The night with 'my' mountain lion

One year ago something happened that changed my life. Something that I think of every day. Something that I carry around in my body, my mind and my soul. I'm sure not all people would give it that much of a meaning. I didn't really choose to do so, it chose me. It's a part of me whereever I go and whatever I do.

One year ago I was given a second birthday. At least that is what it felt like when Gordon and Dave came down from Sunrise Mountain and found me just before they crossed Sunrise Creek on their way down to the Clouds Rest junction. They gave the word "trail angel" a meaning far beyond the normal meaning all thruhikers come to enjoy. They saved me from what I thought was gonna keep me caged forever and what I thought was gonna kill me.

One year ago I spent 13 hours with a mountain lion. I started calling him or her "my mountain lion". But really he or she ain't mine. "I'm his or her" would suit more but I guess that's not how it is either. The mountain lion was absolutely beautiful. I was inside my tarptent, he or she right outside. Yet as the hours passed by -and I can tell you, they never passed by more slow than they did that night- in my mind my tent gradually became my coffin. 

Le Haute Route: Chamonix - Zermatt... or... How things never go as planned!

Day 1: Monday 30th June 2014: Freiburg – Cabane Albert I, 2745m/9005ft

The alarm rings at 7am. I am awake already, the rain falls down heavily on the roof of Angelika’s sheperd hut. „I should have brought my rainpants,“ I think. Fuck! I can’t believe I’m having vacation. It doesn’t feel like it. It’s raining. It should be warm and sunny. I take the umbrella, step outside in my undies, my trailrunners and my puffy and I pee under the umbrella (never done that before haha :cP) Big Badger is going back and forth whether he should take grandma’s woolen socks or not. I say: „Hell no, you got 3 pair of socks already!“ So he leaves them there and we head over to Angelika to have breakfast. While I have breakfast and chat with Angelika, Big Badger arranges our membership with the „Bergrettung“. At least when I fall down a crevace, then they’ll come and save me and I don’t have to pay tons of money for an unwanted helicopter ride. At 8.15am Angelika brings us to the railway station. Ow fuuuck her car doesn’t start. Praise the fucking lord my car is there, so I give her the keys and off we go. It’s a bumpy ride with Angelika driving my car for the first time haha. In 4 hours the train takes us to Martigny, where we buy tickets for the Mont Blanc Express. I’m not used of speaking French anymore and I have a hard time finding my words.

First days of travel kinda always suck. I feel stressed and hungry. I know it will be better as soon as I start hiking. So I tell myself it’s ok to feel like this.

Getting ready for the Haute Route / High Route Chamonix - Zermatt

When we were kids our parents took us hiking in the Alps. We loved Switzerland and when we left the flat and tiny country Belgium is and drove to those majestic mountains, each year again our mouths would fall open, we'd rubb our eyes like as if we couldn't believe something like that really existed.
Now when I write hiking, I mean "real hiking". Na a not to the nearest swimming pool, but rather we'd hike high up to snowy passes, across glaciers, ... We'd get up at 5 in the morning and start hiking at first daylight to make sure we'd be able to cross the glaciers before the midday sun would make the ice all mushy and soft. We weren't fast but hell we always did it and we were proud as can be when we reached the pass, the hut or the summit. One time we climbed towards Cabane de Bertol and met a belgian climbers team hiking the Haute Route. My brother (who was 9 or 10 back then) joined them towards the hut and reached the hut first. Man he rocked it!!! Anyway that was the first time I heard about the Haute Route. At the age of 11 I actually never thought I'd ever hike the Haute Route myself (even though my dream back then was climbing Mount Everest haha).

New gear toys

Houdini overload :c)

Alrightyyy... It's been a while since I've written anything gear-related. Time to change that and show you the toys I got in the last couple a months.

The question ain't "Why do you hike?" but "Why do you blog?"

As a writer you sure have to deserve your credits the hard way. As thruhikers do too.

