Etna, CA - After action report

Eighteen hours out of the mountains and I seem to be, as usual, making an easy transition. I’m not one to pine after the trail once I leave, until I get my fill of town and then I’m ready to go in again. Frankly I like both the trail and town life. One is more immediate and the other is more comfortable. I am, after all, a Libra so for me it’s all about the balance.

Tomorrow I’m getting a ride to Ashland from one of the managers of this motel. She often shuttles folks around and while it will cost some $, I’d rather pay her than a commercial business. Easy peasy all around. Once I get to Ashland I’ll pick up my wheels and head south towards Santa Cruz. Going all the way would not be fun so I’ll stop somewhere, hopefully camping along the way. Then off to SCz and back to my usual life. 

I’m still in turmoil about my decision to hit the SOS button. I keep trying to think of what I could have done differently to have avoided my situation, but I’m stuck with not knowing exactly what that would  have been. I mean, clearly I shouldn’t have been back in the woods in a snow storm. Had I known that kind of snow was possible I would not have gone in. The snow wasn’t predicted so it wasn’t expected. Certainly not by me. On the other hand, if one goes into the back country, then one should be prepared for any possibility. Which I clearly was not prepared for. Which is my mistake. 

Here is the combination of what happened to make the thing go wrong. 

1. I was prepared for old snow and ice, not a snow storm. 

2. I didn’t have an extra day of food which would have allowed for an easier exit with an injury and would have been easily doable. 

3. Had I had an extra day of food I would not have pushed myself so hard in the storm, possibly not hurting myself in the first place.  

Once I had an injured joint I couldn’t push without making things potentially worse. Really, like most of these kinds of things, it turns out to be a lot of little things that add up to make a big pile of trouble. Still, I wish I had not felt the need to push that button. In some ways doing that seems to highlight the mistakes I made and well, like most people, I don’t like to draw attention to my mistakes.