It took me an extra day to get to Tuolumne from Mammoth... it seems I "got sick" on the first day. Actually threw up on the trail while talking to another hiker. I had been resting because I was feeling sick just about an hour up the trail after getting off the bus at Agnew Meadows and this hiker carrying a little guittar came by, I did mention I wasn't feeling well, and we had told each other where we were heading and I was mid-sentence about taking the YARTS bus back from Tuolumne when out it came... He sort of awkwardly asked if I was going to be OK and I assured him I would now probably start to feel better, and he (I'm sure relievedy) continued on.
Actually I started feeling like I had "food poisoning" from a McDonalds Big Mac I had the evening before I left, at least that seemed to be "stuck" in my stomach along with the next morning's breakfast. But then, maybe it was the salad dish I had at Car's Jr earlier, or Vons'cherry tomatoes or blueberries I had eaten earlier as well...
Or maybe it was something altogether different and seemingly unrelated to what I was eating: all the sitting on hard chairs I had been doing the previous few days had I think cut off the circulation in my legs such that the big ugly varicose vein in my right leg seemed to have clotted up completely from my shin around the inside of my knee and up the inside of my thigh. It was feeling very "bruised"... more so than has ever happened before... although this has been a growing problem for me the past few years and my response has been twofold - to go to the (VA) Dr. and at one point had these veins "mapped" in preparation for "removal" (they said they'd just "yank them out") but an odd thing occurred while they were doing that "mapping" - some person from Washington DC happened to be "auditing" the activities of the VA that day (so I was told ...this was during the time the VA was under some political pressure to "improve" their service efficiency or responsiveness ...) and that person started asking me a bunch of questions as to why I wanted to have that procedure done - implying that it would be just for "cosmetic" reasons...) in any case the intimidation, if that was the intent, worked, and I just postponned a decision as to when I would go through with that procedure, since apparently it wasn't likely to address the main issue I was "imagining" I should be concerned about - blood clots "spinning off", as I imagined, from this "backwater" in my circulatory system, to my brain (although, apparently the most likely such destination would be the lungs.... Anyway, mostly I've been dealing with the problem by minimizing how long I sit down on hard surfaces especially, and taking frequent hikes, since the "massage" from the walking seemed to mitigate and "cure" the occasional odd swelling of my foot and "bruised" feeling in those veins after I'd been sitting too long. So, although this time that vein felt significantly more seriously "clotted", I still assumed after a few days of hiking I'd be fine again, so onto the bus to Angnew Meadow I went last Friday morning.
And indeed it did improve somewhat over the next few days of hiking. That first day I only made it tile about 3:30 in the afternoon, only managing to hike for about 40 minutes at a time with 20minute breaks in between, nevertheless getting a good way towards Thousand Island Lake only because I was taking fewer pictures... I had "re-filled" my stomach with some granola & fruit bars and water, but neither the water nor food seemed to get past my stomach and just sat there and I was just so tired during each break I would snooze off... typically wakened by other hikers passing by, most seemed not even to notice me though I was typically sitti ng in full sun since I was also feeling very cold, like when one has a fever, which I may have had.
Next morning though, I felt a little better, my stomach contents manged to pass on down, and I replaced it with granola and more fruit bars and water. That day I seemed to have my normal energy back for pictures and the scenery was impressive, I was happy not to have gone further the day before I would have missed most of it as if I was a thru-hiker just seeing the ground trying to make some distance. I managed to take a wrong turn and ended up going half way around Thousand Island Lake, almost decided to go all the way around but there was a trail branching off to the north which I assumed would "cut off" further up the trail, although it turned out to double back to the trail that circled the lake, but then I took another small spur trail that seemed to head north but it then petered out at a seried of camp sites, bu t I just continued off-trail northeastward along a ridge-line knowing I would eventually hit the main trail again, which I did just about at Island Pass. All in all it was a pleasant detour and yielded lots of picts.
Even though my energy was back, my leg was still quite sore, but it did seem that the "walking massage" was the appropriate treatment. I did quit a bit earlier than I normally do (normally I've gone on til the sun is gone, when the photo-ops begin to fade. But I quit within a mile of Donahue pass where I would have stopped the first day if I had put in a full 10-12 miles, on a ridge with spectacular views facing east that would be lit early the next morning so I'd be up early. I did take some night-time shots of the sky that night trying to capture some of the meteors I've been seeing, but in about a dozen 30second exposures, I'm not sure I captured any, though a few occurred in other areas of the sky while I was exposing...
