JMT Day 8 / September 7, 2010 - Selden Pass

stats: 17.5 miles, 4000' gain

I got my birthday wish today….after a long night of sleep I woke up and my fever had finally broken.  It still felt like my stomach was in a vice, but I could deal with that.   We broke camp while it was still cold and made quick work of the 2000’ climb up Bear Ridge on our way to Selden Pass.  We had read several accounts of people having a heck of time fording Bear Creek which we crossed late morning, but the nice thing about doing the JMT in early September is that most of the creeks and rivers have dropped to very easily passable levels and we happily skipped across the exposed boulders with nary a problem. 

While we were hiking along Bear Ridge, Becky rounded a corner at one point and encountered an older female hiker with wild curly gray hair and a deeply intense look on her face tearing up the trail in an outfit constructed entirely of an ultra-lightweight, baggy parachute type material. Becky’s initial reaction was “Oh my god! It’s a witch!”, but then the lady spoke, rather curtly - “Are you doing the whole JMT?"  Yes? Good.” - and then she blew past us.  Becky realized that it was just one of the many characters you’re sure to encounter deep in these mountains.  She became known to us as “The Witch of the Sierras” and we learned later that Larry had also encountered her on the trail and got an unsolicited and somewhat angry earful on the nutritional deficiencies of Gatorade.

Marie Lake, situated just below Selden Pass (10,880’), was another highlight of the trip…an unreal shade of blue, rimmed with beaches and meadows in the middle of a desolate rocky high alpine basin.  We caught up with Larry (ever so briefly) at Marie Lakes.  We all crossed Selden Pass together, snapped a few pics and then he sped off, not to be seen again until our very last day.

We had planned to camp on the north side of the pass by Sally Keyes Lake, but when we got there we still felt strong enough to go a couple more miles, so we continued on down below treeline and camped along Sanger Creek.  The weather was still clear when the sun set, so we had hopes that the forecast wouldn’t hold true and tomorrow would be dry. 

Day 9…

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Marie Lake

 

Selden Pass

 

Sally Keyes Lakes

JMT Day 7 / September 6, 2010 - still at Vermillion

stats: 1.5 miles, 150' gain

After a huge breakfast at the VVR restaurant, omelets and potatoes, we picked up our resupply buckets from the resort staff.  A week before we left Washington, we mailed two 5 gallon buckets of food to the resort that contained our second week’s supply of food.   We spent the morning evaluating what we’d eaten the previous week and how we could possibly pare down our food to make our packs a bit lighter.  We ended up leaving behind a couple pounds of food each and just managed to cram what we needed into our bear-proof food canisters.

While we were sorting our food the water taxi dropped off another load of hikers.  One of them was a man named Larry from Virginia who we spent the afternoon chatting to and we discovered that we both had the intention of summiting Mt. Whitney the morning of September 14th.  Larry had started his hike in South Lake Tahoe (about a hundred miles north of Yosemite) and was doing all 300+ miles by himself, but had made plans to meet his son on the summit of Mt. Whitney.  We also discovered that he had passed “New York” on the trail the day before and it sounded like he wasn’t doing any better than when we left him at Duck Creek.  Larry even suggested to the VVR owner that they may want to muster Search and Rescue for this guy as he appeared to be in a great deal of pain and moving at a snail’s pace.  I don’t think they did and I’m sure New York eventually made it to VVR under his own power and caught his shuttle to the Fresno airport (we hope!) but it really drove home the point that a thing like the JMT can attract all kinds of people.  In any event, Larry was a great guy and we dug his story and his vibe so we hoped we’d run into him along the trail again.

