July 2nd, 2021
Rock Creek to Somewhere in Sequoia
I woke up feeling much better. I had energy, I felt rested, and best of all, I actually WANTED to eat something. I left my tent to go track down my bear canister, had a snack, and waited for Hannah to get up. I’d hoped she would be feeling better too, but I knew we’d be going back the second she woke up. She rolled out of her tent white as a ghost. We went to the ranger station. After he took her vitals and got some information, we went back to the camp site to wait for his instructions. He returned around lunchtime, and after consulting with the park medic, they suggested we go back down.
I saw this coming but I still panicked. I knew we weren’t going to separate, especially with her in this condition, but I zoned out from their conversation and went over all the options in my mind:
Do I go on? This has been my dream, and we’d decided that if one of us had to leave, the other would go on? No, we only brought one InReach. Do I give her the InReach and I go on? No, what if I need it? Was this going to be it? Am I done?
Then, “Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” I said. “Let’s go back down, we’ll go to Lone Pine and stay there for a few days, and then I will go back over Kearsarge on the 7th like I’d planned.” The ranger co-signed the plan, and we packed up. I knew I was going to miss summiting Mt. Whitney, but if I knew one thing – Whitney would be there next year. We started the hike back at around 2:oo. We didn’t get far. I was feeling better, true, but I still wasn’t feeling great. We made camp in a random clearing only a few miles from Rock Creek. The sunset was beautiful.
July 3rd - 5th, 2021
Somewhere in Sequoia to Lone Pine
This day. Wow, this day. It was my birthday. I had originally planned to be summitting Mt. Whitney on this day, but I chose to see this as an opportunity to come back and summit with Rob. A gift from the universe.
We woke up and Hannah was still getting worse. She couldn’t even keep down water at this point, and she hadn’t eaten solid food since we’d left Rock Creek. Considering the pace we’d had the day before, I was expecting us to make it another five or so miles. “Maybe to Chicken,” I said. Maybe to Chicken, if we tried really hard.
We set out early, and slowly, we made our way back out of the mountains. We talked about food we missed. We talked about our favorite characters on New Girl. We did anything to keep our minds off of our bodies. At some point that morning, I saw Hannah pick something up. She turned around quickly and screamed, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” She handed me a feather, and said it would help me make it to the end. I took the feather and decided, yes, it would help me make it to the end. I put it in my hip belt pocket and it stayed there.
We eventually made it to Chicken Spring Lake. We were so happy to see it. I refilled our waters, and we sat there, deciding if we should camp or keep going. There weren’t any campsites from here until the trailhead. If we kept going, we would have to finish. It wasn’t a long distance, but our bodies were revolting. We decided to keep going. We still had a few hours of daylight, but we could hike down with our headlamps if we had to. We took a break on a rock shortly after. Hannah carried her water bottle of Pedialyte and tried to keep it down. I checked the map during the break and was shocked. I went to Hannah and said, “We just went a whole mile in ten minutes.” “Say less,” she said, and stood up and kept walking. This was our fastest pace yet and we made it down well before sunset.
We made it back to the trailhead knowing we had two options. We could stay at the campground for the night and try to find a ride back to town tomorrow, or we could hitch a ride now. When I tell you, THE moment. THE. MOMENT. We left that trailhead just as a truck was pulling out of the closest parking spot. Hannah ran to them, “are you going to Lone Pine?” They were, and we hopped in the back.
We found a bench to sit on outside of a gift shop in Lone Pine and I looked for hotels within walking distance. “Walking distance” felt like such a joke considering. I had little hope when I checked Expedia and Tripadvisor, there was nothing available. I looked across the street and saw a hotel that wasn’t listed on those sites and we decided to take a chance. They had the perfect room available. Things were working out for me on my birthday apparently. I decided to check in with the hotel handling my resupply to see if I could come and go a day early, I was feeling lucky. Apparently I was lucky, they said yes. I walked to the restaurant next door and got us dinner, and then I walked to the grocery store to grab whatever medicine I could for Hannah. She was able to eat a little and we both passed out. It’s amazing the difference a night at lower altitude made for her. The next morning she woke up almost good as new. Almost. We walked around Lone Pine and went shopping, ate huge meals because our bodies allowed it, did laundry, and rested. We had no agenda, it was nice.
Hannah’s husband, Connor, was on his way to come pick her up at this point. We made plans for them to drive me to Independence in a few days. This was my first scheduled resupply, and where we had initially planned for Hannah to leave the trail and come home. The first section of the journey didn’t go as planned, but I was happy to be back on my schedule. Connor arrived in Lone Pine just in time for Hannah to take his car and drive me to Independence. I checked into my room and my resupply bucket was already there waiting. A joke. I grabbed a few things from the bucket and left the rest for them to donate. The truth was, my bear canister was still full. I took a shower and went to bed. I had a shuttle back to the trail scheduled bright and early. I knew I would be solo from this point, and I had a nervous excited feeling. I thought of all the things that could possibly go wrong. I didn’t at all think of the things that would end up going right.