Met on theTrail

[balzaccom]

We met some truly memorable hikers on our visit to Onion Valley this past week. Some with interesting tales, some with confusing stories, and some that just made us shake our heads.

We met one fellow in the campground the first night. He was going solo over Kearsarge Pass, and hoped to take in Sixty Lakes Basin as well as some other sights along the way. But he was roughly our age, and he wasn't taking anything for granted. His itinerary was simple: get over the pass the first day, and then see how things went. That seemed quite reasonble to us. And he gave us a few left-overs from packing his pack: a can of excellent IPA, a couple of energy bars, a couple of mozzarella sticks, and a non-alcoholic beer. We saw him later when we passed him on the trail and then again when he made it up to the top of the pass just before noon. His trip seemed to be right on schedule, and we hope he had a wonderful time.

Another fellow told us that he was hiking up to meet his daughter as she through-hiked the John Muir Trail. He was carrying a heavy pack full of food for her, and lugging it up over Kearsarge Pass and down to meet her on the trJMT on the other side. We were impressed. "She deserves it," he told us. "She helped get me through cancer. And now I'm helping her do this."

A mother and daughter were hiking the JMT together, and we shared stories of hiking with our kids, and the quality time it allowed us to have with them. And next to our campsite, we met a mom who was meeting her son and two of his friends with their re-supply for the rest of their trip. She had brought up pizza for them to gobble up for dinner that night, and set them off the next morning with a smile and a hug.

We even met one young couple who were just packing up as we hiked by their campsite on the way to Robinson Lake. I asked them where they were going, and the young woman looked at me and smiled. "Um,. some kind of loop thing, where there are lots of lakes?" When I allowed a look of concern to flash over my face, her companion quickly stepped in. 'Don't worry," he said, as he pointed to his phone, "I've got it all mapped out."


Got any good stories of hikers you've met along the way?

 

[Rockskipper]

I was sitting on top of Vestal Peak in Colorado’s Needles when a fellow climber walked up and said hello and congratulated me and himself on climbing Arrow Peak. I said thanks, but I’ve never climbed Arrow and he just looked confused until he signed the register and realized he climbed the wrong peak.

 

[LarryBoy]

I once met a girl on the AT who intended to thru-hike carrying a ceramic garden gnome.

 

[fossana]

A friend and I were hiking back after a Sierra alpine climb, and ran into an older gentleman in yellow running shorts. My friend said to him, "I hope I am still hiking at your age." The man smiled and continued on. We later found out it was climbing legend Doug Robinson.

 

[napatony13]

Not a meetup, but waved as we ran past each other. I was in "The Box" at the bottom of the Grand Canyon doing my first R2R2R, taking advantage of the flattish downhill section to do some moderate running. As I came around a corner that morning a woman past me headed uphill, and she was blazing! I've been a track coach for 20+ years and I could tell she was really moving. Seeing her speed and her form I said to myself "she has to be somebody". I subsequently learned it was Camille Herron, an ultra-distance legend. She was attempting a fastest known time R2R2R, but ended up bailing out halfway. I finished mine later that night...no records for time, but it was the sorest I've ever been in my life!

 

[regehr]

As a 50-something, the youngsters I run into don't usually seem interested in chatting, but I will almost always make the effort to chat up an older person. In the Ruby Range two summers ago, friends and I ran into a guy whose grandfather Wines Peak was named after. In a remote part of Capitol Reef, I ran into a couple guys, one maybe my age and one older, not dressed at all like hikers. There were scouting for wildlife and the older one was a Notom, from the Notom ranch. Super interesting folks to chat with. Coming out of a different part of Capitol Reef near the south end of the park we ran into a ranger lady with a hot pink AR-15, who wanted to be sure we had been leaving no trace. I told her that we left a lot fewer traces than the cows that someone had let wander into the park.

 

[wick e. pedia]

My wife and I were doing a quick hike one morning with her sister and her sister's husband, who were in from North Carolina. About halfway up, my brother in law looks up and goes "...Megan?"

It was, indeed, Megan - his first cousin who lives in Seattle. They still do holidays and stuff together and are pretty close, as cousins go. They'd even caught up on the phone like two weeks before that.

The hike was up to Devils Head fire lookout...in central Colorado. Neither had any clue they'd both even be in the same state, let alone on the same trail at the same time.