I was starting to feel better and after some time online using the resort’s computer, we figured that somehow I had picked up some kind of food poisoning, how exactly we didn’t have a clue, but from what we read, we figured the symptoms should subside in a couple more days and I should kick it without needing antibiotics or a doctor.   Vermillion was a place that we could pull the plug on the trip, but it wouldn’t have been easy…it would’ve involved hitchhiking to Fresno and from there catching a Greyhound or YARTS bus back over to the east side of the Sierras and then hitchhiking up to Whitney Portal.  We decided to catch the afternoon ferry and just hike the one and a half miles back up to the Muir trail junction and spend the night…if I felt like garbage the next day, we could still hike back to the water taxi and begin the west side exit, but we hoped I’d be well enough to continue.

We did check the NOAA forecasts while at the resort and the weather looked like it was going to be changing in a couple days…rain, snow, and very cold temperatures were on the way for later in the week, but would hopefully only last a day or two.

Day 8…

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time to repack the bear bins!

 

back on the boat, returning to life on the trail

JMT Day 6 / September 5, 2010 - Silver Pass, Vermillion Valley Resort

stats: 9.5 miles, 300' gain

We only had a short climb over Silver Pass before we started the long descent to Edison Lake and the water taxi.  I was still running a fever and felt like someone had a vice around my stomach, but we still made steady progress. 

From Silver Pass, we dropped past some huge granite slabs and amazing scenery that was a good distraction from how lousy I was feeling.   We reached the lake by noon and Becky spent the afternoon reading while I slept in the tent.  It was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and there was a pretty big crowd of folks waiting for the water taxi by the time it arrived.   Fortunately we all fit onboard and didn’t have to wait for a later boat. 

Arriving at Vermillion Valley Resort, we set up our tent, took hot showers, did some laundry, and headed for the restaurant for dinner.  It’s worth noting that we specifically did our only resupply at VVR because of their restaurant and Becky’s dream of having a huge pile of bbq ribs for dinner… my regular question to her during the months leading up to the trip was ‘what if they aren’t serving bbq that night?’ was always met with ‘of course they’ll have bbq, they have to’.  Sadly, when we got to the restaurant their limited menu for the night was t-bone steak, chicken curry or chicken with thai peanut sauce.   We both had the chicken curry and it was quite good, especially followed up with a couple pieces of pie, but sadly it was not the feast Becky had dreamed of.  At least she got a couple cold beers (a Mirror Pond Pale and a Stone pale ale – VVR had the BEST beer list!) which went a long way towards making her feel better. 

We spent a little time out by the firepit reading and talking about what we would do the next day if I was still running a fever and feeling weak, then it was off to bed for a long sleep.

Day 7…

Link to photo album

Up and over Silver Pass

Down down down to Edison Lake

showers, hot food, and beer!

JMT Day 5 / September 4, 2010 - Lake Virginia, Squaw Lake

stats: 15.5 miles, 2500' gain

Up at 5:30 again and on the trail by 6:30. Before we left camp though we met our neighbor…we didn’t get his name, but we had recognized him as a fellow from New York that another hiker had mentioned the other day. ‘New York’ appeared to be having a pretty rough time…we’d seen his pack the day before…it was huge compared to the average JMT’er…and he’d been complaining of having back pain. He’d been trying to make up time by traveling after dark, but had gotten turned around by taking a small unmarked trail off the main trail in the night and walked miles back and forth before finally plopping down next to our tent. When we left him that morning he was off exploring adjacent spur trails (with his tent WIDE open for all manner of critter to easily enter), seemingly unwilling to accept that the highway the rest of us were on was in fact the correct trail.

We felt great in spite of our long, hot 22-mile day and were making good time, but by mid-morning things took a turn for the worse. Without going into too much detail, lets just say I became violently ill, my stomach was a train-wreck, and I was running a fever by 10am. Becky slowed the pace, and we crawled along far slower than the day before. We reached Purple Lake by lunchtime. Becky made sandwiches and refilled our reservoirs while I fell asleep in the shade. Fortunately the handful of Aleve I took finally started to knock my fever down and we still managed to grind out 15.5 miles that day. The day’s hike ended with a hot 1000’ climb out of Tully Hole to Squaw Lake which only drove home how much we prefer to do our climbing in the cool of the morning.

