I am back in Bishop, CA until Monday morning after spending
the last 10 days in the backcountry mobilizing Sixty Lakes Basin with most of
the rest of the crew. I wasn’t homesick
until about day nine, and it didn’t really hit me until this morning, when I
woke up and realized that yet again I was in a situation where I wouldn’t see
my AZ friends or family until October (and my CA coworker friends until
August!) and may not sleep in a real bed until that time either. My parents sent me some lovely updates on
what went on at home in the past 10 days, and it makes me sad that I missed
those events.
Alas, enough lamenting – how about what I did for the past
ten days?
June 19th – Cleaned our house at Ash Mountain (in
Three Rivers), got the cleaned house approved by the Park Service Facilities
guy, and then schlepped all our Sixty Lakes stuff to the helibase. The gear/food ended up weighing quite a bit
more than last year because this time we were sending up nets, and the crew who
would be mobilizing the site with me and Christi sent out just gobs of food for
the 10 days. It made me concerned that
we would have to leave some stuff back (not have it flown up), but in the end
it all worked out. We then drove to the
east side of the Sierra Nevadas and were treated to pizza by our boss before
spending the night at the Onion Valley Trailhead. Note #1: my car does not like going up the
Onion Valley Road. Note #2: my car is
not long enough to make sleeping in the back of the car comfortable.
June 20th – We hiked up today, and initially I
was the slowest of the group (my worst fear, see the hike from last year),
until Christi came down with altitude sickness – dizziness, nausea, headache. We ended up camping two miles shy of the
Sixty Lakes Base camp, which suited everyone just fine.
June 21 – My sister’s birthday! The lakes here are very
mosquito ridden, and mosquito head nets are necessary, especially at dusk. We hiked to camp, dug the boomer (boomerang
shaped ditch for bathroom needs), and greeted the helicopter, which came with
all our food and gear. The next problem was that all the food didn’t fit in the
Bear Box or action packer (lockable tote-bin) that we had at camp, in part
because the mobilization crew brought too much food and in part because we were
going to be in Sixty Lakes ~20 extra days this year, compared to last
year. My boss Isaac solved this problem
by hanging his food and all the camp trash from a tree in camp.
June 22-27 – Mended a bunch of gill nets and set nets in all
of our lakes. One lake, Tulip, took two
days alone to finish. Fjord took a
little more than a day. We were able to
finish Cotter, SL-10, and SL-5 in one day.
We also started a new lake in the basin this year, dubbed Clarence
(after Clarence King Peak, also in Sixty Lakes), and took 298 fish out with the
gill nets in two days alone. During this
time Emma and I got to go on some neat hikes around the basin after work, one
to the upper valley at the base of Mount Cotter and another to the northern
side of Fin Dome. We also spent one
afternoon speed bathing (because the water is so darn cold!). I sure like hanging out with Emma –she seems
to share my ideas of how to enjoy time, and doesn’t seem to mind my taste in
music or movies, which is cool.
Everyone but Christi and me hiked out on the 27th
– they had to hike out and drive around to Ash Mountain again to get their next
shipment of food and gear ready for helicopter flights out to their own
sites. It was sad to see them go
(especially Emma!), but it sure was nice to only have two people using the bear
box and screen tent!
During this period of time I also came down with a pretty
bad cold (from my boss, of all people), which made me feel dizzy and achy and
included congestion, sore throat, runny nose, and a pretty bad cough. The symptoms were always worse in the morning
and gradually got better as the day wore on, and then started all over again
the next day. I still have it, and can’t
wait for it to be done with. Being sick
in the backcountry is not fun.
June 28 – Christi and I electrofished (e-fished) the outlet
of our new lake and ended up with ~80 fish, seven of which were deemed large
enough to be eaten, so we had fish tacos that night – pretty darn good!
June 29 – Christi and I cleaned up camp and then hiked out
to the Onion Valley Trailhead. Hiking
14ish miles with a cold is not fun, let me tell you, but I could not wait to be
in the front country again and take a shower and eat food that I didn’t have to
prepare myself – milk, cheese, meat, fresh vegetables and fruits, salad, chai
lattes, and so on! I want to drink water
that didn’t have to be filtered first, and not have to burn my toilet paper
after visiting the boomer. Some of the
things that are easy to take for granted until you go to the backcountry. Christi’s friend Dan surprised her by hiking
up and meeting us up near Kearsarge Pass on our way down, which was pretty neat,
and he plans on hanging out with her for the rest of the weekend.
Anyway, I am having fun, despite the homesickness. This year is pretty different from last year,
but Christi is a good partner, and we get along, so that’s cool. I aim for an hour of Bible class a day, and
trust that everything else will happen the way it is supposed to.
The Independence post office is closed until Monday, so I
will have to get my PO Box address before I hike in then. If I do get one, I will at least tell my
parents, and maybe they will comment on this post with that address…. J
I hope everyone is doing well, wherever you are reading
this. I would love to hear (email? letter?)
from anyone about what is going on in their life. Kris.ratzlaff@gmail.com
The photos are awesome. They bring back wonderful memories. The fish too, since Stu caught them every night for dinner. This was thirty years ago, mind you. And the mosquitos! I remember them covering my mother's back, but I can't recall any biting. Loved the frog pics, too!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you're doing exactly what I went to college to do! So now I get to share it vicariously through you... and I know exactly what you mean about how nice it is to have "normal" food and everything else after spending time in the backcountry.