Monday, June 18, 2012

Backpacking + Food Poisoning = BOOOOOO!!!

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Ok Snow, you were not in the forecast for this trip, so please don't surprise us! We came back to Mineral King this weekend to do the trip we set out for a few weeks back (but snow happened).

This trip was a planned 30 something mile loop in Mineral King: Over Timber Gap to Pinto Lake, Over Black Rock Pass to Little Five Lakes, and through Lost Canyon to the Top of Sawtooth Pass and out.

We drove from Los Angeles to the ranger station for our permit, and were on the trail by 1pm.
We stopped for lunch at a place we affectionately named "Marmot Rock," because it was covered in Marmot poop (those responsible were present, but we did not share our lunch with them).
Look at the view of Mineral King Valley already!

The climb out of Mineral King toward Timber Gap is quick and steep (1,600ft of elevation gain in about 2 miles).


But when you turn around and look back, its totally worth it!

Once over Timber gap, we had to go down nearly 2,300 feet through the buggiest (but prettiest) marshy field of wildflowers where water was still running off from the now that year. I snagged a few photos of the interesting flowers, but we were being assaulted by swarms of mozzies and had to keep going fast.  





Crossing Cliff creek was relatively easy because of some rock damns. I'm not sure why my backpack looks so big in this picture. 
There's a nice camp spot right after you cross Cliff Creek, complete with some loitering deer:

...but we were headed to Pinto Lake: 2.9 miles to go and 1,700 feet to climb. 

We didn't take any photos of Pinto Lake or the area where we camped for the night. The sun was going down and we had to make dinner quick. We had lingered a little too long at Cliff creek earlier, and that last 1,700 foot climb was harder than we expected. And this is where the fun part of the story comes in...

We had this genius idea of bringing chicken sausages to eat for dinner. They're small, and you can roast them on a fire on a stick. (Side Note: We found out later there are NO FIRES allowed at Pinto Lake--we claim ignorance b/c there was an existing fire ring and it was below the elevation that fires are normally allowed. They just don't allow it here b/c its a heavy use area). So we thought we were so clever, bringing this little treat with us (as the rest of the meals would be dehydrated meals and bars). They were frozen when we left the house and put them in the ice chest for the drive. We put them in our backpack at the last minute next to a cold water bottle. I think we were thinking it would take a few hours for them to defrost, and it would coincide with the time we would be roasting them. Well, we're dumb...and they were not even really cold by the time it was dinner. For some reason, we roasted them up and ate them anyway (funky smell and all). Sam quit a few bites earlier than I...and off to bed we went, with our tummies angry at our choice. About an hour later, I had to come out of the tent....I'll spare you details (Side Note: In the pitch black of the night in the middle of the wilderness, a deer walking by 5 feet from you while you're trying to do your business is horrifying). 

The night crawled by. I definitely felt like I had a fever. Add that to the other symptoms and it seemed to equal food poisoning. Sam said he felt his heart racing fast, but he ended falling asleep with little problems. We joke that he could eat a bomb and probably be ok. I'm the sensitive stomached one. The morning wasn't happy to see me either. I tried to eat some oatmeal...it didn't want to stay in me (Note: 2 years later I still WONT eat oatmeal on the trail). We tried to decide if I was well enough to push through or if we should turn around. Well, we're dumb. So we kept going. I really wanted to see what lay ahead of me, and on the other side of Black Rock Pass.

Pinto Lake area wasn't much to look at unless you turned around and watched it shrink behind you...


And pretty soon we were headed up....Oh... THERE'S Pinto Lake....They should call it Pinto Pond.

Looking forward to Black Rock Pass:

We always seem to make friends on the trail...this guy didn't care one bit how much we hollered at him, he did not budge. He must have found a good stash of berries or something he was munchin' on. 

Crossing a stream on the way up to Black Rock Pass. 

You can't even see tiny Pinto Pond anymore...


I felt terrible, and basically only ate a small bite of a cliff bar whenever we stopped for a brief minute. I'm not even sure if I consumed the whole bar by the end of the day. I forced myself to drink water, but nothing was really wanting to stay in me. We pushed on, still thinking I would get over it, that it would run it's course in my body and I would eventually be fine. I really wanted to peek over the other side and see the lakes I had heard so much about. And....I did!



And then I...well, you don't want to know. We decided the smartest thing to do at this point was to turn around and get as far as possible. If I can't keep food down, then going even farther into the wilderness and away from help wasn't the smartest thing to do. And down we went. Down, down, down...All the way to Cliff Creek, where we hung out with some mozzies for the night and had to climb up, up, up 2,300 feet through the marshy field of wildflowers, over Timer Gap, and out to the car. 

So here's what we learned: don't bring perishables backpacking, it goes bad and gives Katy food poisoning. The End. 

UPDATE (6/4/2013): I did NOT have food poisoning. I had altitude sickness. This has been an ongoing battle. I'll continue to talk about it as I go on future trips, what helps, what doesn't, as the battle continues.  

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