Hiking is Hard!

Whew, I'm exhausted. I just hit civilization for the first time in 5 days and the surreality is astounding. I got into Bridgeport last night and I'm laying over there today. Bridgeport is a town of about 800 on hwy 395, East of the Sierras. Well known as a fisherman's mecca, Bridgeport also boasts a festive 4th of July tractor parade as well as homegrown rodeo. I'm not sure I've seen anyone not wearing either a cowboy hat or an american flag in some form, except for some fellow hikers laying over. Here's a quick summary of the last 5 days:

Day 0 (I'm calling it day 0, because we went in a day earlier than expected) 6 miles:
We made it to Toulumne Meadows around 2:30. As usual, nothing ever goes as planned. We needed a permit for my dad to accompny me through Yosemite Wilderness, and the park was pretty full. After some "grey permitting" by a very helpful park ranger who's name I will keep anonymous, we got my dad legalizzed for the hike. However, we were also informed that bear canisters are a requirement while camping in the park. I had planned to hang my food in the trees and the prospect of adding 2.5 lbs to my already over-laden backpack was not appealing, but somehow we were both convinced. I felt we owed our amazing ranger at least this graciousness for not stopping our trip dead in its tracks.
We cleared our car of everything scented (apparently bears can smell anything, inlcuding recently some lady's insulin) and finally started out on our hike around 4:30. I late start, I know, but our ambitions for this day were few. We were looking to make a 6 mile hike to a well-used campground called Glen Aulin. We managed this, but not without difficulty. About 1/2 mile in, we realized my dad forgot his permit. That was remedied by a short jog back and a frantic search of the car. This also gave my dad an opportunity to repair his backpack, which of course had already torn at the shoulder strap.
After finally getting underway for real we made the hike in fairly good time, although we came to some sobering conclusions. My pack was far too heavy and dad was going to have blister problems. Oh well, nothing we could do now. As we walked into camp, we passed a tented buffet restauraunt. Maybe the Sierras aren't as rugged as I had oringally thought...

Day 1 15.8 miles
By the time we got up, cooked breakfast and got our packs together, it was 8:30. Not exactly an early hiker's start. Still, what did you expect from someone who'd been staying up to 2 AM every night before? Tragedy struck this morning, as we managed to lose the tent bag (Predictably, I later found it in the bottom of my pack).
We saw some gorgeous sights during our hike today. My favorite was our late-afternoon visit to Miller Lake, which exploded into view just as we ended a steep climb. The lake was beautifully blue, the mosquitoes were few, and the swimming was good, although in this I did not partake because we had to move fast to make our 16 miles. Damn late start.
I ran in to 3 interesting characters today, all of whom had been hiking since Mexico. The first was Gail, who is a 60ish graduate from Scripps College, although she got her Botany degree from Pomona. She was amusingly quarky and provided great company and helpful advice for a newbie on the trail. I ran into her a couple more times along the trail. The second was a younger woman who went by the trail name "Breeze". Trail names, I would later learn, are alternate, more memorable names thru hikers use. Usually they reflect some aspect of that person's personality or embarrassing past. Breeze had some frineds join her for the stretch from Toulumne meadows, so was moving pretty slowly. More slowly, I got the impression, then she would have liked. Finally was Grimmace, who walked into our camp late in the evening, searching for his own campsite, We talked for awhile, and he decided to trun back to an earlier site. I'd see hime later on as well.
We camped about 4 miles past Miller Lake , next to a creek crossing. Dehydrated beef and maccaroni and instant potatoes never tasted so sweet! I had no arguments about going to bed early this night, as we were aiming for a little earlier start the next morning.

I'm at an internet cafe and my time's running out, so I gotta go a little faster now...

Day 2 15.8 miles
We were moving by 7AM, a large victory for a tough day ahead. Today was really tough because of the hills. Even though the mileage was about the same as the previous day, the hills killed. The highlight of the day was hot lunch on a gorgeous, bug-free beach at Lake Benson. Absolutely beautiful and a welcome refresher from the exhausting and slow-going hiking. It was here that we realized my dad's blister problems were going to be more serious than either of us had considered. When he took his boots off for lunch, they looked bad, to the point of him wanting to put his boot back on so he didn't have to look at them. The highlight was a huge blister on the top of his foot that stretched halfway to his ankle.
In the afternoon we encountered more hills and had made only 11 miles by 5PM. The next stretch was flat, so I started a quick pace of what my dad would later describe as the "death march" on the last 5 miles of the day. We were both exhausted when we got into camp.

Day 3 19 miles
With dad's blister problems so bad, we started worrying about infection. To this end, we decided to book it today. We were moving by 6:30, ate cold breakfast on the trail, and passed up some golden swiomming opporuntites. We did encounter a tough morning climb and descent, so the going was slow at times. Still, we made 19 miles by the end of the day.
We stopped to rest next to a high altitude lake nestled in between some snow-capped mountains. There we encountered a trio of thruhikers who we'd been leap froggin all day long. They took a look at dad's feet and didn't have the best reactions. "I've seen worse" is not exactly encouraging. Thus, we decided to continue on for some more mileage before camping.
I used my trail name for the first time today. I had been debating whether I really deserved one, as I was not doing the whole stretch, but after conferring with those three thruers we decided it was appropriate. I'd been doing stupid things lately like leaving wrappers in the pockets of my sleeping close, so I settled on "Bear Bait". Self- derprecating humour, alliteration, and a double-entendre.

Day 4 19 miles
With dad's left foot being held together by moleskin, new skin and gauze wrap, we decided to go for the gold: we were going to make it to Sonora Pass, the end of our trek, today. This was no easy task, as it involved a 2000 foot climb to and a short jaunt along the Sierra Crest, just below 11,000 feet. The climb was deifficult, but the views of the sorrunding mountains were more then worth it, at least for me. Dad, I think, was on another plane of existence. As he described it to me: "I just made my whole body go numbe, that's how I kept going". To his credit, he did keep going through nearly inhuman circumstances. His foot was shredded, he was exhausted, and he started suffering from altitude sickness at 10,500 feet. At lunch, I had to force him ot eat bagels with peanut butter and honey so he wouldn't collapse during the next few miles. Yet, as we finally stumbled into Sonora Pass he was the one in the lead. Somehow, I'm not really sure how, he kept going. Stubborness maybe?
We hitched a ride into Bridgeport after about 20 minutes from a nice forest service lady. There, we got a room and I ate about as much as I've ever eaten at the local bar. Pizza, salad, and Chili cheese fries. Not to mention the cold beer. AMAZING! We ran into a thru hiker named Rosham at the bar, and gave him some pizza, which he devoured admirably.

Sorry, gotta go. Hopefully I'll start up again tomorrow morning and hit Echo Lake 4 days from now. Maybe another posting then? No pictures until the of the trip, but they will be amazing!