Woods Creek mile 799 to Campsite at mile 824
Hiked 24 miles
I was slow waking up. I didn't get up as early as I had wanted to. But I ate breakfast and packed up all my things and I was on the trail by 6am. I have 7 miles till I reach Pinchot Pass. Then 9 miles to get to the top of Mather Pass. After that is all bonus miles. I want to get as close to the next pass as possible which is Muir Pass.
Right after the campsite is a bridge. After that the 800 mile mark!
After the video I forgot to take a photo at the 800 mark. I realized it .27 after the fact. Oh well.
A few miles later I have have a call on line 2 and it's time to dig a hole. I went off tail a ways and find a nice big rock to hide behind. I notice there is some paper on the ground in front of the rock. I sit down my pack grab out my hole digging device. I notice the paper is pages from Yogi's book the town guide section we all tear out the pages and carry them for whatever section we are on. The pages where torn in half and wrinkled up and.... