Day 18

July 20, 2012 What a night last night! We were in a scary windstorm until 2 am. Huge gusts of wind shook our tent and howled down the peaks. There were several other tents so I felt safer knowing that if something happened, we could help each other. The wind gusts were close to 40 mph and the sound it made was terrifying. I didn’t sleep hardly at all. When morning did come, we were the last to pack up & it felt like we were at base camp for a major summit – Forrester Pass (this is the highest pass we have done so far at 13,000 feet). We started slow, unsure what to expect. With most of these passes, you can’t even see the pass until you reach the final assent. The trail up was in excellent condition, and we really didn’t have any problems summiting it. When we reached the top it was like a party! The British guy we met at the top of Pinchot Pass was there, with a friend, and the three college students we briefly met yesterday were all resting at the top. It was crowded, so I said my Hellos and started down the long and scary path to the basin. We had a long chat with the college students at our lunch break, they started at Tullomne Meadows, which I think is cheating, because you skip some of the hardest days. They got off the trail because of the fire, and where able to hitch a ride, go a restaurant, eat pizza, drink beer, and shower, and got back on the trail ahead of where they were. ENVY! We asked if they saw Fred, Reed, and Forrest and they told us about this Dad and two sons that they met going over a pass. Our description fit, but he said one of the boys had a hard time breathing so they got off the trail. They were planning to see a doctor, then get back on the trail, a couple passes ahead. I swear, if I summit Whitney and there are Fred and his boys.. I will scream. And then laugh. It was nice catching the news about our fellow though hikers, I guess this is how news spread prior to post mail. We decided to aim for Wallace Creek (Bob’s middle name), it was 4.8 miles away, but at a lower elevation than we lunched, so we assumed it would be a gradual down hill for 4.8 miles. WRONG. We climbed up, up, up, into my first experience with a high sierra desert. It looked desolate, like I imagine the moon looks. I’ve never been to a desert before, and I don’t particularly like them – they creep me out. It was hard walking at the hottest time of the day, through the desert, and my ankles were killing me. So we didn’t quite make it to Wallace creek. We made it to Wright Creek, and I immediately stuck my swollen feet and ankles into the creek for 45 minutes. Looks like rain tonight  Love, Cankles.