Day 12

Lake Virginia to Silver Lake

Song:

https://open.spotify.com/track/1sqzBd8hkffCShBjFsKHIJ?si=i2L8XGlKQtW90wshDOpRlA

Slept with the tent fly off and it was mixed.

The stars, my the stars were so wonderful. There isn’t a moon right now so as I laid in my tent I could see the Milky Way and wonder at each of the points of light.

But the downside was that I couldn’t regulate temperature well. It would get humid (from the lake), I’d be sweaty, take my sleeping bag off, then get cold… then get sweaty… it was a saga. When I got ready to get out of bed in the morning my entire front half of my tent was wet with condensation and I didn’t feel completely rested.

Still… the stars were fantastic.

My heel is bothering me. I need to look up stretches and use my trekking poles more. I’m not quite half way, so it worries me that I’m getting the pain now. My only consolation is that I’ve been feeling this pain before the trip and it isn’t caused by hiking. Just means I need to be careful to make sure it isn’t worse.

That and the rest of my period. I’m still feeling gross—bloated and crampy. That made me not want to eat dinner last night but this morning I realised that it was a mistake to miss out on the calories, so I ate dinner for breakfast.

I took my time packing out. While doing so i started developing this inkling of a business idea that I’d like to do. I sat by Lake Virginia and diagrammed it.

Today is a long day but once I get to Silver Pass. I heard there is snow there but the snow is manageable in comparison to Muir Pass.

I started to hike and right away had a water crossing, so it was soggy feet for the first few miles.

Getting out of Virginia lake was turning out to be harder than I realised. I took a few breaks, ate a few snacks and then restarted. The second start was a lot better.

It’s funny how sometimes just getting a mulligan for the start helps re-set the tone of the day. I think that something I should carry into relationships. “Sorry that didn’t go the way that we wanted to. Can we restart and try again?”

It was a steady up hill climb. I found myself designing a video game around hiking.

The character gets to eat sour patch kids every so often to boost morale. There are four status bars, morale, hydration, calories and navigation. You spend the whole time keeping the character on trail.

It’s funny how much I listen to my body when I am out here. In the default world I’m very harsh. Like, “get over it, we got stuff to do.” Here, my body protests and I listen. Also something to be curious about.

I made friend with Carl-mot. A particularly bold marmot that came to investigate my pack when I was taking a potty break. He didn’t even bother to scamper off and instead disdainfully eyed me as I took shoo-ed him away and then took photos of him.

When I got near to the top, near warrior lake, the landscape opened up to the alpine version of the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Waterfalls, rocks and glacial lilies. Stunning.

My energy levels were low. I promised my feet that I would give them a break at 2 and eat lunch. That turned into a nap and I awoke to seeing Marilyn again!

Marilyn (from Ft. Worth) and I met at Tuolome Meadows and I saw her yesterday at Purple Lake with Becky and Diane.

It was nice to see her again and we caught up as we went to tackle the snow on the pass together.

Turns out it wasn’t too terrible and we quickly got over it. She had been given a tip by a day hiking family of an epic camp site, so she went to investigate. I decided to go and find a site along Silver Lake and soak my feet and go to bed.