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Finally, recuperated enough, we headed to King's Peak. My dad accompanied us on this trip. It is located in the high uintas. We took the northern approach. When we arrived we talked to a ranger who told us there was no need for ice axes or anything like that since the snow had long since melted.
We got our bags ready and tied our boots. I asked Tiff if she wanted to apply moleskin before we started (since she blisters so easily). She did not. Less than a mile later she decided she did :) Of course by then she had a blister. Somehow finding a boot that does not give her blisters is apparently impossible. Every boot rubs mercilessly on her heel it seems. She was still happy at this point though. She even decided to stalk a moose for photos.
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We got to camp relatively early in the day (and this was a mistake). The campsite seemed nice. It was near dollar lake. We went to pump water and found that the mosquitoes were absolutely insane. They were so bad that I ended up putting my shell and mittens on to cover my hands despite it being warm to hot. The lake is also a long way from the summit. Tiff did not want to drink because she did not want to answer the call of nature with all the mosquitoes buzzing about. She also was a bit sick of eating bagels and dried food. I am too lazy to carry a stove usually so I just eat dried food on trips. The sunset was pretty.
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The next morning began well and seemed pretty. Kings Peak was already visible as was the notch that some apparently climb and glissade down when there is snow.
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Soon Tiff's dehydration and lack of eating started to catch up to her though. She was trudging as we pass up through Gunsight Pass. Luckily we knew not to follow the trail down 600 feet and then immediately back up. Instead there was a track that angled off to the south and then west and avoided dropping down. Even then by the time we reached the plateau on the other side she was really done in. Of course when you have hiked more than 10 miles and are over 12,000 feet it is hard to turn around. Eventually we decided to leave her pack and head for the top once the summit ridge angled south from a small saddle.
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We made better time then. We went so fast in fact that we caught up an an 80 year old man. Yes that is right. Sure makes you feel a bit silly when you are tired. He had been up most of the high points, but was missing Kings Peak and Gannett Peak. He was actually about to turn around and head down. I showed him my GPS so he could see just where he was. We were less than 200 vertical feet from the summit. It was hard to tell otherwise because as ridges often do this one makes it tricky to determine just how much farther you need to go until you get to the top. He was very happy to see this. With the extra motivation only an 80 year old can give we all reached the summit. Tiff was ecstatic that the old guy has some chocolate which he shared with the rest of us. (Note to self bring chocolate on hikes in the future ).
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It was a long way back down to the car. We walked and walked, and trudged, and limped. Tiff threw up, got heat rash, and gritted her teeth as my dad and I complained about stone bruising on our feet. Finally we got to the car and took off our heavy boots. Tiff began to cry at this point. She had blisters all over her heels, on the side of her big toe, between her toes, under her toes, under the ball of her foot, on the arch, and under her nail as well. At least there were no blisters on top. I never saw someone get a blister under the nail before, but she did. Eventually she lost the nail as well. So that stone bruising my dad and me were complaining about, it wasn't so bad.
At least we had salt and vinegar pringles in the car. That made Tiff happy again. I suppose it is the simple things after all, salt, sugar, and fat.
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