Week 5
Alright Week 5... Let's finish up the Muro Blanco and head into the wild and remote Monarch Wilderness.
Day 29- Middle of Muro Blanco to Middle Paradise Valley
Anyways we slept well that night and morning dawned crisp & clear but the inevitable dread soon sank in. We were in the heart of the worst bushwhack in the Sierra & we had to get out of it today and we still had 4+ Miles to go. Well, in summary it was 4 miles of pure hell on Earth. It took over 9 hours to do it & when we finished we were f***ing wasted. I swear at one point I thought Rogue was going to kill himself with any means possible. So, after climbing through **** jungles of aspens and fields of prickly ball bush and thickets of willows we made it to Kid Creek. We had enjoyed plenty of delicious currants & even some raspberries & a nice soak in the river, but unfortunately nothing could prepare us for the agony that lay ahead. After entering into a decent forest and passing by the only real camping area since ours, we figured we were almost home free…cruising into Paradise Valley via this forest. Of course, that didn’t happen and we entered a massive brush filled area only to enter into another forest. Now, we thought we were in the clear.. Oh no. Of course not... how could it be that easy? The fun was only just beginning. At that point we had no more than a 1.5 miles of the canyon left but not an inch was won without miles of effort. The willows, the scrub oak, the aspens, the heat… It was destroying every inch of our body & every scrap of our souls. The heat was seriously unbearable. I honestly wished it was raining at that point since fighting through brush is never easy but when it's hot and there's a swarm of blood sucking vampires attacking you from every side it's downright agonizing. Nothing was worse than the last .5 mile or so. We were out of water, dehydrated, barely could go on when we finally accessed the river. I thoroughly and very clearly to this day remember the moaning and groaning as we fought our way to get to the river. Every manner of growl, yelp, moan, scream, and cruse word echoed out of our parched mouths. Arghhhhhh how I rued the day I read about the Muro Blanco and wanted to go explore it. That wretched canyon could burn for all I cared at this point. From the river it finally got easier but still difficult & not until the last quarter mile did it let up. We rolled straight into Upper Paradise Valley into a campsite warning the people never to travel through the hell that is that canyon. I could write so much more about how horrendous it was but why; knowing I’ll never be back and I’ll never bushwhack again is enough for me. Rogue said it was by far the worst route & that he’s done with bushwhacking…The gavel had fallen. We decided Middle Paradise was far enough & **** me, I was totally delirious walking through there. My body was wrecked, even though I had never really gotten too cut up, but I had plenty of small cuts. My mind was wrecked from having to focus so much on not **** losing it in the bushes. Andy my feet were crippled, totally raw & wet, since I managed to step into water at the end of the day after spending all day drying them out. It never rained that day, so naturally it was miserably hot, since the shade never could make it over us, even though plenty of clouds built. By the time we got into camp it was late & I couldn’t walk another inch. But of course water access was far as hell away so I crawled my way down & up there amid some of the worst mosquitoes we had seen. Seriously, what the f***… 6600 FT at the end of July… why the hell were there still mosquitoes there. It made dinner seriously non-enjoyable & it was hot as hell down there but no matter what it was better than being in the **** up Muro Blanco. Can you tell I was pretty over this day?
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