About a week ago I was riding my bicycle through the cool night air. I was enjoying myself, listening to some music. This was nothing unusual, it’s a frequent activity for me. I cycle quite a bit. Not as much as some, but more than most. As I was riding, I heard someone shout at me, and naturally, out of surprise, I jumped just a little. A flinch is what someone would call my reaction.

Before I get to my main point, I want to talk briefly about flinching. I remember as a kid, it was a common prank to pretend to slap one’s hand towards someone’s face, without actually hitting them, and then say, “Made you flinch.” I never did this myself, as I wasn’t enough of a douche to do something like that, but I had it done to me.

Flinching is a good thing. Why would you not flinch? Your body needs to protect itself. Imagine walking around in the wind and having something get blown at your face. You decide that you’re tough, so you don’t flinch. Then you get your eye poked. That’s why flinching is a good thing, it’s an automatic response to prevent injury. Still, some people think they are so cool for making other people flinch.

Now, let me get back to my original point. The shout I heard was from a girl driving past me. I want to address at least part of this post to that girl. Sure, she’ll probably never read it, and even if she does, she won’t know this is specifically about her, but I still want to respond to her.



To everyone else, I’ll say this. Cycling is rough. You get people shouting at you all the time. I guess because they think they are so cool. They aren’t cool. You also get people that accelerate as they drive past you. Yeah, that’s right, they speed up as they pass cyclists. I have no idea why they do this. To prove they’re going faster, I guess. They were going faster when they were going the speed limit, they don’t need to prove anything. Maybe they do it because they want to make a lot of noise so that they’ll look like an ass to the cyclist. It works, they do look like asses. I’m sorry, but we cyclists just don’t know how to respond to them, except to think that they’re idiots.

With the way motorists treat cyclists, I can understand why naked protest rides are held in cities such as Seattle. Cyclists need to make motorists aware. I admit, hundreds of motorists that pass me by are perfectly normal, and some of them are even courteous, but still there are those few that are really bad. Things are getting better for cyclists, though. More and more I see bike lanes getting put in. I love those a lot. They’re still pretty rare, but it at least lets me know that cities are thinking about their bike riding citizens.

I love riding. There is something very satisfying about knowing that I can travel by manpower rather than by gasoline. In a way it’s a macho thing for me. It makes me feel tough, it makes me feel healthy. Hell, maybe it makes me feel the way that those guys that accelerate past me feel.

I admit, I drive. I drive all the time during the winter. It isn’t easy to cycle in snow or on ice. I’ve tried. It just doesn’t work well, so I drive. I drive when I go grocery shopping, it wouldn’t be practical to do that by bike. I hate using a vehicle though. It feels like a cage, like being boxed in, but sometimes you need something more than a bicycle for transportation, I understand that. Still, whenever I can, I ride.

Interestingly enough, two days after that first girl shouted out at me, another one did the same. It was on a different street, but still it was about the same time. Maybe there is something about seeing a blinking light on the back of a man’s bicycle that drives a girl crazy, and makes the cyclist seem a little sexier even though it’s really too dark to tell. Yeah, I think that’s it.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was looking forward to StarCraft II, and that wasn’t a lie. It is a rare occastion that I buy a game when it first comes out. I figure wait a few months, or even a year, and save quite a bit. Well, I waited over a decade for this game, and in my experience Blizzard games don’t diminish in value very rapidly (the original StarCraft is still $20.00). Everyone waited a long time. I figured why wait any longer, and I bought it. This review will mostly be focused on the single player campaign, but I will provide some comments on the multi-player as well. In short, I will say that the game did not disappoint, but it was not without flaw. It would be a disservice to say that just because Blizzard (as reputable as they are) made this game, it’s automatically good.

To get one disappointment out of the way I want to comment on the opening movie. About two years ago a short trailer was released, in which a marine is suited up in power armor, and, appearing that he’s about to go out into battle, says, “Hell, it’s about time.” Clearly his remark was a joke on how long fans have waited for this game. This turned out to be the opening video to the actual game. I’m saying this in shock, not in glee. This video seemed more or less like a joke, a piece of humor to get a laugh out of the fans, and they used it for the game. When I first fired up the game, I was wondering why they were reshowing me the trailer I’d already seen. I wanted to see some kind of intense battle being carried out on a foreign world. No such luck. This was nothing like the salvage vessel being destroyed in the original game. It was cool, sure, but it wasn’t that exciting, and it certainly wasn’t the Apocalypse Now-like trench warfare seen in the opening movie of Brood War. Throughout the game, we do learn who the man in the opening video is, and the movie does apply to the story, but I expected more.