Next morning was Sunday, and indeed the morning light was spectacular going over the Donahue Pass by 10am, where I think I got a nice video of some Grouse as I was trying to angle myself for a good shot of the pond just north of the pass, and beyond there had great views of lingering snow on the peaks to the west and views north down into Lyell Canyon, passing stream after stream merging further below as I descended into that broad flat-bottomed green meadowed valley incised by the meandering Tuolumne River. That day I stopped just short of the "no-camping" limit a bit beyond the Evelyn Lake trail junction, further than I had planned to go concerned I'd risk encountering a bear. but I camped on an out-of the way knoll away from any "established campsites" and was only bothered by an annoyed squirrel and some wandering deer.
Monday morning then I made it the remaining 6 miles to the store west of the meadow on hwy 120 by about 1pm, stopping to "do my laundry" via a "fully-clothed" refreshing swim in the Tuolumne just short of the trail junction with the Lodge, in a sandy pool just below a falls over a broad granite outcrop, which served as a good screen to wait for me and my clothes to dry in the sun with a slight breeze, while I ate some lunch. Only one couple passed by on the use-trail along the river while I was drying, though I must have seen a hundred people hiking by on the main trail that day about equally in both directions. This section of JMT/PCT from Agnew Meadows to Tuolumne in eitehr direction is a very popular three day hike for weekenders, as is a two-day out&back to the Thosand Island Lake area from either direction. The second-most popular "weekender" section of PCT was the "Rae Lakes Loop hike from either Kings Canyon or Kearsarge Pass. In terms of hiker traffic though, it's southbound JMT hikers that I've encountered most.
At the Tuolumne Meadow Store I had more lunch, a double-hamburger, bought some grapes and some V8 juice and sat at one of the picnic tables chatting with various people until the YARTS bus back to Mammoth arrived at 4:15. The time went quickly, but it was again a long sit on a hard surface that didn't do my leg much good. That night back at my usual car-camping spot off of the Scenic Loop road above Mammoth Lakes, my "clotted" sore veins feld not much improved from when I'd started.
So now I'm doing more sitting on hard surface in the library, having tried to contact the VA clinic with oddly serious audio connection problems on a call-back from the VA "advice nurse", so I've gotten no-where there, I've researched some nearby VA clinics I might be able to visit - one is in Sonora, which I plan to pass through in my way back to the Bay Area, since my next "stop" on the trail is hwy 108 at Sonora Pass, so I'm also continuing to work out my loop-back logistics to Tuolumne after staging my car at Sonora Pass.
I've had some problem verifying that there is a southbound bus from Reno to Mammoth/Bishop that stops at Bridgeport and Lee Vining as I described in my plans previously, much less where in these towns they stop. I've verified with the driver that I could take YARTS from Lee Vining to Tuolume - for $2 Sr. fare. The YARTS bus to Mammoth stopped in three places near Lee Vining, one at the gas-station/cafe on Hwy 120 near the 395 intersection, one on 395 in town, and finally at the Mono Lake Visitor Center (oddly at the far side of the parking lot there, and that just a sign-post, torture during hot afternoons!) YARTS then took the whole long June Lake loop. On this late afternoon trip, 8 people boarded the bus at Tuolumne, no other passengers boarded or deboarded til one couple left at the McDonalds stop in Mammoth and the rest of us at the ski area where we all must have left our car 3-4 days ago to catch the shuttle to Agnew Meadow.
Rather than looping back via 395 as I've been doing, I may this time also consider heading west to Sonora from the Pass (maybe bicycling to Kennedy Meadows Resort which is about 10 miles west on hwy 108 from the pass) then arranging a hitch from KM to Sonora, then taking the YARTS bus from Sonora to Crane Flat (for $6 Sr. fare) and then the free park shuttle from there to Tuolumne. I'll also need to arrange to stache my backpack at KM, or maybe at Sonora. I may still consider leaving a "contingency-resupply" in a bearbox at Twin Lakes west of Bridgeport on the "east-side" (ought to do that before I head to the Bay Area this afternoon or tomorrow or whenever, to save some unnecessary driving...) but I've also just ordered two additional camera batteries and CF cards to try to extend that constraint on my hiking range, to allow a non-stop Tuolumne to Sonora hke. This order is supposed to ship tomorrow and take 3-4 days so hopefully will see it in my PO box in SRosa by Monday. That is a bit longer than I would ideally have liked to have to hang out in SRosa before resuming my hike, but my leg issue may now delay that even further, depending...
Depending on whether I can get through to them by trying again with my WiFi Google-phone connection here from Mammoth, (or maybe I should try Skype... keep forgetting about that option) whether I decide to "bite-the-bullet" and buy-into another ATT SIM card pay-as-you-go plan (did I tell that story about my expired SIM card?) ...or whether I just try to "show up" at the Sonora clinic and talk to someone in person there... At the moment I'm inclined to "get moving" and investigate the Twin Lakes area and re-explore the Sonora Pass area, though it would be more efficient for me to continue sitting here on this hard surface and do some more online research and re-try my Google-Phone communications.
Either way, I'll cut off this lengthy blather now and get on with it.
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