When you hike and reach the end-terminus, your peeps at home congratulate you, they're full of "wow you did it" and "it must have been amazing". But after a week (well if you're lucky maybe two or three) the excitement calms down and things go back to how they were before (that is for the people around you). So there you are, having hiked hundreds or even thousands of miles, but now standing in the middle of that old living room again, sitting at the table in the kitchen you've eaten so many breakfasts. And you can't help asking yourself: "Has it all been a dream? Or why is it that I feel so lonely, so empty and so out of place?"
Being a writer ain't much different. When you write something the people out there like, you get nice comments and they encourage you to keep on writing. Lots of people read along but don't say anything, so you kinda have to make up in your head what they think of it. And then I always end up asking myself the same and highly uncomfortable questions: "Girl, why are you sharing your thoughts with the world? Are you just doing this to get attention? Do you seriously think you got something to share?" These are the questions that come to my mind in the calm after the storm, when encouraging words only ring from the distance.

The Liebster Award

Yey. Chad aka Stick from Stick's blog gave me The Liebster Award. Whoop whoop it's my first award ever, so I better put on a nice dress while I write this post haha. Maybe some make-up too?
Na a you know that ain't me. I like the dirt under my nails and my dreaded hair. I'd be fucking thrown off the red carpet if I turned up the way I look right now hahaha. It's a good thing an outdoors man like Stick gave me the award, cuz he too prefers a trail over a red carpet, right Stick? Our red carpet is the beautiful red and yellow pattern the trees color the trails with in fall. Our red carpet is a trail carved in the rocks in remote places where no other paparazzi but our own shadow chases us. Our red carpet is the ever winding dusty snowy muddy road that brings us to places we've never been. So THANK YOU Chad for the award. I love to walk the red carpets of nature! (Actually I'm currently writing a post about why I blog and how -as a writer- you gotta earn your credits the hard way... So the award came just in time hahaha.... I'm not all done writing that post but I'll try to finish it soon ;c)

Now what does it mean to accept The Liebster Award? It means I gotta answer the 11 questions Chad asked me, come up with 11 new questions, tag other bloggers and ask them to answer my 11 questions. Of course none of these bloggers is forced to answer these questions. They can either leave it or accept the award and pay it forward. As I'm not good in explaning (hell I would suck in being a schoolteacher) you better read the full explanation here.  It basically is a way of recognizing/promoting other bloggers and the things they do.

So here are Chad's questions and my answers to them:

Loveletter to a thruhiker

I was just talking to a hiker trash friend when we started chatting about how beautiful thruhikers are. That's when the idea came to my mind to write a loveletter to a thruhiker. No it's not just dedicated to one particular thruhiker, it is written to all thruhikers, the ones that hiked in the past, the lucky bastards that are rocking the trails right now and the ones in the future. Now this might be a bit cheesy, but hell, I don't give a fuck, you know that ;cP

Here's to all of you thruhikers, men and women: MY LOVELETTER TO YOU:

The freedom of owning little!

Do my hands hold nothing? Or do they hold the world?

I own nothing! Basically nothing. I have no house, I have no kitchen, I have no washing machine.

I do have a tiny car. It is so tiny, you probably can not even buy it in America. I have a computer, clothes and outdoor gear. That's about it.



Now the question is: Does owning little makes me poor?

168 Reasons to hike the John Muir Trail

Soooooooo: Why would you wanna hike the JMT? O dear, there are tons of people who could come up with tons of reasons why not to!
But NO NO NO... that ain't the way we roll right? Always be confident and positive (that you oughta know since you read my last post.... Haven't read it yet? Total shame!!!)! Hell there are hundreds of reasons to hike the John Muir Trail, 168 to be exact! One reason for each day between the moment you apply for your wilderness permit and the day you're about to set your first foot on the trail!

So here we go: 168 REASONS TO HIKE THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL:

About to hit the JMT?

