Yosemite 2022

[Greg]

From looking out the window to the east, I'm guessing the kids might be out there hiking in the rain.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Foreshadowing?

[thatguy]

I've seen that movie...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Qigong by the lake
Shimmering ripples on rock
A moment of peace

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Qigong by the lake
Shimmering ripples on rock
A moment of peace

Shut it, hippy! This here thread is fer Yosemite and not some gol-darned Haiku —

Oh! You live! I guess I lose the pool. Dammit.

[Greg]

Since there were no posts yesterday, I feared the worst. Or that you were taking an extra day.

[Drunk Monk]

867/60 - get up early and drive to tuolumne, stage the car, catch yart to mammoth. We’ll be at a hotel for the first night so I’ll likely be able to post again but I might not to conserve power because my iPhone is my camera and I’m not packing my charger so I need to make the charge last until we come out on Friday. My phone will be off (no reception anyway) except for taking pix. 

Wish me luck. Catch ya on the other side, assuming I survive.

 

This all went according to plan except that tuolumne meadows was closed for restoration so we had to stow my car a mile away. It was nice however because that campground is usually packed with day tourists and now it was just backpackers. 

We stayed at the Mammoth Inn, which is a ski resort, and it was ridiculously expensive food ($15+ for a plate of nachos) and very surreal because it was a ghost town without snow. It reeked of disinfectant which made Stacy nauseous. 

The next morning we caught a packed shuttle for an hour ride to reds meadow. That was standing room only for everyone but Stacy who grabbed a seat quickly. Sro in full backpack on windy mountain roads in a packed bus sucks. We should’ve got off at Devils post pile because it was a mile and a half closer to our trail entrance but Reds meadow was interesting to see and it sounded better when we crossed paths with other backpackers and swapped journey tales.

The post pile was cool although I imagined it was bigger. We passed by quickly from the back 

Then we were on the JMT/PCT (John Muir trail/Pacific coast trail for you non hikers) into the most sacred lands - the Ansel Adams wilderness…

[Drunk Monk]

It struck me as an odd thing to do - go to Yosemite, park my car, then spend hours on buses to get some 40+ miles away from my car (by trail - much farther by road), and then walk back.

The first trail day was 6+ miles and a climb of 2k feet. I was feeling the altitude plus being out of shape. Stacy has been training regularly with hikes on the ‘incline’ (a trail in Nisene) almost rails often with pack. The other three were all in their early twenties. I’ve been on my back due to my spine issues and nearly collapsed by the time we made the first lakeside camp. I had to lie on a log until my arm and shoulder became manageable while the others set up camp. Alex and Stacy took turns being the leader, Tara was usually in the middle with Bri near by. I was the caboose… the sweep. I’d have to take a breather after a few dozen steps. 

So many beautiful mountain lakes. One after another. No wonder this was called the Ansel Adams wilderness. 

The JMT is a popular trail. We’d see other backpackers every hour. Sometimes we’d exchange information about what lay ahead or share entrance and exit points. Sometimes we’d just say ‘hi’. Everyone was grinning madly despite the exhaustion.  Backpackers are super joyful on the trail. The weather seemed with us, sunny with occasional clouds and cool breezes. But that would soon turn.

Leave it to Greg to drop a spoiler…

From looking out the window to the east, I'm guessing the kids might be out there hiking in the rain.

[Drunk Monk]

Day 2 on the trail was rigorous too but it went past beautiful lake upon beautiful lake. We passed the Minarets, a severe jagged range of mountains over 12K and Mount Ritter at a towering 13K, following the stream that would become the Tuolumne. 

So many lakes: Gladys, Rosalie, then the wicked descent of switchbacks to Shadow (so thankful we were going the direction we were going because I could not have climbed that steepness), then Garnet, and Ruby. We had originally planned to camp at Ruby Lake but we had momentum and pushed on to Emerald lake. 

As we cleared the ascent of a rocky shale ridge above treeline, we heard thunder. Stacy was ahead of us, just me and the twenty-somethings. I said "We gotta get off this rock now!" and we dashed as quickly as we could down the other side, seeing lightning flashes and counting the seconds as the storm approached. We caught up to Stacy who had already tucked under a grove of trees on the hillside under our rain tarp. The 20s did the same, and I got out my poncho, lay atop my backpack, and we waited out the storm. It was intense. Nothing like the sound of thunder off granite mountains - bass so deep that it rumbles your marrow and you feel it cross the expansive panorama of the sky like the voice of God. The storm lasted over an hour anrd we lay patiently on that hillside grove until the thunder subsided and the rain was but a light sprinkle. 

A lone backpacker caught up with us. He was white as a ghost. When the thunderstorm struck, he was ascending that shale ridge we had just cleared and got trapped. You cannot stand up in a place like that during a lightning storm. You will become a lightning rod. You will get struck. He lay in the rocks as low as he could. Two strikes landed very near to him. The sheer terror in his face was still palpable, but it was over and we were all relieved. 

