pct days 37 thru 40 - 06/11 - 06/14/13

big lessons for me here in mammoth. i went to the store to resupply and of course chose exercise over public transportation, cuz when you do something like this your motor is always going and you just want to move. i think it must have something to do with cortizol levels or something. this happened last year on the appalachian trail. i don't sleep much on the trail, maybe 4-6 hours a night, if that, and i am more than rested. so then when i get in town, then same thing happens. it seems to take about 2 zero days in a row to slow down and actually sleep for more than 4 hours at a time.

anyway, on the way to the store i had a pretty bad fall. after getting up and focusing on not passing out, i actually started laughing out loud. i mean, think of it. i walked 906 miles thru desert, rain, snow, up and down rugged trails with not one injury. i get to a town and fall . . . so me.

not boring you with the details, let's just say it involved a car and i am lucky to be alive. large patches of skin now missing from my back, elbows, hands, and buttocks aside, my right hand and left foot are not so good. this happened on tuesday morning. yesterday was not fun. it is always the day after that one comes to terms with the details of the injuries.

after the initial shock and the thought to go stay with family for a while, i am giving it until saturday to heal. of course my host, nate, has been more than generous offering his house for as long as i need to heal.

not sure what this is all about. maybe i needed to slow down? be humbled in the knowing and remembering of the fragility and eventual loss of everything in this physical world? just a random event? what kharma did i take on? lots of thoughts and wonderings. lots of time for reflection.

of course my family and friends have been amazing. big lesson for me in accepting the generous gift from nate to stay as long as i need. susie has been so caring and helpful. ramloti and ashram crew sends their love and the blessings from the divine mother.

my extended family both in crestone and in denver. people who have opened their lives and homes inviting me in often times as a part of their families . . .

my closest friend kirsten . . . always there and always dedicated to our mutual growth. what more could one ask?

my guru and guide, paige. completely dedicated to my evolution totally beyond the constraints and rules of our current matrix of our collective culture . . .

have i mentioned what amazing parents i have? let's face it, they have an out-of-the-box son. probably not at all what they thought or dreamed of upon my birth or life. they have been nothing but supportive and loving.

i am so beyond thankful. this injury and time of reflection has served its purpose of opening my heart even further. of course my ego wanted to feel like a victim - to make this in to an attack against me. it is what it is and my only job is to learn from it. we do not hurt each other intentionally . . . ever. i have always rejected the idea of evil. i struggled for a long time with the idea of good, thinking it was the better of the two choices. this is precisely the physical metaphor that is hiking for me. when one is up on these ridgelines at 12, 13000 feet, walking the fine line where both sides of the trail, either choice - right/left, good/evil, black/white, dark/light, happy/sad, love/hate, etc - aka duality is laid out in front of you, you begin to realize that either choice, even though one may appear to be better than the other, is still a choice within duality. the true beingness that one experiences is in the choice of neither and both at the same time. this is walking the ridgeline. the knife's edge of balance between duality. it is as christ proclaimed on the cross, "forgive them mother/father consciousness, they know not what they do . . ." we crash in to each other, not fully knowing what we do because this is the experience we came here for - separation . . . and what a great experiment it is . . .

o miles and infinite reflection. thanx to all . . .

- tribhu (tree-boo)

pct day 36 - 06/10/13

i flew from square lake with the knowing that i would soon be in mammoth so i can fatten up on some town food. when i got to reds meadow, just as a thunderstorm was starting to make some noise, i got a ride from two awesome guys from switzerland on vacation here in the states doing some. hiking in the sierras. thanx guys - great to meet you!

i went to india in march with a dear friend, ramloti, a resident at the ashram where i have been living this past year. here sister susie came along with us, along with her friend annie, now both dear friends of mine. here is us at the ashram in haidakhan, india, along with the pujari, gohari, who lives on the gufa side of the gautama ganga river . . .



