and they are getting more rain than usual. It's cooler than normal too. Which makes my sleeping bag and skin sticky and cold inside the sleeping bag at night. But I have an electric blanket and it turns cold dampness into dry warmth in an instant. I'll have to pat myself on the back for carrying it with me. 

The mornings are stunningly refreshing around here. The sun comes out, the shrubs and grass glisten with morning dew and the cool air fills your lung to jolts you back into life. I haven't been to Pine Island, MN, but the backyard of William Duffy's farm can't be much better than this.

After the coffee and serial or oatmeal, I make daily commute to Ruby's Inn. I plug in the car, use their bathroom and then do the Internet thing on their free wifi. It is the best inn I've never slept in. I'll have to pay them back someday by staying in. Actually, I did. In 2017, we stayed on one of their RV campsite. Back then, they didn't have Tesla chargers. So we had to buy an RV site to charge the car over night.

In the afternoon, thunderstorms roll in like a clockwork. The hours may vary. It's an opportunity to lather up your hair and scrub dirt off your skin on your day off. You can put a couple of half gallon bottles on the top of your car to warm them up before the storm rolls in.  The temperature drops quite a bit when the storm arrives though; you might want to do the bath while the sun is out unless you have to conserve the water.

I'm no longer clocking my walking speed or pacing myself. I haven't measured it, but I'm sure it's over 100 steps/min. I'm not taking breaks between the tasks either. Now I just do what I need to do like normal people do and then take a break when I feel like. Before, every task felt like a mountain to climb; now, nothing feels like that. And the recovery from hiking takes only a day or two, not days or weeks. It took 2 days after Angel's Landing. Yesterday I did 4 miles and 1500 feet elevation on Peekaboo route, and the 8 hours of sleep was enough for recovery. It feels like a complete recovery from CFS. Will it last? I could well slip back into CFS and PEM sickness when I return home. For how, I'm enjoying the recovery here in Bryce. 

This trip was all about the recovery from CFS and I said I'll return when I'll have recovered when I started the trip. But the recovery came much faster than I expected. The trip now will have to be about travel and experience, like a normal trip for a normal person is. I guess I'll finish the trip as planned, at least till Colorado, and decide whether to proceed to NYC or return. 

With strong breeze, it actually feels cold here in the shade. I'll now move to the sun.

Fridge Power Repair

It must've been out of power for a few ours at least. When I finally noticed the warm lettuce yesterday evening, it was at 64F. No way I could fix it after hiking Peekaboo Loop. I plugged it into the car's cigarette lighter instead and left a door open. The lighter power goes off when the car is off and leaving a door open keeps the car on. The car still goes off after about 30 minutes, so I had to come out and close and reopen every 30 minutes. It went on for 7 hours without power over night, but it was still in the 40s, thanks to cool nights.

I was thinking that all that vibration from driving on dirt roads must've shaken the the splicer clamp off the 12V line. The vibration did shake the rear window loose, enough for it to come unhinged from it's motor mechanism, after all. (The nearest Tesla service center is in Denver, so I duct taped it for now so that rainwater won't get in.) It was at least 30 miles of dirt road from Lava Point to Cedar City and that must've done it. 

This afternoon, I finally ripped the car's lining off and accessed the 12V wiring. The clamps seem to be intact to my surprise. It was the 10A fuse on the 12V cigarette light adaptor that blew. I'll have to take back all the cussing for it being cheap Chinese splicer clamps and instead cuss out the 12V cigarette lighter adapter for being cheap Chinese parts. To be fair though, the fridge could've been working hard in the hot car with one of the vent almost block by the wall.  

I didn't have a spare fuse. The cig lighter set came in a pair and I left one at home. Pretty dumb I should say. I should've installed both just in case one failed, so that I would have a spare power source without ripping the wall lining again in case one failed. Hindsight twenty twenty. At least I had all the tools to take the car apart and figure it out the problem. 

I found a tiny metal pin on the ground and McGyver'ed it into a makeshift fuse, a fuse that will never blow. Shoved it into the fuse tube and voila! the fridge was back in business. That'll do for now till I get to a hardware store somewhere and get a replacement fuse. 

Meanwhile, my $70k car is getting trashed left and right.. That's what I get for using a luxury sedan as an utility vehicle.

Peekaboo Loop

This was supposed to be  a 5.2 miles, 1500 feet hike, according to alltrails.com.  At the half way point, however, I got chased out of the canyon by the lightning storm. The search and rescue corralled people out of the canyon through Two Bridges trail. Apparently that was the fastest way out of the canyon since they closed Wall Street. Fastest for normal people maybe. All trails to lead to the same plateau, which means shorter ones are steeper.  It would've taken about the same amount of time to come back up through the rest of Peekaboo trail. No matter. I was doing the loop in the wrong direction, so I may as well come back in 2 days and finish up the loop in the right direction and then come up via Wall Street.

