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Aug 20: Junction Meadow -- Bubbs Creek -- Roads End & out We go through our breakfast rituals a bit slower; there's little time pressure today, we just walk out to our car. We run into more bear poop on the trail on our walk out. There is an incredible waterfall midway down. We rest there and at the Sphinx Trail intersection.
For some reason, maybe knowing we will be out very soon, little problems that had been fairly invisible become noticable. For instance, two of my fingers had developed cuts radiating out from their fingernails. Bandaids would fall off after an hour in the backcountry’s harsh environment; but I found I could protect the cuts by using a J+J BlisterBlock as a giant Band-Aid. This stayed on for days and helped a lot. It’s a long haul out to Road’s End. Once in King’s Canyon itself the heat and flies become unbearable. I speed up to about 4-5mph and manage to evade most of them.
Finally at Trail’s End and the sight of cars is startling. After shooting this at the trailhead, David & Susan arrive. I imagine I am one of the grosser specimens of humanity since my cold and the constant high altitude sun has no doubt caused my nose to peel. The ranger is nice and shoots a single shot of us. After nine days, being thrust into cars and hordes of people and traffic was a bit of a jolt. We had settled into a rhythm based on the High Sierra sunrise waking us and turning in with the fading pink twilight; our days filled with majestic sights moving by our field of view at 2 to 4 miles per hour; and the sight of another person infrequent enough that it was a pleasant intermission to talk to them. I could have kept on going down the JMT--my cold was fading; I was getting leaner; and all my gear was working nicely. If I had been able to resupply my food, and not been depended on for a car shuttle, it would have been tempting.
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View the overall trip map Select (non-pano) Views from this trip Other panoramas in this Park Go back to JMT1
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