June 23rd - Day 56

"It's my birthday. This will go down as one of the more memorable ones, I am positive of that. I just read the poem Emily wrote for me - amazing. She also gave me a present - a tiny cairn made up of rocks she's been collecting, unbeknownst to me, since the desert. Every rock has a meaning. Also amazing. And she made dessert tonight! A cheesecake concoction that she bought pre-hike and had put in the VVR resupply box we picked up today. I'm actually full tonight! Ah, amazing wife I have.

So, my memorable 39th birthday. We awoke at 5, on Trail by 5:45, and high-tailed it to Mono Creek and the trail to VVR. We were early by 45 minutes but got lucky and caught a ferry (a dinghy) across Edison Lake earlier than scheduled. We arrived, after a 45-minute tour, at the resort just before 10. Breakfast! We were excited, and ordered up coffee and entrees. Our server came back 3 or 4 times though, notifying us that sorry, out of english muffins, out of cheese, no eggs other than scrambled, no pie (?!), out of pretty much everything we ordered or wanted to order. It broke Emily. We've been pushing ourselves so hard, hiking 6-9 almost everyday, and looking forward to a cooked breakfast, that she couldn't hold it in and cried.

That started the emotions for both of us, and while reading a letter from Adrienne out loud, I broke down too. We're fried. The Sierra has been very tough for us. We're making it, but we're tired, exhausted, a bit overwhelmed. It's bringing us closer though, and going through this together is bonding us even stronger. I love her so much.

Back to the day. After 3 hours of eating, drinking beer, and sorting through our resupply box, we had to get moving. The next ferry wasn't until 4:00, so we had to hike the 6-mile trail back to the PCT. We left with a bottle of wine in a nalgene, and 3 beers in my pack for my birthday. Over the next 12 miles, I drank them at breaks, listened to 2 albums on my ipod - The Beatles' White Album and Cracker's self-titled debut because of 2 songs: "Birthday" and "Happy Birthday to Me", and climbed 2,500 feet up to Silver Pass Lake, where we are camped.

We had some more hairy fords too, 2 of which were labeled in the guidebook as dangerous and potentially fatal if one should slip. Thankfully they weren't as bad as we were expecting. So, we're 24 miles from Reds Meadow, which leads us to Clare and Mammoth Lakes. We are greatly looking forward to 2-3 days of R&R. We need it."

-Sunfish