Allrighty folks... Hiking season is open! Those lucky PCT bastards are hitting the trail, taking pics at the monument in Campo, working their way thru the desert...
Na a don't worry, we JMT wussies still have a bit of time to prepare. Allright allright... of course we are no wussies, WE'RE ABOUT TO ROCK THE SIERRA. Well actually, not "we"... "YOU" are! I'm stuck in Europe, so "you" are gonna have to do it! Climb your way out of the valley, or worse (well that actually depends on how you see it), climb Whitney on day 1! O man! How jealous I am of all of you, whether you're about to embark on a journey of thousands of miles or may it just be a few hundred through the magnificent Sierra! You damn lucky merican hikers, YOU'RE ALL GONNA HAVE A HIKE OF A LIFETIME!!!

As I am not qualified YET to give you any advice on hiking badass trails like the PCT or CDT, I'll have to stick with the JMT. For now my ego is fine with that ;c) After all one must say: The John Muir Trail is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS AMAZING BREATHTAKING MOTHERFUCKING GREAT! Yet it really ain't about the name or the trail or whatever. It's about nature, about wilderness, about the delicate beauty of the tiniest plant, about the majesty of those granite walls, and about everything inbetween. It's about the soft yellow light that hits your eye first thing in the morning, about the smell of cedar trees when you hike down from Sallie Keyes Lakes (or towards SKL if you're a northbounder), it's about the view that makes your body freeze when you see Center Peak and the mountains around, it's about being a part of it all when you sit down in Mc'Clure Meadow, watch the sun set and you feel so grateful that you are right there on that one spot in the middle of all that beauty!!! O you know... it's about soooo much more than just "a trail"!

Lessons learned

After each hike it's time to ask some questions: What went wrong? What worked well? What did I swear about? What would I do different on future hikes? Well well let's get to it:

Hiking across the Teide National Park - Tenerife

Cat about to rock the Teide!

First decent hikingtrip of the season: Check! First camping on a snowfield at 3400m (11154ft): Check! First sunburn of the year: Check! First cactus fig picking and eating: Check! First time nauseous of gaining too much elevation meters in one day: Check! My hikingtrip across Tenerife was a trip of "firsts". And it was a trip of "finally-s": Finally, I'm hiking again! Finally, I'm out in the wild again! Finally, my feet do what they are ment for again! Finally, I'm eating shitty backpackers food again! Finally finally finally!

Pico del Teide... here I come!

Yesterday I started preparing for our hike across Teneriffa... Eh jep apart from gear and food, there ain't much to prepare. We have a map, know where we wanna go, we'll see what we get when we're out there. Wuhuuu I can't wait to be hiking again. Nothing like a thru-hike, I know, but at least HIKING!
My gearlist is very similar to my JMT gearlist, except that I won't bring a tent but a tarp and no bearcan haha. I think I'll go without a rainjacket (no rain in forecast), but maybe will take another lightweight downjacket. I haven't weighed my backpack yet (jeeee girl!) but it feels pretty lightweight! As for food, whoops I think I have toooo much. O well whatever, I'll try to eat like a trailmonster :cP
Anyway, I'll be back in one week and tell you guys all about it. Meanwhile: Happy trails to all of you (those lucky PCT bastards are about to hit the trail! Go hiker trash!!!!!)!!!!!!

Oops I did it again!

Wuhuuu! I am proud to announce: I QUIT MY JOB!!! Again! Am I crazy? Yes! Does it feel good? Yes! What are you gonna do now? What I love! Things can't change if you don't start making changes, right?  Last monday I was on my way to work when all of a sudden a feeling came over me like "I really don't wanna do this anymore", it was like a heavy load pushing on my chest. I managed to stay on that job for 6 months, whoops... I'm just not made for that "normal life thing"! I feel trapped and caged, it restricts me and kills my creativity!
I remember the words that came to my mind when I was hiking last summer.  As long as I feel trapped in a normal job, I just can't be me...

