Day 55 - 59

June 29 - July 3
Day 55 - 59
Mile 835 - 906.7
Little Pete Meadow - Reds Meadow/Mammoth lakes

Day 55 - Through the eyes of John Muir

I awoke at 6:00 to a rustling sound near our tent. It was just the deer from the night before chewing on something on the ground. But it was no stick or food, the deer was chewing on our trekking poles! We have heard that they will chew on trekking poles straps and shirts for the salt. I woke Nate up to show him and he sat up. That startled the deer and it jumped back a few feet keeping the trekking pole close. We thought if we scared it away it would drop the trekking pole and leave. Not so. Nate jumped out of the tent and chased the deer a good 50 feet before it was willing to give up its tasty snack. Seeing the deer awkwardly and lopsidedly run with a pole in its mouth and Nate in minimal clothing leap after was too much for me and I couldn't stop laughing. I wish I had it on video. We slept a few more hours before getting up. The 7 miles to Muir pass was so breathtaking. We passed rivers, cliffs, and the bluest, most pristine lakes I have ever seen. They were so clear you could see through them.












We felt as if even running a trail through this area was somehow ruining the pristine nature of this amazing place and we felt privileged to be able to see it. We only hit a tiny bit of snow.




It was very windy on top but we did get to see the Muir hut built by the Sierra club and we stayed to eat lunch with some southbound JMTers.








The scenery today was some of the best.












We ended the night in a camp spot with a few friends we have been leapfrogging with, hot dog and tunes. Tunes has a stress fracture that is acting up so they will probably have to leave the trail. Things can change so fast out here, we're just happy for every day we get.

Day 56 - The ups and downs of a low snow year

We wanted to do Selden pass by the end of the day so we got hiking a little earlier. We had our first big stream crossing today, evolution creek, which we had heard is only thigh deep but can be swift. When we got there, we thought the maps or gps had to be wrong. It was only slightly bigger than some other streams we had crossed on rocks. Since there was so little snow this year the snow has mostly melted and made the stream crossings much easier.




We walked across easily and the water level made it to my mid calf at one point. We took a break a few miles later to eat lunch and dry our shoes and socks off. We left beautiful kings canyon national park and entered the John Muir wilderness of Sierra national forest. We were surprised at how quickly the scenery changed. There were now grasses, bushes, and aspens in addition to pines. It reminded us of home.








We forgot to look at the maps which indicated that this was a five mile waterless section. Five miles doesn't sound like a lot but I have only been carrying a liter at a time and this section was hotter than we expected. I got really thirsty and ran out of water but luckily Nate had some extra. I think it very ironic that the place I ran out of water was the Sierra where there is water everywhere. As we were walking some guy that was walking southbound said he was praying for everyone that passed and asked if he could pray for us. We are not religious but kindly accepted his offer. We climbed Selden pass easily and saw Tripod at the top. We were going to take a break but there were so many mosquitos!








We practically ran down from the pass until we found a spot. The mosquitos annoyed us all night while we cooked and set up camp.




We only expect them to get worse from here on out so we are trying to prepare ourselves. In high snow years mosquitos don't get bad until Oregon so while the passes and river crossings have been easy, we have had really early bug problems.




Day 57 - The most dangerous crossing

We woke up this morning with condensation on our tent so we just sat in our sleeping bags and talked while we waited for the sun to come out and dry the tent. We watched as the mosquitos began to wake up and gather near our tent. We took down camp super quickly while swatting them away. Luckily, they were not so bad once we were walking. We had another potentially hazardous stream crossing early in the day. Some consider bear creek the most dangerous crossing on the whole trail. I'm sorry to say I don't have a picture of it because, while we did cross it, we didn't know at the time because it was so small! Not hazardous at all and we were expecting something much bigger. We tried to take a break for lunch but the bugs were so bad we didn't stop for long and didn't even eat. Later, we came to a bridge over a flowing river and suddenly noticed there were no mosquitos! We took advantage of it and plopped right on the bridge and stayed for 45 mins.




A man and his dog, geyser, came up and he said he would take a picture of us. Geyser sat right down by me and looked at the camera and wouldn't get out of the picture when the man asked him to. It was so funny.




We wanted to get pretty close to Silver pass so we went a few more miles before we looked for a camp spot.




We encountered some steep terrain that was basically a staircase up to a meadow.




We stopped at a creek for water and the bugs were very bad. We found a spot a half a mile later that somehow had no mosquitos! We couldn't believe it. They didn't start to get bad until we were almost done with dinner. We sat in our tent, with at least 100 sitting on the mesh of our tent feeling so happy that we chose a tent and not a tarp.

Day 58 - Milestones

We got ready very quickly today because there were bugs everywhere. The rest of the climb to Silver pass went by fast and on the way we passed mile 883.3 which means we are a third of the way done! We didn't stay long though and started the descent into the valley. The views were incredible again with rock and trees in every direction and mountains in the distance.




We passed more beautiful lakes and streams.




The Mosquitos seemed to get better after Silver pass and we are hoping it lasts for a while. Later in the day we saw some storm clouds move in where we were that morning.




We had to navigate through blown down trees all day, but thankfully trail crews have come through and cleared the worst parts already.












Just before we made camp we passed mile 900! We didn't have any mosquitos and we were so happy.




Day 59 - Why do hotels always have white towels?!?!

The 6 miles to Reds Meadow flew by and we got there by 7:30. We had one thing in our mind: a big breakfast! We did pass some more blow downs and a huge burned section.








This fire was a sleeper fire. This is when lightning hits a tree and embers grow inside the tree. Wind then jars the tree before the embers cool and the embers spread starting a fire. Pretty sad but also pretty cool and fascinating. We took a series of 3 buses to get from Reds Meadow to Mammoth Lakes where we immediately went to breakfast. We then checked into the motel 6 and showered. After doing a few things around town and watching star wars we settled into bed. Warm and cozy, right? No. Something doesn't feel right, it's too scratchy, not firm enough, and tilted all wrong. I grabbed my sleeping bag and laid it on top of the covers. Much better. Tomorrow we will sleep in and get out of town later in the day (if the buses run on the 4th!)

I always feel bad when I come into a town looking like a heap of trash and smelling even worse. It's easy to pick out the other thru hikers, even in a bigger town like mammoth. They are either in dirty clothes or in rain clothes because they are doing laundry. Even though they may have showered, they still have a grungy, haphazard look about them. And we all walk around like a chicken with our head cut off practically having a sixth sense for the cheapest, largest meals we can find. I have come to realize that hotel showers are really made for clean people who just think they are dirty. You can't claim you are dirty until you think you're getting tan only to wash that "tan" off in a lake, or when you try to clean your dirt and sweat stained sunglasses off on your shirt only to realize there is no clean spot on your shirt. Or when you begin to think there is no soap that will clean knees and toes. Or when you smell a wonderful smell and turn to see a new flower on the trail only to realize its just a day hiker who has showered in the past few days. Or when you refuse a shower thinking, "well I showered 4 days ago so what's the point of taking another one." Or when, after you've taken three showers in one day, you look at the water as it flows down the drain and think, "damn, the water is STILL black!" You see, hotel showers are really just an irony because if they were made for dirty people they would not use white towels.

-Jenna
-Be Free