| Hiking the JMT 2008 |
| It was our third year of trying to complete the hike. Back injuries stopped the first two years, this was to be the year we got the monkey off our back. We started at North Lake, which is where we ended last year. We drove to Bishop from Utah along HWY 6 on Saturday the 5th of July. It took about 8 1/2 hours. We slept in Bishop, went to church on Sunday morning, then hiked 4 1/2 miles to Piute Lake. |
| It is a fairly steep climb from North Lake Trailhead to Piute Lake. There is 3 stream crossings, a steep narrow mule worn trail through the trees, an open shale section and then the staircase, to reach the ledge to the overview of the valley below. The trail progresses past several small bodies of water, and you get to walk past the squid tree ( my name for it) It was warm and the snow melt was producing wet trails through a series meadows that led us to Piute Lake. |
| I had incorrectly figured the mileage for the distance to the Piute Bridge from North Lake. I had figured th whole distance was about 15 miles, it was almost 20. The last 4 miles to the bridge are a killer, steep and very rocky with boulders. We had hiked 15.8 miles at the end of the day and camped a hundred feet past the bridge. Geoff found a 2" brown scorpion in his tent in the morning. The trail from Piute Bridge to the Goddard Bridge is some of the easiest trail on the hike. The trail follows the river and is never steep. It has some rocky sections, but is easily managed as it has been used a lot and was well maintained. A group of CCC Camp youth were there working on the trail. I was unaware that the CCC camp still existed, but they told me it had switched from a federal program to a state program which the state of California had chosen to keep active. This section of the trail has everything from desert like areas to forested with ferns growing in the undergrowth. There is a 3rd bridge on this trail, the link between the desert side of the river and the forest side. After crossing the Goddard Bridge you have about 1/4 mile till the Evolution switchbacks. They are about a 850 foot climb in elevation. They eventually level out and the trail leads you for a 1/2 mile to the Evolution crossing. There are actually 3 streams here within about 100 yards. The first has always been about knee deep for me in the 4 times I have crossed it. This time Teri and I were ahead of Tom and Geoff so I fished for a while. I caught about a dozen just downstream from the crossing. There is a great little camping spot about 75 yards past the 3rd stream. We hiked there with our water gear on and made our gear change and ate out lunch. Tom was having some energy problems as we stopped here for lunch. He took an hour nap. We did not understand how sick he was getting and we got impatient. We left them and told them that we would meet them at Evolution Lake. Teri and I hiked up close to the McClure Ranger station and stopped by the river to eat and to fish. We were surprised that Tom and Geoff didn't catch us, but we pressed on. We hiked on past McClure and Colby Meadow, and were heading up the switchbacks to Evolution. Teri started to get sick. We pushed on for about a 1/2 mile past the big water crossing on the switchbacks, and she could go no more. We set up camp overlooking the valley from where we had just come. I found that Teri was ill because she was calorie starved. |
| My hiking buddy was my daughter Teri, the other two in our group were Tom and his son Geoff. Tom and I are 54 yrs old.Teri is 17 and Geoff is 31. Teri and I were about 40 minutes behind Tom and Geoff. Teri was having a tough start. Her trecking pole wouldn't lock in place, so we had to tape it. She had a new pack, boots and hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. We found Tom at a camping spot by Piute Lake. We set up camp and got some rest and food. After a good nights sleep, we woke up to a glorious morning. A clear sky, no breeze, what a great picture of the reflection of the rangers cabin on Piute. The trail was wet as we hiked up to the top of Piute Pass. We sat down for a break and breakfast and had a helicopter that kept buzzing us. It was the sheriff. We found out later that there were 4 individuals lost in the JMT zone. All were found safe. The trail was often flooded as we hiked along. I saw two different kinds of toads above the timberline. The mountain on the left is the same view that I took last year of the snow that spelled "pig". I caught 10 small fish, 5 Brooks, 5 Golden Trout during breaks we took along this trail. By the time we exited to our cars, I had caught 111 trout. These 5 Brook Trout were the only Brooks i caught the whole trip. Everything else were Golden. |
