1985 [PDF] - Yosemite

Jim and Lynn Wilson: The Sierra Sun Rises in Yosemitetrip along the John Muir Trail to Mt. Whitney. They agreed to doYosemite has become a very special place for two of its residents,Lynn and Jim Wilson. As children they had visited here, no more than three or four miles, climbs of less than 1000’ inelevation daily, carried 60-lb. packs, and ate their dehydratedseparately, several times: Jim with his family ("at two weeks olddell food and some fish.and before I was born!"), and Lynn with her photographer grandfatherwho showed her the United States, including Yosemite,Remembering highlights of the trip, they both think immediatelyof day twenty-one when they reached what Jim describesthrough the eye of his camera. When Jim and Lynn marriedseventeen and a half years ago they camped in Yosemite on theiras "like runner’s euphoria...it was like carrying no load, easy tobreathe..,we traveled 9.8 miles that day because we justhoneymoon and it’s been their "home" ever since! But beforecouldn’t stop at three or fourl"actually settling in the Park,They also remember thethey acquired an interestingday Lynn broke her arm; at thevariety of life experiences...top of Kearsarge Pass, outsideBoth were working in Losof Independence, CA, she fellAngeles when they met, Jimand fractured her arm near theas a box boy and apprenticeelbow. So intent were they tomeat cutter, Lynn as an ORfinish their trip on time ("toTech, assisting surgeons in acatch the meteor showers athospital operating room. TheyWhitney") she put her ORmarried and eventually movedtechniques touse and bandagedit herself! Jim remem-to Oregon where they built ahouse, then remodeled andbers that she administered hersold seventeen others, savingown anesthesia, "She drankmoney for their goal, to purchasea meat market and deli-all the 151 Rum and felt nopain for two days!" Four dayscatessenl They ultimately purchaseda meat market/dell in what was then sleepy little San later they came across a veterinarian on the trail who wrappedLuis Obispo and went into the wholesale and retail meat cuttingthe arm with "a red horse bandage, my red badge of courage!"business. They spent ten years in the business in SLO but withLynn remembers that despite the pain in her arm and the headachefrom the rum, the most painful part of the experience was athe urbanization of San Luis Obispo and the arrival of large scalecompetition, they found the meat cutting part of the businesslittle finger which she managed to skin in the fall!floundering as the dell flourished. Thus they expanded to a dell Jim’s birthday was spent on the trail, too; in late.. June theyrestau rant.camped at Duck Lake and were treated by nearby fishermen to aDuring this time things happened that would shape their livesdinner of Kamloops (salmon).and make Yosemite their home. Jim, an avid backpacker, was They had a wonderful time and saw spectacular scenerymaking regular trips into the wilderness with friends and returningwith pictures and stories, but try as he might he never felt he(particularly the storm Jim photographed from the distance overThousand-Island Lake) but they had the difficult times, too: "Acould adequately describe to Lynn what he’s experienced. "He washed out bridge at Fish Creek -- high water, cascades andtalked of wonderful wilderness, no trees, no grass," recalls Lynn.,Jim had to pull me and my pack up a broken bridge," recallsIt was about this tirne that Lynn was diagnosed as suffering from Lynn. And, too, when they were nearly missed by lightning "justCollingens Disease (Lupus). She had previously been told she 50 feet away" while at King’s River Crossing.had Multiple Sclerosis. The combination of the two confined her They had planned from the outset to write a book about theirto a wheelchair and she remembers with a smile that Jim "promisedto take me dancing if I could walk again and when I took four script. Jim wanted to put into pictures what he had tried so hardexperiences on the trail, Jim to do the photography and Lynn thesteps toward him one day, he lifted me onto his shoes and to express to Lynn after all his earlier backpacking experiences,danced!"and they both wanted to share their adventures with others. So,Eventually she was not only walking, she was hiking -- startingwith a short trip to Vernal Fall and leading to an overnight even recorded the sounds of heavy rain, rushing water and "theas Jim took rolls of fih’n, Lynn talked into her tape recorder andbackpack trip with Jim to Glen Aulin and Water Wheel. It was on frogs at 10,000 feet" to help her recall the experiences!this Glen Aulin trip in 1983 that Jim wistfully expressed his When they returned from their trip, having successfullyinterest in a backpack trip together along the John Muir Trail,accomplished their stated goal, they began to work on a slideThe determined Lynn said, "Why not?"show about the trip. Complete with a taped narration set toShe dehydrated food from their dell and planned the trip for music the show is currently presented, free, three nights a weekthe following summer. Despite Jim’s belief that they would never at various locations in the Valley. It’s also been purchased and isgo, they left their dell in the hands of students from Cal Poly and presented by Sequoia National Park. The book they set out toon June 14, 1984, left Happy Isles for a three-month, 400-mile write was published as Sierra Sunrise: Along the John Muir Trail