Date: May 23, 2017
Miles: 573.3 – 587.3
“Keep the Vibram side down, kids.” ~ Jimbo
Our plan to beat the heat today: wake up at 4 and be hiking by 5. Reality: wake up at 6 and start hiking at 7. I felt like death when I woke up, so sleeping in was fine by me.
As soon as we got up, a section hiker named Jimbo came walking out of the trees and said to us, ‘Good morning! What’s your plan for the Sierras? If you go, you’re all gonna die out there!” Shortly after we left Jimbo, we met an older gentleman on a dirt bike who stopped to ask us the same question. “You’re crazy,” was his response, “you’re all gonna die out there!”
I paraphrased all of that a bit. They actually mentioned something about postholing and breaking limbs, and how much snow is in the mountains, and how they would never attempt it this year, which is a similar message that we get from at least one person a day now that we’re getting closer to the Sierra Nevadas. We assure people that we will turn around if we don’t like the conditions, but that we want to see it for ourselves.
The uncomfortable heat of the morning sun made us forget the doom and gloom, and we decided to stop at Golden Oak Spring to eat and nap until the afternoon. There were about 10 to 15 other hikers there doing the same thing. It reminded me of nap time in kindergarten, but much dirtier.
We hiked on for a few more miles until we found some nice campsites tucked into a stand of trees with a view of the sunset that signaled it was time for another day to come to an end.
