When you camp, sleeping in a tent, you usually don’t think about all the things that go bump in the night outside of your nice, safe, enclosed world. Except for bears and mountain lions of course. But, if you are sprawled out on a dirt trail in the dark, with a nice bright light which attracts bugs, you get to experience all the creepy-crawlies and flying things that go a-hunting in the dark. Aside from these really annoying and large beetles, I identified millipedes (poisonous I think), centipedes, a lot of other annoying flying things, and a scorpion! There was a lot of rustling sounds on the perimeter of the lighted area, so I shined the light around - rodents and lizards. Oh my. I also did think about bears and the old joke about how fast do you need to run to escape a bear. Only faster than the slowest person in your group. I think Craig would win that one.
About 20 minutes after Garry left, we heard voices up the trail, and then saw a few lights approaching. It was the family group, with the father who I passed on the way up the Sub Dome. They were really slow I guess, since it was going on 10PM. They were quite concerned when I told them what had happened, and offered to help me down the trail. The daughter pulled out her cell phone to see if she could get the number for the Ranger station - since Garry was on the way down, I asked them to check at the station, and call anyway. Two calls are better than one. Before they left, the mother offered us some spare batteries for the headlamp, and then asked if there was anything else I needed. Food perhaps I asked, feeling like a pan-handler? No, that would be spare change. Spare granola bars? Sitting and resting for an hour, and the 4 Advils, had brought out severe hunger pangs. I was considering munching on some bugs at that point. Well, she did not have any granola, so how about a PB&J sandwich. Two in fact. OMG!!! I gladly accepted the offer, and almost kissed her hand when she passed them over, but that would have been really weird. I did thank them all many time. How kind of them. As they headed down the trail, I quickly wolfed down what was the best sandwich I ever had in my entire life. It was like Popeye eating spinach - I suddenly felt life returning to my body. I had not eaten much more than a Kind Bar and some granola the entire day. Why I was not hungry until this point is a mystery to me.
Craig and I chatted in the dark about a variety of topics - work, his retirement and politics for a while when suddenly we could see lights coming up the trail. Garry and two EMT’s from search and rescue. Garry got there first, and I borrowed his phone to call my wife, who was probably panicked by then. She was. I explained the situation, which probably did not help her panic levels, and told her I would call when they got me back down. I can imagine what she was thinking. A long drive to a hospital to bring me home. Been there, done that before.
The head guy did an evaluation, and said that they could either help me down the trail, or call his supervisor and have them bring up a stretcher. I opted to try out my legs first. They hauled me up to my feet and I was able to stand almost upright. Not bad. I told them I’d give it a try - only 1.5 miles to their car. The other EMT carried my pack, and off we went, with one EMT in front leading the way.
The Advil, rest and food had done wonders - I was still wobbling, and my back was hurting, but without the pack, I was able to make my way slowly down the trail. We used a short-cut back to the main road, but it still took over a half hour to get there. The head EMT, Chris, was great. He used his light to shine on any rough spots, and checked on me every few minutes. Aside from the rocks, there were also a lot of mule dropping to avoid since this was the trail the wranglers used for hauling gear. The last thing I wanted was to step or fall into a pile of mule poop. The evening was bad enough without any other embarrassing events.
We eventually made it to the car, and they drove all three of us back to Half Dome Village. The end of a very long day. We thanked the EMT’s, and collapsed into the tent at about 11:00PM. Geez - we started at 6:00AM. I headed off, carefully, to the shower to wash off the dirt and bugs, and soak in the hot water for a while. That helped. Craig had some not so cold beer out, which still tasted pretty good. Not quite the celebration we were looking for, but we were back safe, with a much more interesting story then any of us were expecting.
I think I finally passed out at 12:30AM.
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