I AM TO BE WILD

Not to be tamed

Not to be catched

Not to be caged

I am like a fire

like hot burning flames

I am what should be

set out to be free

I'm not to be kept

in one place to stay

I'm not a hunter and 

I'm not a prey

I'm raw like a wolf, like a bear, like a shark

I'm like a cat with eyes in the dark

Don't come too close

Don't hold for too long
KEEPING ME WILD
IS KEEPING ME STRONG

I'm ready to bite

I'm ready to fight

I'm not to be tamed

I AM TO BE WILD

So what I'm gonna do is: Fly to Teneriffa on saturday, hike across the island and climb the Teide next week, come back and start having the guts to really live my life the way I want it. How I'm gonna make a living? Get more involved in our wilderness school, try to start giving courses in lightweight backpacking, let my creativity grow again (I have a tiny brand called "Helenmade" under which I make and sell hats, jewelry, felted stuff,... ), write songs,... 

 BASICALLY:  DO WHAT I LOVE & LOVE WHAT I DO!!!

The Rockland Legend Trail

Go figure... Just about 1,5 h driving from my place starts a trail called the "Rockland Legend Trail". If you now picture deep canyons, rapid rivers and high mountains I might have to disappoint you. Yet after my 3-day hike along this trail I still concluded... hiking in Europe ain't that bad after all. It do is very different from hiking in America, except for the part where you put one foot in front of the other and just keep going. In Europe we don't have many big wilderness areas left so you'll be going through little villages and towns at least once a day. No worries about resupplying or water yet also no getting away from it all for days and days and getting back into your "natural mode" (which to me is one of the greatest things about hiking in a country with huge non-civilized areas). Anyway, back to the Rockland Legend Trail. I guess the trail just opened a few years ago. The trailsigns all seem to be very new and it looks like hardly anyone has been hiking there (though that might of course be because of the fact it's still winter here).The trailsign definitely is one of the cutest I've ever seen... a little blue ghost making a peacesign (or do ghosts only have two fingers???)...

How to recognize HIKER TRASH in the "normal world"!

It's been a while... I know... I feel it... I'm getting all agitated and fuzzy. I haven't seen a trail for too long... I mean like a decent trail... In one year I'll be all excited and preparing like nuts for the PCT... Right now I feel winter is getting to me, even though we haven't got real winter this year (not just yet but who knows what is coming tomorrow). Once again I find myself asking questions like "Is this how life should be?" and "What the heck am I waiting for?" I guess it's the time of the year. Till February I seem to be able to keep the winter darkness outside of my soul. But then all of a sudden it hits me and my heart feels the aching and longing for springtime, for new life, for bird songs, for wearing T's, for getting out into the woods barefooted... And meanwhile while I get up when it's still fucking dark (which should just be prohibited!) and I drag myself to work, I'm trying to figure out, how to change my life so that I'm not ending up in that rat race.
Na a don't worry! This ain't gonna be a "drag you down" post... Cuz underneath my fuzzy mind there's a heart jumping up and down, looking forward to the adventures that lay ahead. Oh and there is my soul... my brave little soul that has the need to fulfill dreams!

Allright now my question for this post is: HOW DO I RECOGNIZE HIKER TRASH IN THE "NORMAL WORLD"? There could be some debating done on what the "normal world" is but heck we'll have that discussion some other time, over some beer, na over some wiskey. Cuz I kinda got tired of those "we live in a bad society-"discussions. So you might wanna bring something to drink if you wanna have a conversation like that with me. Anyway back to hiker trash. For those people not familiar with the thru hiking slang, let me explain what hiker trash is supposed to be:

I won I won I won!!!

Wuuuuhuuuu allrightyyyy! I won a ti pot from Gossamer Gear! I participated in a game on Facebook and I hardly could believe it when I read my name in a post a couple of days later... announcing I'm one of the winners!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeah!!!
It took some time for it to arrive coming all the way from the US. But it got here and the next day I went out into the woods to cook a great lunch in my new ti pot... So thank you Gossamer Gear! I love the pot!!!!

He said "You're crazy!" ... I happily confirmed!

