Day 4

Camp Site to Tuolome Meadows

Song I started my morning with: https://open.spotify.com/track/1IbzNhKN2E99Iq6hWng3b8?si=EaHtrMJuRi-3f8fsP2XH5w

I woke up from the thunderstorm and it was still raining. The urgency to pee made me decide to shimmy into my rain gear and brave the weather. As soon as I got out, the rain seemed to subside (it could be that it sounds worse in the tent). The view was still epic, but it was harder to see all of the layers of mountains with the clouds in the way.

I came back to the tent site after my morning body-check-in and made a decision. I would pack up as quickly as I could, eat my lunch for breakfast and do a cold instant coffee. Tuolome Meadows had a grill with French Fries, my resupply box and a backpackers camp with likely a roof I could shelter from if the rain was still around.

Everything was soggy, but I did my best to get all of my sleep and down clothes into waterproof sacks (I am super diligent about keeping my sleeping bag dry because in an emergency I will need it to keep me warm). Then, I put a waterproof stuff sack over those things to keep them additionally dry. Anything that could be toweled off (tent poles, stakes, my bear can and cook pots) went on top of that sack in the main compartment of my pack. Then, the tent and anything that couldn’t be worn or dried off went on the outside of the pack on the expanding pocket. I figured if I took a break somewhere, I could air out all of my things.

The hero of the first few days of my trip is my baby nalgene.

My friend Allison brought one on our Enchantments trip and I was inspired to buy one but never used it. While I was evaluating my JMT gear I realized I still wanted a nalgene as a hot water bottle, I needed a cold soaking container and a way to drink coffee. The baby nalgene fit was able to do all of those things, so it replaced my collapsible single-purpose mug. I grabbed the baby nalgene and put in the coffee packets my mom sent me from Taiwan and filled it with cold water.

All my gear packed up, wearing my rain hear, lunch food stashed in my side pockets, pack on with pack cover and coffee in hand, I took off.

I kept my rain gear on for most of the 11.6 miles to Tuolome Meadows. There would be brief moments when the rain would break and I could enjoy the sun, but then it would quickly go back into rain.

Something about surviving the thunderstorm, my efficiency of getting out of camp my 6:30AM and the general feeling that I was on schedule gave me a confidence like nothing else. “I got this, even if I’m soggy and slightly cold.”

Around 11, I was at the end of Cathedral Pass and I stopped to air out my tent and fly, eat my breakfast for lunch and reapply bug spray and sunscreen. The mosquitoes decided they liked me more than I was willing to endure their overtures and I found myself packing my pack back up and getting moving. The tent body was mostly dried and the fly was slightly damp on the outside. Both, I figured could air out more when I arrived in camp.

I got to the North End of Tuolome Meadows around noon. Stopped to visit Soda Springs (a spring that they have no idea why it’s carbonated), took a quick video and kept hiking in the soggy rain.

While I was hiking I was thinking about the things I would send home.

• The webbing, leash and carabiner from Half Dome.

• My pack’s brain. I seem to be using my stuff sacks more then the top pockets of my pack.

• Potentially my paper notebook… I’m spending all of my time on my phone notepad.

• Some extra food.

• I need to buy toenail clippers and mail those home.

• My belt. I keep forgetting to wear it.

• Harder call, the moment lenses. I don’t use them much but when I do… I really like them. I needed to save enough weight to justify picking up the baby wipes that I kept on fantasizing about.

• I reached the trail head and turned onto the road towards the campgrounds. My plan was to drop off my tent and then go get my resupply box. When I got to the backpackers campground (thru hikers are allowed to stay one night there), the rain stopped.

I quickly unpacked and was interrupted by a man named Santiago asking for a pen. He offered to pay my $6 camp ground fee for using it, but I declined saying I was probably going to need a favor from him sooner or later. Turns out I was right, my campsite bear box was broken so I needed to borrow his.

Once my tent was set up, I headed to Tuolome Meadows post office.

The Tuolome Meadows post office is attached to a store and a grill. You have to leave your pack outside and are not allowed to congregate at the doorway. There are chargers on the inside of the store (one outlet per hiker) and you are allowed to leave it and pick it up before the store closes.

I made a bee line for the post office. I wanted my box and to offload the things in my pack I felt like I didn’t need anymore.

When I got to the window I was pleasantly surprised that not only had my box arrived but it was front and center. I grabbed the box and an empty priority mail box to mail home my things and headed to the picnic tables. There, I left the box and my pack to go and order a cheese burger and fries, while I was waiting for the order I went to the store to plug in my battery pack and buy a fuel can, sprite and Fritos, then came back to grab my food.