The game manages the single player campaign much differently than Blizzard has done before. Rather than going through menus to get to mission briefings, or having the story play out in RTS mode, you play out the role of the main character, Jim Raynor. The game begins with Raynor hanging out in a bar on the planet Mar Sara. The story is played out in animated sequences rather than the traditional pre-rendered video of past Blizzard games. This was a good choice on Blizzard’s part. If you watch the old StarCraft videos, as cool as they still are, they are low resolution. For StarCraft II, the story videos are going to scale to whatever resolution you play the game at, so the game’s animated sequences are likely to hold up in the future. There are a few pre-rendered videos, which may not hold up so well in the future, but they do look really cool right now.

As I was saying, the game begins with Jim Raynor on the planet Mar Sara, where you have the option to click on various objects to get Raynor’s thoughts on them. After the first mission, you’ll get your first chance to talk to another character, Tychus Findlay. Throughout the game while you are in between missions, you’ll have the opportunity to talk to various other characters. When you click on them, they’ll give you their thoughts on upcoming and previous missions. You can do other things as well, such as watch news reports, play an arcade game, and other more important things, such as upgrading your equipment and hiring mercenaries.

Interestingly enough, when a friend of mine first described WarCraft II to me, I was imagining something akin to the in-between-mission mode of StarCraft II. My friend told me that in WarCraft II you could click on characters, and they’d say funny things. Never having played an RTS, I imagined an adventure game type scene, with a fixed set, and characters to talk to by clicking on.

This mission briefing system is very interesting. You’ll spend most of your time aboard Raynor’s command ship, the Hyperion. On the bridge, you can access the star map, which usually has two or three missions for you to choose from. You can also visit the engineering bay for upgrades, the cantina for relaxation, and the science lab for various research upgrades and missions.

Upgrades are bought by earning cash or research points during missions. There are three main flavors of upgrades, the unit and building upgrades, research upgrades, and mercenaries.

Unit and building upgrades are just that, upgrades for your units and buildings. By spending some money you can have marines start with more health, make it so bunkers can hold more units, cause various units to deal more damage, and so forth.

Research upgrades are often more helpful. You’ll be developing research in both Protoss and Zerg technology. For every five research points that you earn in these categories, you get to choose between one of two different research options, each has its benefits, but you only get one of them for the duration of your campaign. One such option allows you to build vespene gas refineries that do not require SCVs to gather the gas. There are other helpful (and sometimes not very helpful) research options as well.

Mercenaries are a little different. When you buy a mercenary contract, they will be available for hire at the mercenary compounds during the missions. Each mercenary squad is based on one of the standard units, but they are a little tougher, and when you hire them from the mercenary compound you get them instantly, no build time. You do have to wait for a recharge period before you can hire them, and there are other limitations associated with them, but they will prove very useful if you need troops right away.

One cool thing about the upgrades, is that you can replay old missions with all your new technology. Also, as you complete more missions, you get access to more and more units. When you replay missions, you will have access to all the units you’ve earned at that point. This is very helpful for earning the achievements on missions that you may have missed previously.

I want to comment on the graphics as well. The in-between-mission graphics are excellent. They look as good as any shooter, with shadows and everything. Quite impressive. The male characters look a little funny, most are short and stocky, but that isn’t really anything different from the original game. StarCraft is meant to have a cartoonish feel to it.

On the other hand, the RTS mode graphics are a complaint I have. I played the game with the settings on high, and they looked okay, but I they they could look better. Dawn of War II looks better, in my opinion. There’s something about the graphics that feel stale. The buildings have the same basic look to them, there’s variation with race, but each race’s buildings look very similar. This isn’t horrible, but it would have been nice to see a little more color. I do acknowledge that the special effects are excellent, lights flaring, explosions, and shadows, all with audio to match, make the game feel like a battlefield. It is just that the buildings and some of the units feel a little drab.