Allrightyyyy... Last week the hikingseason 2014 started! Even though my knee ain't better I really wanna get in shape again cuz 2014 is gonna be a hell of a hikingyear... Climbing the Teide and crossing Teneriffa, hiking through Sarek NP in Sweden or the Tour du Mont Blanc in France and hopefully hitting the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand by the end of the year. Along with getting in shape it's all about gear testing and just being outdoors... enjoying nature, connecting with the land, feeling Mother Earth beneath my two small feet. I call myself lucky living in the middle of the woods. I just have to grab my backpack and go. Leave the daily routine behind, come back to my senses, remember what life is about... It's funny cuz when I'm in my tiny cuddly warm home I sometimes (eh yeah that's an understatement) have to give myself a decent kick in the ass before that same ass is willing to move away from the comfy sofa...

JMT 2013 - complete gear review

Aaaaah!!! Is this it? My last post about the JMT before I start preparing the Te Araroa Trail, the PCT and some smaller hikes across Europe? Jee... not sure... It's so DAMN hard to let go... O I know there is so much to look forward to and I consider myself being one of the luckiest persons on earth... I guess I'll always find myself inbetween trail melancholy and trail excitement... except if I'm on a trail... then I am trail happiness haha :c)

Anyway, considering the title it ain't hard to guess what this post is about: IT'S ABOUT GEAR. Again! DAMN RIGHT! (Guess I'm a gear junkie after all... whoops) In one of my last posts I wrote about my favorites and my ..eh yeah... not-favorites. This time it's all about the details. Now don't expect me to be all technical and rational (na-a that's just not me ;c)... I'm gonna do this the womad-way ;c)

Trailart? Suuuure...

During my JMT Thru-hike I did a bit of water colors in my journal... Nothing fancy, but just for the fun of it. I am no Kolby Kirk (check his journals, he is absolutely AMAZING!), that's for sure... But I enjoyed painting so much (even when I'm not too good at it... who cares ;c) when I had a longer lunchbreak or I got to camp early... That wasn't all too often, but still.... When I'm hiking the PCT I'm definitely taking my mini water color set along!

Gear junkie?

Am I a gear junkie? Yes... No... Maybe...
Fact is: I love nice lightweight gear. Fact is too: The lightest gear is the gear you don't bring. The JMT was my introduction to lightweight backpacking. I think I did fairly well, though there certainly is a lot of room for improvement. My backpack weighed about 26 lb (13kg) at it's heaviest (leaving MTR with 9 days worth of food)... That didn't feel toooo comfortable, so for my PCT thruhike I'm definitely gonna make some changes.

My top 3:

1. My Dirty Girl Gaiters: ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM!!! Kept all debris out of my shoes: Result: Zero blisters!!! And never having to stop to take little stones or rocks out.

My JMT in numbers

• Number of days on trail: 25
• Number of rainy days: really actually just 1, and then it wasn't just rain but hail too.
• Longest day: 16 miles (eh right, definitely am no fastpacker)
• Shortest day: 6 miles
• Number of time I fell: 3 times
• Number of days with a hurting knee: 25
• Number of bears spotted: 3 (eh yeah... on freakin' day 1!!!)
• Number of mountain lions spend the night with: 1 (eh yeah... on freakin' day 2!!!)

The freedom of going solo?

When I hit the trail at the 23th of August 2013 I intended on solo thruhiking the JMT. I never had done anything like that before. I had turned 30, got divorced in the past year and I felt like if I needed something what I call "a battle for FREEDOM".
I've done a fairly amount of travelling around the globe but I never did a solo thruhike. I decided I didn't wanna wait no longer for anyone coming along, cuz somehow waiting for other people also feels like being caged. I told myself, if I'm brave enough to do a thruhike on my own, I will feel free. And I did feel freedom to a certain point, yet I also realised freedom is something you create in your mind.

Finding answers...

A rainbow coming out of Muir hut!

It's been 3 months now since I summited Mount Whitney and thru-hiked the John Muir Trail. Especially the first month after I got back hasn't been easy and even now after 3 months I still miss the trail and everything that comes around with it.
I've really had a hard time adapting to "normal life" and civilization, going back to work, having the daily worries (which I of course mainly create myself), meeting up with society's and my own expectations, picking out clothes everyday (ooo trail life was sooo easy), being all clean and tidy... Na I don't like it! I'm the kinda woman who likes a bit (eh yeah a fairly bit) of dirt under her nails, and the story of a trail carved into the lines of her face (even though I'm only 31)! I'm the kind of person who likes the tan on my skin from which you can't say whether the sun gave it to me or if it's the trail dust sticking to my legs...

