Day 60-63
Mile 906.7-942.5
Mammoth Lakes to Tuolumne Meadows & Yosemite
Day 60- Mammoth California!
Today we woke up early because the motel beds are simply not as comfy as sleeping on hard ground in our sleeping bags.
We watched a few cartoons before heading off to breakfast at the Breakfast Club. After breakfast we went and checked out an awesome art show across the street. It really made us think of and miss our friend Nick back at home.
We have also been missing our friend Chris who is doing a ruck walk in Europe at the moment. We got our packs put together and checked out of the motel. Since we needed wifi we went to a coffee shop called black velvet to get some things done. They use the top 1% of coffee beans in the world and it was really good. I had a mocha and a cold brew. A cold brew is where the coffee is not heated but rather brewed using cold water. This makes the brewing process take about 14 hours but makes a delicious potent cup of coffee. While at the coffee shop we met up with some fellow PCT hikers, Mark, David,& Brit. After coffee we went to eat dinner at the Base Camp Cafe. We briefly talked with some people outside about our hike before going in to eat. They plan to hike the AT with their dog in a few years. Jenna had a sandwich and I had a pasta. Unknown to us, the family we had briefly talked to secretly paid for our dinner. We were very grateful and surprised. After dinner we took our three buses back up to Reds Meadow. Once there we hiked a half mile and set up camp back on the PCT. Mammoth was a fun town and it was a great zero.
Day 61-Mmmm Breakfast
Today we assumed we would get hiking around 8. We ended up hiking back to Reds Meadow for a shake and Breakfast. It was worth getting started late and worth the extra mile hike. We got going on trail around 10 ready to hike. We passed the Devils Postpile and saw Sean from Hikertown who's shin splints healed up well.
We hiked on through beautiful forest in the Ansel Adams Wilderness all day.
Later we passed thousand island lake but decided to hike on further to get as close to Donahue pass as possible.
We camped in a beautiful spot on a ridge 5 miles from the pass. It's exciting to be this close to Tuolumne Meadows.
Day 62- The end of the high sierra
We woke up pretty late today and didn't get hiking till ~9 am. Mark, David, and Brit passed by us; they also had a late start. We made our way to Donahue pass and got to the top with ease. It was the easiest pass yet.
There were lots of other JMT hikers and weekend backpackers at the top. There was a funny marmot at the top of the pass that i took too many pictures of.
Both of our feet were hurting more than normal so it was slow but steady going into the Lyell canyon area.
We made pretty good time in to Tuolumne and were excited to finish most of the JMT and all of section H of the PCT.
We didn't finish the JMT into Yosemite because we wanted to rest and we are planning to meet my family in lake Tahoe next week. First thing we did in Tuolumne was go to the store for food. We ate and conversed with other hikers before getting a spot at the walk in campground. That night we stayed up till hiker midnight chatting with JMT hikers sharing stories and having a good time. The hiking community is so cool and it is nice to have something in common with so many people from all walks of life.
Day 63- Disney Land
We got up at a decent time today, 8 am, and made our way to the store to get breakfast and our 3 resupply packages. Gotta love cereal!
Our packages had notes from family members and mine had some cookies from my grandparents. They were so good and we were very grateful for them. We ate the ~ 2 dozen cookies in 5 hours in Yosemite valley. The ride into the valley on the YARTS bus was fun and very beautiful. The valley was very crowded and it was a bit overwhelming. After walking through the awesome museum and visitor center we went and got a yummy cheese/mushroom pizza.
After lunch we walked up to lower Yosemite falls.
Due to the low snow year the flow was low and there were people everywhere we turned. We took a bus ride around the valley from the village to get a snapshot of the valley.
It was a fun relaxing ride. Before catching our bus back to Tuolumne Meadows we got some ice cream and coffee. As we left Yosemite valley we couldn't help but think about coming back to climb here this October and/or next summer. The bus ride was nice and we got to see more amazing views of the Yosemite area. When we got back to Tuolumne meadows we were hungry, as we mostly are, and ate some sandwiches and chips with other thru-hikers at the store for awhile. Afterwards, we went to the walk in campground and got a spot with two JMT hikers. We talked to them for awhile before heading off to sleep. Yosemite was fun but way too crowded this time of year.
-Natey
No comments:
Post a Comment