Muir is Watching Us... From a Distance

By Tyler Socash

IG: @tylerhikes

"We are being followed," Huck uttered in a frightening tone...  After leaving the Mt. Laguna campground at dusk, a park manager warned us that cougars prowled nearby.  And no, not the type that young men fantasize about meeting at bars.  The mountain lion kind. This type of sensationalized hype now falls on deaf ears.  "You won't find water in the desert."  "It's going to be so hot in the desert."  "There are mountain lions in the desert."  Pretty soon you learn that everyone has something negative to say, when the reality is that you're going to have an awesome time in the desert.  (It has also been the coldest and the wettest place on trail - who knew?!)

But there we were, standing together, fumbling for our headlamps at nightfall.  Groucho and I were taken aback by Huck's seriousness.  "I noticed we were being followed a few minutes ago.  Then I saw its eyes staring right at me through the tall grass."  It was very dramatic to hear this in Huck's Danish accent.  

Harpo and Bug came strolling up behind us, also reporting that they heard movement in the shrubs.  Imminent danger!  This was exciting.  

The Wrong Way Gang atop Mt. Whitney, 14,505ft. 

I wasn't actually scared about the potential mountain lion.  You learn out here that animals generally want nothing to do with humans.  I was simply glad that the Wrong Way Gang had reformed. I was glad we were together.  The cougar never appeared that night (2,640 miles walked without a mountain lion sighting), but we had a lot of phenomenal experiences as a team in the past month that heightened my thru-hiking experience...

I left off my last blog post stating that I lost the Wrong Way Gang.  Indeed I did!  I traveled the High Sierra from Reds Meadow to Kearsarge Pass solo.  Unsure  that I can be as descriptive as Muir, I'll unleash some photos to assist my best efforts. 

Also, sometimes videos help: http://youtu.be/JhJXAvfXfRY

Enjoy "A Hike of Ice and Fire: The Range of Light - Part 2"

Below Selden Pass, High Sierra.  John Muir Wilderness. 

Evolution Creek, Kings Canyon National Park. 

Below Mather Pass, among the rocks and alpine lakes. 

Arrowhead Lake outlet, and probably my favorite PCT picture. 

John Muir claimed that the wilderness had spiritual significance.  It's hard to doubt the man after you walk 133 miles from Reds Meadow to the side trail for Mount Whitney.  This part of the Pacific Crest Trail is also the John Muir Trail (JMT).  I felt small.  Insignificant.  I felt like man had no business defiling nature anywhere after seeing its purest splendor.  We almost built a highway through this part of the country.  That's what we do best, build highways to propagate our automobile addiction.  Thankfully, Ronald Reagan rode out on a white horse to Reds Meadow and announced no highway would be built in the High Sierra.  It's now the longest roadless stretch in the Lower 48.  Thanks for listening to Muir. 

The High Sierra is hard to imagine.  Picture yourself as an ant.  White walls surround you as if you've been ushered to the bottom of a sacred chalice.  Somehow little rivers and wildlife navigate their way through this labryinth of canyons and peaks.  Due to the fact that you can only carry so much food on your back, your days in this mountainous paradise are numbered.  You've got to press onward.  Also, winter is coming.  You don't want to be stuck here unprepared when 3 feet of snow falls.  Or maybe you would?

I had the time of my life hiking from Selden Pass, to Silver Pass, to Muir Pass, to Mather Pass, to Pinchot Pass, to Glen Pass, to Kearsarge Pass...  These names might not mean anything to you, nor would they mean anything to me prior to experiencing them, but these places matter.  They matter because they provide stunning vistas of untrammeled wilderness.  These views are unlike anything humans in the modernized world will ever see.  No roads.  No noisy fossil fuel-guzzling machinery.  No sloppity-slop or gluppity-glup pollution.  Nothing but you and wilderness.  Since I went through in September, I saw fewer hikers.  It's a hard place to get a backcountry permit for, and deservedly so.  It's protected due to the fact that it's a rarity. Only 2.7% of our country is protected this way.  The wilderness is disappearing, and that makes me sad after spending my entire summer walking through the best of our west.  I wish there were more safe places for mountain lions to roam.  Maybe then I would have actually seen one by now?  I liken it to moose in the Adirondacks.  They are so rare, yet people seem more excited to see their population increase so that hunting them can be legal, rather than protecting more land so that moose and all other species can thrive.  Why does mankind feel the need to dominate everything?  Interesting tidbit... 10,000 years ago non-human wildlife comprised of 98% of all animal biomass on the planet.  In a fraction of earth's existence, today 98% of the planet's biomass is human or animals under the dominion of humans (cattle / farm animal industries)  Where is all the wildlife going?  The 2.7% thing has a role in that.  We are gobbling up resources and space needed by others like mountain lions and moose.  Let's not even get started on how wild animals like tigers and rhinos might go extinct before our lifetimes expire. 

The view from Pinchot Pass.  A happy picture to transition to a happier topic. 

When I hiked out of the High Sierra to resupply in Bishop, CA, I found the Wrong Way Gang!  NOBO's have been raving about Hostel California for months, so I was glad to finally stay there.  Twinless, Huck, Bug, Harpo, and Groucho were all there!  We exchanged stories all day and took care our individual town needs before leaving the next day. 

Bishop was great, but tough to hitch out of.  The trail provided a twist... 

Future Dad and Blueprint (Seth)

The Wrong Way Gang caught a bus to Independence, CA, and on that bus was my friend Seth who I met in Stehekin!  We hiked around the Glacier Peak Wlderness together with "Wildfire" and Seth's girlfriend "Darkside."  Seth was also the guy who gave me my trail name!  I couldn't believe that our paths crossed again.  Although Seth's hike was ending that day, I felt in my soul that I'd see him again someday.  What a lucky bus to catch!

The WWG climbed on.  We hiked over Forester Pass,highest point on the PCT at 13,200ft.  We summited Mount Whitney at sunrise.  Groucho orchestrated a trail magic day for JMT hikers at the summit, encouraging the WWG to help hand out candy and airplane bottles of liquor to other hikers.  We named all of our poop trowels after famous Broadway stars, singers, or actors (I'm proudly carrying Bette Midler - which stems from a running joke with "Half Jesus" about how I can never remember Bette's hit songs).  

Then there's more!  The WWG hiked a double marathon together over the Los Angeles Aqueduct section.  We got trail angeled by surprise in Agua Dulce, CA after Groucho and I attempted the 24-24-24 Challenge, which is of course when you drink 24 beers over 24 hours while hiking 24 miles.  Groucho made it!  I did not!

Enter the desert.  Kiavah Wilderness. 

Enter the 24-24-24 Challenge. 

Enter the Poodle-Dog Bush. A plant that packs more punch than poison ivy. 

The WWG even went through a tumultuous (though temporary) break up after climbing San Jacinto.  But we are back together now, just 100 miles later and with so few miles to go...

What does this PCT journey mean?  How have I changed?  Will I cry at the monument?  What was my favorite part? Am I still going to New Zealand?  Why don't I post more frequently?  What happened to the SOBO's that I no longer mention?  Was this quest the same as Wild?  

I guess you won't have to wait long for these answers.  I'm finishing the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail tomorrow morning.  

The entire Wrong Way Gang will be by my side...  Unless we finally get that mountain lion attack we were promised.