The origin of a mile

I passed a large number recently. Honestly, I don’t care how it seems to most people. But it’s very interesting to see how people go from not worrying about miles to suddenly celebrating a random one. I was also thinking about how few of these people who celebrate the big number even know what a mile is. That’s why it’s funny to see people celebrating at an arbitrary distance simply because others are celebrating.

Textbook flirting

Before the big number, I was relaxing at Mammoth Laundry when a hiker I had passed several times approached. I’ll call her Coquette. She began chatting with me, making direct eye contact, not giving me encouragement to ask a question among her own. Showing clear interest in me. She would laugh at my stupid laundry jokes, try to make connections as if we had both lived in Connecticut for two years.

Flirt mentioned an ex, indicating that she is available. And before leaving, he took my number. So here I am, clearly she was flirting with me and expects me to do the same. Spoilers, it wasn’t flirting. After several city tasks, I was having dinner at the bar and realized I had made a mistake. I should have invited her to lunch, so I quickly corrected course and invited Flirt to breakfast at the Breakfast Club.

In the gigantic car

She responded enthusiastically, but the next morning, while taking the tram to the Breakfast Club, she said she was sick because she had overeaten the night before. It is not an uncommon sight for city hikers. So I went alone, which sucks since I bought frozen pancakes from the supermarket the day before. But hey, fun place and huge portions.

Yosemite Meadows

After breakfast and a few more hours of loading, I headed out of town and onto the trail. It was a pleasant day, green meadows and a thick pine forest. I saw a black bear with blonde fur, I didn’t know they existed in such a variety of colors. We camped in a grove of trees and behind a rock wall that blocked the wind. Hoping Flirt can catch up to them. I ended the day early, mostly because of Yosemite camping rules, but a little because of her.

I didn’t see Flirt that night or the next day, but I kept pushing myself, enjoying the day by taking it easy as there was an upper limit on the mileage. Yosemite has rules about how far off the road/tent you have to be to get to «wild camp.» And I only packed enough food to get to the store in Tuolumne Meadows.

I ran into Moxie, a hiker I met in Mammoth. I chilled with him that night and for a few nights the next few nights, great guy, we swapped AT stories. His story about a bear in the Smokies kept me awake for a few minutes at night. Once we reached the first grasslands of Yosemite, we both expressed how different this place felt compared to the rest of the Sierras. Steep granite cliffs create unique environments, from meadows to pine forests.

Me and Moxie

Silly half dome

My original intention was to do Half Dome, sorry mom. But I didn’t get a permit through the lottery, and a two-hour trip to the Disneyland valley that is Yosemite just didn’t sound like fun. So I resupplied at Tuolumne (the Yosemite hiker store), a little pricey but I have the budget. This is where Moxie and I met up with Flirt.

And I met Flirt’s “friend”, who I’ll call Lover Boy, that’s right, Flirt had a boyfriend. They met on the first day of the tour and walked together ever since. Clearly together, or at least that’s the vibe Moxie and I got from them, which only got stronger in the days that followed. And then I walked a little bit with Lover Boy, a great guy who knows what he’s doing. Plus, Flirt has a cheerful personality, which explains why she was so attentive to me at the laundromat.

So I felt like a fool, but it’s not the first time, nor probably the last.

Yosemite Frosty Morning

Yosemite Mountains

That day I went out to the Yosemite Desert. The beauty of the valley softening my bruised ego. But the steep granite cliffs with rounded tops, the wide, long meadows of spring green. The lake water is warm, the pine forest is deep, the pass is windy.

I walked until Moxie caught up with me and we walked together braving the afternoon hail storm as we climbed to Miller Lake. The water was still warm and the hail stopped as we settled on a cliff above the lake. Of course, it was a previously used site. It was much warmer than the previous freezing night, but I still woke up with my gear wet from the humidity.

View from the camp

a long day

Moxie and I had planned to turn it into Wilma Lake (not to be confused with Wilmer Lake, an unfortunate perpetuated misspelling), another warm mountain lake, but there was 7,000 feet of elevation gain, and 7,000 feet of loss, between us and the lake. Not to mention a marathon. Moxie set off ahead of me, while I waited for the sun to dry my gear. I didn’t get on until 8.

But what a beautiful day in Yosemite. I crossed several passes and many more lakes and meadows. I saw too many cliffs to count. I forded wild rivers, saw a school of ducks, deer crossed my path, flowers flaunted my sight. I arrived just after sunset at Lake Wilma, after seeing Lake Wilmer on every billboard for hours. It was worth extending the sunset views into the night, plus the stillness of the twilight was unbeatable.

The Romans and an ox

Now waking up to the warmth of Lake Wilma was great. What wasn’t great was that other hikers spoiled me with the mileage we were going. While I look it up for recording purposes, I don’t actually memorize the distance. So I didn’t know we had hit large numbers right after Dorothy Lake Pass.

I’m not here for miles, why should I celebrate them? But it’s good to know what a mile is, beyond an arbitrary distance. And I don’t mean 5280 feet, that’s just a conversion. The mile originally comes from the Romans, which was 1000 steps (~5000 feet). The English later changed this to 8 furlongs. A furlong is the length that a team of oxen can plow without rest. That is why a mile in feet is divisible by 8.

Excellent views but the most important thing is the signal

I continued walking while thinking about the large number, my reaction, the reactions of others, and the mile. We stopped on the side of the trail to make dinner and watch the clouds to see if it might rain. The clouds parted as I finished, so I climbed up the exposed side of the mountain.

The Leavitt Mtn range had some of the best views yet. But I also checked the signal for the twelfth time that day and got something. Another hiker passed by and mentioned the view and I mentioned the strong sign. I saw her on her phone in the next breath.

I contacted an angel tracker in Pinecrest. One of the best stays so far. Guy knows what he’s doing as a former hiker, with a large cabin a block from the lake. Offered canoes, kayaks and SUP (stand up paddle board). I’ve never paddle boarded, so that was my side mission plan. Plus, Pinecrest apparently had the best prices on Sonora Pass.

A fort of childhood

Although before I got to Sonora Pass, I had to sleep and walk 7 miles there. And I found Flirt Cowboy and Lover Boy camping together. They showed me a place where there was no wind, but right next to it was the best place for cowboys on the road.

I felt like a kid building his secret base, setting up my cowboy camp that night. There was a grove between these dense trees, which provided almost complete coverage from the wind and sun. It had a large entrance and there was no vegetation to crush. I even placed my tent over the entrance to dry, greatly improving the fort look.

Sonora Dawn

I woke up the next morning to a colorful gradient sky. After a quiet morning, I arrived at the pass and found a few hikers hitchhiking at both locations, so I gave them room to work. After a while, I went to the first place, stuck out my thumb, and took the next car. A sweet couple on a road trip dropped me off at the post office.

cookie cabin

Trail Angel Cookie’s Cabin is really the place. Pinecrest Lake was a great lake to paddle across; The surrounding mountains provide a backdrop. Additionally, I helped Cookie work on the trails and ran with him in the morning on the Pinecrest Lake National Recreation Trail. Overall, a surprising zero in Pinecrest just before the 4th of July.

I was planning on not staying until the 4th of July, but a hiker pointed out that fireworks are a major cause of wildfires. So it’s the first double zero on the road. I could go paddle boarding again or do 8 furlongs around the lake.