The day the sky opened up on the John Muir Trail

I was heading over Muir Pass near the Evolution Lake basin, about 20 miles in, when a storm rolled in around 2 PM out of nowhere. Hail started pounding down and I had to hunker under a rock overhang for 5 hours until it passed, soaked through everything I had. Anyone else had a single day on trail that nearly broke their spirit but ended up being a weirdly good memory?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennybailey1d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, that story reminds me of a time I got stuck in a surprise hailstorm on a day hike near Mt. Whitney. I thought I was being smart with just a light jacket and shorts, then boom, pea-sized hail and I'm hiding under a tiny pine tree for a solid hour. My dog was not having it, kept trying to run out and chase the hail. By the time it cleared, I was shivering and my map was a soggy mess. But you know, I still laugh about how stupid we both looked, soaking wet and proud of ourselves. Sometimes a bad day just turns into a funny, damp memory you tell people at parties.

william_craig71d ago

Actually read a study a while back that said something like 70% of outdoor rescues happen to people who underestimate the weather. Sounds like you fit right into that stat @henry150. I get his point though, its easy to romanticize a near miss when it could've gone way worse. But honestly I think theres a middle ground here. You can admit it was dumb luck and still laugh about the memory later.

henry1501d ago

Sounds like a miserable afternoon you turned into some personal growth moment. Look, I get that surviving a bad situation feels tough and all, but 5 hours under a rock in hail doesn't sound like a "weirdly good memory" to me. That just sounds like bad planning getting lucky. You could have been hit by lightning, gotten hypothermia, or lost the trail in the dark. I've seen enough people roll into the ER with frostbite and broken gear after storms like that to think near misses are something to romanticize. Sometimes a bad day on trail is just a bad day, not a character building story.