DAY 25: Sunrise on MOUNT WHITNEY!!!

Monday 16th September 2013: Guitar Lake - Mount Whitney - Trail Crest - Whitney Portal

The last day on trail... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! My heart is crying and big tears drip down from my cheeks before I am ready to get out of my sleeping bag. I don't want this to end. This is perfect. This is what life should be ALL the time!!!
I force myself to get up shortly after Joe's alarm plays "The final countdown"... It's a bittersweet wake-up call at midnight. We have breakfast and coffee in the dark, though isn't all that dark as the moon is almost full and lightens Mount Whitney and the mountains and rocks around it. OMG! In a few hours I'll be up there!!!

Day 24: Playing my ukulele at Guitar Lake :c)

Sunday 15th September 2013: Tyndall Frog Ponds - Bighorn Plateau - Crabtree Meadow - Guitar Lake

Today should have been an easy day. Only 10 miles, no passes... Still we had to descend and climb quite a bit. Soon after we left camp, we reached the Bighorn Plateau, which I've been curious for since I hit the trail. Kind of a surreal landscape!!! Descending through a pine forest (and again a forest that had a totally diferent "character" than the forests I crossed before) we ate lunch shortely before the crabtree junction.... After that we only had a few miles to go but DAMN that felt hard. As I was passing Timberline Lake I was like: "Now where is that fuckin' guitar????" Haha! Yet we saw Mount Whitney rising up in front of us!!!

Day 23: Dance on Forester Pass!!! My first 4000m pass!!! YEAH!

Saturday 14th September 2013: Campsite next to Bubbs Creek (close to Center Peak) - Forester Pass - Tyndall Frog Ponds

Oh Fiiiiiinally... I slept WELL! Thank you lord! Left camp at 8am. Slow but steady. 3,5h to Forester. What a smooth and breathtaking climb! Stairway to heaven! I was like "AUS'M HÄUSCHEN" when I hit the pass. MY FIRST 4000M PASS! So exciting! Took a hell lot of pics and I DANCED ON FORESTER while the boys were singing that silly milkshake song HAHAHA! Party for my first 4000m!

Day 22: TRAIL MAGIC on friday the 13th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday 13th!!!! (from now on that's a LUCKY day) September 2013: Dollar Lake - Rae Lakes - Glen Pass - Bubbs Creek (close to Center Peak)

Jee I slept so bad I had a hard time leaving camp this morning. Still I managed to do some laundry and hit the trail by 8:15am. At breakfast we saw a bunch of deer hanging around camp. Maybe they made the noises I so freaked out about at night. Hm that mountain lion night might have caused a bit of a trauma I'm afraid...
http://walkingwomad.blogspot.de/2013/09/day-2-and-3-half-dome-and-mountain-lion.html
Anyway I left camp together with Stephan and Tilt, though hiked a bit on my own for the first few miles. Oh I love those first few hours of hiking in the morning where the air isn't too hot yet and my legs and mind are fresh and happy.

Day 21: The long way down from Pinchot Pass

Thursday 12th September 2013: Marjorie Lake - Pinchot Pass - Dollar Lake

Left early at 7:30am. Enjoyed the climb up to Pinchot Pass. Played the ukulele on top. Long long long way down. Meeting Pat with his Z-Packs Backpack (told me he gave the boys a cliff bar for me... hahaha they met him before and told him they have a skinny person in their group who could use some extra calories.... eh yeah... that'd be me.... Ain't that sweet?) BEAUTIFUL RED ROCKMOUNTAIN (no idea how to describe it) along the trail. Hard afternoon down a valley which gave my eyes a break from the majesty and beauty of the mountains we saw before.

Day 20: Kiss the ground girl! Kiss the ground!

