On trail incident

Just wanted to fill everyone in on what happened out on the trail that made us cut our trip short.

Anna was in a bike accident 5 weeks ago in Aqua Dulce and broke her right wrist and had abdominal pain that was not correctly diagnosed. The doctors thought initially it was internal bleeding that would be re-absorbed by her body and should get better within two weeks. After 4 weeks she was still having a lot of discomfort so we stopped to see a general practitioner who guessed it was more likely torn muscles that hold the rib cage together and that it would take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. So we went back out accepting that there would be another couple weeks of discomfort.

On Saturday afternoon, she sneezed hard and a wave of pain hit her which she delt with the rest of the day and soreness into Sunday morning. After eating a big lunch on Sunday and having drank quite a bit of water she got up from lunch and the pain was overwhelming.

Anna passed out and went into shock out on the trail from the pain of what we found out was two re-broken ribs. I stabilized her and waited for a few other hikers to come along (who happened to be Monologue, present at Anna's initial injury, and a friend from college, Caitlin trail name Root Canal, who I hadn't seen since graduation and had been in my wilderness first responder training group, along with a friend of hers hiking a section with her). Together we carried Anna's gear out while she walked out under her own power about 5 miles down to the nearest trailhead.

Thankfully Caitlin knew someone in the area who was able to pick us up and drive us into Truckee to go to the ER. Huge thanks to Monologue, Caitlin, Levi and Nick for all their help and sacrifices.

It was the Truckee Forest Hospital staff who saw the broken ribs and the indications that they were previously broken. Having passed out around 1:00 and getting to the hospital around 8:00 we were out by midnight after a long afternoon.

The doctors pointed out that backpacking, especially at altitude, isn't a good way to let her ribs heal (which is obvious now after being re-broken by a simple sneeze 5 weeks later).

The silver lining to the whole ordeal was being able to spend an evening in Truckee with Michelle, a really nice section hiker and trail angel who we met in Aqua Dulce after Anna's initial bike accident. She treated us very well with an organic dinner and comfortable place to sleep and let us know more about she and her husband.

So, we are now on an Amtrak train in Colorado on our way to her parents in Virginia. Anna is going to heal up and I will probably find a couple smaller hikes or bike rides to occupy myself with around the Northeast.

It is a pretty big bummer to be missing out on yet another thru-hike, but we will try to make the most of it. The PCT will be there next year... who knows maybe we will be back out there.

I am going to keep posting to this blog trip reports of whatever I end up doing with the rest of the summer. So don't stop checking in.

Anyway, back to rafter spotting along the Colorado River.

Desolation Wilderness

Friday July 10th, 7:15pm

California's Desolation Wilderness is like a whole other world. After walking through the evergreen forest from Tahoe to Echo Lake, you follow the lake's rocky Eastern shore passing summer vacation cottages tucked between the trees. Leaving the shore at the North end of the lake you make a gentle climb on a giant pile of small rocks to the start of the Desolation Wilderness.

These mountains are picture perfect rocky slopes with patches of cold wet snow that litter the Northen faces. Between the mountains are sparse bunches of pine and spruce trees mixed with chilling snowmelt-fed lakes and ponds. The trails are gently graded and heavily used by day and weekend hikers. In fact, for being named Desolation this wilderness area is very crowded. We must have passed by around 20 hikers and campers, 2 dogs and a trail crew of 6 Student Conservation Association (SCA) workers.

Our pictures cannot do it justice, but next time we are in town at a computer I will add pictures to this post.

We have been able to relish in the beauty of this environment hiking only about 11 miles today, at a slow pace. We didn't get out of the tent until 8:30, had several breaks at edges of lakes and the top of a pass and were setting up the tent again by 4:00. It is windy here but we don't mind because the winds drive away the mosquitos. Tomorrow should be another gentle day as we are slowing down to let another hiker (Monologue) catch up probably tomorrow night.

Small World

Thursday July 9th, 10:00 PM:

The long distance / lightweight backpacking community really is a small world. Today we were sitting at Echo Lake with 5 other hikers when one pulls out a few odd trinkets to be delivered to another of the five from "Root Canal" who is a girl, Caitlin, that I went to college with. Not long after it comes up that another guy (Don Wilson) in the group lives in Tuscon, AZ and teaches Backpacking Light courses and low and behold he had co-lead with Andy Skurka the wilderness trekking course my friend Margaret from college had taken and lives 3 blocks from her in Tuscon. Pretty wild to discover these coincidences back to back.

Another great coincidence is that Anna's sister in-law to be, Kate, happened to be in Tahoe City for business and had a morning off to drive around the lake and meet us. It was so nice to see her familiar face and to have some company from real life (non-hiker world).

The other big news is that we spent last night, this morning and afternoon with Monologue and her cousin Michael in South Lake Tahoe. It was great to meet up with Monologue again after over a month. She is about 20 trail miles behind us, so we are going to take a couple short days so she can catch up. Her cousin Michael had come to town to visit her and had rented a car so we had the good fortune to not have to buy another bus day pass and got a ride back to the trail today without having to hitch-hike. That was a luxurious change of pace.

We are camped tonight on the only patch of dirt we have seen for the last 4 miles or so and really glad to be out of town and back on the trail. Going into town for more than one night a week sort of depresses me anymore. It is much more peaceful, simple, and enjoyable to be making progress on the hike and away from speeding cars, loud towns, and pricey convenient services. All you have to worry about on the trail is meeting basic needs of food,water, shelter, rest and health care.

