Day 70: Pit of Misery
Date: Tues 6/26
PCT Start Mile: 971.2
PCT End Mile: 998.3
PCT Mileage for Day: 27.1
Total PCT Mileage: 998.3
The Highlights: Seavey Pass, Dorothy Lake Pass, mosquito clouds, and the end of Yosemite.
I was originally going to title today’s post “Highs and Lows”, but by the end of the day had changed it to the current title. As you can guess, we are at a “low”.
If you use Facebook and are familiar with the “stickers” you can add to conversations, comments, etc., you may have seen the “Downer Dinos” sticker pack. In this group of stickers there is one where a brontosaurus is looking behind him at a giant meteor that is about to crash into the earth. It has the caption Everything is Terrible. This is basically how we felt about today. Everything is terrible.
We woke to mosquitos still hanging out on our tent and swarming already before 6am. So that was cool.
The morning consisted of very long steep rocky climbs, followed by very long steep rocky downhills. Mosquitos joined us for these as well. I wore my rain paints all morning to avoid more bites on my legs. They were slimy on the inside from my sweat as we made the long steep climb before we took our lunch break. This climb seemed to never end.
Often when you are doing an ascent, you’ll look ahead above you and see a patch of blue sky. You’ll think, that must be the top, excited to reach it. On today’s climbs, including the one before lunch, it was never the top. It was never our patch of blue. We’d reach the patch of blue sky to see the trail wind up another long rocky ascent. I’d whimper a little. Where is the top? All the while, swatting away mosquitos.
Earlier in the day, Shawn had commented that he hoped whoever designed this section of trail through Yosemite was fired, particularly the section we were hiking today. I’m sure the first people to hike it said to the guy, what in the F were you thinking? And then hopefully he was fired.
When the trail wasn’t going up steep rocky ascents and descents, it was basically hiking us through river and swamp, a cesspool of mosquitos. After lunch, we had a long gradual climb, which was nice for the legs, but it basically hiked us through meadow after meadow of standing water and mud, the trail usually inundated with water and slop. And swarms of mosquitos everywhere.
Our original plan was to camp somewhere between mile 994-995, about 23 miles of hiking for the day. This turned out to be all meadow and water, so we continued to hike up to Dorothy Lake, which was supposed to have some tent sites.
For such an enormous lake, it had a whopping two tent site plots, both of which were taken. The swarms of mosquitos only continued to get worse as we hiked into the evening. Along the north shore of Dorothy Lake we went through our first clouds of mosquitos, where they were so thick, they literally formed black clouds. It was unreal. They clung to my head net and I waved my trekking poles around like a mad woman. This was our hell.
Dorothy Lake.
Before we knew it, we were to the far end of Dorothy Lake with nothing to do but continue onward, up and over Dorothy Lake Pass. The pass marked the end of our 67.5 miles through Yosemite, and we were not sad to depart. The eastern side of Yosemite had not impressed. There were some great views from time to time, but by and large we felt like we’d just hiked through 67 miles of swampy mosquito breeding grounds. This side of Yosemite did not impress the way Yosemite Valley impresses millions each year.
Heading down the other side of the pass, large patches of snow still clung to the sides of the trail in some places and naturally, mud and water filled the trail. We slopped through it. Over a mile and a half from Dorothy Lake, we reached the first tent site on the other side of the pass. Having hiked over 4 miles further than originally planned, it ended up being our longest hiking day yet: 27.1 miles. The campsite was, as per usual, absolutely swarming with mosquitos. Never any reprieve.
As usual, we quickly set up the tent, throwing all of our stuff in it. I quickly followed suit, eating another cold dinner in the tent. Shawn made a fire in the fire pit at the site and he and Squishy ate their dinners next to the fire, which also offered some reprieve from the swarms.
It’s hard to overstate how draining this section has been. On the trail, there are highs and lows – literally, with constant ascents and descents – but also figuratively.
Generally, the trail has been mostly highs. The spectacular scenery, meeting other hikers, living in the outdoors, and experiencing the trail towns. All great. But of course there are lows along the way as well – days we are tired or mentally checked out. Sections we just don’t enjoy as much. This whole section thus far, beginning from Reds Meadow, has been the lowest of our lows. The mosquitos are so ridiculous. It’s hard to even describe. It’s been almost all we can even think about most of the time during this section. By day, we’re swatting them away or covering every last ounce of skin, and by night we’re trying not to itch them like crazy in our sleeping bags.
You can see from our pictures that there is obviously beautiful scenery each day, it’s just maddening that it can all be so overshadowed by mosquitos. I’d like to completely erase this section from my mind, unfortunately the mosquito bite scars all over my legs will ensure it’s seared into my memory forever.