Now I want to discuss the meat of the game, the missions. Blizzard has done an excellent job of creating unique missions. Unlike the original game, where, with few exceptions, each mission basically involved attacking and destroying an enemy base, each mission in StarCraft II has some kind of gimmick that makes it stand out from the others. For example early in the campaign there is a mission where every few minutes lava rises, so you have to get all your troops, and buildings to high ground (most Terran buildings are mobile). Another mission has a night and day cycle, where you need to retreat to your base and setup defenses at night, but during the day you can go out and cause mayhem. These two, are probably the most notable missions as far as uniqueness goes, but all the missions give you the sense that you are doing something different.

Unfortunately this model of single player game-play does have a flaw. There are no straight-forward destroy the enemy base missions. It would have been nice to see at least one mission like that, but there aren’t any. Some come close, but as I said, there is always some kind of gimmick. Usually the gimmick makes you feel rushed as well, and it would have been nice to see some missions where you could just go at whatever pace you want to.

Still, players are going to get what they expect. Essentially you’ll be using your mouse and keyboard to send troops into battle. Blizzard has reworked the keyboard controls from the original game (though you have the option for the traditional controls, if you so choose) where most commands can be issued without moving the left hand from the standard typing position. For example, in the original game a probe would be built by pressing “P”, the command is now “E”, which is not a letter that is in the word “Probe," but is a key that doesn’t require you to move your hand across the keyboard. This will take some adjusting for players that expect the command to build various units to be the first letter (or even a letter at all) in the unit’s name, but overall this will lead to more efficient multi-player gaming.

The most important thing about the game, is that it is fun. Missions are fast paced, action packed, and bring a satisfying sense of epic warfare. You can command a lot more units at a time than you ever could before. The game does away with the limitation of selecting only twelve or so units at a time. Now you can select (as far as I could tell) as many units at a time as you want. Then you can send them all to victory (or death if you didn’t select enough units). The single player campaign offers twenty five missions. You’ll spend maybe fifteen hours on your first play-through. You might even want to play again, to get some of those achievements you missed, or you may just want to move onto multi-player, which is a whole other ballpark.

I do want to complain about one thing in the single player campaign, and that is the secret mission. There is one secret mission, and if you miss it, you miss it. That means if you didn’t get access to it before you finish the game, the only way to get access to it, is by replaying the entire game. Unless you happen to have a save-game from early on. I didn’t have such a save-game, so I have to replay the game to get access to this mission. I was upset by this, and other gamers on some of the forums that I read were upset as well. It just isn’t that satisfying to see that you completed 25/26 missions. This feels like an oversight on Blizzard’s part, you should be able to play this mission after completing the campaign. You can’t.

As for the story, the game stands alone as a complete story. It has a beginning, middle, and end. It ends on a cliffhanger, but it’s not a bad cliffhanger. The ending is positive. Sure, there is more story to the series, but Wing’s of Liberty doesn’t have many unanswered questions. I don’t know how long the wait will be for the next two games in the series, but I am certainly left with a better feeling in my gut than the end of Brood War, where the Terrans were losing. Wings of Liberty is very much a new chapter of StarCraft. It opens various potential conflicts for the future of the series. It makes it clear that the bad guys may not be who you think the bad guys are. Future games in this series can, and will, go in whatever direction Blizzard wants them to go, and it will be interesting to see what direction they choose. I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next two games.

Let me now move onto multi-player. Going in, I expected it to be difficult. I figured I’d play a few matches to get a feel for it. I played 1v1, my very first game. I wanted to play as Protoss, because I think they’re cool. I played as such, and was brutally murdered. I expected to be. I couldn’t say I was upset, because it was my first time playing.

When you connect to play a multi-player game, the games asks if you’d like to start in the training league. In this league you aren’t ranked, so it doesn’t affect your standing or stats. The game wants you to play fifty matches in this league. Quite frankly, that is more matches than I ever plan on playing, I don’t have that kind of time to spend on one game. When you find a match, the game indicates that it is “Searching For Other Players”. Later it says, “Expanding Search," clearly indicating that it can’t find any other players as bad as you, which means you’re going to be matched up with better players, and probably get killed.

For that reason, on my second game I chose to play 2v2, that way, hopefully, my teammate would be better than me, and I’d at least have a chance of winning. Well I won that game pretty quickly because the players on the other team had a bad connection to the internet, or something, so they dropped, and I won the game by default, before I even started.