The terrain we covered was really quite spectacular though, we briefly got above treeline into a rocky bowl filled with house-sized granite boulders, and passed by more amazing lakes. Lake Virginia was our favorite…not particularly big, but the most intense shade of blue with bright green meadows that ran right to the lakeshore which was rimmed with beaches of pulverized granite sand. We could’ve easily spent the day lounging there, but the downside to a two-week schedule is that we couldn’t just drop the packs and set up camp that early in the afternoon.

Squaw Lake was a great campsite though, and we rolled in to camp with enough sunlight left to soak our tired legs and wash our socks. It was Labor Day weekend and after several days of relative peace and quite, we were a little annoyed to have to share ‘our lake’ with campers who were way to noisy and boisterous.

I passed out early, trying to gather some strength for Silver Pass and the ten miles out to the water taxi the next day.

Day 6…

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Mammoth Crest

Purple Lake

Lake Virginia

Squaw Lake

Dinnertime on the slabs at Squaw Lake

Fun with long exposures and a headlamp at camp

JMT Day 4 / September 3, 2010 - Reds Meadow, Mammoth Crest

stats: 21.5 miles, 2500' gain

This was the first day we gave the new “Frank strategy” a try. Rather than get up with the sun and start the day at a leisurely hour, we set the alarm for 5:30am and began what would become our regular routine of eating breakfast by headlamp, breaking camp at first light and being on the trail by 6:30. 

The day was hot, the trail was an awful combination of dust, loose dirt, and way too much horse shit from all the mule trains and guided trips in the area.  We dropped out of the alpine, past Devil’s Postpile National Monument (we didn’t take the side trail to get the up-close view – the view from across the river was just fine for us), and down to the edge of Mammoth where we took a mid-afternoon break at Reds Meadow Resort.  Some JMT hikers pick up their first resupply packages at this camp, but our first resupply was still a few days away at Vermillion Valley Resort.   Though we didn’t have any food to pick up, we were pretty happy to raid the small grocery store and get some cold Gatorade and popsicles before heading back out into the afternoon heat.  The next stretch beyond Red’s had burned a few years past, so there was no shade, but it was tolerable thanks to our long break and as we got back into the shade and climbed the 1300’ to Mammoth Crest we felt surprisingly good with our slow and steady pace.  By the time we dropped our packs for the night at Duck Creek, we’d covered almost 22 miles.  Frank’s method for covering a lot of ground was a good one! 

Around 10pm we heard someone walking by, then about a half-hour later we heard the noise again…someone was rolling in way after dark and was setting up camp near us.   He was quiet and we didn’t mind having a neighbor, but it seemed a little odd for someone to be hiking so late. 

Day 5…

Link to photo album

 

 

 

Becky cooling off at Red’s Meadow Resort

A hot hike through the old burn to Mammoth Crest

JMT Day 3 / September 2, 2010 - Donahue Pass, Ritter Range

stats: 14 miles, 3000' gain

Kind of a slow start this morning. We didn’t break camp till 7:30.  After many miles of flat valley bottom hiking, we finally climbed out of the trees and up into the subalpine wonder below Mt.Lyell…tons of small tarns, creeks, meadows, huge granite domes…it really was as we expected - like Washington’s Enchantments, but on steroids.  Up over Donahue Pass, 11,056ft, and we finally had some new views to the south, June Mountain, and the Mammoth ski area were visible in the distance.  

On our hike up to the pass we met and passed fellow thru-hiker Frank. Frank’s approach to hiking was slow and steady and go ALL day. While we initially congratulated ourselves on being fast enough to pass other hikers, we found our energy sapped and our feet sore by early afternoon. As we lazed about, soaking our fatigued limbs in a lake later that afternoon we saw Frank slowly make his way past the lake, still cranking with three hours til sunset.  We knew then that Frank had the right idea and we’d have to adopt his strategy if we were going to happily put in 15-20 miles a day for 14 days in a row.  We referred to our new pace as “Franking it”. 

