Sierra high

We cross a pass at 12,000 feet and follow the trail down a river gorge so steep I look up to see a waterfall coming out of nowhere ..crashing into the river below ..vaporizing into mist then dissolving into rainbow. We reach the wilderness around Crater Lake ..way above the timberline ..filled with boulders, scree and other glacial debris ..closely surrounded by a rim of high sierra peaks ..it looks more like something you’d see on the moon. A tiny black speck appears high up on one side ..just below a gap between two peaks. Jack says he thinks it’s moving ..we check the forestry service maps ..but there are no trails up there ..it looks inaccessbile ..we make jokes about the abominable snowman ..but we check back from time to time while setting up camp. It is definitely moving down the slope. It reaches the bottom but it’s still too far away to tell what it is ..so Jack takes a look-out postion sprawled on top of a boulder with binoculars. It keeps disappearing and reappearing over the boulders in no-mans land ..always moving this way. I light the butane stove ..Jack yells out that it’s definitly human ..a man ..and he hasn’t slowed down a bit. He disappears behind some boulders then suddenly looms up over the rocks and walks right through our camp ..humming loudly as he goes. Jack asks him if he came from one of the peaks he’s pointing to. Yah, I spent the night there. Jack asks where he started from. Sequoia. No shit, that’s far ..how long did it take? Three months. What trail were you on? None, I’m hiking cross-country. You mean you’ve haven’t been on a trail for three months ? Yah. He takes out several topo maps to show us where he’s been. We tell him he’s welcome to stay the night at our camp. No thank you, he says ..if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way. We watch him hike out ..and dissolve into rainbow.

Note: I haven’t actually been to the Sierras for a few years now ..but I kept good notes.