Day 7: resupply, Superior
Lake
We started the day with a four
mile hike through forest and an old burned area down to Red’s Meadow Resort
where we’d dropped off a box of food and supplies one week earlier. While
collecting our cache we discovered the manager of the resort was from West
Salem and had a house just a few blocks from where Pete had grown up. Small
world!
We sorted food and gear while
inhaling potato chips and fruit juice from the general store. Based on our pace
from the first 55 miles, we decided that we could complete the next 45 mile
section in five days instead of six and we ended up leaving behind quite a bit
of food. We would kind of regret that a little bit later on.
Red’s was the lowest elevation
we’d been at in a week - 7750 feet and departing that elevation at 11:15am to
start our climb up to a lake at 9500 feet meant just one thing - it was going
to be hot. And it was. We got back on the JMT for a few more miles before
turning east to catch the trail to Superior Lake. This was a an extremely
boring, dry, dusty climb through the forest. We were encouraged by thoughts of
swimming in what was sure to be a lovely alpine lake if it had been named
“Superior”...right? Wrong. It was a green, algae-filled, muddy, grassy-banked
pond that had no good entry points for swimming. There was nothing superior
about this body of water, but it was water and we needed some so we put down
camp for the night.
The next section of the route
would go completely off trail and once again we found ourselves staring up at
the slope we would have to ascend in the morning thinking “Really?” Looking at
the map we knew we had a long way to go the next day so we set the alarm for
5:30am in order to get us on the trail by 6:45am.
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