April 30th
I spent the day attending kick off at Lake Morena. I was looking forward to attending lectures and getting some much needed alone time. The lectures were great. Most beneficial was the information and lectures on how to handle this year’s snow. It looks like I will be using my microspikes and ice axe in a couple weeks (much earlier than expected) to get through Fuller Ridge. The current advice given to the hikers for the Sierra snow is to not waste time waiting for it to melt. Just go through it slowly and make many resupply stops. That seems to be what I will do.
As for the alone time, that wasn’t so simple. Everyone here is just so friendly! I’ve never been in a place where complete strangers so comfortably start conversation and congregate together. Even my efforts to retreat to my tent for alone time were an epic fail. For the first 8hrs of the day it became an inside joke for myself. Could I get at least 5mins alone?…didn’t happen.
Don’t get me wrong, it was great. I met a ton of people and they were all great. Just to name a few, there was Gnarly, Rockin’, Ethan, and Crumbs. I just get so drained by social interaction that I knew I needed to get away for my own well-being. I managed to find a hiding spot for an hour both before and after dinner. I tried to stay up long enough to finish the evening movie, but I was way too tired and was in bed by 11pm. The real thing starts tomorrow! It will be nice to hike alone, but it might be difficult this first week or so.
