Official 1999 Miler Journal by Karen

Cast of Characters:

-Heber "Uncle Heebie Jeebie" Slusser
-Paul "The Lone Ranger" Sidenblad
-Laura "I don't like my Nickname" Wilbur
-Suzy "Wonderbutt" "Woozy Suzy"
-Jenny "Crazy Mountain Lady" "Giggles"
-Jennie "0"
-Kathleen "Flash"
-Sharmini "Dingaling"
-Karen "Chef Boyardee " (also the narrator of this journal)

Friday, August 6th:

Hi there. I still can't believe we're actually starting the hike tomorrow! Today we had a fairly uneventful car ride up to Mammoth Lakes, where shelter setup is just finishing. It is just before five now, and Laura (who is bringing dinner) got held up in traffic so we won't probably eat until 8. The shelter looks awesome, thanks to Jenny's architectural talents. It is COLD! Heber thinks it will be chilly for a couple of days with potential thunderstorms, but he thinks well have a few nice days too. Well see! J At any rate, it looks like it will be a lot of fun again this year. There are flush toilets here! (we think) That's important since well be going for eight days completely without any form of toilet. Right now Shannim is evaluating the music of our fellow campers, which is entertaining. Anyway, this will probably be the least interesting day to write about, so III conserve space for later.

Saturday, August 7th:

Whoa Nelly! Tough day today, but that's nothing unexpected. It would be a tough day even if it weren't the first day. (Which means heavier packs and varying degrees of altitude sickness.) Mostly though, I feel pretty dam good. I don't know why exactly, but I'm loving this, in spite of the tough hike. (Which, by the way, isn't over yet.) We're taking a brief break to patch up heels and eat a little more, so I figured I'd have a little time to write. It's a beautiful day today, although the wind just picked up, so it's getting a little cold. That has been good for keeping us from overheating though. It looks like we're about ready to move on, so I'll write more in camp...

Ouch. That is my only comment on the rest of the hike. Right now we're in the midst of shelter setup and dinner preparation. It is COLD again. The shelter setup is being made interesting by the fact that the wind is coming from all directions at once. Oh dear. My brain just completely quit functioning, so I'm going to stop writing for the day.

Sunday, August 8th:

Today was another tough day, but we took it slow because everyone was feeling the effects of the altitude sickness a bit more. We decided it would be a bad idea to push on to Ram Lake, which was supposed to be our layover spot. We are currently at Duck Lake, which is incredibly beautiful. There is a huge, sparkling, perfectly blue lake, which is surrounded by a lush green meadow dotted all over with wildflowers. Then the meadow is surrounded by some trees and spectacular granite mountains on all but one side.  On that side the lake is held in by some large granite boulders, and then it appears to drop off steeply. Beyond that are more of the unbelievable peaks so commonly seen out here. This is definitely what it's all about. Earlier today I was tired, dizzy, and cranky, but right now there's no way I could allow any crankiness into my mood. It helps that the sky is this amazing shade of blue never seen in the Silicon Valley, with puffy white cotton candy clouds drifting through it. Have I mentioned that I love it out here?? JJ The leaders are discussing possible plans, since they think we may need to make the hike slightly easier to accommodate the mountain sickness. I would NOT mind having a layover here, but I don't know how that would fit into our plans. I'm curious what's going on, so III finish this later.

So now it's after dinner and Suzy, Jenny, and Jennie are attempting to bear bag. We've decided to lay over here tomorrow, which will definitely be fun. Now that we've had some time to rest, everyone is back up to their normal spirits, with laughter and smiles abounding. We do have neighbors here (lots) but so far they've mostly been the good quiet kind. I'm really looking forward to a warm sleeping bag tonight and a chance to wash hair tomorrow. At any rate, it's getting cold and I'm getting tired so I'm going to bed now. Good night.

Monday, August 9th:

Brrrr! My head is cold! That's the price I pay for having clean hair. Today has been a nice layover, but unfortunately the clouds went in front of the sun and are getting thicker, so it is getting very cold out here.

Okay, so now it just started to rain, with a few snowflakes in between the drops. Jennie and I are under our shelter eating lunch so well stay dry. My dad just showed up in camp a little while ago!J  I know that will definitely take a load off of everyone's minds. You know, I'm actually still glad we decided to lay over here, even though the thunder and lightning just started up. Otherwise we would have been hiking or trying to set up camp in this rain, which would be miserable. It's only two o'clock and we don't have much to do until dinner, so we can afford to just hang out under the shelters until it dries up a little. I'm cold and hungry, so I'm going to stop writing for a little while.

