Returning safely through a smoke filled sky over Yosemite, after having backpacked for 4 days trekking 31 miles in total. Elevations ranged from 6,000-11,000 feet with an aggregate elevation gain of 5900 feet . We all managed to avoid high-altitude sickness while hiking six to seven hours per day averaging 1.7 miles per hour in up to 92 degree temperatures.
Permit Station
Permit Station
We crisscrossed the John Muir and Ansel Adams wilderness areas from Ducks Lake to Iva-Bell Hot Springs taking in the beauty of the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. The weather was threatening rain most of the way but fortunately it was held at bay. We crossed a waste high mosquito infested glacier cold river that made me roar like an animal. We frog-straddled over a log our guys placed over a 20 foot drop over a steep waterfall. While covered in a full mosquito suit, I bushwhacked through a fern swamp grove.
When I came home I kissed my windows that keep the insects out. I bowed in front of my refrigerator and I greeted everyone in my household as if I had thought that I would never have seen them again.
If you think your life is hard try the hike above.