Wednesday 11th September 2013: Upper Pallisade Lake - Mather Pass - Marjorie Lake

Fiiiinally I had a good nights sleep and woke up early to hit Mather Pass. What a great and amazing climb. Beautiful views of the Pallisade Lakes. I did feel that I was getting up high. Wow the hightest my own feet ever took me. THANK YOU FEET! 3688m! And I'm gonna break that record again tomorrow. Wuhuuu!
Up on Mather Pass we met a woman doing the High Sierra Route on her own, being  a professional backcountry photographer! Pretty cool!
The switchbakcs down were nice and smooth... Though somehow the ground wanted to kiss me! As I was making a little video I twisted my ankle which made me tumble... AND O YEAH!

Day 19: A tortuce on the GOLDEN STAIRCASE

Tuesday 10th September 2013: Middle Fork - Golden Staircase - Upper Palisade Lake

Though I didn't sleep too much tonight, my knee felt better and after a great breakfast (have to remember: I like MH Granola with blueberries) We left camp at 8am. First going gently uphill through a beautiful green forest with ferns. The sun became hot very quickly and in the heath of the day we started climbing the golden staircase. 
DAMN THAT WAS GREAT! I kinda loved that climb. SLOW BUT STEADY LIKE A TORTUCE. The views were just stunning, breathtaking, amazing.

Day 18: Beauty overload!

Monday 9th September 2013: Wanda Lake - Muir Pass - Le Conte Canyon

Bad night's sleep. Rain. Early wake up. Sunrise over Wanda Lake. 2 Coffees. Early leave. 1 hour to Muir Hut. 30 minutes Muir Hut loneliness. Ukulele playing on the doorsteps. HELEN LAKE. Loooong way down. Dizzy. Tired. Need water. Toooo much nature beauty to take in. Give me a break nature. Give me a boring forest. NOT. Aua my heart. GREATNESS OF NATURE! HUMBLE ME. Heart spilling over. Impressive huge rocky mountains, waterfalls, meadows. Me. Dead. Tired. Stumbling down 4000 feet. Knee hurt. Tired. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH ROCK MONSTER!!!!!! Energy boost. Funny family pics. 5 more miles to go. WHAT???? O damn. Look down. No. Look those mountains. Sun hiding behind. Rainclouds can't get over. Dust thrown up. Mystical atmosphere. Knee Auaaaaa... How much longer? Fight! I wanted to do this. Keep going. Thank you trees for the shade. Sooo much beauty! Finally! Camp! Food! Eat! Pee! Poo! Bed! GRATEFUL!!!!

Day 17: Evolution Valley touching my heart!

Sunday 8th September 2013: McClure Meadow - Evolution Valley - Wanda Lake

Today I got up early and had a great breakfast whilst enjoying the MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNRISE I've ever seen. At about 8:10am TAW and I left camp, leaving the boys and MG behind... knowing we'd meet them at Wanda Lake at our next campspot. We climbed out of the valley and my pack didn't feel as heavy as yesterday. In fact I felt great and I enjoyed hiking and chatting and taking in the amazing views.
As we hit Evolution Lake my eyes filled with tears cuz I hardly could take in all that beauty.

Day 16: OH that HEAVY pack!!!

Saturday 7th September 2013: Muir Trail Ranch to McClure Meadow

In the morning I went over to the dining room for breakfast. OMG!!! I ate like a monster: burrito, cereal, wafels,... That was so damn GOOD GOOD GOOD. I ate like as if there is no tomorrow and I "borrowed" (ok I took it... I'm so sorry MTR but it really was for a good cause!) food for my family out there in the wilderness. While they all enjoyed their burritos, fruits and chocolate, TAW played the ukulele. GREAT!
Then we hit the trail. O damn damn damn it promised to be a fucking hard day cuz my pack felt so so so heavy! Loads of people crossed our trail while still being close to MTR and I suddenly felt all ANTI-SOCIAL. I didn't feel like meeting people. Dammit... get outta my way you speeding people! Tilt made the right comment saying " This is like a freakin' highway!". Though luckely after a few hours it got way more quiet

DAY 15: A KITKAT for CAT!!!! Resupplying at MTR!!!!!!

