The hardest part for me after being off the trail for awhile is getting to sleep. Last night was no different. I got a lot of rest and it was a pleasant night but sleep was not a big part of it. Rest is what is needed anyway and sleep will come when it is needed. Here are some pictures from the start of the day and I head towards Wolf Creek Pass

In the middle of the afternoon I get to Wolf Creek Pass and this picture shows the view from there

But it is not far from here that the trail decides to take me along the barren ridges rather than down by the trees and lakes. I hate it when the trail does that

But even at these times you will sometimes run across something that takes your breath away. Perhaps that is easy for me but when I came across the Bristle Cone Pine shown below I just had to stop and sit in its shade for awhile.

Towards the end of the day, I met “The Count”. The group that he started with took on a medieval theme and he became “The Count”. He was the only one still going on the California Yoyo, hiking from Warner Springs to the top of California and then turning around and going back. He was on his way back. Why Warner Springs I asked? That is where he lives. Makes sense.

I thought I would do more miles today but it was not to be. Once I get tired, I get so slow that it just does not make sense to continue. So I set up camp and proceed to eat a lot of food and get ready for the next day. I decide to prepare all my snacks for the next day. Turns out to be a good decision and one I will continue.

A month off the trail, so as I get ready to renew the journey I have a lot of apprehension. The section of the trail that I did last was the hardest I had done. Partially probably because it was indeed hard but also because my health was a bit of a worry and there was some pressure to get it completed and make it to Sonoma pass to begin the trip back to see the doctor. But the apprehension faded quickly as a started the hike away from Sonoma Pass and towards South Lake Tahoe. After taking 30 days off I was pretty sure I was not going to see any PCT hikers. Everyone that I knew was way ahead of me in Oregon by now. That turned out to be true. I did not see any north bound PCT hikers all the way to South Lake Tahoe. However, I did see 3 south bound PCT hikers and a couple of hikers that were doing the section of the PCT from Interstate 80 to south Kennedy Meadows. Had to laugh because nobody really wants to do the 700 miles between Kennedy Meadows and the Mexican border. The desert scares everyone!! Today I did see 4 couples that were doing the very popular South Lake Tahoe to Tuolumne Meadows sections. Not sure why this section is so popular but perhaps simply because the start and the end point are both easy to get to and its a leisurely 2 week hike.

It did not take me long to realize I had lost my trail legs and any other trail body part that I had acquired. After about 4 hours my lower back was screaming at me and I had to stop often to give it a rest. After awhile my brain kicked in however and I asked myself why my lower back never hurt before even at the beginning. HUM… maybe something was not right. Turns out I did not have the backpack adjusted correctly and the weight was not resting on my hips as it should. Rather, the pack was too far away from my back and was slanted and pushing into my lower back. After adjusting the straps so that the pack was angled properly and tight to my back then the lower back pain went away. However, a couple hours after that my hips were aching, tired, and weak, and so I knew everything was as it should be :). That issue would resolve itself by the next day as my legs and hips got back into trail shape.

It was a fairly hot day and so just after noon I stopped to add some electrolyte tablets to my water bottle. I added the two tablets into the bottle, sealed it up, and proceeded to eat a snack. After about 5 minutes I started to feel these little drops of water falling on my head. Rain??? How could it be raining?? I looked up and not a cloud in the sky. Then I realized the tablets dissolving in the water bottle caused enough pressure that the water was being forced out of the drinking tube. I had created a water fountain that was showering me with water. I find a lot to laugh about on the trail and it is generally something stupid I have done. Now everything was really back to normal.

Went to cardiologist on Monday and of course he wanted to run more tests. The primary test needed was another stress test with an echocardiogram both before the stress and after the stress to try and isolate the disturbing images from the hospital. When he first said this on Monday he indicated is generally took 2 weeks to schedule the test and my heart fell. Then he realized I probably wanted to get back on the trail and so he said he would see what he could do. Turns out what he could do was pretty amazing as he managed to get me a slot in the schedule the very next day. So I went in on Tuesday and they did the echocardiogram and then had me get on the tread mill. 13 minutes later after ramping up the tread mill my heart rate was at 160 and he had me get off and they did the echocardiogram again. So, as it turns out they were NOT able to see the issues that were present in the hospital. The reason for that was not really explained other than 1 comment about how the quality of the images were better on his machine than they were on the hospital machine. At any rate, although there are more tests that need to be run, I have been told that I can continue on the trail. The further tests that are necessary to get a complete picture and complete satisfaction can be run when I am finished with the trail for this year and so I am scheduled to go back in November.

