Day 9: Donahue Pass
The wind howled that night and
the flapping of the tent fly kept Becky awake for four hours. During this time
she decided that damaged appendages + no sleep = take the obvious route home.
It was really tough to abandon the SHR as we knew the next section would offer
some amazing, rarely visited terrain, but Becky was not sure she could make it
through another 11 miles of rough travel safely.
We struck off overland to
intersect the JMT a couple miles north. It was both strange and comforting to
be back on that highway. We climbed up to Donohue Pass, greeting the throngs of
southbound JMT travelers along the way. When we hiked the JMT in 2010 we didn’t
notice that many people on the trail, but that’s because we were all traveling
north to south. When you’re swimming upstream, it really becomes clear just how
popular this trail is.
We stopped at a tarn on the other
side of Donohue Pass above Lyell Canyon and Becky inspected her feet. She
discovered a blister had formed on her right pinky toe that encompassed the
whole end of her toe and swelled it to half again its normal size. This caused
great discomfort in her hiking shoe and we decided to put down camp after
another mile of limping down the trail.
We enjoyed our last night on the
trail - reading, napping, eating and taking in the last of the high-alpine
views. We knew the next day’s return to the car meant much-anticipated clean
clothes and cheeseburgers, but we were sad to be leaving the peace and
tranquility of the high Sierra.
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