We slept in a little bit and had breakfast in the café with the crew. Then after sorting our resupply we decided to stay and have a rest day. Daveed's foot is feeling better, but we are both glad to have a rest day...especially after yesterday and how bad my knees and feet hurt. We were all sitting around outside the store hanging out and delaying the departure of Jackie Sue and Amelia. Jackie Ray made the tough decision to stay on trail and finish without Jackie Sue. It was sad and hard, but in the end Jackie Sue understood. Enter Tiphane from Switzerland. We met Tiphane the night before, she had been at VVR for about 2 or 3 days, resting and ultimately trying to figure out a way to catch a ride to San Francisco because she had decided to quit the trail. She was actually going to ride back to San Fran with Amelia, then met us, and ended up partnering up with Jackie Ray. It couldn't have worked out better. It was really sad and unfortunate that Jackie Sue's injuries forced her to leave but it worked out perfectly that Tiphane and Jackie Ray were able to partner up and continue on together. Tiphane was hiking the trail solo and was mentally tired, lonely, and a bit scared. She flew all the way here from Switzerland to hike the trail and when she saw that Jackie Sue physically could not walk and had no choice but to leave, she reconsidered her reasons for leaving and decided to stay.
Jackie Ray and Tiphane will hike out of VVR with us tomorrow, I'm looking forward to having their company and we'll probably be with them for the next couple weeks since we have similar itineraries.
We said goodbye to Amelia and Jackie Sue... as a closing sentiment, Amelia played a song on her flute that she said she played when she first set out on the JMT....it was really beautiful and touching and something I would never do. Which made it so much more special to me. I was glad to have met her and her crew. It was so sad to say goodbye! I was very thankful that both Daveed and I were fine, healthy and able to continue on the trail. I wold have been absolutely crushed if we would have had to leave the trail. After planning it for so long, dreaming about it, making it the central focus of our trip, making it our summer goal to complete it, and falling in love with it- the thought of having to leave without finishing brought tears to my eyes. This would turn out to be the one and only time I cried "on trail". As I stood listening to Amelia play her flute, all of these thoughts and emotions rushed over me and I started to cry. Daveed came over and gave me a big hug, as surprised by my tears as I was. He knows I'm not much of a crier, I'm a pretty tough cookie, but he understood just as much as I did how sad it would be to have to leave the trail early.
Smoke from the El Portal wildfire near Yosemite rolled into VVR mid-morning, snowing ash down on us and smoking us out. Around noon it started raining hard and it helped to clear out the smoke. It rained the whole rest of the day and we hung out at a picnic table under a roof that's attached to the store/café. The temps dropped and with us just sitting around all day we were cold! We drank a lot of hot beverages and ate a lot of hot food to try and stay warm. We tried to eat as much of our extra food as we could and made a respectable dent in it. It was a treat to sit around and rest all day and I took advantage of the opportunity to go to bed early.
Hopefully the rain will clear overnight so we can dry everything out and have a dry hiking day tomorrow. It was nice to rest and relax after dragging yesterday, hoping to feel good tomorrow. Next resupply is in 3 days at Muir Trail Ranch.
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