Today we woke early to conquer Donahue Pass before the sun. This is nearly impossible to do, but I am getting better at it. My morning:
6:30a wake
6:45a gather pieces inside the tent to begin packing. Collecting dirty socks and underwear, and clothes if I think there will be time to wash and dry.
Pack bags without major pieces (like the sleeping bags, tent, food) and wash clothes in the river.
7:00a wake boys because my hands are too cold to zip (I hate zippers) or unlock the bear canisters, and lay out clothes and tent fly in the first strong bits of sunshine.
7:30a boys are up, dressed, hungry, cold and sort of helping to pack up.
8:00a finish eating oatmeal, vitamins, brushing teeth and drinking power drinks.
8:30a everything is cleaned and packed, and the wet clothes are pinned on the bags to dry.
Somehow we lose an hour here. Bathroom for the three of us, filtering water and running around seems to eat 60 minutes, and soon the sun is hot.
It is almost always hot when we begin.
Donahue is steep, but not as steep as we had seen. Last night I was also awake, trying to calculate our food supply and our next stop. We were walking slower than I stupidly imagined, and at Tuolumne, the boys and I completely forgot about breakfast, while shopping at the small store. I was quietly freaking out. As we walked up Donahue, we rhymed and played name that tune, and I weaseled in the fact that we might need to eat ramen for breakfast for a couple of days. They were totally fine with it. We met three hikers on the way up who chatted about the boys, and asked our story..and somehow food came up. I told them I was carrying the food weight, and Max chimed in that were down to ramen, so it wasn't too heavy. They automatically opened their bags and loaded us up with every food imaginable (dried food). Insisted on it. Selflessly. Kindly. I tried to pay them or do SOMEthing, but they laughed at me. It was just kindness for goodness sake. Al and Mark, thank you.
Not two minutes later two other hikers ran over to us with "overages" cliff bar goodies. Just because they bumped into Al and Mark. Just to be good. I was floored, touched and adamant that the boys and I find a way to pass these deeds on. Amazing goodness.
Back to the hike: the rest of the day was supposed to be downhill. It was, which is also difficult, but the drag of today was the never ending nature of our walk. We approached Island Pass at about 3:00p, and it was by far the hardest we had seen in a while. Maybe it was the surprise of it, or maybe it was just that we were sunburned and beat, but the top never seemed to come. Walking with Nate is psychologically and physically draining because he is very slow, which means I am very slow. This makes everything heavier, thicker and more painful. Max ran ahead and bounded up the mountain with ease, like he often does, and reached the top and the water before us. We meant to stop at Thousand Lakes, but I couldn't bear two more miles at 5:30p. Nate was wrecked today, and so was I, so we camped as soon as we reached the top. Special note: Nate crossed 21 rivers on teetering rocks today. He also told me "I hate this." I asked later if he really hated our trip, and he said "No! I love the camping. And I don't like to make a big deal, but I am really proud of my hard work. I only hate when I fall and when it's really hard. But I also like when I'm done with the mountains." Yay.
Ramen. Dessert from Al and Mark. Kindles. Log. Bed.