| I got Teri to eat better and we took some sunset pictures and went to bed. No sign of Tom. The next morning I was regretting having left Tom when suddenly they were there coming up the trail below our tent. They came and rested for awhile, and told us that they had camped just a 1/2 hour behind us. While Teri and I cleared our camp Tom and Geoff went on. Tom was having a terrible time with no energy, and not feeling well. We met up with them about 2/3 the way around Evolution lake, where Tom was on his bedroll resting again. |
| I went and caught 5 fish from the lake, and came back and cooked them. We ate those so I caught 6 more and we ate them. Tom and Geoff left Teri and I to clean up and we soon caught them. The picture just above shows Teri crossing the creek inlet to Evolution Lake. Click on that picture and you will see that it also shows is that Tom is laying on the ground just past the edge of the water. We were unaware he was there as I took this picture. We were also unaware of how dire the problems were that Tom was experiencing. After I crossed I asked Tom how he was doing. He was on the verge of tears as he squeaked out, "not good". Our goals suddenly changed for this trip. Getting Tom out safely became our focus. His dad had died with heart problems when he was about 1 year older than Tom was, and we were afraid that this could be problems of that kind. The four of us are Mormons, or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and worthy male members of our church hold the Priesthood of God. As a priesthood holder I have been part of many marvelous events. This became one of them. I said to Tom "We could give you a blessing." He responded that at some point that would be good. I said "now would be a good time". He said "OK". The process of giving a blessing includes two parts. There is the anointing with oil and with prayer, and the sealing of the anointing, by another priesthood holder and a blessing given, once again done through prayer. Tom asked me to do the anointing and Geoff to do the sealing and blessing. As Teri handed me the consecrated oil from the first aide kit, the spirit of the lord was poured out upon us. All four of us started to cry as we knew that God was with us and aware of our needs at that moment. As I anointed and prayed I could barely speak as the tears, and the Goodness of God overpowered my physical body. Geoff Sealed the anointing and gave his father a blessing. Geoff too was overcome with the spirit, and was directed by the spirit to bless Tom with health and strength enough to safely return to his family. After the blessing we all sat around for a while and talked about how strong the spirit had been poured out upon us. We gathered our things and hiked to Sapphire Lake, where we set up camp. |
| Clicking on **pictures will give you a larger view. |
The trail to Sapphire Lake was easy going. The hard part was deciding what to do. Tom was not going to be able to make the whole trip. What we were thinking at this time was that we would hike out Bishop Pass and to South Lake. This was a little shorter than going back the way we came, but the thing that was on Toms mind was the two passes that we would need to pass. Tom didn't know if he could handle them. We spent the night thinking about it. I had a great desire to go over Muir Pass. I had kicked myself a million times for deciding to go out Piute Pass last year after hurting my back at the Evolution Meadow triple crossing. We had camped for 36 hours at the same location that we had put on our dry gear this year, then went back and out North Lake. My desire to cross Muir Pass was causing me to pressure Tom to go out through Bishop Pass. He finally said that Teri and i could go on and he and Geoff would go back to North Lake and get my car and meet us at the Portal with it. I had several things flash through my mind. One was that I said earlier that I had made a mistake leaving them behind. Another was when two years before Tom gave me the instructions that if he should die on the trail that I was to drag him off the trail, sit him up overlooking a valley, take GPS coordinates of where he was, then to leave him there and give the coordinates to his wife and tell her that is where he is. I didn't want to have that conversation with her, nor did I want to explain to her why when he was so sick that I left him and Geoff on their own to get back. We came up with a compromise. Tom and Geoff would hike back to where Teri and I had stayed on the switchbacks, and Teri and I would hike with day packs to Muir Pass and take some pictures, then go back to Sapphire and get the rest of our stuff and hike down and meet them at the camp site. Teri and I got our things and away we went. They got their stuff packed and headed the other way. |
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