Friday 6th September 2013: Sallie Keyes Lake - Muir Trail Ranch:

Wow this must have been a cold night cuz when I put my sleeping bag on the rocks ice would form on it. (My sleeping bag has been named "THE MOTHERSHIP" cuz I have the warmest and fluffiest bag of us all... yeah!) After breakfast TAW played the ukulele and I sang when the sun rose over the rim of the mountains. It was just perfect. Right now everybody is packing their stuff and I am enjoying the sun and the gentle breeze at Sallie Keyes Lakes. O man!

DAY 14: Tooooo much beauty OH GREAT MOTHER EARTH!!!

Thursday 5th September 2013: Rosemarie Meadow - Marie Lake - Selden Pass - Sallie Keyes Lakes:

After a great nights sleep I watched the sun rise on the mountains around Rosemarie Meadwo. Again it took us ages to break camp.... Jeeeee seems like I'm getting slower every day (well hm that's what you get when you unpack the Ukulele after breakfast... wouldn't wanna miss that though!!!!!)
Wow I can't believe this is day 14 already. It doesnt't feel like it. But I love it that my body does so damn great (well except for my knee but that was my own fault, hiking more than 25miles in one day before I leave)! So far I haven't had any muscle aches, blisters or what so ever! That's amazing!!!

DAY 13: One foot in front of the other on the Dragon's back!

Wednesday 4th September 2013: VVR-Junction to Rosemarie Meadow:

Wow, today was kind of a rough day. We hit the Dragon's Back (unendless switchbacks through pine and aspen forest) five minutes after breaking camp (which we did like waaaaay tooo late... hoping our stuff would get dry.... yeah NOT!). I felt ok going uphill thouhg my knee was hurting. Yet the next part of the trail... I don't know. I felt so slow even if the terrain was pretty easy. Luckely at some point we reached Bear Creek and we had a great bath! That was so DAMN GOOD and I felt really refreshed. Still it was a good thing we only had another 3 miles till camp at Rosemarie Meadow, where we had a lovely little fire and waited for shooting stars giving us wishes!

DAY 12: Silver Pass in the HAIL

Thursday 3th September 2013: Virginia Lake - Silver Pass - VVRjunction:
I woke up early at Virginia Lake. Unfortunately I didn't have any cereals left for breakfast so I had to stuff in the oatmeal that I started hating... It just tastes disgusting!
We left at about 9am, ready for a 13 mile day... And oh boy, that was a day! After Virginia Lake it went all downhil and the next moment if went uphill all the way to silver pass. Jeeeeeee the scenery was so damn stunning. We went through so many different landscapes. I just couldn't believe my eyes. My heart had difficulties taking in all thet BEAUTY. Holy Spirit!

DAY 11: Fighting the mountain lions in my head

Monday 2nd September 2013: Deer Creek - Purple Lake - Virginia Lake: After breakfast I was
the first to get moving. I felt like hiking alone and I was pretty fast. The first 4 miles after Deer Creek I hiked uphill through a forest and I kinda freaked out cuz I imagined a mountain lion in every tree. As I saw three deer running away I stopped breathing for a sec and I heard my heart banging in my ears. I started imagining me being a wolf and I was all ready to fight. Meanwhile words came to my head. And I kept repeating and repeating and repeating them. Here's how they go:

DAY 10: Smooth and easy!!!

Sunday 1st September 2013: Reds Meadow to Deer Creek: Today we all got up pretty early cuz
we were all craving for a 'merican breakfast at the Mule's Café (hahaha the POWER OF FOOD!!!) After packing all our stuff we headed over there for the third time and I ate my FIRST AMERICAN PANCAKES (damn right that's a epic moment to remember!!!!) Jihaaaaaa! O man! I was totally stuffed but we had to get going. It was so SAD to leave LINDSEY! Really really really too bad that she has to go back to work!
Still the rest of the family had to hit the trail and we hiked through the landscape scarred by the rainbow fire of 1992.