I lost my hiking partner on day 3 of a 10 day trip

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I did a 10 day trip in SEKI. The route:

• Trail Pass to Golden Trout Creek via Tunnel Meadow.
• Golden Trout Creek to Kern via Volcano Falls.
• Kern trail to Colby Pass trail.
• Colby Pass trail to Avalanche Pass trail.
• Bubbs Creek to the PCT.
• Southbound on the PCT to Cottonwood Pass to complete the loop. A side trip to Crabtree Lakes.

I did a write-up with pictures on imgur.

Besides losing my hiking partner on the third day, the trip was nice. Things were very pretty. Colby Pass was excellent. I met an old friend who cheered me up.

I lost a lot of weight and now I’m struggling to keep it off. I woke up exhausted and hungry this morning. My last day of hiking in SEKI was Friday, and then my boyfriend dragged me on a 14 mile day hike on Saturday and since then I’ve been pretty tired.

[Greg Mihalik]

^^^

Must have been and interesting trip.

[Jerry Adams]

I find I lose 5 to 10 pounds after a several day backpack, especially if more strenuous

Then I gain it all back over several days

I think it’s a combination of water and food in the digestive system.  Sometimes I’ll get a little dehydrated.  I eat less when backpacking because I have to carry the food.  At home I eat more.  It takes several days for food to fill up the pipeline.

Hopefully I stopped short of TMI : )

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

That’s interesting about the warning. I don’t know why it won’t let people see my post. There’s no nudity or profanity or anything. Imgur sucks.

I have videos, but some people don’t like videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P25eX6PDA4&list=PL-9yXoCfg54OPfgNKXN6HMbEH6HbvSQCE

The tldr: My friend got lost on Whitney Creek on the Kern Trail. I waited for her for 2 hours at Whitney Creek but never saw her arrive. Maybe if I had seen her arrive I would have realized she went too far up the side trail to a log crossing. I waited where I could see everyone arrive and everyone come down the log crossing trail. When she didn’t arrive I figured she had found another way down and was ahead of me, so I went on to Junction Meadow and waited another hour. I then realized there were faint arrows in the sand at the junction with Colby Trail and figured maybe that was my friend pointing to where she had gone. So I continued. (Colby Pass and Colby Lake are excellent!)

Then I spent the next 4 days trying to figure out whether she was ahead of me or behind me. I talked to people I saw. Nobody ever saw her. I kept thinking I saw her coming but it was never her.

Eventually I was camped early on the PCT below Forester Pass and met a ranger who called around. It sounded like someone saw her on Tyndall Creek. I continued to stay in my camp because a thunderstorm was coming and maybe she was still behind me. While I napped a dear old friend just happened to come by. Small world!

In the morning I climbed Forrester Pass and there was my friend waiting for me at the top!

We went to Crabtree Lakes on one of our last few days, which were beautiful.

[Greg Mihalik]

Most Excellent!

Thank You.

 

(glad it all worked out,  though the wondering must have been rough)

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