It wasn't so much the overwhelming flash of pain that worried me, but more so the audible "snap" I deeply felt in my ankle while tumbling down the mountain. "Boy, that wasn't part of the plan" I thought while spitting sand from my mouth.
The trip started on a Thursday after an endless day of work at the office. My good friend and I bombed down to Mammoth via 395 and pulled into a nearby campground at midnight for a couple of Zs before heading out first thing in the AM. After what felt like 20 minutes of sleep we set out to drop the car off at the base of the mountain and grab the YARTS bus back north to Tuolumne Meadows for a wonderful 4 days of backpacking through Yosemite and the Ritter Range. As soon as we stepped off of the bus we hurried up to wait in a line for an hour to pick up our reserved permit. Once official, we made our way to the Lyell Canyon TH and headed south on the JMT/PCT for wonderful stroll down Lyell Canyon.
Day 1: Lyell Canyon TH south via JMT/PCT about 1.5 mi. north of Donahue Pass.
A wonderful way to start the trip with really easy hiking and beautiful scenery. Although we both felt like we could tackle Donahue Pass that day, we decided to settle in for the night about a mile shy of the pass and leave it for fresh legs in the morning. Mostly we both wanted a relaxing evening and a chance for some quality sleep after last night. After dinner my friend went down to the nearby creek for a water refill. A half hour later he said he forgot something down by the creek and went to go get it. I don't remember all of the details but it was like one those "I love you, man" beer commercials because to my surprise he snuck in two IPA tall boy cans and chilled them in the creek. Life is perfect.
Day 2 had us continuing south on the JMT over Donahue and Island Pass then striking out cross country to circumvent the west shores of Thousand Island Lake and south over Garnet Pass to camp at the west end of Garnet Lake.
Dinner time!
Day 3 started like 2 with us getting up well after sunrise. We goofed around and explored the area for a couple of hours until the sun had things warmed up for a swim. After aquatics, we packed up and worked our way south up and over Whitebark Pass down to upper Nydiver Lake. We scarfed down some lunch (mmm, summer sausage) on the west shore and continued south across the granite to drop down over the cliff ridden bowl towards Ediza Lake.
Upper Nydiver:
After we made the 2K foot descent down to Ediza it was mandatory swim time. We dropped our packs, clothes, and shoes on the sandy northwest shore and jumped in-then out. Brrr.
My friend decided to head up the hill a bit to check for a site hidden in the trees he had seen on our way down. After a few minutes I hear him yell that he's found a perfect spot and to come on up. Being that I'm a relatively nice guy I decided to front pack his backpack so he didn't have to come back down for it. Well, bad idea. This is where I found out what Ritter Range sand tastes like. Also, that breaking an ankle on a backpacking trip is stupid. Especially since I had just done miles of talus up and over cross country passes and I just snapped my ankle on the sandy shores of Ediza Lake.
The scene of the accident:
I did sleep pretty good, but I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to put weight on my ankle in the morning. As soon as the sun lit up the ridgeline, I pulled my foot out of my sleeping bag for morning inspection. Doesn't look good. My ankle is the size of a football and heavily bruised. I steady myself to see if I can stand and I immediately buckle under the pain. I swallow some pain meds and laid back down for about an hour. This time I wrap my ankle with my underroos and lace up my shoes pretty tight. Feels much better but not great. It's going to be a long 9 mi. down the mountain.
Ediza to Agnew Meadows via Shadow Creek trail to River Trail:
Easy does it. After I got going, it wasn't that bad (yay, big Motrin!):
