A Multidimensional Universe - Wednesday & Thursday, June 25 & 26

We live in a physical world of three dimensions. At any moment we can choose to go in any of six directions - forward, back, left, right, up or down. The down is restricted by the ground and gravity plays heck with the up, but a shovel or an airplane get us past these difficulties. Of course we can combine these movements in infinite combinations, such as forward to the left or backward and to the right.

But what if we lived in a two dimensional world, one where there is no up or down. The Plains Indians lived in this two dimensional world. The absence of mountains or valleys took away the up and down except for climbing onto or off their horse. They only moved left, right, forward or back.

For the past two and a half months the argument could be made that I have been living in a one dimensional world. I have been living on a line. The PCT allows only two directions, forward or back. There is no left or right. To go in those directions would leave me off the trail and lost. So like one of those toy trains that has a single pulley for a front wheel that follows a rubber tube, I stay on my line, following it north, the one dimensional man.

At least one dimensional as travel through this physical world is concerned. I think my culinary selections over the past two days exhibits a multidimensional aspect to my life.

I arrived at Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) Wednesday, excited at the prospect of real food from the resort. Hamburgers. Salads. Sodas. Fries.

I met Rolling Stone, Click Click, Ryan and Annelise in the cafe, all new to the resort and just off the trail, eager to eat. After introductions and finding where each had been hiking we placed our orders and enjoyed good conversation seated five to a table while waiting for our food. Rolling Stone is from San Diego and is out with Click Click, his girl friend, spending 40 days and 40 nights doing then JMT. They do 5 to 6 miles each day, enjoying the scenery and the experience. Rolling Stone has worked construction, been a valet, a taxi driver and taught English in Thailand. Click Click is an aspiring photographer that shoots weddings and school yearbook photos for income, but her ambition is to be a travel documentary photographer. She has been all around the world, Egypt, Israel, France, Ireland, Central America and so forth on a one year free pass from her friend that works for American Airlines.

Ryan is a climbing guide in Stanley, Idaho for six weeks each summer, where he was headed next and Annelise was returning to work near Sacramento, their hike in the Sierra having just finished.

I ate lunch and dinner in the cafe along with multiple purchases of junk food-pop, chips, cookies, brownies and such from the store. When you arrive they start a tab in your name so each purchase is painless, then settle up upon your departure. So Wednesday I ran up my tab eating well while hanging at the cafe/store.

Rolling Stone surpassed me in this regard. He had two lunch orders, two dinner orders, two orders of pie, a milkshake and some junk food from the store. He had lost 17 pounds in 17 days and was trying to make up some missing mass. His tab was nearing $100 by the end of the day. On the other hand, Click Click spent nothing. She raided the 55 gallon drum used as the food hiker box all day, the trail equivalent of dumpster diving, and feasted on Top Ramen, mixed nuts and various other bags of discarded hiker food. The contrast between these two methods of procuring nourishment was remarkable.

I decided that on my second day at VVR, Thursday, I would expand my multidimensionality and employ Click Click's methods rather than eat three meals at the cafe. Head first in the 55 gallon drum I rummaged through the assorted bags for breakfast and found 4 Instant Quaker Oatmeal packages and a baggie of mixed nuts and carob chips and a nearly empty fuel canister. With prizes in hand I returned to my tarp (it rained this morning! How rude!), snuggled under my down quilt and cooked up four bowls of oatmeal with nuts. Delicious. Nutritious. Free. Including the fuel to cook it. Now this is multidimensional living!

I had not washed my clothes in the week since Sally dropped me off. VVR offers laundry for $8 a load. But, my load is a shirt, a fleece, a pair of pants, 2 pair of socks and two underwear. These articles could hardly be called a load.

I took my laundry into one of the 7 bathroom/shower rooms available and scrubbed them in the sink with a Motel 6 bar of soap until the rinse water was no longer mud. I then hung them on my tarp guy lines to dry.

While on a roll in my multidimensional financial austerity I accepted a shower token from Meg as she did not use hers. She and her husband, Jeff, showered together.

As I lay under my quilt this morning I checked milages and days left and found a surprising amount of the former and an alarming lack of the latter. From VVR to Carson Pass is near exactly 200 miles and I have 10 days left after my zero today. 10 - 20 mile days in a row. Although the trail is one dimensional in length it oscillates into the up/down dimension, which taxes my cardiovascular system on the up parts and my knees and feet on the down parts adding another factor to the linear distance equation. I checked the profile along the z axis (up and down) and found after Silver Pass, 7 miles distant, the magnitude of the ascending and descending is diminished significantly. The 3000 foot ups and downs of the past five days turn into 1000 foot undulations over the coming 200 miles. Hopefully, this will make attaining 20 miles per day more tolerable.

In an effort (or more accurately a lack of effort) at expanding my multidimensionality I accomplished something today I have never been able to do. Aided by my severe case of Acute Mountain Lassitude I sat in the cafe in front of the TV and watched the entire Germany/US soccer match, start to finish without ever raising my sorry butt from my chair! The US lost 1-0. I state the score to prove I really watched it. I had been doubting my need for a zero day and contemplating moving on this morning, but after that display of total vegetative malaise I realized how tired I was and my need for rest. After my labors at shower and laundry I retired to my tent at 1 PM for an afternoon nap.

I rose from my nap and wandered to the bench in front of the store to find Click Click and Rolling Stone trying to fit their 18 days of food into a bear can and a half can, unsuccessfully. With the help of the JMT hiker Rickie, who had decided to stop at VVR permanently and take a summer job as a waiter in the cafe, they ended up with a large extra bag they would have to hang from the trees for a few days to ward off the bears. Rickie was a paralegal in San Francisco who was downsized during the recession. He talks a steady stream with much gesticulating and animation and is quite knowledgable. He had been lacking a trail name to this point but before we were done packing food he became Rikipedia Pedantica or just Rikipedia for short.

Shakespeare, Steel Toe, Crazy Legs, Pockets, Pathfinder, Amy, Tristen and Russell hiked in just before dinner and we had a wonderful reunion. While waiting for the cafe to open for dinner we sat on the front stoop and discussed life, upbringings and politics. The conversations continued through dinner and out to the campfire until long after dark. What wonderful kids! I would adopt them all and bring them home if it weren't that they were 23-29 years old and already obviously very independent. It will be hard to leave them all in the morning.

I stumbled off to bed around 9:30, leaving the kids around the fire. I fell asleep before the generator that powers the whole place shut down at 10. This was a wonderful multidimensional zero day. In the end I got to act like a dad and a kid simultaneously, counseling with advise, listening to setbacks and joys and sharing trail and life experiences. In the morning I return to my one dimensional linear wanderings, but today I was 3D.