Bob Kittredge
Active member
Holy spit! I don't know when I've hiked in a worse combination of heat, humidity and bugs.
On Saturday we started up Valley Way about 10 and were immediately sweating. No speed records being set today. By 1:45 we'd made it up Watson Path as far as Pine Link (nice diapensia and rosebay, by the way) when we heard the first roll of thunder. Immediately hung a right onto Pine Link and booked it for the hut. Heard 2 or 3 more booms, but never saw a flash or got rained on. The bugs were out, but I came through relatively unscathed.
Sunday we started up Stony Brook about 8 AM. The bugs were voracious for the first two miles. A little cooler, but I was still sweating buckets. I normally get by with a sweatband that I wring out every few minutes, but today I needed something more along the lines of a raingutter installed on my forehead. Very hard to keep my glasses dry and unfogged. Thank god there was a cool breeze up on the ridge. We spent a pleasant half hour on Moriah peering into the haze. We could see as far as Carter Dome, but the Pressies were completely obscured. The thunder held off until 1 PM when we were nearly off the ridge. The rain held off until the last 15 minutes. Beautiful trail, nice wildflowers. Back at the car I took off the boots (aahhh!) and stuck my feet into the brook for a minute. I was surprised at how unfreezingly cold it was.
Today I'll scratch my souvenir bugbites and massage my aching legs.
On Saturday we started up Valley Way about 10 and were immediately sweating. No speed records being set today. By 1:45 we'd made it up Watson Path as far as Pine Link (nice diapensia and rosebay, by the way) when we heard the first roll of thunder. Immediately hung a right onto Pine Link and booked it for the hut. Heard 2 or 3 more booms, but never saw a flash or got rained on. The bugs were out, but I came through relatively unscathed.
Sunday we started up Stony Brook about 8 AM. The bugs were voracious for the first two miles. A little cooler, but I was still sweating buckets. I normally get by with a sweatband that I wring out every few minutes, but today I needed something more along the lines of a raingutter installed on my forehead. Very hard to keep my glasses dry and unfogged. Thank god there was a cool breeze up on the ridge. We spent a pleasant half hour on Moriah peering into the haze. We could see as far as Carter Dome, but the Pressies were completely obscured. The thunder held off until 1 PM when we were nearly off the ridge. The rain held off until the last 15 minutes. Beautiful trail, nice wildflowers. Back at the car I took off the boots (aahhh!) and stuck my feet into the brook for a minute. I was surprised at how unfreezingly cold it was.
Today I'll scratch my souvenir bugbites and massage my aching legs.
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