JMT - Day 9 - Palisade Creek to Inlet at Helen Lake

August 26, 2016
Day 9
12.7 miles / 116.2 total
Steps: 31,447
Inlet to Helen Lake
Days without shower 10

I often have to look at my calendar to figure out what date or day of the week it is. Today my calendar says it is RDO (my regular day off) and payday Friday. YAY! I am so thankful that I was able to save enough vacation time to take this trip. It was not easy and avoiding taking days off for the past year has been challenging! There are many people who seem to be between jobs or have taken unpaid vacation time.

I slept really good last night. I am still rolling over and trying to get comfortable often but much better than the other nights. My pack felt really unorganized as I was loading everything up because I wanted to wash my PJs at lunch time, they were starting to get gross. Normally they are pretty far down in my pack so having them at the top made everything feel a bit off. It took about an hour and a half to get packed up and moving today and that was without coffee or breakfast! I am not sure why I was so slow. Maybe it was because it was cold or maybe I was just moving slow. I started off with my rain jacket on because my shirt was still damp from the night before. The mornings are SO cold. I saw a lot of deer again and about 2 miles in saw the boys, Luke, Dylan, and Brian. They all camped together off to the side and were finishing packing up. I said Good Morning and kept walking. It was going to be a steady climb all morning and they looked like they would be leaving soon. They caught up quickly and I let them pass as I asked where they were planning on camping. It was a little farther than I planned to go. I said I'd see them later, wished them well, and stopped to take a picture of the views. Brian has a very fast pace and he was leading so I knew they would be out of sight before too long. I took many breaks today. I had to change out of my rain jacket once it started to heat up and my shirt was pretty dry. I also took more pictures than normal. I was enjoying the day. I also stopped to talked to a lot of people today which I hadn’t done much before today. Typically, when hiking with others, we would say hi and wish people well but didn’t talk much. An older couple stopped to talk for a while and he was telling me about the dedication of the Muir hut to be a national monument. The dedication was yesterday and they happened to be present for it! It was neat. He had done the trail many times – I think he said in the 20s and was telling me about a girl who got lice on the trail and had to cut off all her hair! It started to make me think about my own hair. We wished each other well and continued in opposite directions. At about noon I found a decent spot next to the river for lunch. I think this was the rock monster too but none of the “teeth” were there!! I thought about playing with the rocks to make teeth again but didn’t do it. I washed my PJs (but not my sleep socks) and decided to wash my hair with soap today because I was nervous about the lice story. This is a bit of a task! I am pretty careful about the leave no trace rules. This is the water I drink and I want everyone to be able to enjoy it, so using soap is always a challenge. I used my laundry/clothes bag and filled it with water as a bucket and then my extra Gatorade bottle. Got my hair wet by laying on a rock with my head hanging over and dumping water on it. I used a couple drops of Dr. Bronners soap in the Gatorade bottle, shook it up to make it soapy, and then poured it on my head. I scrubbed it and let it soak in for a bit before rinsing with the water from the laundry bag. My hair wasn’t extremely clean but it felt SO much better. I let it dry for a bit, combed it out, and started to pack back up. I tried to take a couple pictures with the rock monster but that was an extreme fail. I didn’t see anyone walking by, so I set the timer which only has a max of 10 seconds and ran to get in it. In the process I hit the crap out of my knee. It started bleeding and running down my leg. I was so annoyed that I hurt myself and knew that was going to be painful and leave a nice mark in the days to come. I thought of Fernanda and Stacy as I said, “I made blood” and laughed to myself. When we climb together and start bleeding that is what we say. I am really starting to miss my friends. There is typically a few people I think of every day and trying to reflect on our relationship. I am glad today in the middle of the pain and blood; I still smile when I think of them.

After getting cleaned up and stopping the bleeding, I put a Band-Aid over it and slowly continued on. I was watching the clouds closely that were slowly getting bigger and darker. I saw a trail worker who asked me if I had seen some people and we talked for a bit. I asked him about the storm and he said I should be good to get over the pass with a few sprinkles. That made me feel better so I continued on. About 2:30 it started to sprinkle so I put on the rain cover on my bag but decided I didn’t need my jacket yet. Then, it started to RAIN!! I had to stop again to get out my rain gear and it then it started sleeting! I was glad I had my umbrella and made a little shelter for a bit. As I sat there it turned to small hail.

After a bit longer it eased up a bit so I thought I could make it to a camp. I continued up to the lake but there were NO campsites!! Then the rain started again and it was getting colder. I didn't want to head down and go the opposite direction so kept going and going until I got to Helen Lake and still NO sites that I could see. It was getting even colder and started raining/sleeting harder and still nothing but rocks. I was starting to get frustrated. I was cold, my fingers were cold, and it was becoming miserable. Finally, I saw something pretty far off trail to the right and a large rock cairn. I went for it and tried to set up as quickly as possible in the wind and rain. Wow I need practice at that. It seemed like it took forever. Then I couldn't figure out how to get me and my stuff inside without getting everything wet. Thankfully I keep my tent on the outside so the main compartment of my pack didn’t have to be opened until in the vestibule area. The vestibule area was very wet and muddy. I shoved all my dry stuff to very back of the tent and took off everything wet – which was pretty much everything that I was wearing. I use the very small section of a towel I brought to clean my pot with as a towel to dry the inside of my tent. Thankfully my sleeping bag and dry clothes were in a trash compactor bag. I'm also SO glad I didn't wash my sleep socks today. My PJs were still VERY damp and I didn’t want to mess with them. I'm so thankful I have my running tights (which I added last minute), dry socks, and my down jacket & beanie. I dried myself off with my bandana. This is one of the most useful items I think I have. It's my washcloth, snot rag, sweat wiper, and personal towel. It is easy to wash and normally dries pretty quickly too! So glad I have it! Thanks Ladies of the JMT for having something so useful to identify with!! Also, I am so glad I have a 2 person tent. Everything I need to keep dry is inside, the wet stuff is in the vestibule, and the rain is really coming down again. I get organized and decide on dinner. For an appetizer I had peanut M&Ms. Then a cup of chicken noodle soup, which is mostly just broth, and then the burger meal from pack-it gourmet! Amazing! I'm stuffed and happy! About the time I finish eating it stops raining. I finish off the rest of the chocolate and am feeling much better. The sky is still dark and I'm not sure if it's going to rain more. I am curious so I send for a weather report on my inReach. It said clear for the night and tomorrow. Sweet! That is very exciting. My temperature zipper pull inside my tent says a little above 45°. It seems colder even though I am not really sure because I typically do not deal with these elements very much. I am sure outside is about 5° colder than in my tent. I have a few chores to do. I have to walk down to the lake to get some water to filter, go pee, and take a few pictures of the amazing sunset. I set my bear can away from my tent and now that the inside of my tent is pretty dry, get my sleeping bag out of the stuff sack. I crawl inside it and hang my head out of my tent while I watch the sunset. It's getting dark now and the wind is still blowing pretty good but not as bad as earlier. It's just past 8pm and my only goal for the evening/night is to stay warm and get some sleep.