So I am free to go back and that is what we are going to do. Will travel back to Sonora Pass on Sunday and will start hiking again on Monday. YAY!!

I was complimented on my stress test results as he indicated that high school athletes have not faired as well. So that gives me great confidence.

I keep on meaning to mention that I have a new opportunity for you to feel good. A couple that I have been hiking with are hiking for a good cause and they are trying to raise a modest amount of money. The web site to check out is: Us and it hikes. Once you are there click on “The Cause” and you can read about their passion. I was personally moved because they are trying to raise money to help troubled kids. If you like the cause you can click on “Donate” and then again on the Donate in the middle of the page. You should be taken the the Project Canoe donation site. Please make sure you choose “Us and It Pacific Crest Tail Hike” as the fund for your donation. In case you do not notice this is a Canadian charity and the dollars you donate are Canadian dollars.

Since the Doctor could not get the results from the hospital, Lenora and I decided to take things into our own hands and went up to the hospital and got the results ourselves and then took them to the Doctor. Then he called me back and said that he already had all those results so I was just very confused. While on Friday he either wanted results from the Hospital OR I would go see a cardiologist by Monday when he called back he had decided for sure he wanted me to go see a cardiologist and so we got an appointment to see one the next Monday (August 17th). I asked him what had changed IF he already had all those results and he just indicted that I had been discharged from the hospital before anyone had reviewed the echocardiogram and he would be more comfortable if I saw the specialist before I went back into the wilderness far away from help. OK…. just very frustrating and we just seem to have 1 week delay after another. So, I will post the results after seeing the cardiologist and hopefully it will be good news and I will be on the trail.

Seeing all the results from the hospital was very interesting and disturbing. The diagnosis points that they used were

1. Obesity
2. Smoker
3. Chest pains
4. Shortness of breath
5. High blood pressure

Basically they got it all wrong except for number 5. I am NOT obese, I am not a smoker, I did not have chest pains, and I do not have shortness of breath unless I am climbing a 12000+ mountain!! Yes, I did smoke lightly for 2 years 45 years ago. Yes I have had chest pains rarely that I told them was probably heart burn. Yes, I do have shortness for breath when climbing a steep incline on a mountain! So they took everything out of context.

But the most egregious error that was made, and the one that has me very angry is this:

General: well-appearing, well-nourished, no acute distress, pleasant
At some other point they said I was alert.

I have never in my life been accused of being pleasant or alert!!!! I am sure that I can find many people that will vouch for me on this and will probably appeal.

More when I know more…

I was hoping to be on the trail today. However, my Doctor called me on Friday and changed his advise and indicated I should not go back on trail until the ambiguous results from the Hospital can be explained. Frustrating, as he seems unable to get the results from the Hospital and the Doctor with the ambiguous statements is out of the country and out of touch. So I wait…..

When we got home and listened to our messages on the home phone we had one from the “old” doctor indicating that we needed to go for a blood test and schedule a physical. So this just confirmed my decision to change doctors. I don’t think the staff for the doctor has any idea what they are doing and I’m sure the doctor has no idea what the staff is doing to her practice.

So we go to Doctor Delgado and explain what is going on. My blood pressure is out of control. It goes from very high to very low (it was low, very low, at the end of the last hiking section). There is no chest pain but I am out of breath very quickly when climbing hills. I have hiked 1000 miles and my stamina has not increased in that amount of time and in fact seems to have decreased. I do have chest pains from time to time but I believe that is heart burn and a simple glass of water seems to cure that and I have no pain on the trail. In general, my blood pressure is out of control and I just feel like something is wrong. After the general type of things that happen with a physical and finding nothing wrong they give me an EKG. Lenora and I are just talking while this is going on and the technician says “hum……”, I think I will do that again, please relax and no talking. She runs the EKG again, has a frown on her face, and indicates Dr. Delgado will be back with us soon. Obviously not good. Dr. Delgado does return in about 5 minutes and indicates the EKG is not normal and he tells me to go directly to the emergency room. I kind of hesitate and repeat his instructions with a question… You want me to go directly to the emergency room? Yes he says. By the way, my blood pressure at the Doctors was within normal range.

