10/23- Day 69
When I woke up this morning, it
felt like I was waking up to my cozy, warm bed at home on Christmas morning. I
swear I haven’t slept this warm in 2 ½ months. As I started to come to, the
soreness in my legs, back, and feet brought me to the realization that I was
NOT home. And the odor coming from the depths of my sleeping bag assured me
that I was indeed not in Good Hope, Illinois, but 4 days deep backpacking in
the mountains and about to embark on another full day of hiking to our next
destination.
I accredit
my comfort to two lovely ladies—Jill and Vick—on my right and hearty, warm Greg
on my left, with their body heat radiating throughout the megamid keeping everyone
toasty (…Much more so than my bivy sack has ever kept me!) Though I was not
where I know as “home”, I can tell you waking up next to my ECOEE family at Joe
Crane Lake on this frosty Thursday morning felt just the same.
These past
few days have been very nontraditional as a grad assistant. Instead of joining
my partner Jeff as he took off to retrieve the vans, I trekked on with Vickey,
Jill, and Greg for “final expedition”. Which is a fancy way of saying, “heading
out ‘solo’ from the other groups and Jeff to navigate back to the vans by noon
Friday, with only compass and maps”.
Living on
the inside… or outside, depending on your perspective… has been an eye-opening
experience. Camping, cooking, and traveling alongside these three individuals
for 48 hrs straight for the first time since meeting them in January, really
forced me to get to know them on a new level. Working together to “master”
navigation skills and motivating one another literally up and down mountains
and mile after mile has been a tremendous blessing to be apart of.
Today
wasn’t as long and treacherous of a hike as yesterday’s, but it was certainly a
gem day. We were packed and ready to set out shortly after the sun rose and the
dromedary thawed, allowing us to fuel up with breakfast and hot drinks. The
trail and elevation loss made the miles short and smooth compared to the
previous days’. We even took an extended break at beautiful Cora Lake, our
original planned campsite, where I dipped my blistered, pulsating feet in the
cold water and filled Nalgene’s, while others basked in the sun upon a boulder
overlooking the lake. Pure bliss. We then continued further along the trail,
moving closer to the endpoint. Leap-frogging with Haley, Kenny, Josh, and
Anthony’s group to “The Niche”, both crews decided to call it a night.
The
remainder of the evening was spent sharing stories, enjoying impeccable scenery,
cooking chili mac and Ramen, and indulging in M&M pudding with crappy (and
questionably poisoned…) bread *cough* Anthony *cough*. The laughs were endless
and echoed throughout the mountains and forest surrounding us, putting a big
smile on my face as I lie down to sleep tonight.
Currently I
am writing in my sleeping bag while simultaneously listening to Kenny’s bedtime
story from the other megamid… something about a loser named Bob heading to
Imagination land on a hot air balloon-boat with his fat girlfriend Melissa. I’m
not sure… but I do know that the ECOEE life is a good one filled with
incredible, hilarious, and LOVING people whom I am so privileged to have grown
close to over the past couple months and even more so the past couple nights.
It’s only
9pm, but people are already snoring or soon to be asleep, so I’ll pick up on
the cadence and shut off my head lamp to enjoy one last warm night’s rest
before hitting the dusty trail in the morning, ending our 2nd
backcountry expedition in the Sierra’s. Now we look forward to that glorious
pizza promised from Jeff and cold chocolate milk promised by myself as we return
to the simple missed luxuries of front-country life.
-Tiff
10/22/14
Today was full of
ups and downs, literally. We left Slab Lake and immediately started going
up-hill, once at the top we were not sure when to head back down. We were not
sure when to head back down. We were starting to get a little concerned because
any way down looked unsafe. The view up there was breath taking so I didn’t
mind being stuck all that much. We saw five deer sprint around Post Lake; we
figured it was either a mountain lion or Jeff! We spotted a route down some red
rock that was steep enough to scare me a few time. We saw Jeff down at the
bottom where he pleasantly told us that this was not the end of our journey for
today. He let us know that after tiffany’s lesson on weather, we were to be on
our own and all meet back up Friday at noon. Our group took this chance to plan
a hike up to post peak and summit the mountain we wanted to summit the peak
earlier near the red rocks but didn’t because time constraints. After tiffany’s
lesson we to post peak which was very hard even with the trail. We arrived out
the top huffing and puffing, set our packs down and headed up post peak. ECOEE
has introduced opportunities that scare me half to death multiple times. Summited
post peak being one of them. We all shared a euphoric feeling up at the top and
I immediately started back down. It was too intense to stay up there any
longer. I feel like i am in a different reality here in the sierras. But
whatever reality we are in this journal is right here in it with us. I think
that is pretty cool.
-Haley Brasile
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