On my third game, it was the real deal. I don’t know if my teammate, Psycostele, knew what he was doing or not. I was talking to him over voice chat. He had to type back to me. He didn’t even know the game had voice chat. That made me worried, I thought we might lose. Still, in case he was experienced, I figured I wouldn’t tell him it was my second time playing, that way he wouldn’t bail out on me in frustration. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I heard Void Rays were tough, so I built them. My teammate seemed to like that, so he sent me some of his gas and minerals. I built more Void Rays. I lead the attack on the enemy base, and we dominated. My teammate never even built that many troops. I guess he figured the Void Rays would be enough. I also had quite a few units called Stalkers, which I remembered using during the Protoss portions of the campaign. The match was about fifteen minutes long.

I will tell you this, there was something very satisfying about winning. Sure we were all in the training league, so we were all new, but it still felt good to destroy the enemy bases, especially after my first game where I was brutalized. It was a rush, definitely.

In addition to the base game, players can expect a lot of user maps for the game, with totally different play styles. This is where persistent multi-player gamers will get their value from the game. Blizzard is saying that maps and mods for this game will be better than those developed for WarCraft III. Whether or not that is true is yet to be seen, but the potential is certainly there.

Multi-player is going to require a lot of hours of game-time for players dedicated to the game, but will bring satisfaction to serious players. Single player is a fun experience for those that like the occasional RTS, but don’t really want any kind of hardcore competitive experience. It was a long wait, and the while the game has a few flaws, it will not disappoint. It’s a little pricey for those only wishing to play the single player campaign, but, “Hell, it’s about time.”

In closing my writing about his journey, I want to reflect on the experience I had in the Uinta Mountains, discuss some of the mistakes I made, and gloat on my accomplishments.

While I didn’t really make any serious mistakes, I did make a few, and they made the vacation a little less enjoyable than it could have been. The main mistake I made, was that I didn’t plan anything. In the introduction to this series I mentioned that my only plan was to have a vehicle waiting for me at one end, and get dropped off at the other. I had no specific plans as to where I was going to be spending nights or how far I’d travel each day. This really took away from the enjoyment of my trip, because it didn’t give me any free time. I was basically going as far as I could each day, and by the end of each day I was too tired to do anything (including make a decent dinner most of the days).

In some ways, however, this was unavoidable. I was going by myself, and I really had no concept of how hard it would be to travel the terrain, or how far the journey would actually be. A map can only tell you so much, just glancing at a map tells you even less. Going in, all I knew was where the trail was.

What’s funny, is that at some points while I was out there, I was thinking to myself, Never, never again. Though, as soon as the day I finished my journey, I laughed at that idea. I’d do it again. Now that I’ve been through the region, I have the knowledge to make specific plans, and I would. I could plan much slower days, with more free time to do other outdoors activities. I think if I did it again, I’d avoid the east end of the range, though. I’d start a little further west, where the terrain proved much more interesting.

The other mistake I made was in regards to personal care. I didn’t apply sunscreen, and the sunburns I acquired held me back from as much enjoyment as I could have had. They made sleeping difficult, which made me tired, which made the days in general difficult. What I would do differently there, is apply sunscreen every day.

Part of the reason I didn’t apply sunscreen, was because I was too concerned with bugs. I was using a lotion for bugs, and I didn’t know how effective the lotion would have been, had it been mixed with sunscreen. On future trips, I will use a spray for bugs, instead of lotion. I’ve had success with bug sprays in the past, and I think they work better with sunscreen lotions. I avoided a spray because aerosol cans take up more room than a lotion, but in retrospect, it would be worth the extra space.

Also, with regards to personal care, I would definitely pack a better first aid kit, and have better tools for treating blisters. My first-aid kit was very incomplete in that regard, and I could have been better equipped. I would bring along more pairs of dry socks as well. One thing I didn’t mention in the previous posts, was that I used the same bag for dirty and clean laundry, so my wet socks from previous days would make my dry socks damp.

Those were really my only mistakes, planning and personal care. Now I want to gloat about my accomplishments. I felt like I had achieved a lot as I walked into the parking lot. Few people will understand the difficultly of such a trek. I know this, because when I tell people about my trip, they don’t think it’s a big deal. They have no comprehension of the physical conditioning, stamina, and endurance required to complete such a journey. Only one person that I have talked to, agreed with me that there is a real sense of accomplishment when you complete such a task, and that person has made similar excursions.

