solitude and recklessness
"the road up is closed after upper lehman creek campground because of snow."
dammit. well, there went my plans for climbing wheeler peak.
"okay, then do you have any recommendations for day hikes tomorrow?"
"sure. you could hike up the lehman creek trail to wheeler peak campground, and from there, maybe continue up to the bristlecone pines."
"will the trail be covered in snow?"
"oh, yeah. but you know what, we can loan you some snowshoes. just return them by the end of tomorrow. do you know how to use snowshoes? it'll probably be a pretty strenuous day."
"yeah, i do, that sounds fantastic."
and so, the lehman caves visitor center loaned me some snowshoes so that i could hike up to the bristlecone pines. the next morning, i drove up to upper lehman creek campground and parked at the trailhead. as i walked up, more and more snow appeared, and by the time i reached wheeler peak campground, the whole trail was covered in a few inches of snow.
i reached the bristlecone pines trailhead, put my shoes on, and signed the trail register. there hadn't been anybody up here for about a week or so. i set off.
the trail was covered in a deep layer of fresh snow, dotted now and then by deer tracks, and i slowly made my way forward, kicking up snow globs repeatedly onto the back of my pants.
the initial section wound its way through a forest, and the trail was so obscured that i lost track of it and ended up on a steep hill, with my snowshoes getting caught between rocks and tree branches with every step. i tripped and fell several feet deep into the snow a number of times, and thought, "well, i guess this is how i die…not a terrible way to go."
but i knew that i was probably just being dramatic. i paused, checked my trail map, figured out which way the real trail probably was, and stumbled my was across the hillside in that direction. a short while later, i reconnected with it. i took a second to brush the snow off of everything, and continued on.
eventually, i reached the ancient bristlecone pine forest. all the informational displays were, unsurprisingly, completely covered up.
i putzed around for a bit, and then sat down at the base of a particularly majestic bristlecone pine and admired my situation. it was an incredible feeling to know that i literally had the entire park to myself. everything was a blank slate and i could do whatever i wanted. i took a moment to appreciate how old the trees around me were - thousands of years old - and noted how completely silent it was. no other tourists around; just me, and the wilderness. i felt lonely, and very much at peace.
i stayed there for a while. i swear that i could have just lay down in the snow and died happy then and there. my head was so clear and everything was sublime; i let out a few joyful howls for absolutely nobody to hear. i've thought a few times in my life that heaven is a place on earth, and this was one of them.
i'm not sure how long i was sitting there being one with nature, but at some point a breeze knocked some snow down onto me and i snapped out of it. i remembered that i had brought a postcard with me and took a few minutes to write it. i then figured that i should probably start heading back, so i got up and did exactly that.
i took a detour to check out some beautiful frozen lakes with wheeler peak as the backdrop as well. i had been planning to climb that? it had been truly naive of me to expect that conditions would have allowed me to just walk up.
towards the end, i reached the point where i had reconnected with the trail earlier and took the actual trail. a few minutes later, i found my old snowshoe tracks coming in the opposite direction, and then continuing off in the wrong direction.
when i got back to wheeler peak campground i did a time check and realized very suddenly that it was both later than i expected, and that i'd forgotten that my flight out of salt lake city was an hour ahead, so i had an hour less than i thought to get to my flight.
shit! i didn't have time!
well, i had to try. i literally ran, as fast as i could without twisting my ankles, all the way down the lehman creek trail back to my car, a full 3.5 miles, not even stopping once. i reached my car, blazed it back to the visitor center, dropped off my snowshoes and a postcard, and got on the road.
my phone told me that i would make it to the airport 36 minutes before departure, and that didn't include getting gas and returning my rental car. challenge accepted. i sped back towards salt lake city at about 110 miles per hour down highway 50. my gas level dropped percipitously, but i didn't have any time to spare. by the time i reached delta, i was running low on gas and also quite hungry. the eta had improved to about an hour before departure, so i stopped to refuel and grab some super quick food before continuing on.
unfortunately, it was turning into rush hour in salt lake city and traffic started popping up on interstate 15, so i changed to a completely different route up highway 36, knowing that i'd be able to maintain a much higher speed on a remote highway than a major interstate, and make up more time.
as luck would have it, i hit one of those one-way road construction zone setups and i was at the back of a very long line of cars, so i turned off onto a shoddy road that i had happened to stop by. luckily, it led onto a decent parallel road heading north a few minutes later.
by the time i actually got close to the airport, i still had about an hour left before my flight, and i still had to refill on gas once more, clean up my stuff in the backseat, and return the rental car. i found a gas station, stuffed everything into my bags super fast, and then hit traffic going into the salt lake city airport loop. fortunately, the rental car return turnoff came pretty quickly, and i dropped my car off and ran over to the terminal. the security line was short, and as soon as i got to the gate, boarding started.
it had been a roller coaster of a day, but i'd made it to where i'd planned to be. i got on the plane and took off to my next destination.