The adventurous spirit inside me just does not want to be put in a closet right now. Six days after completing my first triathlon, I set out on my first backpacking trip. Two friends and I set a very ambitious itinerary from Mammoth to Yosemite Valley — 60 miles in just 2½ days.

Not knowing exactly what I was getting into, once again, I started out the trip in the highest of spirits. The first day had us tackling nearly half the distance and half of the vertical accent, and we needed to keep the pace up in order to complete this hearty task. From our starting elevation of 8,000 feet, we went up to 11,000 right away and then back down to 9,000 and covered 30 miles in 12 hours of hiking. The first 20 flew by like nothing, and I wish I could say the same about the next 10. The path on the decent to our camping location was brutal and super steep, and this is when I figured out I would much rather hike uphill then downhill. The endless pounding and jarring of going downhill made my feet hurt so bad and made me realize that what we set out to do was definitely not a stroll in the woods. Miles 28 and 29 were mostly me putting one foot in front of the other with the hope of reaching our first camp, eating dinner and, most importantly, going to bed. Going to bed was quite the adventure as well. I have never slept in a Bivy Bag before, and definitely not in the middle of bear and mountain lion country. I was slightly paranoid to say the least, and was expecting to wake up to a bear in my face at any point in time. We made it through the night without any bear encounters, thank goodness, and had a hearty meal of dehydrated eggs and bacon before we started off again.

The second day had us set to cover 16 miles climbing right away back up to 11,000 feet over the Sierra Crest, and then dropping down to 7,000 feet to stay for our second night. I bandaged up my feet and took off once again in the highest of spirits knowing that we only had to cover about half of the distance as the day before. The climb was no problem, once again; almost just a hop, skip and a jump to the top of the pass. But then the decent of 4,000 feet took its toll. We hardly covered any distance during this time, but it was definetly the majority of the day as the trail was once again very steep and brutal on my feet and knees. I have to say that this was probably one of the most trying times in the journey. We knew that the more ground we could cover on this day, the better the 3rd day was going to be for us as we descended down into Yosemite Valley. After 9 hours of hiking on our second day, we reached our next camp. It felt just as hard as the day before even though it was half the distance. If I could do the trip again, I might have taken a day off here, as our camp was very cool. We were on a huge granite dome, on a small platform that fit the three of us perfectly. I choose to sleep in the middle of the two guys, as once again, I was certain a bear was going to come eat me. Just below us was a river that cut through the granite that had a lot of really nice little pools that would have been fun to explore, but my sleeping bag was the only thing that I wanted anything to do with.

We had only 11 miles left for the last day of our trip, and we were able to cover the first 9 by about 10:00 in the morning. That might sound great, but the only problem was we still had 3,000 feet we had to drop in the last two miles. After 58 miles of hiking in 53 hours, I thought I was going to need lower extremity replacements and was not real sure how I was going to make it down 3, 000 more vertical feet. The worst part was that this path is one of the main hiking paths in Yosemite, so it is crowded with day hikers donning attire deserving of the city. As I was limping my way down the final two miles, I got passed by ladies in flip flop sandals and jean shorts like it was nothing, and of course they had no idea why we might be so beat up from this small hike they were on! That is a true test of patience and mental ability to keep going.

When we finally reached our beautiful destination, my shoes came off even before my backpack. All I wanted for a reward was a milkshake, but while we were hiking a fire had started that cut off the power to the valley. Ice cream is hard to keep without power and I never got my milkshake, but the satisfaction of making it was enough to keep me happy. As I am writing this two days later, my feet still hurt, but the rest of my body feels stronger then ever, including my brain. I had no idea this trip would be more of a test of mental ability then physical, but I am so glad I had that test before the winter which is sure to bring its own ups and downs. I take off on August 1st to New Zealand to get back on snow after a wonderful summer. I can’t wait. Talk to you soon.

STACEY’S BACKPACKING GALLERY

STACEY COOK is an elite member of the U.S. Ski Team’s alpine skiing program. She competed in the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy and was a member of the 2007 World Championships Team... {more»}