JMT 2016 Journal — Day 12 of 25: So.Many.Mosquitos.
A quiet day of fording streams, seeing trail friends again, and surviving hordes of mosquitos.
On July 20, 2016, my friend Ovi and I started our 25 day thru-hike of the world famous John Muir Trail (JMT) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. What follows is a day-by-day recounting of that epic adventure.
Previously: Day 11 of 25: A Hard Day at Silver Pass (Plus a Marmot)
Sunday, July 31, 2016
This is another short entry, as overall it was a rather uneventful day (you know, if you can call trekking through the sublime beauty of the Sierra Nevada mountains uneventful). We did, however, experience a couple of firsts.
After our draining hike the day before, I slept probably the soundest sleep of the trip yet. A breakfast of cheese, Pop-Tarts, and hot tea got the day started. Before setting off, I asked Ovi take a headshot of me, as I had done every day thus far, intending to make a post-hike animated GIF of my disheveled beard growth!
By the time we were done for the day, we would hike close to 12 miles, which included 3,000 feet of elevation gain, and around 1,000 feet of loss. But unlike yesterday’s hike, today’s portion of the trail had manageable slopes, with plenty of sweeping switchbacks that were easy on the knees.
A real river fording on the JMT was one of the day’s firsts, as the trail crossed Bear Creek without a bridge. Luckily, the water wasn’t too deep, nor the current too strong. I switched to my camp shoes in order to keep my hiking boots dry. Next I unbuckled the hip belt on my pack, which is a good safety rule to follow, in case of a tumble into the stream (best to dump your pack easily than risk drowning with a soaked, cumbersome pack attached to you). Facing upstream, we used our hiking poles for extra points of contact as we slowly sidestepped across. If memory serves me right, the water was not quite knee high, although the rocks at the bottom were incredibly slippery.
Around midday we once again came across the firefighter hikers from Portland, Zack and Kelbie, whom we had last see two days prior. They told us they had spent the previous night at Vermilion Valley Resort (VVR), which we had considered as a resupply location, but ultimately decided against it. Timing their arrival so as not to miss the ferry to the resort sounded like a bit of an ordeal, but the stories of the cold beers and hot meals they had treated themselves to made us jealous. The two were faster hikers than us, so we eventually parted ways as they surged ahead down the trail.
Our camping spot for the night was near the junction of a spur that went to Rose Lake. When we first arrived at the spot, it looked perfect. Nestled on the west fork of Bear Creek, there was plenty of water for cooking and cleaning, and the scenery was like a nature postcard come to life. But as dusk approached, so did the hordes of mosquitos. And I do mean hordes, as in a swarm, a throng, a thick buzzing and stinging blanket of pure evil. They ignored my bug spray as though it were mere water, their needle-like proboscis easily piercing through two layers of clothing.
And so, the other first for the trip was having to use my head net, a tiny piece of gear that I was thankful for having packed. Thus, clad in my rain jacket, gloves, and the head net, looking like some sort of post-apocalyptic mutant scavenger, I set about cooking my dinner. Eating it was another challenge, as it necessitated lifting the head net slightly in order to get the spoon to my mouth, an opening that the relentless insects exploited every time. Ovi and I wolfed down our meals in record time and retired to the relative safety of our tents, although I still had to play squash-that-bug throughout the night with the sneaky bastards that had managed to follow me into my sanctum.
When we were setting up our tents earlier, we had noticed a woman and her young son also camping in the area, but our plan to introduce ourselves was scuttled by the arrival of the mosquitos. But as fate would have it, we would run into them several more times before the end of our trip.
For now, I tried passing the time listening to an audio book I had downloaded on my phone, but found I had no interest in it. Instead, I quickly caught up with the day’s journaling, and went to sleep early. Tomorrow would be the halfway point of our hike, with a mountain pass to navigate, and another resupply location.