Most people have been hiking at some point in their life. They may have made an easy journey out to see a lake, or maybe a tougher journey up to the top of a peak, but that isn’t comparable to the accomplishment of hiking seventy miles in back-country wilderness with sixty pounds strapped to your back while crossing seven mountain passes.

Despite what you may think, I accomplished a lot. Even the other backpackers I met on the trail weren’t going as far as me. Though, I will admit that plenty of others have made the same, or comparable, journeys. Those that have, will understand what I mean when I say that as far as I’m concerned, I’m the king of that mountain range. Those that haven’t, will think that I’m egotistical.

In conclusion I’m providing a few satellite pictures of the area. I’m overlaying my journey along the trail, to give you at least a little sense of what I’ve accomplished.

This is my journey overlaid on the satellite imagery of the region. The color codes follow as in the previous days. Click on the image to see it bigger.

This highlights the region of the previous satellite image in relation to the state of Utah.

And here it is in relation to the United States.

For comparison with the satellite image.
Coded as follows:
Green: Day 6
Pink: Day 5
Orange: Day 4
Purple: Day 3
Blue: Day 2
Red: Day 1

My last night in the mountain range was a peaceful one. The night air was cool. It rained a little, too. Not heavy, but enough for me to hear that gentle patter of water drops on the roof of my tent. Sleeping was the usual in-and-out, but it was a good night. I was hoping to wake early for two reasons. First I wanted to get a picture of the sunrise over Carolyn Lake, and second, I was hoping to do some fishing. I had set my alarm for 6:30 AM, but as I looked outside my tent the sun wasn’t rising, so I lay in bed, waiting for it to come up. It never did, the sky would be overcast all day.

I suppose around 7:30 AM I figured I’d just get up, get dressed, and have breakfast. As I mentioned, I didn’t have any dry socks at that point, and I did my best to dry out a pair using my stove. That helped a little, but they were still wet. I also didn’t have a change of underwear, I usually like to change my underwear every day when backpacking, but I didn’t have a choice, I’d have to stick with a day old pair. Also, I wanted to wear long sleeves so that my sunburns wouldn’t get any worse, and the only long sleeved clothing I had was a pair of long-johns. I figured it would do.

I had another freeze dried breakfast that morning, granola with blueberries and milk. Like the scrambled eggs with bacon I’d had the previous morning, it wasn’t very good. Still, it was nice to have a warm breakfast. I also finished up my Pop Tarts, and had a few cereal bars.

With breakfast out of the way I started packing up. I decided I wouldn’t bother with fishing because I thought it might rain on me, and I just wanted to be ready to go. Packing up was easy. By this time most of my supplies were exhausted or thrown out, so my pack was only 3/4 full. I don’t think it weighed nearly as much as when I had started either. I was sad to leave that camping spot, it had been my best one. It would have been so easy to stay there another day, and I could have too, I had enough supplies, but I wanted to get out of there. I departed Carolyn Lake around 8:30 AM. I figured I’d be to the parking lot by 1:00 PM. I saw another tent set up by Carolyn Lake on my way out, more campers that probably had a good night as well. They hadn’t gotten up yet.

With another painkiller down, the trail was easy to follow. There was a little uphill and a little downhill. My feet were actually hurting pretty bad, but knowing it was my last day, helped me to go on. The Highline Trail ends at a place called Hayden’s Pass, and this kind of bothered me. I thought I’d been over all the passes I’d needed to cross, and yet there was one more marked on my map. I didn’t think it could possibly be that bad, but it was still a “pass”.

I knew I was getting close to the end of the trail when I crossed a man-made bridge. Yes, man-made, constructed, solid. It was so much better than when I had forded Rock Creek. I was happy that my feet weren’t going to get any more wet than the socks had already made them. My blisters would fare alright. What’s more is the overcast sky kept the air cool.

As with the previous day, I used trail junctions as my milestones. There were four leading up to the trail head, the East Fork Pinto Lake Trail, the Naturalist Basin Trail, a trail leading to Packard Lake, and a trail leading to Mirror Lake. It wasn’t long before I came across the Pinto Lake Trail. I didn’t expect it to take long, it was only a mile or so beyond Carolyn Lake. But it seemed to take for ever to get to the Naturalist Basin Trail, and I was beginning to wonder if I had gone in the wrong direction, but I was on a trail, and there were no other trails in the area, so I pressed on. I did pass by some horsemen going the other way. That made me feel good. I joked about how much easier it must have been to travel by horseback. One of the guys laughed.

