Synchronicity - Thursday, June 5

Sometimes everything just falls into place. You are looking for a new pair of shoes and when you get to the shoe store the brand and style you want fits perfect, are 50% off and they are giving two pair of free socks with each purchase. Or you need a bolt to fix something and when
you check the kitchen junk drawer not only do you find the right bolt but also a $50 bill that somehow got tucked in there and that is the exact amount you need to buy a new app for your computer that you need for a project. Synchronicity. Things just come together as they should for no apparent reason.

When things are out of sync it's a pain. Late Sunday night you remember you have a special meeting at work the next day and must get there early, but you forgot to fill the gas tank and the gas station is closed until 8am tomorrow, an hour after you have to be at work.

These alignments or misalignments can be called luck, good or bad, but we all know how awesome it is when everything just goes right and how frustrating it can be when nothing seems to work.

Today was the day we made things work.

The alignment of our water locations and our camp locations were out of sync. We had to do ten miles each day for this leg of our trip to get to our next resupply before we ran out of food, and the water sources were pretty close to ten miles apart. Sounds good. Except they were five miles out of sync. A plot on a Cartesian graph would show them 180°out of phase. The water would be available after we hiked five miles, meaning there would be none where we camped. The terrain was too rugged for us to do 15 in a day to get them synchronized and we couldn't do just five and make it to our resupply on time, so for the past two days we had to carry water from our midday crossing of a water source to make it to noon the next day when we would again encounter water, meaning we carried enough for dinner, breakfast and drinking on the trail in the afternoon and morning. But, today is the day we synchronized! The terrain was less punishing, especially the last 7 miles which are down hill. We hiked 16 miles today to a water source, which we camped at and the next source is 10 miles away. Camping and water synchronized!

We left our camp at Mulkey Pass and continued our climb. Our destination for lunch was a lake!! The first natural lake since the Mexican border, Chicken Spring Lake, a glacial tarn tucked in a cirque at 11,200'. We arrived about 11:30. It was off the trail 1/4 mile, which we happily traversed. The sun was bright, so after a quick lunch of Wheat Thins, cheese, fruit snacks and dried apples we stripped and dove in. It was a quick "swim" as the water was ice cold, but it was nice to wash the trail dirt and stink away. Our last shower was at the Tehachapi Airport Pilot's Lounge 6 days previous.

"Sunrise", a sweet 53 year old woman from England, who we had been leap frogging on the trail the past few days had arrived minutes before us. She also went swimming. Also, in a testament to what a small world it is a new acquaintance, "Hopscotch" joined us. Hopscotch is a 1995 graduated of Onalaska High School! We compared notes about Lewis County and agreed to meet at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant in the late fall after the hike. He does IT work in the Seattle area, but likes to travel so does contract work so he can get away for long international trips. He also swam in the ice cold lake, so we dubbed ourselves the Sierra Swim Team.

We left the lake about 1:00 with ten miles to go to synchronize our water and camping. The last 7 were mostly downhill, but the first three had us going up and down, traversing at about 11,200'.

We were tired doggies as we rolled into Rock Creek and camped at the first stream we crossed. We met Hopscotch there filling his water bottles. He continued about eight tenths of a mile to the actual Rock Creek. We were happy to stay put.

Water where we camped!! Such a luxury. Worth the extra miles and effort. We washed socks, shirts, underwear and ourselves in the gathering darkness, drank our fill and slept to the sound of a gurgling brook. Not only had we synchronized our water and camping, but we were camped at mile 760. Our next destination was Wallace Creek, mile 770. Talk about synchronicity!