[pct-l] JMT/PCT Trek

[Tortoise]

This tale serves as an useful reminder as to why we should not be so 
critical and complaining about those traveling by mule or horse.
This was fortuitous super trail magic.

Tortoise

<> He who finishes last, wins! <>

I switched to Mac OSX rather than fight Windows
Using Mozilla Thunderbird  http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/



jeffzclimb at aol.com wrote:
> Hey All,
>
> I arrived back home a few weeks ago from my  JMT/PCT Trek and just wanted
> to let everyone know how it all went. I flew into Reno and my friend 
> (Ron) from
> Bridgeport, Ca. picked me up and delivered me to toulumne Meadows, the 
> next day
> I was meeting up with another friend (UK Ray) who I met on my PCT hike 
> in 2000,
> and three more of Rays friends.
>
> The plan was to stay at Toulumne Meadows for  two days to get  
> adjusted  to the
> elevation and then start hiking  south towards  Mt. Whitney. The first 
> day was
> hiking up Lydell canyon and we camped a couple miles short of Donahue 
> Pass.
> One of Ray friends (John) was having a difficult time and when he 
> finally reach
> our camp site, I could almost tell that John wasn't going to be able 
> to continue
> to hike.The next morning they decided to hike back to Toulumne Meadows 
> and
> see if John would feel better in a couple of days and start hiking again.
>
> I decided to keep on hiking, go slow to Reds Meadow and maybe they would
> catch up if they started hiking again. After waiting a day at Reds 
> Meadow they
> never showed up, so I was off hiking in the morning and really feeling 
> good.
> Today my destination was Lake Virginia, and before noon I had already 
> hiked 12
> miles.
>
> As I'm hiking towards the trail junction to Duck Lake, The scenery is 
> just unbelievable
> so I wasn't watching where I was hiking, lost my balance fell forward 
> and put a pretty
> nasty gash in my forehead, I'm getting up as fast as I can, because I 
> sure found out that
> big cuts on the head bleed a lot, and before I got up and stopped the 
> bleeding, there was
> blood everywhere, on the trail, the rocks, and everywhere on me.
>
> After a few minutes or so I finally go my composure back, I wasn't 
> sure what to do, but
> since I got the bleeding stopped I was thinking just to keep on 
> hiking. As I'm sitting there
> four hikers from Southern Ca. came by, they were being packed mule to 
> Purple lake 2.2
> miles down the trail, One just happen to be a Physician he took a look 
> at my wound and
> invited me to camp with them at Purple Lake. Well, after that fall 
> guess I'm willing to camp
> with a doctor and it's only 2 miles short of Lake Virginia where I had 
> planned to camp anyway.
>
> We all arrived at Purple Lake, set up camp and Doctor Van took a 
> better look at the cut
> and said it needed to be stitched up. I'm sure I  turned about as pail 
> as someone could get
> after that announcement. Doctor Van assured me that he had all the 
> medical stuff to stitch me
> up, so he brings over this big tool box filled with his medical stuff. 
> (Gosh you can bring lots
> of gear on mules)
>
> Anyway, Guess I'm ready for this as I can be sitting on a lawn chair, 
> under pines trees at
> Purple Lake. Doctor Van cleaned the wound, gave me an injection of 
> novacane or something
> like that so I wouldn't feel any pain, and proceeded to put six 
> stitches in my forehead. I gave my
> camera to one of docs friends (Bill) and told him to take lots of 
> photos because I wasn't sure
> my friends would believe this story.
>
> After the stitching I was treated to a great dinner, better then I was 
> planning on having that
> evening. The next morning I was also treated to a great breakfast too. 
> After trying to thank
> this great group of friends enough, I started hiking again, the only 
> problem was that big old
> bandage on my forehead, Every hiker I met for the next few days  would 
> ask what happen
> to you, and I would have to tell the story, and even I was getting a 
> little bored after about 30
> times or so, I was sure glad when I was able to remove that bandage. 
> The rest of the trek
> was uneventful except for the scenery and the wonderful people I met.
>
> I'm not sure I should say this, but this trek was one of my favorites.
>
> Jeff Z.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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