So, it turned into 4 mile 1500 feet hike. And I took only a few breaks. Climbing up Two Bridges, I sat down only once near the top. In 2017, I sat down every a few switchbacks going up Wall Street. So I made a tremendous progress since then. And my legs are just fine this morning, only with a minor fatigue. I'm sure I'll be ready to go again tomorrow. 

Another heavy storm on the way back. Water gushed into the shuttle bus through the ceiling opening and the slider window. I had to get up and close them all before we all drowned. It's the monsoon season here and it's been raining as much as it does in Korea during the monsoon. The difference is that there isn't much of humidity to speak of. Things all dry up and everything is sparkly and beautiful by morning as if nothing happened.

Dark and Stormy Night at Zion

Thirty some years ago I was on my way to Zion for the first time. I rented a car from a mom and pop joint in Las Vegas (or was it LA?) and it promptly went kaput after 30 miles. It took 2 hours for the rental company to come and rescue me. They gave me Honda Prelude in lieu of the broken Ford to compensate for my trouble. The car was so fun, I drove that thing through the desert at 120 mph. I no longer remember my itinerary, but by the time I got to Saint George it was late at night. A thunderstorm swept through. Dry lightnings went off every a few seconds while dead leaves rolled across the freeway in swirling wind. I'd never seen so many lightnings go off in my life.

The thunderstorm that rolled in the evening when I got here in Lava Point must be the same kind. Instead of incessant lightnings, however, hail dropped down. The downpour was so heavy and loud, it sounded like thousands of machine guns going off at the same time. And it went on for an hour. When it was all done, my tent was in a big puddle of water. My $35 Coleman tent stayed dry though. And my car was intact too with no pock marks.

The next day stayed dry. In the evening, some dumb rangers came by and told me to move the tent by the fire ring because where I was a vegetation site even though the site was clear of vegetation and many people have camped on it before. Several broken tent stakes said so. I wasn't in the mood to argue with guys with guns, so I moved. 

I left the rain fly off in the process figuring, what are the chances for another thunderstorm? Well, I was wrong. I saw the storm clouds moving east on the north side of the camp as I was cooking and eating on the picnic table. Just about when I was done, rain drops started falling. I pitched the rain fly in a hurry, moved some of the stuff into the tent and covered the rest with a tarp. Soon, it was pouring as hard as it did the day before. And it lasted just about all night long. It was one incredible storm, I tell you.

They say it is the monsoon season here in South East Utah. The thunderstorm develops in the afternoon and moves out in the evening, only to repeat it the next day. Apparently some of them stay on all night long if they feel like.

 

Eagle Has Landed

 On the way down from Angel's Landing, someone asked me how far it was to Scout's Outlook. I said about 15 minutes. Apparently that was too far for her. She said she's heart broken even though she was not going all the way to the Eagle's Landing. She meant Angel's Landing, of course. But the Eagle has landed the same and the milestone has been accomplished.

So I made it to the top of Angel's Landing. From Scout's Lookout, you are practically going up vertically on your hands and knees. When you are not, you are pulling yourself up with the chain. The end result is 5.3 miles and 1600 feet elevation gain, a little bit longer and a little bit flatter than Castle Crags. But it is also rated strenuous because you are going up vertically for the last half a mile after Scout's Lookout. It's also rated the scariest hike in America because you have to tight-rope the ridge of the vertical cliff. There are a few places that felt dangerous, but the trail overall was not as scary as it was hard. 

It is the first milestone of this trip. The next is the Coyote Creek in Escalante, which will be 6-8 miles but not as strenuous other than roping down 200 feet and then climbing back up out of the gulch. The 3rd one is Ouray Perimiter trail. It looked pretty on a YouTube video, but I'm sure there are more stunning trails in Colorado. I'll research some more and play by the ear.

I planned to get on the first shuttle at 6AM for Angel's Landing. I got up and 5:30 and ended up on the bus around 8AM. The drive to the visitor center took an hour and then I had to plug in the car, have breakfast, make a pit stop, fill up the water bottle, etc. The line for the shuttle actually got considerably shorter by the time I got in the line. Everybody apparently had the same idea of getting up early and starting out early.

Getting to Scout's Lookout through switchbacks and cool canyon was easy enough. I don't remember taking too many breaks. By the time I got back on the trail however, I was getting cramped all over. That got me worried that I might cramp in a hairy section and lose the handle on the chain. I slowed down and stopped twisting too much to grab on to the chain, and the cramp eventually went away. I was also worried about blacking out and falling off the cliff. Blacking out wasn't a problem though. Maybe Rush Creek trail in June Lake will have been the last episode of blacking out. Hope strings eternal.

