Chest Plant

A group of us were hiking to a stop at Blue Lakes Road outside of Echo Lake and we were somewhat split up. Minutes, not miles apart, but it still felt like you were alone.

I was with Slider when we came to a creek. I had plenty of water, but mine had gotten warm so I dumped it and went to get something fresh and cold.

I look down to my left and see a log across and it brings you to a spot where the water is rushing, the best spot to grab water if you're not filtering.

Slider says something that I don't understand and I mumble an unintelligible response and start to cross. The log is wet on the far side, but I see a dry spot big enough for a foothold and use that to spring to the other side.

What Slider had said was "I'm gonna go up here where it's drier."

My foot hits the spot and slips off into the water up to my shin. The other foot follows suit and down I go like Poland in September 1939, quickly, easily and cursing in Polish.

I threw my hands out but there was absolutely nothing to grab on to and I did a straight chest plant onto the log. My chin also bangs into the log and is cut open.

For half a second I'm about to get mad, but then I think, "Yeah, that's gonna help" and just laugh to myself. Thankfully we were spread out so no one saw, but I took some pictures of the log print on my shirt so the public could enjoy later on.

That was my third slip into water of the trip. Way back when I was walking into Agua Dulce I got to a step-across creek, but instead of stepping across, I decided to walk on this super unstable pseudo log. It immediately shifted and in my feet went to this warm, swampy smelling water. Delicious!

Hiking out of Tuolumne Meadows, we got to a pretty big creek that I should have just forded, but not wanting to get my feet wet, I hiked upstream until I got to some rocks that looked hoppable. And they were, until I got to one in the middle that was wet and didn't have much sticking above the water line.

I landed a little too far from the top, my foot slips and in I go up to my knees. My feet, however aren't touching the bottom and I try gripping the rock to climb up, but in this too I failed. Down I go up to my waist, both my phone and camera in my pockets.

Luckily Motorola and Canon make quality products because the camera never stopped working and as soon as the phone dried out, the backlight kicked back in and it works like it never stopped.

The river incidents have died down since we left the Sierras and the water has become less abundant, but Washington is still snow covered right now, so there's a good chance the rivers will be raging and I could get swept away when I get there. If I do, I'll take a picture since I know my camera will still be working.