portrait of a tree | larry

my shadow connects me to the one more lonely than i.

lovers.

i stared at unabashed lovers on a mid-morning hike.

two different trees forming so natural a connection. 

taking slow dance to a different realm of comprehension;

they count in decades, not in steps.

swirling at each other's branches

leaning in and out

bending by the month.

i wonder if they resonate with this poem by ee cummings.

high sierra trail | day 7 | guitar lake to whitney portal

today's mileage: 16 miles

we woke up at 3am and started our ascent by 3:50am. it was pitch black and the sky blanketed us with stars. i barely slept because the slight bump i was on began to feel so uncomfortable that i kept thinking i was sleeping like this.

the day before, i had felt in my gut that this would be a hard climb, and it was. hit with altitude sickness pretty early on, i felt miserable for almost the entirety of the ascent. nausea, diarrhea and headaches were my symptoms and all i wanted to do was cry. so i did, in the dark, by myself. 


i'll spare the sob story, but what i came out of this time was this: i can't make it in this world alone. i consider myself an independent person who typically handles things on my own. it's rare for me to ask for help because i know i can probably figure it out. but sometimes... i need to accept my weaknesses, cry out for help, and say yes! when help arrives. i couldn't have made it up mount whitney if it weren't for the committed and generous help of my friends brendon and di.


it took - what seemed like - an eternity to summit. in the early hours of this journey, the sun rose and illuminated the route we had taken and the route we were on. it was both painful and joyful to see (first image); i was at times, in disbelief that i was hiking up a mountain. "i'm crazy!" and "this is so amazing! i'm so glad i'm here!" stirred around simultaneously. but i've found that it's that exact cocktail of emotions/thoughts/feelings that flag for me that i am alive and well...and on a very good journey. :)


when we finally got to the drop off point, i mustered up an excited smile for this picture. but shortly after, my headache came back with a vengeance. 

we finally all made it to the top and caused this hoot, and made it off the peak of the mountain before a big storm rolled through. 


and how awesome is this guy? if i hiked up mt. whitney just to see him... it could've been worth it. (he didn't know i took this picture. i was in stealth mode.)
after what seemed like another eternity of the descent (i.e. 98-100 switchbacks and 6,000' drop). we drove to the nearest town, and ate (a lot). this kinda of mass consumption continued for the next couple days...

high sierra trail | day 6 | crabtree meadow to guitar lake

today's mileage: 2.7 miles


we woke up when we woke up, ate a slow breakfast, lounged around, and then finally made our way to guitar lake. it was our recovery day before mount whitney, but i didn't feel recovered. the tiredness just sank in, and i realized today that the final day would be really really hard. 


this pic was inside my tent when i went back in for a mid-morning lounge around. (someone eerily watched from outside.)  o_O

about a mile in, i met scott & alisa (dad/daughter hikers) and we chatted for a lengthy period of time. it was lovely to meet new folks and to have an extended conversation. plus, when i offered alisa my what-i-now-considered-repulsive trail mix, she practically inhaled them. lol. it's amazing how other people's food looked SO much yummier then my own. she clearly concurred. ;-)

 

a few memorable moments from the lake:

• getting to know scott & alisa over dinner. (they decided to camp with us that night and hike with us the next morning.)
• sun setting into the mountain range.
• dropping my camera on a rock --> cute boy from d.c. helped me get the jammed filter off the lens. hehe ;-)
• looking at disbelief at the mountain we were going to climb at 4am in just a few short hours.

high sierra trail | day 5 | junction meadow to crabtree meadow

today's mileage: 8.9 miles


this section of trail brought a pretty significant change in the experience. we transitioned to the john muir trail where the traffic increased to seeing someone about once/hour, whereas in previous days, we saw 1-2 people/day. we also had to hit 11,000+ twice today which means we started the hike with a straight incline for a while, then down, then back up again. it was pretty rough. at one point i thought i was lost, so i yelled out my friends' names like a small child who's lost sight of their parent in a giant mall. they called back my name and a sense of relief came over me. then a bit later, while climbing to that second 11,000+ point, i sat down on a stone step, propped my head against my backpack (still on my back) and fell asleep. i was so tired that my body shut down to the soothing sound of a nearly silent forest and gentle breeze that swept over my body. it only lasted about 10 minutes before i awoke and then i somehow managed to pick myself up and slowly make my way to b, d, & m, who were waiting for me on some large rocks. i think we were all kinda pooped.


