News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

While coming down from 12,000 foot Mather Pass, I was hiking behind Dr. Suuz, and noticed that she seemed to be limping a little. She admitted that her knee was bothering her a little, but she didn’t think it was serious. Just as we were almost off the steep part, she suddenly stumbled and almost fell, clutching her right leg and exclaiming in pain. I rushed forward to support her pack and take the weight off, and help hold her up. A minute later she said she was OK, didn’t know what had happened, but hopefully it was a one-off.

But a minute or so later it happened again, and then again. I think at that time we all realized that her hike was over, and we found a place for her to sit down so we could all figure out what to do. Fortunately this had happened at the bottom of the climb down from the pass on a flat meadow with lots of rocks to sit on.

We pondered what to do. We were several miles from any civilization. We considered if she could hobble 10 miles over the closest pass to a road, but quickly abandoned that idea. We thought about hiring mules to come in and carry her out, but that would take a couple of days to organize. We thought about contacting the King’s Canyon National Park rescue service, but how to contact them? Maybe if someone had a satellite phone…?

Wonderfully, the first person passing by did have a satellite phone and made the call for us. The 15 minute call cost about $30, but it was well worth it.

About 3 hours later we heard the “thump-thump-thump” of a helicopter in the distance, slowly approaching. They weren’t sure exactly where we were, so they were following the trail up from several miles away. They later said that finding the right people was made more difficult because many people on the ground would wave at them, out of curiosity and interest, so how to tell when they had found the right ones? But eventually they did find us, and after flying in a circle around us came to land on a flat place nearby with the tail hanging over the trail. The wind blew dust everywhere and tipped over my backpack, but the landing was made safely.

We thought we would walk Dr. Suuz right over, she would get in, and they would be off, but instead they shut off the helicopter and a couple of paramedics came out and examined her. They concluded that she did indeed merit and require an evacuation, so off she went.

They buckled her in, and she went for the ride of her life through the canyons and over the peaks of the Sierra.

I was almost wishing my knee would fail, so I could go for a helicopter ride too…

Since coming out we have heard a little more, but we still don’t know the details of the injury. She is scheduled for an MRI that will probably explain it. For now she is back in Mississippi getting around on crutches.

Next time I go into the backcountry, I am going to look into taking a satellite phone. They are heavy and expensive but could be a life saver.

The John Muir Trail can be hiked from north to south (Yosemite to Mt. Whitney), or from south to north (Whitney to Yosemite). Most people do it north to south, as we did, for one very good reason: The elevation profile.

As you can see from the graph, the trail starts at 4000 feet elevation in the north (left side) at Yosemite. Although you rise to almost 10,000 feet in a couple of days, you soon come back down below 9000 feet. There are lots of ups and downs, but the general trend as you move south is higher and higher. This gives you a chance to acclimate as you go.

If you start in the south, within the first couple of days you have to climb to the top of Whitney at 14,508 feet. We met many people who had climbed (or tried to climb) Whitney without the acclimatization that we had gone through, and they were having a terrible time. For us it was no big deal, as we had already climbed over four 12,000′ passes and one 13,000′ pass, and had been sleeping between 11,000′ and 12,000′ most nights.

The other negative about going south to north is that you have to pick up a WAG bag before you start and carry it with you until you get to a waste disposal location, perhaps 10 days away. No thanks!

The Perseid meteor shower peaked on our last night in the Sierra. We slept at over 10,000 feet elevation that night and the skies were clear. The Milky Way stretched from mountain-blocked horizon to mountain-blocked horizon, and there were as many stars visible in the sky as I have ever seen.

I got up a few times during the night to watch the sky, but as usual I was unimpressed with the meteor shower show.

When one hears “Meteor Shower”, one might expect something like a water shower where the sky is filled with many meteors every second. Alas, a “good” showing for a meteor shower is an average of around one per minute, and that’s about what I saw when I got up. Interesting for a few minutes, but as the near-freezing temperatures penetrated my light jacket I only stayed out for about 5 minutes and saw about 5 shooting stars.

(So I chose this topic first…?)

The area around Mount Whitney gets so much hiker traffic that it could not withstand the usual human solid waste disposal method of burying 6 inches deep. There would be trenches everywhere and up in the higher elevations the number of rocks make digging a trench almost impossible. So the authorities require that you carry and use a WAG (Waste Alleviation and Gelling) bag. After use, the contents are double bagged and carried with you until you leave the Whitney area.

Here’s the outside packaging of mine before I used it. Notice that the handy chair shown in the picture doesn’t come with it. The actual bag inside is much larger — about like a kitchen garbage bag.

The bag does have chemicals inside that reduce odor, but it still seemed kind of yucky to be carrying it around. There are lots of cheaters, I’m sure, but the park service reports that they collect over 3 tons of human waste every year at the WAG bag disposal stations, so they certainly get used. I guess the cute name helps alleviate some of the yuck factor.