Lenora and I go out and get in the car and go directly to the Emergency room. Dr. Delgado has called ahead to let the emergency room know what it is all about. The emergency room is a mad house, and it is a really busy day for them. Even so, it does not take long for them to call my name and the nurse gives me another EKG to verify the results. The results are verified… I have an abnormal EKG. Apparently there are a lot of reasons for an abnormal EKG and so this is not necessarily a big red flag that gets your priority raised. I am sent back to the emergency waiting room with the following message “We are really busy today and the person waiting the longest out there has been here for over 6 hours. We are really sorry but you can expect it to take that long”. It is what it is. I have nothing to do anyway. I am calm and really have no anxiety at all. Whatever it is will be taken care of eventually and both the Doctor and the emergency nurse said the EKG, although abnormal, indicated I was in no immediate danger. While I was waiting, my blood pressure was taken about 4 times and each time it was taken the numbers were going up. It was as if I was under stress but I really was not. During the next 4 hours I also had my blood drawn for the express purpose of checking for enzymes to see if I had already had a cardiac event. Every time my blood pressure was taken or anything else was done I was asked how severe my chest pain was. Each time, I responded that I did not have chest pain and that my pain level was 0. There was no pain. I eventually, after about only 5 hours, was taken back to a room and hooked up to machines to monitor my heart rate, oxygen level, and blood pressure. Each time the blood pressure was taken, the numbers generally increased but also times when the numbers where normal and sometimes when they were low normal only to go higher. Simply out of control. They decided to admit me to the hospital so that they could run more tests. The only problem was that they were so busy there was no room at the inn. The cardiac unit had no free rooms. So they upgraded my bed to a regular hospital bed and I stayed in the emergency unit. By the time this decision was made it was about 1 am and this started about 3 pm. Lenora finally goes home to take care of the cats and to get some sleep. The first thing they do is give me a chest xray and indicate it is the cheapest and easiest diagnostic tool. I sleep pretty good at the hospital given that they are taking blood every couple hours to check that there has been no change and to do a full blood analysis. In the morning I have a stress test. The stress test they are given me has 3 parts. A 14 minute scan of my heart where I have to remain perfectly still. This may be difficult for some people but remaining perfectly still for 14 minutes is totally in my wheel house. After the image they give you a stress test. I figured a tread mill but they were going to give me a chemical stress test. Why not the tread mill I asked. Because we don’t want to increase your chest pain and we did not think you could handle it they say. I repeated that I have no pain in my chest and that I just finished 1000 miles on the PCT and I think I can handle the tread mill. Great they say because that is how we prefer to do it. Once you reach your target heart rate on the tread mill they give you a shot of something that is suppose to enlarge your heart a bit and then they do another scan of the heart. Using this information they can tell if there are any restrictions or blockages. I fully expected that a blockage would be found as that made sense to me. The treadmill experience was rather funny because the doctor that needed to give me the shot came in at the start. After watching me for awhile he dryly said that we were going to be here for awhile because my heart rate was not going up. The tread mill keep increasing in speed and elevation until it reached about 12 percent and I had to run to keep up with it. Once I started to run it did not take long to reach the 132 target heart rate. The shot was given, the second scan was done. There were no problems found. They did one final test which was a echocardiogram. This is an ultrasound of the heart where they observe its operation and take all sorts of measurements and pictures of the the heart at work. This was fascinating to watch. A cardiac doctor talked to Lenora and I and indicted nothing was wrong with my heart and that my blood work looked good. They were going to discharge me and send all the results to my Doctor and I should schedule another appointment with him. We had already scheduled a follow up with the Doctor for next Monday. The cardiac Doctor also said I should hike slower, rest more during the hike, and eat more to slow down the weight loss. This whole process took 23 hours and I was back home. So the EKG was a false alarm and could have been caused by the high blood pressure and weight loss that occurred too quickly OR I may normally have an abnormal EKG. Never having had one before there was no way of knowing

So my blood pressure is still really out of control with wild fluctuations and I still feel that something is wrong. We will see what happens when I see the Doctor again on Monday and he has had a chance to review all the results from the hospital. It will be up to him when I return to the trail.