shortly after that long break, we made it to crabtree meadow... and seeing this open space brought the deep soul refreshment i needed. i felt like i was in montana. ;-)  plus, it was lovely to wash my crazy dirty toes in the icy river.

by the end of the day, i realized i was getting antsy, kind of bored, noticeably irritable, and feeling done. i was tired and coming to the end of me. i think there's also something about doing the same exact routine for 5 days in a row that was starting to wear me down. i'm not a routine kinda girl, so the monotony of cooking breakfast, packing up shop, hiking all day, eating lunch, getting washed up, setting up shop, sleeping, and repeating the cycle, that just got to me. even though everything we saw and experienced was unique to each day, this repetitive process stirred me up in a way i normally don't have to face.

i think paulo coelho said it well in a recent tweet: "if you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. it is lethal."  hahahah... of course i would resonate with that quote. 

anyway, i was in my tent before dark and fell asleep like a happy baby on an unfortunately slightly inclined spot. and we decided to sleep in the next day because the journey would only be 2.7 miles to our next camping spot before our day 7 trek up to the top of mount whitney. 

high sierra trail | day 4 | maurine lake to junction meadow

today's mileage: 14 miles

during day 4-6, i packed up my camera up because it was becoming a bit too cumbersome to pull out and use or have it hanging off my neck-ish area. it felt good to just be on the journey, not necessarily documenting it. 

pictures below: maurine lake in the still morning, the hot springs where 15 boy scouts took over, and finally the first & last campfire we had. the fire was such a treat!

the funniest memory of day 4:

robel is massaging melody's feet. it's dark, and i can only see them by the glow of the fire. robel says, "your feet are stiff....girl, have you been hiking?" we all burst out into laughter and declared that line to be the best quote of the trip. turns out, it was. 

snippets from day 4's journal entry:

"today was really hard. really hard. i didn't eat enough and was pretty hungry for the last few miles. it was quieter than the other days.

... and i felt determined. like really really determined. there is a fire, a drive, a passion, a Spirit that is beyond me

...i felt overwhelmed by the beauty

....the days are starting to blur a bit."

high sierra trail | day 3 | kaweah gap to maurine lake

the arroyo valley, surrounded by the great continental divide, was by far one of the most exquisite hikes i have done. my breath was stolen by its great beauty. and mo lake was such a pleasant surprise to arrive to. 

today's mileage: 12 miles. 

for more pics, check out the facebook album.

high sierra trail | texture

i felt a small explosion inside when i saw this fallen sequoia. (i think it's a sequoia.) i sat near these exposed roots when we stopped for lunch on day 3. after consuming my (unfortunately) never-ending supply of peas and beets, i took some time to examine all of its beauty. 


this shot is my favorite of all the textures i saw on this trip. all of the live and dead wood was...heavenly.

high sierra trail | day 2 | bearpaw to kaweah gap

day 2 was the second hardest day of this journey. 7.5 hours and a steep climb that took all day. (ok, i exaggerate.) we went from bearpaw to my favorite lake, hamilton lake, to be greeted by a spectacular crystal clear ice cold water bath. i felt like a million bucks after i dunked myself in. after some lounging around and greeting fellow travelers, we started what would be second hardest ascent of this trip. 

 

i swear, i felt like all we did was go up and up and up and up until our noses bled. okay, not really....it was just until one of the members of our group went into shock because of sudden altitude sickness! it was a bit of a scare, but we managed alright. and since we camped at close to 11,000', we stayed up to watch the stars. it was absolutely unreal.
for more pics, check out the facebook album. 

high sierra trail | day 1 | crescent meadow to bearpaw

after hiking 11.4 miles, we witnessed the sun leave it's soft print while setting into the valley. this experience set the tone for how this trip would be: exquisite. 

for more pics, check out the facebook album.