Freaking *~*LOST*~* in Sequoia NP - Kayla & Stephanie
Today we decided to tackle a fourteener, but split up into 2 managable chunks based off a couple of routes we found intriguing on our trail app.
We set off early in the morning to Marble Falls trail. In contrast to our trek to Heather Lake, this sandy trail wound around the cliffside featuring some spectacular views of Moro Rock from below - and NO SNOW! Around every corner was another breathtaking view of the mountainscape beyond as we inched our way closer to Moro Rock and eventually passed it. Off in the distance, you could see the upper and lower falls that were our destination. Unfortunately, near the trail’s end there was a landslide and it was unsafe to pass. But we did enjoy lunch on the cliffslide overlooking the falls.
After that, we made our way back up north to tackle Giant Tree Loop - a hike someone apparently invented connecting Big Sherman Tree Trail, Congress Trail, and looping back around a meadow to Alta Trail. It was intermittently snowy, but not like walking along the giant pile of snow to Heather Lake. We made fast work of Big Sherman Tree and Congress, stopping for a photo op with some of the giant trees that the national park is famous for. Stephanie and I were trotting from blaze to blaze like Pacman eating his yellow dots. The foot prints were easy to see, the Congress Trail remained very well blazed, and our spirits high. We felt unstoppable. Well, until we got to the end of Congress. There was a voice in my head suggesting we turn back and follow Congress, but did I listen to that voice? Hahahaha no.
For perspective, we are now along the edge of a 7+ mile loop that circles around and then reconverges with Big Sherman Tree Trail, a little over 3 miles out so about halfway, but at the furthest point from our car. It is about 5:45pm. Sun sets at 8pm. Where are the blazes? Where are the footprints? How could we be so spoiled and then THIS?! Stephanie’s phone had the AllTrails map downloaded, and was at 16% and fading fast. (Um, yes, this escalated quickly). Of course, I don’t have a backup. We have no compass. We have no map. We have no battery packs. We start walking, ending up heading in circles. We think we see footprints - we do, we chase the footprints until they seemingly evaporate out of thin air. We come by Thorpe’s Log, we are headed in the right direction. So where the hell are the blazes, where in the hell did all the footprints go?! All we have to go on is faded footprints, half melted in the snow of hikers past, a frank reminder that we are in Sequoia right before the beginning of the summer season. Where the prints seem to vanish are evidently the places where the snow from the winter season had melted, leaving us with no leads and a battery on 1%. Multiple times we try to match our path to get back to the trail with the limited battery we have left. Time and again we find ourselves going in circles, inducing that gut wrenching feeling of internal panic that both of us were trying to hide.
The pros? We have food, we have about 4 liters of water, a tarp and paracord = shelter, firestarting materials, extra socks, a headlamp (to illuminate the COMPLETE LACK OF FOOTPRINTS AND BLAZES), batteries, and first aid. We are dressed in layers. I’m a nurse, she’s a paramedic. Well okay...why do we have all this stuff and NO MAP?!! Hundreds of thoughts go through my head as we are trying in vain to find the right way. Thoughts of the woman in the Smokies who died less than a half mile away from a trail - no, it won’t be us, we are prepared to stay the night. Repeated thoughts, like a chant in my head, of a recent article I read relating that day hikers are the ones that are screwed. It is the through hikers that are prepared (through hikers can just say ‘meh, time to set up camp, we’ll get unlost tomorrow’). The sun is going down. My socks are wet. I want to just stop where we are and have a breakdown. But we have to use the last of our light to try to find our way. The sun is going down in the sky. We can still make it if we can just get. on. the. right. track. My heart is pounding, my mouth is dry, I can’t tell if my shortness of breath is from the anxiety, the small upward ascents we are making in desperate attempts to find footprints or a blaze, or both. Not a soul is on this trail, now we are realizing why. Out of peer pressure, we both maintain the partial outward appearance of calm and resolve to continue on at the task at hand.
I pull up my AllTrails, panicking internally for probably like the third time at least, and I’m thinking this is going to be useless. My phone won’t pull anything up. We are going to be STUCK OUT HERE. And then I breathe the tiniest sigh of partial relief - I am able to get our blue GPS dot and a trail head marker with my phone on 91%. As we continue on, it still looks like we are going on a zig zag with a few circles thrown in, so my faith wasn’t completely set on that little blue dot, but it was the best we could muster. Over time, I could see on the tracker that we were actually moving gradually towards the car. This, and the fact that we could do a straight shot towards the trail head because the terrain was pretty much the same everywhere were our saving graces. I see the pastel purples and oranges of the sun making its final descent as we stumble across Congress Trail!!! I did a little jig, I contemplated kissing that blessed ground with its well used trail and abundance of footprints to follow. Yes!! Finally! We briskly hiked congress until it turn into a paved trail, and finally the well known and trafficked Big Sherman Tree Trail.
And with that, I’ll be signing up for a maps and compass class straight away :p
Over and out,
-K