Blue sky broke through again and the sun came out. Soon we were warm and somewhat dryer again.

We made it to Emerald Lake which was stunningly beautiful, my fav campsite of the trip. We secured a perfect spot with a spectacular view and a chain of rocks that went out into the lake where I did some qigong and was inspired to write that haiku. 

My spine issues were lessened. I was carefully monitoring my nsaid usage, shifted my muscle relaxant to bedtime because I didn't want to get sleepy on the trail, and kept up with my neural med. The nortriptylene gives me wicked cotton mouth, and that was exacerbated by me panting all the time, and the constant thirst caused by hiking. 

But worthy of note - I've not taken any pain meds today. I feel good, better than I've felt since this spinla nightmare began. I will take my nortrip soon.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Good news on the (lack of) meds.

[Drunk Monk]

Good news on the (lack of) meds.

lit must’ve been residual endorphins. I feel achy now in my shoulder and forearm and will likely drop an nsaid when I rise. Either that or it’s some somatoform reaction to work…. At least it’s more manageable. The trip gave me a lot of confidence. I had great trepidation going into it as y’all know, but having conquered it, there’s some modicum of reassurance. As Dirty Harry said ‘a man’s got to know his limitations’

[Drunk Monk]

After Emerald Lake, we went past 1000 Island lake, which felt a little shy of 1000 islands. I figure there were 200 maybe, but as Bri observed 200 Island dressing doesn't sound as tasty. 

This is were the JMT and PCT merge - two of the most majestic trails on the west coast. Stacy dreamed of doing the PCT when she was younger. It goes from Cali to Canada and takes months to traverse. Generally, anything over a week requires food restocking so you have to hit places where you've sent food packages or stowed them. That's way beyond our scope. 

Then there was another storm. A bigger storm. With hail. HAIL! I was with the 20s and we huddled under a small grove. The thunder was intense and the trails became raging creeks with run off. Stacy had gone ahead. 

Stacy doesn't like thunder. Years ago, she was very close to a lightning strike whilst backpacking, a near death experience, so thunderstorms are triggering. I was worried she was freaking out so I made a mad dash in the storm to catch up to her while the 20s remained under tree cover. I kept my walking staff horizontal and stayed low, darting over the trail stream, trying to stay covered and not to slip and fall on my ass in the mud. 

Stacy had hunkered down near another couple that had been backpacking parallel to us. She was fine. The storm eventually broke, the 20s caught up, and we forged onward.

We made it to Rush Creek which we would later discover is also a resort casino just outside of Yosemite, not at all like this pristine area. We were averaging 8 miles a day. We started to settle into a camp but then Tara spied a nicer camp area so we moved. And that's when the second storm hit.

In our rush (at Rush Creek) to move our tent, disaster struck. We snapped the spine pole. I did my best to rig it back up again with medical tape but it was impossible to properly repair. We all hunkered down in our tents and much to our dismay, our tent leaked. Tara's tent is relatively new. The tent Alex borrowed from us is brand new. Ours is an old tent too, and much to our dismay, the waterproofing had decayed. After maybe an hour of huddling in our tent, the rain tarp soaked through and the bottom floor was getting drenched. In the middle of the storm, I reset the tent stakes (those are new) to widen the span of the rain tarp but the damage was already done. There was room in Tara's tent (which she shared with Bri) so Stacy moved over. Her bag and sleeping pad got wet. Tara said it was the first time she ever heard her mom swear, which astonished me but in retrospect, maybe not so much.

I was left in the old leaky tent. I centered my sleeping bag because the middle of the tent was the least wet. I remember being curled in a fetal position in the soaking wet tent thinking 'this is my fucking vacation?' 

But thankfully, the top surface of my sleeping pad remained dry. The storm subsided to a light sprinkle, enough that we could all get out and make dinner. We all went to bed early and perhaps it rained more, but I slept solidly on my little pad island, relatively dry and warm.

[Greg]

Adventure!

[cranefly]

Damned rain.  If only CA could do something about that problem.

Your tale gave me flashbacks of our first China trip in 1992(?).  We kept seeing signs warning not to use your cell phone during a thunderstorm.  The theory, I think, was that the bolt would follow the signal down to you.  It didn't make a lick of sense at the time.  Nor has time clarified the matter.

A superstition?

[Drunk Monk]

Then there's this...

Survivor of White House Lightning Strike Embraces Third Chance at Life

On her 28th birthday, Amber Escudero-Kontostathis was struck by lightning in Lafayette Square. Three other people died. Her heart stopped twice, but she lived.

By Amanda Holpuch

• Aug. 19, 2022
  

When Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, drifts into a light sleep, she is frequently awakened by a feeling similar to a dream of falling, except the thing that jolts her is a glowing ball of light the size of a playground ball speeding toward her face.
She is not sure if it is a memory of being hit by lightning two weeks ago in a park near the White House or if her brain is trying to process the extraordinary circumstances of her survival.
Not only is she one of the few people in the United States to be struck by lightning this year, she is the only one of the four who survived after they were all struck at the same time on Aug. 4 in Lafayette Square in Washington. Her heartbeat stopped twice. The second time it did not start again for more than 10 minutes. Two nurses who helped her told her that they do not know how she survived.

