Day 146

Day 146 (pct 36): 23 miles

Frick Yosemite, all my homies hate Yosemite.

Today I had to Ford 6 times. One was extremely not chill. It was a wide river so my feet were freezing by the time I got across. You know it’s a bad sign when you’re trying to lift up your leg to get it out of the water for a second of warm air while crossing. I made it to the other side but it was a kinda steep sippers rock to get onto. So I tried to hoist myself up to the dry part and as I did I lost a trekking pole out of one hand. I watched it float away for one second with the instant reaction of “ah fuck it I’ll get another one” and then I remembered I need it to set up my tent. So I started wading fast through the water to try to get to it but realized I wouldn’t make it. So I got on land and was running barefoot on what would probably have been a painful surface but thankfully my feet were numb. I then jump back in the water to try to get it but it went into a fast channel of water and slingshotted down the trail. I got out of the water, took off my pack, put in my shoes and sprinted 150-200 yards downstream and jumped in the water to grab it. This all happened while getting swarmed by a murder (probably not right term but I’m gonna use it cause I want to murder every one) of mosquitoes. There was a lot of yelling and cursing. It was not fun and now I was wet up to my lower torso from going in deep water.

Being wet enhanced the misery of the mosquitoes which was already unbearable. I could not stop for more than 30 seconds without being ASSAULTED.

There was also a decent amount of lingering snow so I would lose the trail and waste time trying to find it under the snow.

Near the end of the day I approached another raging river and realized I would have to Ford it. I yelled angrily for a few minutes while preping to do so and when I got to the other side there were people camping close by so they probably just casually heard me losing my mind. And after that Ford there was another one 10 minutes later and at that point I was just defeated and didn’t even get mad.

Song of the day: sic-slipknot