Day 19

Lake Helen to Palisade Creek Tent site

After the harrowing experience of coming down Muir, I decided not to repeat that for Mather. I would make sure to camp close to the pass and then do it in the morning vs trying to do a pass in the afternoon.

When I woke up Becky and Diane were mostly packed. They were headed down to air out their tents and quilts.

That just left me and Thomas (who was st the camp site before Becky, Diane and I joined in) behind at the camp site.

Thomas was going NOBO and was waiting to see other people go ahead of him. His gear looked straight out of the major YouTube thru-hiker list. Z-pack duplex, Hyper Light Mountain Gear Windrider, Dyneema stuff sacks and state of the art water filter. Besides being envious, I also wondered how often he actually used the gear.

I packed up my things and noticed a hole in my sleep pants. Hole in my shoes, hole in my tent, holes in all of my socks, hole in my shorts and now a hole in my sleep pants. I was definitely harder on my gear than I realized.

Trying to put gear envy out of my mind, I started to hike down.

I messaged with Ryan. I really wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the Rock Monster. He assured me that I hadn’t passed it yet.

I started to hike down.

The Holy Spirit brought me a quote (I can’t remember who said it anymore) but it was, “Snow is God’s reminder of what Grace does. It covers everything.”

I was noticing all of the snow on the trail.

Then, how when the snow melts… it becomes water. When there is a lot of water, it turns into Mayim Chaeim (need check the spelling)- or living water. Living water is what baptism/mikveh is supposed to be in. Water that moves on its own power rather than being carried in. This water for the valley is what provides life and wakes up the plants, which then the animals can eat…

Perhaps it’s the grace, like the snow that God provides that is the basis of the living water we should be baptizing ourselves a new. It’s then the refreshed person that can help provide life for the world, like the water gives life to the valley.

Perhaps not theologically sound, I’m spicing two concepts together without context, but I enjoy the playful possibilities I feel the Holy Spirit and I get to have fun with. It’s like a playground of ideas of how God’s kingdom is designed and it’s fun for my brain to get to participate, contemplate the ideas and to merge them.

The valley was so pretty that I kept stopping to take photos.

One of my first major purchases was my own Digital Camera. It was blue and connected to our ancient Compuserve machine, but I delighted in being able to grab a moment in time. I always enjoy being able to look back through my archives and get a literal snapshot of what a younger version of me thought was documenting worthy.

Maybe one of the projects I’ll undertake in this next season of my career is an art one. I’ll ask friends for old digital cameras that still work… everyone has to have a few. Then I’ll mail them to my friends who have toddlers and ask them to let their toddlers take photos for a week. Then they can mail me back the cameras. I’ll post some of the photos on an anonymous blog- Caleb Age 4. It will be a snapshot of what children see and think is interesting.

I was deep in thought when I came across a group that was heading up to the pass. Trail etiquette gives the uphill hiker priority of the trail. The reasoning is that it is more disruptive to the rhythm of someone coming uphill (harder to start) than one going down. I’m sure there is a beautiful metaphor in that). They asked me about the pass and I shared. I realized there was another trail etiquette that was at play. No one was sharing their experience unless they were asked.

I’m my default world state, I’m often obsessed with providing value and making sure people don’t make the same mistakes as I do. I often over disclose and try to be helpful. It’s interesting out here, I don’t try and overly warn anyone. Perhaps there is a security that everyone that has made it this far is pretty competent…

Or maybe I’m just a lot more secure in my own space that I’m not worried about adding value. It’s definitely something to be curious about.

I came around the corner and heard a familiar laugh. It was Becky and Diane, airing out their quilts and tent. The night before had been humid and the condensation built up inside of each of our tents. I was planning to air out my tent later in the day. I said hello and kept hiking, I would potentially see them at the Rock Monster. They laughed… probably because I had mentioned this monster for the fifteenth time since they saw me at Evolution.

I didn’t have long to wait. I noticed a small campsite next to a creek and then saw the rock formation. A large bulbous piece of granite had formed a crack on it many years ago and had a bit of a pac-man look to it. Then some hikers added teeth and eyes to it and now it gets visited by hikers to take silly pictures with. I am endlessly amused by this.

Here is this amazing piece of geology, millions of years old… that cracked in a stunning force and has been sitting at this location watching the landscape turn around it… and like a resigned grandpa asked to dress like Santa for his grandchildren, in this season of life is to be made into a friendly photography stop for hikers who like to amuse themselves. The indignity of it all makes me smile.

As I was setting my timer and running to the rock monster to pose, Becky, Diane and Marilyn showed up. Marilyn has caught Becky and Diane where they were airing out and rejoined the group. With all four of us … there was only one thing to do…

Pose with with Rock Monster.

We laughed about it and hiked together for a tiny bit, but soon separated to our own paces. Marilyn as fastest so she left first. I had to air out my tent still, so I found a rock and did so. Eventually I ended back on my own.

While I was charging my batteries with my solar panel and airing out my tent, sipping crystal light ( my new favorite noon-time ritual). An Andrew Skurka look- a-like stopped by to chat. His name was Thomas and I had seen him moving quickly the night before. He was doing his own backcountry route and couldn’t stop glowing about Darwin’s Bench. We exchanged some comments and then he was on his way to Dusy Basin where he was going to catch his dinner.

I speculated that he felt like a software engineer in the Bay Area and did this on his weekends. There is something about people in tech that seem to gravitate to the ultra light backpacking world. I could be biased but I feel like there is a trend.

I packed up and resumed hiking. I had a slight mishap when I turned down Bishop’s pass exist instead of the JMT route. The sign has confused me and I ignored my intuition and followed the sign. Thankfully before I had gotten too far I checked my GPS and noticed I was not on the route. I was able to backtrack and come back to the intersection and take the correct exit.

Around 5, I found a camp site by Palisade creek and set up. I was leery about all of the trees… I hate camping under trees, you never know when they will blow over and sap gets on everything. However, I was able to find a spot that didn’t have any trees looming over and set up camp.

This was my first night alone for a long while and I had to get used to the sensation again. However, the discomfort was short lived as I crawled into my tent and quickly fell asleep.