Slow Recovery Day on the Trail

Sapphire Lake

Feeling a little better in the am, no shovels in the woods this morning, a good sign, there was another camper in the area last night and she's down by the stream getting water as I head down to do the same, for some reason I tell her about our ailment and she's very sympathetic. Her name is Sarah and she's doing a part of the JMT.

Elena goes down a bit later and bumps into her as well and is surprised when she brings up our predicament, she offers us Imodium and Pepto Bismol to soothe our tummies, very kind offer, apparently she carries a lotta this stuff, we don't use the I
modium for now, no cramps.

Our plan is to go talk to the Ranger in the cabin just about 200 yds North and see what options he might be able to suggest and then make a decision, even though we feel better we're very weak and have a climb coming up in a few miles. He's temporarily gone to the privy just up from the cabin so we sit to wait, he's very friendly and not official at all like the Ranger we saw in Yosemite, apparently the different parks have different Ranger philosophies.

Lunch by Evolution Lake

His name is Dario and his advice is if we can't keep going to backtrack to Piute Canyon and hike out, he adds (and we agree) that "you probably don't wanna backtrack", the other (and better for us) option is to go forward to Bishops Pass and then make a decision, it's further if we're feeling bad so more of a risk, but that's what we decide to do. Helicopter airlift is an option if we really can't move or break a limb, we're not in that bad a shape, so off we go.

Our schedule for the day had us going to Wanda Lake, it's only 7.8 miles, the elevation change is gonna be the killer, it's about 2200' up and after about 2 miles we have a fairly steep climb up, the rest is nice and gradual. The first two miles goes fairly easily and we get to the base of the climb, then it's struggle up, I'm chowing down on Snickers bars to help, they're a bit gooey which helps them go down in a dry mouth, it's a slow and tired climb, lotsa rest stops to recover.

Wanda Lake

We stop by a lake for lunch and 2 hikers come up and ask if they can sit near us, no worries but they take off anyway so as not to disturb and we ask why so they sit down to rest and eat. The guy is older and from Utah, at first I think they're a father daughter combo, the young woman is Canadian though and is even younger than she looks, a teenager carrying a 60 plus pound pack, wow, she has 3 metal knives, her name is also Sarah.

We eat and rest, the food goes down well in famished bodies, no after shocks to eating, a good sign, and even though we're very tired it's almost halfway to Wanda Lake, not too bad. As we pack up the other Sarah goes by, she's a late starter.

We push on and make it to Wanda Lake near exhausted but happy that we can still keep our schedule, the camp site we choose is close to the water but very exposed, the wind is already kicking up, a premonition for the evening. The camp site needs a little work to rearrange the rocks, it's just big enough for the tent to fit, we gotta move some rocks away from the door to be able to get out in the middle of the night without tripping over them.

Our Campsite by Wanda Lake

Dinner is back to Backpackers Pantry, it's a Red Beans and Rice dish, we choose this mostly because I consolidated 3 packs into 2 so it's a good sized meal and I can't remember a better meal, even the same genuine Red Beans we had in New Orleans didn't taste this good, as they say hunger is the best chef. The wind really kicks up during the night and the tent flapping makes it hard to sleep, a wonder it didn't just blow away.