The whole series of steps took less than 25 minutes. I brought the cheese burger to the picnic table and assessed the weather. If the rain picked up again, it would make sense to grab the box and go back to my tent to do the packing and unpacking there. However, if the rain was done, then I could stay at the picnic table, eat my burger and fries and repack on site. There were blue skies all around me, so I decided to risk it and stay.

I was eating my burger when I started to eavesdrop onto other people’s conversations. The storm last night apparently killed a lot of people’s plans. One couple cut short their hike, a set of climbers turned off their objective, a family of four decided to come back early and sleep in the car. So far I was the only JMT hiker at the picnic tables and I wondered how many of us had gotten caught I the storm as well.

Once I polished off the fries, I set out on my boxes. The empty one I put on the table the new resupply ply one, I used my trekking pole tip to open. One of the climbers next to me watched, half amused and half horrified I would use my pole as a box opener. Once the box was open he pulled out a knife from his pocket and gestured that I could borrow it. “Too late, but thanks.” He went back to eating his burger while I tore open the box.

It was like Christmas to myself.

The new maps were on top, sour patch kids, new snacks, bars, some feminine products, new meals, a new tube of sunscreen, peanut butter and even some whiskey. I saw the baby wipes and pulled them up and hugged them. Then avoids interrupted my hug session with the cleaning wipes.

“That’s a nice resupply you have there,” an older Latino gentleman in a PCT hat said. “Yeah, I think I have too much food, I’m going to have to leave some in the hiker box.”

“Well, if you are getting rid of anything, I’ll be interested.”

“Sure.”

I started to lay out the food.

I already had to donate the Protein oatmeal because I didn’t realize when I packed it that had dairy in it. My body wasn’t keeping down the peanut butter anymore (I had tried to eat a peanut butter tortilla day 1 when I was dehydrated and started to gag. My body seemed to have PTSD at the idea of peanut butter and got nauseated at the idea of an entire tube). I had too many coffees, an extra set of tortillas and really didn’t want to carry the weight of the whiskey. I forgot the man’s name but he was traveling with two women who one was named Goldilocks (Jen) and the other I don’t remember either. They were hiking from Red’s Meadow to Happy Isles. I asked them about trail conditions and water crossings and they shared their experiences. In exchange for the extra food I was giving them, they showed me how to pack my bear canister to fit everything. I had about two extra days of food that I mailed home as well as my list items I was cutting from my pack. I finished packing my pack, the mail home box and collapsed the resupply one. Then, I heard my name, “Larissa!” and out of the store came Alex.

“Alex! How are you, what are you doing here? I thought you guys would be at least a day ahead of me!”

“Oh man, yeah we were but then the thunderstorm came and we bailed, I got a hitch here and met Nick and then we got a Motel 6 to wait out the storm. What did you do?”

I felt a tiny bit vindicated that I was so afraid during the storm hearing that it was bad enough that two of my fellow hikers would bail.

I answered, “I actually holed it up in my tent and waited it out. It wasn’t pleasant but I survived.”

Alex gave me a smile, “that’s hardcore,”

then he got up, “I’m going to find Nick and then meet up with my friend at the Campground. It’s good to see you!”

Shortly after, I saw Nick come out of the store.

“Larissa! I just saw BJ and Sarah and met someone else Chris and we are all together again!”

I didn’t know anyone in that list that he gave me, but I had no doubt Nick knew each of them and they knew about me.

We chatted about the storm and I enviously eyed his freshly laundered clothes and how clean he looked form his overnight in civilization. It turned out he was st the backpackers camp next to my tent. We agreed to meet at camp and I could meet all the new JMT hikers that Nick now had collected.

The rest of the night was a blur. It felt like I had the most social day of my life in that backpackers campground. Nick and Alex, then I saw Santiago again and he came over, I met Marilyn from Ft. Worth ( she plays violin in the symphony there), Andrea and her husband that works at Lam Research, the family I was chatting with at the picnic tables, Sarah and BJ (the couple Nick met from Australia on their honeymoon), my PCT/Red’s Meadow friends and then Melissa and Eagle joined.

I don’t remember much of the night except I hardly got to my tent until I went to bed. Everyone (who didn’t have access to a Laundromat was trying to dry out their clothes over the fire. Stories of how people wanted to quit came out. Melissa came over and asked me what my trip plan was … she as afraid Eagle would bail and wanted an option to go with me if it was available. The rain had sucked the life out of most of the people in that camp site.

For me, the people were exhausting. At one time I had three conversations happening in three different fire rings. I eventually had to excuse myself and crawl into my tent. There, I went to sleep.