Some might call her survival a miracle, but she credits the emergency medical workers and wonders why a “miracle thing” made space only for her.


“There was only one spot that day, and the fact that I have it is not fair,” she said. “I am not really comfortable being the one, but it’s the hand I was dealt, and I am grateful for it, and I am going to make sure I do not let those three people down. I carry them with me in thought and in action every day.”
The three who died were Donna Mueller, 75, and her husband, James Mueller, 76, of Janesville, Wis., and Brooks A. Lambertson, 29, of Los Angeles. The Muellers were retired and had been celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary. Mr. Lambertson, a vice president at City National Bank, had been in town for work.
The four had been in Lafayette Square, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, around 6:50 p.m. when lightning struck in their “immediate vicinity,” officials said. Secret Service agents, United States Park Police officers and the two traveling nurses immediately started providing aid.


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Two weeks after the lightning strike, Ms. Escudero-Kontostathis is still slowly recovering from burns on her left side. “I want to live my life for those who didn’t make it,” she said. Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Ms. Escudero-Kontostathis, who lives in Washington, was in the park to ask people to make recurring donations to the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit humanitarian group that aids people in crisis zones. She was about to leave for her birthday dinner at a nearby restaurant when lightning struck.

She said she didn’t have a heartbeat when emergency responders first arrived, but they were able to bring her back to life for about 12 minutes before her heartbeat stopped again for an estimated 11 to 13 minutes. The nurses later told her that her body had been gray from the stomach down, and the rest was purple.
She considers Aug. 4, 2022, to be her new birthday.
She said it “blows her mind” that when she was out doing her job as a canvasser, asking people to help strangers experiencing the worst moments of their lives, that strangers ended up saving her life.
“It’s just people acting out of the goodness of their heart, without fear for themselves,” she said.
She’s desperate to get back to work for the International Rescue Committee but her doctors said that she needs rest. Still, they’ve let her start graduate school next week with a smaller course load than she had initially planned.
Her enthusiasm for work and school hides the fact that she is often in immense pain. Each day, she has to re-dress the burns on the left side of her body, which extend from the middle of her thigh to her torso and on to her arm and hand.
Her nerves are misfiring. Her foot will sometimes feel like it is bare in snow. On the worst days, she feels like there are “10,000 grains of salt moving through each pore” of her feet.

At these moments, when she said she feels like she is going to die, she yells: “I’m grateful, I’m grateful.”


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[img=713x0]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/19/multimedia/19xp-lightning-family-01/19xp-lightning-family-01-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/img]

Ms. Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, the sole survivor of a deadly lightning strike on Aug. 4, with her mother, Julie Escudero, on Thursday.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

She said she learned years ago to focus on gratitude from the examples of her Aunt Melinda, who had recurring bouts of cancer for 12 years, and her Uncle Les, who had cancer for nine years. They both died from their illnesses, but during treatment they would always talk about how grateful they were to still be alive.
“I’ve always had that from them, but since this has happened to me, the part that I’ve learned is to just take on life without fear of failure,” she said.
The basic fact that she was struck by lightning remains hard to grasp, she said. The odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million but that’s still extremely rare.
“It’s very much real when I am feeling my nerve pain, when I am feeling my burns and when I feel this — the jolt of the second, slash third, chance at life and energy to go live it full,” she said. “Those don’t feel like removed things at all to me. But being struck by lightning, that itself — I don’t — it’s crazy.”
From 2006 through 2021, there were 444 lightning strike deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition to the Muellers and Mr. Lambertson, 11 other people have died from lightning strikes this year so far, according to the National Weather Service.

Ms. Escudero-Kontostathis said she barely has any memory of a seven-hour period from that day and has no idea how the four of them ended up near a tree during the storm. “I don’t even remember it raining,” she said.
After seeing a picture of the Muellers online, she remembered that they had exchanged tips about the best places to visit in Wisconsin and D.C. “They were just such wonderful, happy people and they just walked toward the White House and went on with the rest of their day,” she said.
She does not remember meeting Mr. Lambertson, though she has since learned that they had a mutual friend.
“I’ve been given these multiple chances of life again and that was not given to the others that fell victim to the lightning strike that day,” she said. “So, I feel that I owe myself, I owe everyone around me that’s helping me, but especially the three others that have passed, all of myself, every single day, to never hold back, to never get lazy or give up too easy or get down too quickly, to always make sure I am always getting back up and giving my all.”


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[img=713x0]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/19/multimedia/19xp-lightning-final-01/19xp-lightning-final-01-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/img]
Ms. Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, returned to Lafayette Square on Thursday. “I want to live my life to 100 percent,” she said.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times