We are lucky to be out here walking through the Desolation Wilderness. Now officially into Northern California, the hiking only seems to be getting better as we go North.

Pictures and an upcoming mail stop

I just uploaded new pictures to our webshots account. You can see all of the four albums so far by going here: http://community.webshots.com/user/annablinncole.

Also a reminder that we'll be at the Belden P.O. in about 10 days. If you want to send us something you can mail it to:

Anna or Garrett Cole
c/o General Delivery
Belden, CA 95915

We're leaving South Lake Tahoe today. Hope everyone is well!

bluebird

Slopes

July 6. 8:00 pm

This northern Sierra landscape is absolutely beautiful. I find myself saying "wow" dozens of times each day as I see things I've never seen before. The mountains are jagged and huge, remnants of volcanos years ago. We cross "passes" which are low points between two mountains, but usually we have to climb UP to reach them.

Passes have come to cause me much trepidation as we approach. While the southern side that we climb is green and blooming with wild flowers, the northern side that we go down more than likely has snow-covered slopes. The snow has been compacted and is quite hard and slick. If possible, I try to go around the big snow patches but today we came to one that was on a steep side hill. I was very scared to walk across the steep snow shoot relying on just the shelf-like footprints of hikers who went before. But with Garrett's help (we practiced on a not-so-steep section) and by not looking at the drop-off, we got across. I was so happy to have made it and conquered my fear.

For the last two nights we have battled ravenous mosquitos in camp. Tonight, though, we have a lovely campsite by a breezy lake. A nice ending to a long day. Lake Tahoe tomorrow!

Bluebird

New places, old faces

July 5th 9:00PM

We had planned to spend Anna's Birthday (Independence Day) in Bridgeport but after all the motels, hotels and campgrounds were full, we hitched a challenging 35 miles up to Sonora Pass. As we rode up to the pass at 9600 feet, the alpine landscape emerged with it's snow capped peaks and passes, rushing streams and waterfalls, and dirt and rock trails. This was such a welcome change from where we left the trail at Walker Pass (mile 650) in the desert.

We have been catapulted from the back of the pack, right into the middle of it. Being in the pack has its advantages and disadvantages. You have more trail magic, more comraderie, and more choice of who to hike or camp with. As soon as we started up over Sonora Pass we were stopped when we saw a sign for "The Sonora Pass Cafe." A trail angel and PCT maintainer named The Owl had camped out at the pass for three days and brought up three HUGE chocolate cakes, fruit, coffee, and beverages for hikers. But as we found out last night there are a limited number of good campsites so you have to get into camp early enough to get a spot, or risk being forced to hike on to the next available spot.

While we passed by most of the snow and stream crossings, we have had to cross quite a few small snow slopes and cold streams. Toward the end of the day today we had a particularly steep snow slope to cross which shook Anna up quite a bit, but she is fairing well for having her arm in a sling and a sore rib cage. We are seeing less elevation change and less snow as we go North so hopefully there won't be any more hairy spots.

Coming back to the trail after another week off felt great psycologically, but again I am feeling foot pain as my feet get used to walking all day and they widen out. After Anna's pain hadn't gone away we were close to calling off the trip. Skipping up around the Sierra was really the only other option, and so far, it is working out really well. The terrain is more varried, scenery more incredible, people more abundant and trail more motivating.

We have already been passed by three of our old friends (Heaps, Ben and Paul). It was great to see them as it had been since the day of Anna's accident 600 trail miles back. The three of them were planning to do 35 miles that day so sadly we may not see them again. We expect to see Monologue and Shadow in the coming week. Todd is off the trail for a wedding, but we expect he will catch up to us eventually in Northern California or Oregon. We passed by Warner Springs Monte who jumped up farther North to beat the Sierra snows and is hiking back to Mt. Whitney and taking pictures of all the hikers he meets. As we were setting up camp, Scott Williamson and Adam came past and we got to say hello again amid a torrent of blood thirsty mosquitos. I was surprised they were able to keep up their 40 mile a day pace through the High Sierra and seem to be right on pace doing a 44 today.

Even though the hiking is great, I am very much looking forward to our stop in South Lake Tahoe. Not only do I get to swap out gear and shed over 2 pounds off my pack, but there is rumored to be a buffet at Ceasars (casino) with steak made to order, ten yards of different types of salad, and plenty of cheesecake. Yummmm.

Just another 25 miles or so tomorrow and we will be in by lunch on Tuesday.

Anna just asked me for the secret codes for the robins or snow birds. She must be asleep, I better get some rest too. Goodnight.

Sugar!

I'm now convinced that in the last two weeks I have become addicted to Tang, the sugar based drink mix.

I have been drinking a liter of it for breakfast each day as it reminds me of orange juice and gives me a huge energy boost for the start of the day. But that once a day habit quickly snowballed into two or three liters per day. It is just so makes drinking water such a pleasure and doesn't leave a buildup of coloring on my lips like the On-The-Go Crystal Light packets.

Anyway, this afternoon I officially ran out of Tang and have been a little bummed out ever since. I'm not really sure if its because I like the high sugar taste and am sad to miss out tomorrow morning, or if I'm just coming down off my sugar high.

Either way, I think I should try to eat less high sugar foods on the trail, and instead look for a way to have more real, unprocessed, natural foods. It is hard to find high calorie light weight foods, but I think I should start eating better out here.