While having a mid-morning snack on the top of Donahue, a mouthful of chocolate covered raisins provided just enough stickiness to loosen a temporary crown I had over one of my molars, and before I knew it, I had pulled off the crown and there it was in the palm of my hand.  I’d heard horror stories of tooth pain hikers have had from losing fillings before, but fortunately a crown popping off a dead tooth that’s had a root canal only makes for awkward eating. 

The warm morning gave way to a hot afternoon…we found a patch of shade near a stream for lunch, refilled our water reservoirs, wetted our bandanas and hats and headed towards Island Pass. 

Just beyond Island Pass is Thousand Island Lake, a spot I’d been dying to see ever since I first started researching the JMT last year.  There’s no way for me to describe it…it just looks so amazing, a deep blue lake below a huge black peak, and what truly seems like a thousand tiny islands dotting the water.  It would’ve been easy to camp here, but we still needed to knock off a few more miles, so we continued on to the equally spectacular Garnet Lake where we had camp set up by 3:30. 

The weather was still plenty warm for a relaxing afternoon of swimming and doing laundry on the lakeshore.  We didn’t bring many changes of shorts and socks, so after three days our first set of socks were fairly caked with dust…it was nice to be able to get them cleaned and dried for the next day. 

Becky and I both had been looking forward to tonight's dinner….we had a sealed package of pre-cooked bacon that we finally cracked open and added to our lentils and couscous…so nice to get some fat and salt! 

The evening weather was warm and we didn’t need our down jackets after dark…made for a pleasant night of sleeping, but the next day was likely to be really hot.

Day 4…

Link to photo album

 

 

 

 

Tarns below the Lyell Glacier

 

closing in on Donahue Pass

 

Thousand Island Lake

JMT Day 2 / September 1, 2010 - Tuolumne Meadows, Lyell Canyon

stats: 18 miles, 300' gain

 

We both felt surprisingly good in the morning, our feet and legs recovered from the big start the day before.  A cup of Starbucks instant VIA coffee with some cold cereal and we were on our way.  Not much climbing today, just a little 300’ climb over Cathedral Pass, down to Tuolumne Meadows and then south to the head of Lyell Canyon.  As we neared Tuolumne, we got a bit turned around with the jumble of trails, but one of the volunteers at the Visitors Center got us going in the right direction to the hamburger stand.  We gobbled up burgers, fries, and fruit salad, and picked up a few last minute first-aid items at the store then left civilization behind and started up the canyon. 

Lyell Canyon was gorgeous…big meadows with tall grass and a slow flowing stream with one tempting swimming hole after the next.   We kept hiking till about 4:30 when Becky started to fade and began to stumble on rocks and roots and such…and I was more than happy to call it a day too. 

As we set up camp a large group of guided hikers walked back and forth on the trail…they were part of a horse-packing trip and the guides, horses, and all the overnight gear were nowhere to be found.  Fortunately about an hour before dark, the hiking guide found some evidence of where the pack-train had left the trail and the group headed to find their camp…I was glad we didn’t have to start donating food and fuel to a big group that had lost their way. 

We got in a quick dip in Lyell Creek before the sun dipped below the ridgeline and cooled things off.   The one drawback to using running shoes on such a dry trail is that ones feet are filthy at the end of the day from all the dust getting through the light mesh fabric. 

Becky started to look at the schedule and maps (an exercise on her part that would become a near-obsessive nightly ritual :) ) and suggested that we try to up the daily mileage so that we get to our food resupply a half-day earlier, but that would mean we’d be doing at least one 20+ mile day and I hoped that she would reconsider as I was not eager to start putting in big-mileage days unless necessary. 

Tomorrow would be our first big pass, Donahue Pass, then we’d leave Yosemite and head for camp in the Ritter/Banner area.

Day 3…

Link to the photo album

 

 

Cathedral Peak, nearing in on Tuolumne Meadows

way up Lyell Canyon, looking back towards Tuolumne