I’m writing the first draft of what you now read on the shores of upper Cathedral Lake in Yosemite’s backcountry. It’s midweek and I’m on a solo overnight backpacking trip. I didn’t have to work yesterday and I don’t have to work tomorrow, or even the rest of this week. In fact, I don’t have to be back at work for another 11 weeks. How? I’m taking a three-month sabbatical! Actually, Owen and I are both taking a sabbatical. Neither of our companies have formal sabbatical programs, but we convinced our bosses to let us take 3 months off. As we’ve started telling people about it, we’ve gotten a lot of questions. I’ll summarize the common ones here.
Q: A sabbatical at age 30? Really?
A: Yup. The seed was initially planted a few years ago, when Owen heard his company offered a sabbatical program, so we started brainstorming what we’d want to do, where we’d want to go. When he found out that unfortunately there was no program, we were already too excited to not go through with our plans. A sabbatical is based on a biblical practice that involved taking a rest period from working in the fields once every seven years, according to Google. Coincidentally, we’ve been working for seven years since we graduated from college. It’s time we took a break.
Q: What are you doing with the time off?
A: The short answer is that we are driving to Alaska in our 35 year old Toyota 4Runner with our husky and going backpacking and hiking along the way. The main destination is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Then we’ll drive back to CA and fly to the East Coast to veg out at the Jersey shore and spend time with friends and family.
Q: Wrangell-St who?
A: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, it’s the largest national park in the United States (six times the size of Yellowstone) and it contains many of the tallest mountains and largest glaciers in the country. There are only a few people we’ve talked to that have heard about it, and only one person I’ve met who’s actually been there. It’s like the forgotten middle child of Alaska’s National Parks.
Q: Will there be bears?
A: Yes. That’s like asking if there’ll be rain. It’s Alaska!
Q: Are you bringing a gun?
A: No, but we are bringing bear spray. This article helps explain our thinking: https://www.nps.gov/articles/bearsprayfirearms.htm
Q: Are you going to sleep in the back of the 4Runner?
A: No, we’ll be sleeping in our trusty old tent. Back in 1987, they made 4Runners much smaller than they do these days. Between Denali's bed, our portable refrigerator, and the drawers, there is pretty much no space left. Even with zero stuff in the back, Owen, Denali, and I can’t fit comfortably. And as much as Denali would probably love to sleep outside, we don’t trust her to resist the temptation of late night explorations.
Q: Are you subletting your house?
A: Nope. We’re technically not allowed to. I did offer it to my sister for the summer but she declined, saying she’d miss her boyfriend too much ;)
Q: Will you be posting blogs during the trip?
A: Likely not. This way, I can fully immerse myself in our travels and be totally unplugged. Look for a mega-blog post when we get back!
Needless to say, we have been quite busy the last few weeks getting things ready. I’ve been researching our route, backpacking options, and a million other little logistics. A couple resources have been invaluable, namely Greg Fensterman’s Hiking Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It includes sub-chapters with names like “Bear Wrestling and Other Critter Encounters” or just simply “Bugs.” He lists a myriad of hiking and backpacking options, and for each one he warns you of the challenges. Some have none listed, others have several: “Stream crossings, difficult moraine, very difficult glacier crossings, route finding, bushwhacking.” In some places he elaborates, with foreboding details like “Some may find the exposure to be more than they care to take on.” Any route with more challenges than I can count on one hand got eliminated from our consideration. This is a vacation after all, and we want to have some fun.
While I’ve been reading books and researching online until my eyeballs feel like they’ll fall off, Owen has been working feverishly on the 4Runner late into the night, doing oil changes, tire replacement, fixing broken bolts, building drawers and way more. We’ve gone on a few trips recently to test the truck setup. One was to Lake Tahoe, where we car camped and I ran the Broken Arrow Skyrace 26K (about 16 miles). While the race itself was “short” by my skewed standards, it wasn’t without challenges: over 5,000 feet of elevation change, snow steps, loose rock, mud, basically terrain that will twist your ankle the second you stop paying attention. I survived unscathed, but when I got to the finish line Owen and Denali were nowhere to be seen. About 15 minutes later they arrived. It turned out that they hiked up the mountain to try to catch me at the last aid station, but Owen underestimated the climb (a common mistake of his at my trail races) and didn’t make it in time. They rode the gondola back down but I still beat them to the finish. The celebration afterwards was one of the best I’ve seen at trail races: live music, a free buffet, and a rambunctious dog that kept trying to steal unattended food from said buffet. As for the truck setup? The drawers were great, but they needed dividers, and we needed tie downs for all the gear on top of the drawers. There was still work to be done.
 |
| I finished! |
 |
| Snow steps on the course |
Round two: another shake out trip to Sawmill Lake in Tahoe National Forest for the 4th of July weekend. We packed as if we were heading up to Alaska so we could test the storage systems at full capacity. As a minimalist, it did stress me out a bit. For example, Owen brought a Queen sized air mattress- not to sleep on, but to use as a raft to float on the lake, which he never actually used. Besides testing out our setup, it was supposed to be a relaxing trip, just eating, drinking, and enjoying the lake. Instead, we ended up going on a 6ish mile hike, half of which involved bushwhacking up a creek and in the surrounding canyon, to get to another lake which it turned out was overrun with grazing cattle. Hey, it happens.
 |
| Enjoying Sawmill Lake |
 |
| View from the top of a waterfall |
 |
| Taking a break during the hike |
And that brings me back to now, to the lake in Yosemite. I walked around almost the entire lake to find a great campsite and finally selected one. I discovered the tent I brought has shot elastic in the poles, but I very carefully set it up and staked it out, hoping a gust of wind won’t take it out. About 30 seconds later, a cowboy with five mules came over and very politely informed me that there was nowhere else for him to set up so he’d be camped nearby if I didn’t mind and that dinner would be loud. I had so many questions (Why would dinner be loud? Dinner for the mules or dinner for people?), but I settled on “Oh, is it a big group of people coming?” Only four others apparently. Four, I could deal with.
—-----
Update from the next morning: Because the polite cowboy’s group had to camp so close by, they invited me to dinner and to hang out with them. Along with a wilderness guide there were three clients, and they were hiking a section of the JMT, from Mammoth Lakes to Yosemite. As the guide described it, they were doing the backpacking version of RVing, since the mules could carry luxuries like camp chairs, gourmet food, and drinks. They were all friendly and fun to talk to, but I came out here to test myself, to see if I could handle a solo trip in the Sierras. I almost feel like I cheated. I mean, I had a wilderness guide, a cowboy, and 5 tough looking mules camped within 100 feet of me. If a bear were to saunter into camp in the middle of the night, I wouldn’t have to single-handedly fight it off. I guess I’ll just have to do another solo trip!
For now, though, we have a road trip to take. We are supposed to leave tomorrow, and we have a tentative plan but as we all know the best laid plans never survive first contact with the enemy, especially when you involve a 35 year old truck and a strong willed husky. So what will really unfold over the next 3 months? Your guess is as good as any.
 |
| Researching with my assistant |
No comments:
Post a Comment