It took about the same amount of time to get to Angel's Landing from Scout's Lookout as it took to get to Scout's Lookout, it seems. The one lane trail had to be shared and people had to wait for the traffic in the other direction to pass. People naturally organized themselves into packets and shared the bandwidth by alternating the direction.

The view at the top wasn't unlike Yosemite Valley viewed from Taft Point. The Angel's Landing juts out into the middle of the valley and affords the view of the canyon trailing off into distance in both directions. It's the best view of Zion canyon.

I got back to the visitor center between 1and 2PM, so the whole trip must've taken about 5 hours, I think. That's an excellent performance. I don't remember taking too many breaks either. I sat down whenever I felt I should rather than pacing by taking a break at every half a mile. I am making progress and this trip is unfolding just as envisioned.

Mesquite, NV

Alabama Hill was swell, but I wasn't going to camp there; it's just too hot. It felt balmy with wind blowing in the evening, but inside the car was still warm all night long and I had to get the AC going most of the night. With temperature approaching 100F and no tree to hide under, it would've been brutal during the day.

So I scooted over to an air conditioned room at Virgin River Casino in Mesquite, NV. It is the same joint that we stayed for 4 days and rested at when coming back from NYC in 2017. It's cheap, it's clean and it has a pool. What more can you ask? Well, I could ask for the same price as in 2017. It's now $32, not $24 we paid back then. It also no longer supplies shampoo and the rooms feel dated now. But I won't complain; hotel prices are now through the roof they say. 

I'll stay here for 2 nights, get the  photos edited, blogs written and the plans for the next a few days nailed down. I might stay one more night. It's pain to move the stuff up and down the room just for 2 nights and I could use one more day of rest before charging up Angel's Landing.

Alabama Hill

There are landscapes so stunning and visceral, that it makes you gasp and then leaves you in silence. It is a quasi-religious experience. Yosemite Valley viewed from the Glacier Point high above the valley floor is one. The scene is so vast and yet feels so real, you can't help but imagine yourself soaring from where you are, fly to the cliff on the opposite side, circle the Yosemite falls splitting the granite wall in half and then swoop down to the valley floor, only to soar again. You are a mountain banshee.

Now I can add to the list Alabama Hill viewed from above on the hill at the end of Movie Road. The white and grey high peaks of Eastern Sierras rise up from the the brown valley floor strewn with boulders of Alabama Hill, and then spread from Whitney peak in both directions, seemingly forever.  

I got there in the evening just before the eastern sky started to turn pink. Soon the pink sky turned crimson and the Sierra peaks turned dark. I sat in my camping chair next to my car and watched the crescent moon and a star -- was it Mercury? -- rise over the peak while having Carl's Jr burger that I picked up in Lone Pine on the way. It must've been hot during the day, but it was quite balmy by then and the warm breeze added to the heavenly feel.

I've never seen so many stars. Yes, I probably saw as many while camping in Shasta. But the vastness of the valley below made the night sky seem so much bigger. I climbed onto the back of my car to sleep. Stars viewed through my read window got squished. They lined up like a squadron descending on the valley. I'm again in a SciFi movie. When I got out of the car to pee in the middle of the night, the big dipper rotated high up on the sky switching the position with Cassiopeia.  The middle of the sky was covered strip of pale cloud that was milky way.

In the morning the sky reversed and the mountains turned pink in the morning light. I got further up the hill took some pictures and then drove to Whitney Portal. A lot of people were camping and hiking there. All lots appear to be full. I'll come back here and do John Muir trail. Someday.

 

Rush Creek Trail, June Lake

Jesus, it was hard. It wasn't the trail; it was "only" 4.5 miles and 1600 feet gain, a little shorter and a little lower than Castle Crags. Yet I totally pooped out half way up and had to turn around. I wanted to make another half a mile to the switch-backs, but my legs wouldn't cooperate. Then I was blacking out on the way down, I almost thought about pressing the SOS button. I had to sit and lean back against the rock to relax my neck before the blacking out dissipated. When I got up from resting, I was blacking out again and that stopped only when I took the camera off my neck and placed it in the chest clip. 

It was just like the "Ordeal" bike ride in 2018. The common theme is the sun, temperature and the neck. It was 100F then and I was biking fully exposed to the sun most of time. Riding bike puts strain on the neck too, as does the 3 lbs. camera hanging off your neck. So the equation seems to be sun + temperature + neck stress = blacking out. How weird.

I had the same camera on the same neck on Castle Crags trail, so it's not just the camera that stopped me at the half way mark. Castle Crags was in shade half way up. But it was also exposed when the trail began its rocky climb. The sun, temperature and camera was about the same, so that may not be it.

