First and foremost, happy Father’s Day to two great men. My dad has shown me from a young age that hard work, humor, and a good cocktail lead to a happy life. Happy day to Zak whose wit, wisdom, sense of adventure, and innate sense to nurture Zoe, Ellie, and me make life fun.
We woke up kind of late, considering we were in a tent. I think it was around 8. I knew immediately that my goal of waking early, getting packed up quickly, hiking at record speed, all to get to Kerouac’s for a cup of hot coffee before the breakfast seatings were over was shot. Instead, I settled for a can of Kirkland’s cold brew coffee. I have to say that I was slightly impressed. It had a strong coffee flavor and wasn’t watered down, there was no added sweeteners or milk, so it was just good ol’ cold coffee. It was the best canned coffee I’ve had and did a good enough job, no caffeine withdrawal headaches.
It had rained a fair amount during the night and our tents were pretty wet. Our sleeping bags, mats, and pillows weren’t that wet, but were slightly damp. The skies were still dark this morning and we got occasional sprinkles, so we figured our best bet was to just pack up quickly and worry about drying everything out later.
We had just under three miles to hike back down the mountain, nearly 2,000 foot elevation drop. We knew we could do it quickly. What we weren’t really expecting was how difficult it was to hike downhill in all that snow. Steps were tricky, and we were slipping and sliding all over the place. It was slow going, but by a mile into it, the snow had turned into muddy patches. It was at that exact moment, when we felt relief that we didn’t have to navigate snow anymore, that the skies opened up to a consistent, cold rain. We pulled our rain covers over our packs and kept on trecking. At the tail end of the hike, the 13 mile journey over two days, the skies cleared and the sun tried to peek out from behind the clouds.
We have a goofy little tradition that we all run the last few hundred yards of each hike. We had reached the end of the trail and had spotted the car at the other end of the lot. Zoe and Ellie took off in a gentle jog and Zak hollered at them to be careful. A second later Zoe face-planted in the gravel lot. We rushed to her side, realized that nothing seemed broken, but that there was a decent amount of blood. She scraped up her knee, both hands, and her nose pretty badly. What was worse in her eyes in that moment was that the brand new leggings that she had only worn once had a giant hole in the knee. We did our best to get her all cleaned up, but headed straight to the Visitor’s Center to do a more thorough job. At the Visitor’s Center we used the bathroom to clean up her wounds and re-bandage them. It was certainly not the end of this epic hike we were hoping for, but nothing is broken and all will heal quickly.
At the Visitor’s Center, Ellie had the chance to interview the ranger on duty for the podcast. Stay tuned for a new episode soon!
We made it back to Baker and the sun was shining brightly. So we set up camp in the Kerouac’s parking lot, to attempt to dry all our gear. Fortunately, it was warm and sunny so it didn’t take all that long. The rest of the afternoon was spent drinking, snacking, showering, reorganizing gear, playing games, and blogging.
We’re heading back to Kerouac’s for dinner tonight because it’s one of our favorite restaurants in the world, and there isn’t much else in Baker, Nevada. It will be really good to get a warm meal. Ellie promised us all dessert if we had a positive attitude yesterday and we all earned it. After I was in a good mood all day, she told me that I would be the one paying. I know that we’ll all sleep super well.