Well, it has been drier for a little bit, but about three minutes after I stopped writing it started to
hail.  Hard.  Even our excellent shelter (built by Jenny) started to sag under the weight of the ice to the point where she had to be our hero and go out into the hall to fix it. Now the shelter is just plain awesome because we had a chance to fix it a lot when it stopped hailing. Right now, it is drizzling lightly. My dad, Heber, and Jennie are down by the lake fishing. I hope they caught some to go with dinner. (If we ever manage to cook it in this weather.) Jennie just came back and said they got one little fish. Jenny and I stayed in the shelter until dinner, and looked for pictures in the water droplets. We got really good at it after a while! J Dinner was tasty but a little spicy. We saw a bear today, but since we all turned around and looked at it, it ran off to bug the other campers and left us alone.

At around 12 midnight this night there was a really nasty thunder, lightning, and hail storm that kept myself and the Jennies awake for quite some time. Apparently there were two dry thunder and lightning storms later that night too, but I slept through those.

Tuesday, August 10th:

We got all packed up and ready to go this morning a little later than expected because of all of the ice on everyone's tents. But we saw the clouds moving in early (they were nearly solid by 9 am) and decided we wouldn't make it to Purple Lake before another storm hit us, so we just hiked over the little hill separating us from Pika Lake, and set up camp there by around 11 am. GOOD move. We'd barely gotten our shelters set up when the light drizzle started. We finished the shelters as quickly as we could and threw everything we thought we would need for the day under them. (Including ourselves.) Shortly thereafter it started to rain and hail, and it was pretty cold so Jenny, Jennie and I all squished under Jenny's sleeping bag to eat lunch and share the warmth. Right now I'm watching the hail pile up outside the shelter. The biggest chunks are just a little under pea-sized, with most of them a bit smaller. It kind of looks like the ground is covered in little Styrofoam packing balls. We've also had a healthy dose of thunder and lightning, with the thunder coming soon enough after the lightning to let us know that it is pretty much right over our heads. At the rate we have been going, I'm not sure we're going to end up getting very far, but I've been really enjoying myself anyway. It's been fun to get away from the kinds of issues faced in my normal life, and get to focus on something as basic as staying dry and warm enough to survive. Sharmini Just started singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and I think Jennie's asleep. I'm going to follow her lead and get back to this later.

The leaders have made a cooking shelter so we can eat even though the hall mostly has let up only for little breaks of about 15 minutes. I don't think the shelters can take much more water before they start to leak, so I hope it's dry tonight. We've been singing "I'm Dreaming of a White August." I'll try to include the lyrics at the end of this journal. I'm really tired and it's hard to write while in a sleeping bag, so good night.

Wednesday, August 11th:

Well, this has certainly been the strangest miler I've been on. It was fairly dry and uneventful last night, though a bit cold. We woke up this morning already thinking we might have to leave so Suzy would feel better (the altitude was really affecting her L) and discovered that a bear had eaten half of our food, even though we had met and exceeded all of the suggested distances, etc. for where to put the bag. The bears are just getting too damned smart! We decided that what with the altitude sickness and hailstorms, the bear eating our food was the last sign that we really needed to leave, so we packed up and had an impromptu Scout's own where we handed out the traditional miler ankle bracelets. Then we headed out on the mostly muddy and slushy trail. We passed a bunch of people on the trail, going both ways. They were all startled to hear that we had been out in the hail, since we all still looked so happy and healthy. We got back to the cars and headed to Twin Lakes for showers. Once we all felt thoroughly clean we drove over to a pizza place that Suzy had heard was good. It was!! We had salads and pizza (we almost polished off three larges) and talked and laughed about the trip. Our waitress was really nice, and even helped us take our group pictures in front of the pizza place. All in all it has been an amazing week, and even though we only hiked around 11 miles and stayed five days instead of eight, I definitely feel that the friendships made and strengthened and the feeling of being able to survive with a smile whatever life throws out at us has made this trip worthwhile.

Words of Great Wisdom from the participants of the '99 Miler:

I'm Dreaming of a White August (one of many versions sung on the hike)

I'm dreaming of a white August,
Just like the ones I've never known.
Where the shelters glisten,
And the Girl Scouts are wishin'
That they were safe and warm at home.