More likely is the fact that I was feeling almost recovered prior to Castle Crags. It could've been the stress from harrowing inverter installation. Or it could've been the 2nd shot of the covid vaccine. For whatever reason I was feeling recovered leading up to the first hobodom trials in Shasta. That improvement must have powered the 5 mile 2000 feet hike to Castle Crags.  Now that improvement has faded, I'm back to struggling. And that would explain the struggle on shaded trails in South Yuba River  as well. 

What that means is that Angel's Landing hike in Zion is unlikely. The best I can hope for is Scout's Lookout for total 4 miles and 1000 feet, which is still outside of my normal limit of 4 miles and 600 feet while on the road. Coyote Gulch in Escalante is also questionable. I probably won't have problem getting there; the terrain is flat other than rappelling down 200 feet at Jacob Hamlin Arch. The problem is getting back. I'll have to trek 2 miles under the sun once I'm out of the gulch. If I'm blacking out there, I'll have no place to hide and rest. I'll have to carry my space blanket and spray bottle.

A Day off At Mammoth Lakes Camp

 When I got here, the first thing I did was to trace the sun's path. The sun is the enemy of hobos, I already told you, and I was determined to avoid it at any cost. I walked all around the campsite with a sun tracer app on my phone for about 30 minutes to find the best canopy coverage. All that work for naught; the spot I finally settled with was just about the worst place: it got full sun between 10AM till 2PM. The damn tracer app wasn't worth the bytes it occupied. No matter, I'm not moving the tent. I'll be gone in the morning tomorrow and will be back around 5PM when the tent will be in shade. I'll just have to endure the sun one more time on Sunday when I'll be at the camp recovering from the hike.

At 88F, the heat wasn't too bad though. I wasn't sweating as much as I did in South Yuba River. Then it showered in the afternoon and it got downright chilly in the rain. I stayed out and soaked it all up. Then I took the opportunity to take a bath. The sun came out a while to dry things up and then it got cloudy again. Can't ask for a better weather than that when the rest of the state is baking in a record heat. Perennially cool Yosemite went over 100F, I heard. Yikes.

Well, the temp now dipped below 70F and it's getting chilly. I think I'll turn off the light and crawl into my sleeping bag. Good night.

The Beginning of Hobodom

 It started without much fanfare. I got things loaded the night before, fed and cleaned the cat in the morning, bid goodbye to my ex and then I was on my way. Rather uneventful considering that I may be gone for months and then settle in Nevada when I'm done. Hopefully I'll be all recovered from ME/CFS by then. Hope springs eternal, they say. Or, I'll be back in Sacramento if the hobodom becomes too much a stress and my condition gets worse.

It took a while -- it was hard to get things nailed down at once. Every time I think of something, it took a couple more days to procure or configure. The SPOT4 satellite messenger was the last one, so I thought, then I realized I need a headlamp as well. If I get lost in a canyon somewhere, I'll need overnigh survival tools as well as an SOS device. I wasn't going to get any of those -- I'm only hiking 4 miles at a time mostly on well trafficked trails. Then I decided to do Coyote Gulch. Then, I figured, If I'm doing Coyote, I might as well do Angel's Landing. That kinda brought it home that I really need all precautions that I can take. The trip was delayed another week as such

So the 3 major events in this trip will be: Angel's Landing, Coyote Gulch and Ouray Perimeter. This trip will either kill me or cure me, I guess. Things can change though; I'm playing by the ear like a proper hobo should.

The road to Mammoth Lakes took me through Hwy 50, 89 and then 88 on the way to Gardnerville off the famed 395. I meant to get to Mammoth Lakes by 3PM so that I can claim a boondocking spot before they all fill up. I got there Gardnerville/Coleville at 2PM and the plan was out the window by then. I had lunch there where while charging and left at around 3PM. I heard that Coleville hosted an earthquake of magnitude of 6 at 3:30 PM, so I must've left there just in time. My ex at home said that it shook the water heater tank at home in Sacramento, but I didn't feel a thing. I guess you don't feel the quake while driving unless it splits the road ahead of you. In the end, I got to Mammoth Lakes after 5PM. I tried to look up the campsite while charging the car, but my cell signal was kaput. Just what kind of carrier have spotty coverage in a major resort town like Mammoth? Mint and T-Mobile, that's who. A Starbucks was 2 blocks away, but it was closed at 4PM. Luckily, the frontdesk at Shiloh Inn let me use their wifi and I was able to locate the camping site. I finally made to 37.6918547, -118.9894394 well after 6PM and found a free camping spot too. It'll be a home for the next a few days.

Mono Lake off US395