Contrasting Scenery

Day 60

Exactly 24-hours ago we were trapped in the Muir Hut at 12,000 feet in white out conditions... A day later we find ourselves sweating like mad, below 8,000 feet and trapped in our Losi tent avoiding swarms of man eating Mosquitos! What a difference a day makes... No, really.

Throughout the morning we rocketed over crunchy snow into the early afternoon. Eventually we broke treelike, had a nice conversation with Park Ranger Dave who will be in charge of this section for maintaining purposes till the end of September.

Once we got close to Evolution Creek (not too bad of a ford), we tried our hands at fishing for golden and rainbow trout. The water was moving too swiftly though and we couldn't find any pools where they like to hang out. What the fishing break did though was give us a solid break before the remaining miles down a half snowy canyon. The easy miles reminded me that I promised a second list, in particular the top ten reasons we live like bums- here we go!

1. We never shower

2. We eat food off the ground, or take handouts from day hikers.

3. We rely on hitchhiking for resupplies

4. All our worldly possessions are resting on our back.

5. We are outside, never inside.

6. People give us inquisitive looks in town. Probably because they can smell us from a mile away!

7. Our appetite is never fully satiated.

8. We do our laundry once a month in town laundromats

9. We are unemployed

10. We have long scraggly beards that usually have various items from the forest in them like: twigs, bugs and M & M's, which we still would eat.

- Andy