Day 56
Firstly I must admit that the title of this post is misleading given the fact that there were no calamity today. I just got tired the “EPONYM Pass” titling and wanted to make an ironic jab at clickbait. There was a small mishap, however.
Well, I forgot to set my alarm this morning so I unfortunately slept in, which is to say that I woke up at 5:30. The ferry out of Vermilion Valley Resort was first at 9:00, and dropped us off near the relatively short trail leading back to the PCT. I had a few things I wanted to do just there as that particular spot had cellular service, which I really hadn’t had for a long time, so I first got hiking at noontime, which was not that nice.
First on the schedule were a couple of fordings, but none of them were scary as most of the snow has melted across the Sierras, all of these fords haven’t really given any major problems yet, well except for the wet shoes. One of the fords were below a waterfall, which was kind of cool. It was nicely warm if not a tad too hot, sonI rediscovered my technique of wetting my shirt sleeves to cool off. Next was Silver Pass. It only minor snow on the south side, and offered decent views. Coming down the first stretch was a bit time consuming, but not dangerous as the descent was so gradual. I put on my microspikes and kicked the heel in for every step so that I wouldn’t slide in the snow which in the heat of the mid day had become quite slushy. That went well. However, after that I was scrambling across some rocks and wasn’t paying enough attention. One quite big rock, that I had considered stable, slid beneath me and I fell and bruised my one lower leg rather badly. I cursed at myself for being so moronic and my spirits, which were otherwise good fell to nearnan all time low for this trip. The bruise was on the front of my shin bone, which will probably take some time to heal due to the poor blood circulation in this area and I will probably get a scar. I pray to God that it doesn’t get infected, because that could be the end of this trip. Or, rather, I would have prayed if I were religious. Stupid, stupid me. I think a lot of accidents like this one happens in situations that you don’t expect to be dangerous because you therefore aren’t attentive. I luckily got some sterile haze from another hiker called EarlyUp, which was very nice so that I wouldn’t get dirt in it while sleeping. During the day the bruises are just exposed so they heal dry.
Well, later on there were quite a bit of mosquitoes, so I eventually brought out the DEET as well as for the first time my bug net, which I wear over my hat. What are you gonna do now you darn mosquitoes?! Well if you have to eat it is not so easy to cover ones head, so I had a combined lunch and dinner at a mosquito free area near a mountain saddle.
This unfortunately turned into a somewhat bad day and I only did 12 on trail miles. The camp site was a plus, though, and others camped nearby. Let’s hope tomorrow is better. I am hoping that I can make it to Tuolumne the day after tomorrow.
Waterfall and crossing
