Day 16

July 18, 2012 Today was a short day! After 16 days of walking, I finally convinced Jasin to do a short day. Today we walked somewhere between 7 -8 miles and stopped around 2:45 pm at Ray Lakes. The big news today is the forest fire, still. All night the wind blew hard and the air was very smoky and in the morning there was ash on our tent. I, again, was moving slow this morning and we got a late start. We hiked a mile down to the suspension bridge where all these people were asking us about the fire (like we knew anything). All morning we heard helicopters and assumed they were containing the fire that has been going on for 3 days now. Apparently, lots of people come to Ray Lakes for the fishing and now can't hike out due to the fire. Our lunch stop was at dollar lake and in the 3.8 miles it took to get there, I had another meltdown. I am SO ready to get off this trail. It keeps going and going, up, down, up, down. I don't even really notice the beauty anymore, I just want to stop walking! We finally reached dollar lake, at lunch at 1:10 pm (which is why I had a meltdown, we waited too long to eat). We had fun with a chipmunk who was eyeing our Pitas. Only 2.5 miles later we arrived at Ray Lakes & saw a note at the Rangers Station about the fire. Apparently, they might close a section of the JMT that we just hiked if it gets worse. I'm guessing it's getting worse because we came across another note that asked us "South bounders" heading to Glenn Pass to send the trail crew working up there to come back and help with the fire. We finally picked a camp site and put the tent up and then went down to a lake with our dirty clothes. My intentions were to take a bath & - FINALLY - wash my hair. But nooooo! Clouds and cold winds came over the pass right as we were getting into the water :(. Some laundry was done but no bathing. On the way back to camp Jasin dropped a sock & its absence wasn't discovered until back at camp. When it's absence was discovered, he threw a small Jasin - like fit (so I know he was tired too) & I went to find the lost sock, secretly smiling to myself that Jasin finally had a meltdown too. We hope it won't rain, our clothes will dry, and we can rest for the remainder of the afternoon. Dinner was red beans and rice with ground beef and 1/2 a pita each. Love, Hopefully Rested by Tomorrow