I woke up (so I guess I did get some sleep) but forced myself to stay into sleeping bag until there was some light. I was hoping the wind would die down but it did not. Finally decided I might as well get going. Got up, put on my warm hat (SmartWool Balaclava) which covers the whole face, some gloves, and a 4th layer on my upper body (my rain coat). Thus armed, the wind did not bother me and I started hiking the last 7.93 miles. The walk on rock continues. There is actually snow up here!! Two places where I have to walk through some snow banks but only for about 10 steps each time. I am surprised at this point there is still snow on the trail. BUT there are also some new wild flowers.

So I made it to Sonora Pass and Hwy 108 at about 10:30 and Lenora was not far behind. Great to see her drive up. We were not able to make it to Church. Arrived back in Bridgeport a little too late. I got cleaned up, we went to lunch where I ate a lot of food, back to the motel for a couple hours of sleep, packed up the car and the cats, and drove to Escondido. Arrived home just past midnight and went directly to bed. Tomorrow is the doctor’s appointment and I hope to figure out what is going on.

As mentioned in last post I have rather big plans for today. Still hoping to get very close to Sonoma Pass by the end of the day for two reasons: I want to be able to go to Church on Sunday and we need to start the drive back to Escondido for the Monday afternoon doctor appointment. The elevation profile has finally settled down and I have a lot of flat ground ahead of me. The up and down sections of the trail are minor for the next 20 miles and then the last 10 miles look rather intense to get over Sonoma Pass to Hwy 108 where Lenora will pick me up. I get started about 7 and Rick and Mike are just starting to move and we say goodbye. They are only going to do 9 miles today to get to Dorothy Lake.

Here are some images from Wilma Lake in the morning. As you have figured out I love to get the early morning pictures of lakes when they are reflecting images from the mountains and the trees around them.

The trail is really very gentle. There are a lot more ups and downs that I thought looking at the profile but they are all pretty minor and I make good time. I stop about every hour however because the new light weight pack that I have does cause back pain if I go for any longer. As soon as my back starts aching, I stop for about 5 or 10 minutes and then I am good to go for another hour. When I get back on the trail it will not be with this pack but with a new one OR with a smaller belt on my old pack. I think the lightweight pack will be great for weekend hikes where the weight will be under 35 pounds.

Some flowers along the way. Obviously I am fascinated by the wild flowers and always scanning to see if I can notice a new one.

I have decided to drop my old doctor and try Dr. Delgado. There is just something wrong when the only time you need a doctor in at least 3 years (according to them) that you can’t actually talk to a real person. I am sure it is the right decision and so I definitely need to get home by Monday afternoon. There is really plenty of time but I still feel a bit of pressure to try and get to Hwy 108 today or very early on Sunday.

Here is a picture of Dorothy Lake. When I came over the ridge and saw this lake, my jaw dropped. The lake is as blue as I have ever seen. The blue surrounded by the trees was just amazing. Picture does not do it justice. The other thing is that reaching this lake puts me very close to the 1000 mile mark.

The picture below is much later in the day but just wanted to give you a feel for what is a pretty typical view during this whole section of hiking. Mostly forested, mostly beautiful.

At about mile 1003 you start the ascent to Sonora Pass. It starts out just like the picture above with forests and a meadows but about mile 1005 you emerge from the trees and you are on rock with rocks everywhere for the next 9 miles. Never ending rocks and walking the trail here is like driving in Nebraska or Nevada where the road stretches out before you endlessly. The ascent is gentle but just seems to go on forever. It is pretty much near the end of the day but I push on and think I am going to walk during the night. I seem so close, I am just going to push on. Push on I do, but when the sun goes down and the wind picks up it is just too cold to continue. Only problem is there are nothing but rocks but I do find a little flat place next to rocks that provide a bit of protection from the wind. I put down my pad and my sleeping bag, take off my shoes and crawl in the bag. At this point I have on 2 shirts and my down jacket and I leave them all on and sleep (sort of) in them all night. I am warm enough and enjoy looking at the night stars and happy I have only 7 miles to go tomorrow morning. A 23 mile day. Here are some pictures on the way up. You might be able to pick up the trail..