Eventually I came across another trail junction, and as I looked at the sign, it said Packard Lake was to the south. I had gone further than I thought I had. That was approximately half way between Carolyn Lake and the trail head, and I had to take a piss, so I took a break. I figured half an hour would be good. I had a Clif Bar, drank some water, and relaxed. The bugs were out, but they were tolerable. When I was done with my break I put my backpack on, and as I was doing so, two young men coming from the other direction passed me by. They didn’t say much other than, “Hello”. And I realize now that as they saw me, I must have looked like the creepy-old-man-of-the-forest. I was basically out there in nothing but underwear. I probably smelled too.

Well, I headed out, and just up the trail I bumped into what must have been the Boyscout troop that the other young men I’d see were with. It was a whole gamut of young men. They were all taking a break. I felt weird as I passed through them. Knowing that I must have looked like crap. They said their hellos, asked how I was doing, I wanted to say, “I’m doing about as good as I look," but no one there seemed particularly conversational, so I said I was fine and moved on. One kid was going crazy with bug spray, and I couldn’t help but think that that day was not nearly as bad as the day before, and that that kid was really going to enjoy himself later on.

That was the last I saw of human life on the trail. From there it was almost all uphill, and I always kept my eye out for the landmarks. I passed by Scudder Lake, which was another indication that I was close. And eventually I got to the Mirror Lake junction, and that let me know that I had less than one mile to go, but then, that one mile was Hayden Pass.

Hayden Pass has quite a few switch backs, but it’s really not that steep, and I made progress as usual, taking a short break every few steps. On the way up, I could see an RV parked in the trees, so I knew I must be near the freeway. I also knew that I must be very close to the parking lot, and sure enough, I was. I was hoping to bump into someone in the parking lot, someone that was just about ready to go out into the wild, someone who I could show my map to, and tell them my great accomplishment, and how far I’d come. No one was there.

I took a picture of myself, just to see how bad I looked. I wanted to use it in contrast with picture of me when I started. I look terrible in that picture, standing in my long-johns, my shoulders drooping. I won’t be posting it, it’s just too embarrassing. I’m embarrassed that that Boyscout troop saw me looking like that.

Well, I had a fresh pair of clothes, including dry socks and clean underwear, in my departure vehicle, and it was all there waiting for me. I also had some Wet Ones to clean up with. So I went to the latrine to change. As I was heading there, a man and his two young daughters came out from the trail. Somehow telling him how far I’d come didn’t seem like such a great idea, so I just said hello. I could tell, that he and his children, had basically gone for a walk in the park. My journey had been much more than that.

As I removed my clothes in the bathroom stall, I noticed that I had quite a few red marks on my shoulder. At first I was thinking it was bug bites, but then I didn’t think the bugs would have bitten through my shirt. Then it occurred to me that it might be acne. I was absolutely filthy at that point. I’d cleaned up a little while I was out camping, but really I’d only cleaned my lower regions. I hadn’t worried so much about my upper body. The Wet Ones really helped me to clean myself up, and the clean clothes felt good on my body. From there, all I had to do was drive out. It was that easy.

Ironically, the worst weather I experienced on my vacation was driving on I-80 back to Salt Lake. A really bad thunderstorm hit. I mean really bad. Visibility was maybe twenty feet. The traffic slowed to about fifteen miles per hour. I got out of that storm, though, and made it to Salt Lake.

Strangely, I had a craving for a Six Dollar Burger from Carl’s Junior. I don’t know why I had that particular craving, but I did. That wasn’t the first thing I did, though. I took a shower first. Got cleaned up for real. When I did so I saw more acne, all over my back. After that, I went to see a doctor. I wanted to have my burn looked at, maybe get a prescription. I also wanted a prescription to clear up the acne that was on my body. The doctor gave me both. A cream for the burn, and anti-bacterial pills for the acne. With the prescriptions picked up, I went to Carl’s Junior and had that Six Dollar Burger I was craving. Cost me seven dollars.

That pretty much sums up my journey. In the conclusion I will give some of my thoughts on the mountain range, and reflect on my experiences.