when i was in san diego before i left for the pct and having a last town meal with ramloti's son and his amazing wife and family, susie inquired whether or not the trail goes near mammoth. i told her yes, that it was one of the major resupply stops in the high sierra. she told me her son nate has a house in mammoth and would ask if it was alright to stay there.

when i got to kennedy meadows, i fb'd susie to take her up on the generous offer. long story short, including me having limited communication via only wifi and getting in a day earlier than scheduled, susie and nate have been amazing. he opened his beautiful house to me, even ensuring the jacuzzi was turned up. how incredible. i feel so blessed! planning on taking a zero tomorrow here in mammoth and at nate and ali's beautiful house.

thank you to ramloti for sharing your beautiful, amazing, and so very generous family with me. thanks to susie for caring for me so much in setting this whole thing up. and thanks to nate and ali for so generously and openly sharing your house with me. it is quite humbling to feel so welcomed and cared for with such ease. thank you . . .

20 miles from square lake to reds meadow. 906 miles total.

- tribhu (tree-boo)

pct day 35 - 06/09/13

i attempted to wake up at 02:00 to try and catch the ferry to vvr, but i pressed the wrong button in the middle of the night on my watch and switched the time to east coast time, hehe. oh well, it obviously was not meant to be.

my feet are totally fine. it always amazes me how efficiently the human body can heal itself. even my heal feels fine - there is a large lateral crack that scabbed over nicely, helped along by keeping my feet out of my sleeping bag all night.

as i hiked along i was entertained by my ego mind being full of regret for not having pushed on a little further the previous day. the ascent up to seldon pass proved to be quite easy and there was almost no snow. i chose not to get involved with this idea of regret and thoroughly enjoyed my morning.

here is a pic of me at the top of seldon pass . . .


i decided to hike the side trail to vvr because all i had left for food was a pop tart, which was gone by 06:30. in two hours i ate a big lunch, checked email, resupplied, and caught the 16:30 ferry back across the lake. i decided to get in and out simply because their internet was by satellite and extremely slow and i had decided to zero in mammoth, which i will get to tomorrow.

here is a pic on the way up to silver pass . . .


here is a video at the top of silver pass . . .

and finally, here is a beautiful sunset from just below silver pass . ..



34 miles for day with 6 to vvr and 28 pct miles from florence lake trail to square lake. 886 miles total.

- tribhu (tree-boo)

pct day 34 - 06/08/13

it's my mum's birthday. that was my first thought. not bad for not really ever knowing the date or day of the week while out in the wilderness. happy birthday mum! (even though you will read this after the fact . . .)

this was the most challenging day, bar none! the morning was totally great. i made my way down the remaining 8 miles from mather pass and then started the 10 miles up to muir pass. (as a side note, i have been hiking the john muir trail as the pct since i started the whitney side trail) i met a jmt sobo hiker about 4 miles from the top and was warned that i was in for some snow. now, to give you an idea of my speed, i typically can hike between 3-4 mph, even on the ascents. this is how i get so many miles in the day while still stopping to enjoy the views and interesting souls i meet. ya, it took me 2.5 more hours to get to the top of muir pass. i hiked thru a couple miles of snow. here is a pic on the way up . . .



unfortunately, i have no other pics on the way up or at the top because of the snow blindness. the sun on the snow was so intense that under my chin and my eyelids are burnt. i was squinting even with my sunglasses on.

but, here is a picture of a lake on the way down. so amazingly clear . . .



yes, those are mountains reflected on the surface.

the snow on the north side was not as much as on the south side, oddly enough, and the grade of the trail was not enough to glissade, but hopefully i will catch a video of me slippin and sliddin soon enough.

i actually had plans to do over forty miles today, getting me close enough to lake edison at mile 878 so i could catch the 09:45 ferry over to vermillion valley resort. by 19:00, however, my body was in full protest. my feet were in a lot of pain from being wet and cold for nine hours. at one point i had a pain so sharp i was afraid a large chunk of my right heal came off. i know gross, right? so i stopped and quickly set up my tent, because the mosquitos are unbelievably ferocious, made a big dinner, and will go to sleep momentarily.

my lesson for today is simply to not get so stuck on an idea held by my ego mind that i sacrifice my body or soul. sacrifice not required . . .

