Today was not a great day. However, it could have been much worse, and I have no significant injuries to report.
I'd been thinking of taking a zero in TM as my right ankle has been acting up a bit, but Wash Out talked me into hiking out so that we could climb Cloud's Rest and Half Dome in addition to completing the JMT. After procrastinating as long as possible, we headed out of town around 2, hoping to walk about 16 miles to the base of Cloud's Rest. Unfortunately, not far from town, we had a falling out. We both needed some space, so Wash Out took off while I chilled for a bit before continuing on. While I always carry maps for the PCT, Wash Out had the map we'd gotten from one of our friends for this special non-PCT segment. I'd taken a peek at it before he left, but I didn't have a lot of beta. I was pretty sure I could figure it out though.
Anyway, I took off and did the best I could. I wasted a lot of time on the trails around Sunrise Camp which were super confusing, though a map probably wouldn't have been that helpful. I was a bit annoyed that Wash Out hadn't waited since he did have all the info, but that's the way it goes. I asked a few people I met if they had seen him, but none had, so perhaps I even passed him somewhere along the way without noticing.
It got dark, but trail was pretty easy to follow and a few people coming out confirmed directions to Cloud's Rest. By this time, I wasn't convinced Wash Out was ahead, so my new plan was to make it to the summit where I thought Tourist and our friend Clark Kent might be camped.
To make a long story short, I got shut down just shy of the summit. It was really hard to follow the route to the summit in the dark, and I was doing a bit of scrambling that seemed unnecessarily exposed. Nothing too serious, but I decided to backtrack to the last spot I knew was on route, bivy for the night, and then cruise up to the summit first thing in the morning.
It's a bit lonely up here, but I'm hanging in there. I'm glad to be stopped for the night. I'm also glad I'm a climber, as this feels like a very normal situation. However, I could definitely use a big hug from my mom right now. Hasta manana. Peels is signing off for the night!
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