As I had mentioned on day four, day five would begin as the worst day on my journey. Sleeping is difficult in the wild, sleeping with sunburns is especially bad. As I mentioned, I had sunburns on the backs of my arms and legs. This made laying down particularly painful, and sleep was difficult.

I tend to turn from side to side as I sleep, but that night I found that I couldn’t turn to my left side at all. It hurt too much to have the sunburn on my arm touch anything. I was having a lot of difficultly sleeping in general, and it wasn’t just because of the burns, but also because of the blisters on my feet, they were throbbing. Around 1:00 AM the pain was enough that I decided to treat my blisters and get them cleaned up. As much as I didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag I managed. Like the day before, it was going to be another late night of surgery.

To my surprise, as I turned my flashlight on, I found that my feet weren’t the worst problem I had, because on my left arm was the biggest blister I’d every seen on my body. It had spawned purely from sunburn. I realized why I was having so much pain whenever I rolled onto my left side. It was a second degree burn and I knew it. Alongside with the huge blister, were much smaller blisters all around. Once again I turned to my first-aid guide. Keep in mind, my first-aid guide was not some comprehensive manual, it was a few sheets of paper with common outdoor injury remedies. Luckily burns were included.

The treatment of a second degree burn was simple. The guide said that any blisters larger than two centimeters should be punctured and drained. Smaller ones didn’t need to be drained. Well, my blister was easily over two centimeters. I’d say it was about an inch and a half. Following the drainage, the guide said that antibacterial should be applied, and the wound should be bandaged. I had to use my knife to puncture the blister, but this proved much easier than the blister on my foot from the day before (you may recall the sawing). As soon as the tip of my knife touched the blister on my arm it was punctured, and draining it was easy. I only had one small packet of anti-bacterial ointment, so I figured I’d use half of it then, and half the next time I dressed it. My feet would have to fend for themselves, as this wound seemed more serious.

As for bandaging the wound, I was in luck. At first I thought I’d have to tape gauze pads over it, and that bothered me because the burn was all the way around my arm, and I didn’t want to have tape over the burns, but I had an elastic bandage in my first-aid kit, and I was able to wrap my whole upper arm. With the wound treated, I moved onto my feet.

Treating my wounds made sleeping easier, since they didn’t hurt so much. I was worried, though. My first-aid guide didn’t say that second degree burns needed immediate medical attention, but I didn’t know for sure. I wanted out, I wanted to go see a doctor. I figured if I started early, and hiked all day I could get out without spending another night in the mountain range. I set my alarm for 4:30 AM.

4:30 AM came, and the last thing I wanted to do was get up. I went back to bed until 6:30 AM. From there it was a struggle in my tent to clean up a bit and change into some fresh clothes. I only had one pair of dry socks left. Around 7:30 AM I got out of my tent, and began to purify water and make breakfast. For breakfast I had a freeze dried meal, scrambled eggs and bacon. It wasn’t very good. No, not good at all. Almost as bad as the usual Pop Tarts and cereal bars I’d been having. Still I managed to make it through the morning. I threw out more food too, I knew at most I’d have only one night left. I threw out all my noodles and most of my Pop Tarts. I departed my camping spot around 8:00 AM, and tried to move as fast as possible. I was hoping to get to Rocky Sea Pass, the final pass I had to go over, by noon. I knew that a painkiller would help me make it.

That morning was difficult, it was all through forest, and the bugs were bad. The bugs were so bad that I couldn’t stop cussing at them. Then I’d laugh at myself, because I knew the bugs couldn’t care less if I cussed. Then I’d cuss some more because laughing had caused bugs to get sucked up my nose.

The trail from Ledge Lake to Rocky Sea Pass goes through the Rock Creek drainage. The Highline Trail veers a little to the south, but there are some other trails that pass by the various lakes in the northern parts of the drainage. I wanted to follow the Highline Trail the whole way, so I stuck with it, even though it looked much less used than the northern trails. I followed it south.

This led to a big decrease in elevation, and in fact, lead to the lowest elevation that I would reach on the entire trip, about 9,000 ft. Maybe that’s why the bugs were so bad. What’s worse, is that I had to cross Rock Creek, and there was absolutely no way to cross without getting my feet wet. That bothered me a lot, because I had put a fresh dressing on my blisters, and I didn’t have any dry socks left. I had no choice, so I crossed.