39 miles from cs819 to just before the florence lake trailhead. 858 miles total.

- tribhu (tree-boo)

pct day 33 - 06/07/13

after hiking with hacksaw off and on since way back in big bear, he got off the trail today at kearsage pass to visit his wife. i'll miss him as he is the only other hiker i know to do the miles i have been doing. guess it will be solo for a while.

here is a beautiful mountain on the way up to kearsage . . .



i said goodbye for now to hacksaw and made my way up to what was the first of three passes i summited today. this is glen pass from the north side and a pic of another hiker navigating the snow field i had just hiked thru . . .



i made my way down into this valley and had a little snack and a dip in the most beautiful glacier lake . . .


i then made my way up to summit my second pass of the day - pinchot pass. here is a great waterfall i saw on the way up . . .

here is a video from the top of pinchot pass . . .

here is a video from my hike thru the valley over to mather pass . . .

and finally here is a video from the top of mather pass . . .

this next picture is of the snow field coming down from mather pass. the pic does not do it justice as it was by far the most difficult crossing thus far. i did actually glissade down the side of the mountain at one point and attempted to video it, but i hit the stop button early on by mistake. oh well, hopefully more slippin and slidin to come . . .



and finally to end another epic day, i roll into the camp site i picked for the night and i meet someone i hiked with last year on the appalachian trail. diesel is here, but not the kid, in an amazing show of synchronicity. unbelievable! i met him and his son, aka "the kid," who was 14 at the time, in harper's ferry back in april of last year. so cool.

my lesson for today is just another confirmation of surrendering. my mind/ego wondered if i have been pushing my body too hard and it was fearful of the mather pass snow late in the day, but then i end up meeting someone from the appalachian trail because i surrendered to my intuition to push on . . .

34 miles from cs785 to cs819. 819 miles total.

- tribhu (tree-boo)

pct day 32 - 06/06/13

mt whitney! highest point in the contiguous 48 states. recent satellite actually has it at 14,505 feet. i left at 05:15 with hacksaw and zoomed up the mountain and the 4000 feet of elevation gain. here is a pic of some snow we had to hike thru . . .


i made it to the top by 07:50 - here is the plaque . . .



i shot this little video from the top . . .

here are pics of me alone at the top as well as with hacksaw . . .







oh, and here is me being crazy at the top . . .



we made our way down and jumped in guitar lake - brrrr, but refreshing. after a quick lunch back where we camped last night, we made our way with the goal of summiting forester pass on the same day.

here is an amazing meadow on the way over to forester . . .

here is a video of the climb right before forester. i know it is hard to believe, but we actually climbed up that little tear drop of snow at the top of the pass shown at the beginning and end of the video. crazy and amazing all at once . . .

here is that little tear drop of snow right before we crossed it . . .



and here is a video of the top of forester - 13,200 feet and the highest point on the pct . . .

here is me behind the sign at forester as well as hacksaw and i standing on the snow pass at the top of forester . . .






finally here is a pic of hacksaw so you can see the snow fields we had to traverse . . .



truly epic day. i can safely say i have never experienced something like this in one day and i am truly grateful.

16 miles of whitney side trip plus 18 pct mile from upper crabtree meadow to cs785. 785 pct miles total. 34 miles for the day.

- tribhu (tree-boo)

pct day 31 - 06/05/13

sunrise from 10663 feet . . .


chicken spring lake where i ate lunch . . .


the view from 11400 feet . . .


crabtree meadow at the base of mt. whitney with deer and marmots running around everywhere . . .


my camp spot with whitney in the background . . .


and tomorrow i will summit the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 states. look for a 360 degree view on tomorrow's post! i am loving the sierras . . . simply amazing.

31 pct miles to crabtree meadow plus 1 on the whitney trail. 766 total pct miles.

- tribhu (tree-boo)