Good nights sleep but I know I have a very difficult day ahead of me and so I take out 2 days of Oreo cookies :). Here are some views from my campsite at the start of the day

Some wild flowers along the way

The habitat can change rather quickly and here I feel like I am back in rain forest

I get to a stream where I am going to refresh my water and I meet 3 other guys (Rick, Bill, Mike) doing the same thing. They are bucking the trend and they are walking from Tuolumne Meadows to South Lake Tahoe. They are really taking it slow and plan on taking 8 days to do what I am trying to do in 4 (get to Sonora Pass). Good for them!!! Rick and Bill are friends and Mike is a hiker they picked up along the way and he joined them. Mike is new to hiking and likes taking pictures and videos. He has state of the art EVERYTHING including all his hiking gear but has about 60 or so pounds that he is carrying including 70 batteries for camera equipment. We are not very far away from Wilma Lake which is suppose to have good camping. They are going to stay there and invite me to join them. I hoped to get further than that today but I am dead tired and take them up on their offer. Here are a couple pictures of the Lake.

Bill builds us a fire which is the first fire I have had on the PCT. It was rather nice to just sit around the fire and talk. Mike wants to interview me and I consent and so he sets up his equipment and works on his questions and we do an interview. I have no idea what he plans on doing with it. Questions like what I am doing on the PCT, when I started, best and worst times, why hike the PCT rather than just play golf or something else. I’ll have to search to see if I can find it on YouTube later on. Rick is 64 and about to sell his pool building company and retire and he lives in Poway (really close to Escondido). I tell him we are in the process of filling in our pool and he can’t understand why we would ever do such a thing.

The only thing about stopping at mile 986 is it leaves me 30 miles to get to Sonora Pass. I really want to get there by Saturday night which means doing 30 miles in one day. I wonder if it is possible. When I indicate I will be getting up early to leave to get as many miles as possible, Bill is not all that pleased. He likes his sleep. I decide that getting up too early and waking the other 3 up would not be the right thing to do. I wake up at my normal time the next morning but hold back until 6 to get started packing up and leaving. I end up leaving about 7 in the morning which isn’t that bad but it will make it impossible to get 30 miles in. Probably a good thing.

Woke up refreshed and started hiking around 7 in the morning. Trying Carnation Instant Breakfasts for this section and so I start out the day with a chocolate one. Not bad and as it turns out seems to work pretty good for morning energy and so will continue to use them. I have decided to fix all my meals for the day (except the evening meal) before I get going. It is just too much trouble to keep getting the bear canister at the bottom of the pack. So I fix a tortilla and summer sausage and cheese sandwich, take out the GU energy packets, get a smoked salmon package out, and 4 double Oreo mint cookies. These are the things I will eat through the day when the need and mood strikes me. The cookies are generally the first to go, the smoked salmon the last.

There is nothing spectacular that happens during the day. Thinking and praying about the Doctor and seem to be very interested in wild flowers today and notice some ones I have not seen before that I remember. So I get some pictures of wild flowers. Make it to mile 972 by Piute Creek where there are some nice campsites. I need to stop and this seems like a good place. I expect I will get joined by others as there are a number of great campsites but nobody shows up. I have not seen any PCT hikers going my way for the last two days. I expect I am truly at the end of the pack of PCT’ers. There are a number of people that are just wandering around Yosemite and also a fair number that are doing a hike from South Lake Tahoe to Tuolumne Meadows.

Here are some wildflowers that caught my attention

Lenora’s Note:
Hotel life is interesting. We have a big house for two people and to spend a week or more in a small room with two cats changes the dynamic of interaction. They quickly seem to adapt, find a favorite spot and snooze much of the day. I notice they are not playing as much this week but they seem to delight in looking out at the world so we have figured out how to wedge the playpen into the open doorway so they can be almost outside with not real risk of them getting out of the room and they both spend hours looking out as the cleaning crew and maintenance man move around the motel cleaning room after room. Often hotel neighbors come by and say hi and of course there are new people every day. I am stitching as much as I can and spend a whole day watching back to back episodes of Star Trek and enjoy greatly seeing Captain Picard, Data and all the cast again. I have not heard yet if Don is going to try the new doctor or if he will agree to go see the old doctor’s PA since we are told new patients cannot see the old doc until September. At least today they do tell me I can get an appointment on the coming Thursday with the PA so I make it, just in case Don cannot face starting with a new doctor and we have to pursue getting the old doc to take him back as a patient.