It was all uphill from there. Uphill and bugs. I couldn’t stop moving to catch my breath, because I’d be eating bugs if I did so. So I pushed on. Eventually I made it to the junction where the northern trails meet back up with the Highline Trail. I had predetermined that I would take a thirty minute break there, have some Clif Bars and then approach Rocky Sea Pass. Really, the only good thing about that morning was that the sky was overcast, so at least the sun wasn’t burning me further.

My break was less than twenty minutes, the bugs were too bad to stop for long. I was still cussing like a madman. I made my approach to Rocky Sea Pass. I feared this pass. This was one of those passes that my map indicated as “hazardous to horses and pack stock”. The lone backpacker I’d talked to the day before had said it would be steep going up, but then it wouldn’t be bad. I just didn’t know. I hoped it wasn’t anything like Porcupine Pass. The last thing I wanted to do was get injured when I was so close to my destination.

As I approached the pass, I grew even more fearful. The sky was gray, and I didn’t want to be on a dangerous pass with slick wet rocks and the threat of a lighting strike. I figured the best thing to do would be to wait out the storm. The bugs were bad and I wanted to stay dry, so I set up my tent just below the pass. It was around 1:00 PM. I figured if the sky hadn’t cleared up by 6:00 PM, I’d spend the night there.

It rained off and on for hours. It the first time on the trip that I had a chance to read. It was actually quite relaxing, just waiting there. The storm caused the air to grow cold, but I managed to keep warm. I had grabbed my sleeping back, but found that there was no reason to roll it out. I waited and read. I was content there. I figured it would be fine to stay there. I’d even set up my tent on a very flat and comfortable spot. Still, in my mind, I had wanted to cross the pass that day. So I wasn’t fully satified, but 6:00 PM was getting closer and closer.

Around 5:30 PM I heard what sounded like a Boyscout troop coming down the pass. I couldn’t help but think that if they were going over the pass on the edge of a storm, that maybe I could cross as well. I did hear one guy joking about how he didn’t want his brother to get struck by lighting, but at that time the storm was gone, and the rain was almost nonexistent. I knew I’d be able to cross the pass as I heard the troop’s voices fade into the distance. Still, I wasn’t sure I wanted to break camp, but it was before 6:00 PM and the rain was gone. I figured I’d go for it, and I packed up my gear.

Rocky Sea Pass turned out to be the easiest to cross. Maybe it’s because I had four hours of rest prior to crossing, maybe it’s because I knew it was the last pass I’d have to cross, either way, it was easy, and I realized that I could have easily crossed it in a storm, with little or no danger to me. There were trees on the pass, and going down was like any other downhill trail I’d been along. It didn’t even look like a pass on the other side.

Despite the fact that I had hoped to get out of there that day, and get my sunburn treated, I knew it would get too dark to make it much further. I settled on getting to Carolyn Lake, which wasn’t much beyond Rocky Sea Pass. Well, I made it there, and upon arriving I pulled out my guide book, and it said that there were designated camping spots on the west side. So I went searching.

Let me tell you, I found the best camping spot that night. Designated indeed. This was the type of camping spot I’d stayed at as a boyscout. It was a flat, huge, open area. It had a fire pit for the taking. It was right near the lake. I was even wondering if I was supposed to register for such a nice spot.

I began to set up camp. The bugs weren’t so bad later in the evening. I did water purification that night. That way I wouldn’t have warm water the next day. I set up my tent. I had a freeze dried dinner, lasagna with meat sauce. It was the best dinner I had on my whole trip. I even wanted to try having some hot cocoa again, but I’d thrown it all out. I checked my sunburn, it looked bad, but not the worst I’d seen. One more night would be just fine. I even set up everything for the next day, in a nice row, so I’d be ready to eat breakfast, pack up, and go.

As I went to bed, I couldn’t help but think that, this is the life. After all the pain and suffering I’d been through, I was finally enjoying myself. I thought maybe I’d go fishing in the morning. I’d seen the fish jumping around in the lake when I was gathering water. I slept pretty well. I could hear other campers nearby, so even though I hadn’t actually seen anyone else that day, it was comforting to know there were people nearby. I was also happy to know, that the next day I’d be out. I’d have a shower. I’d see about my burns and blisters. I’d be out of the wild. Despite the fact that it had started out as one of the worst days of the journey, it ended well, very well.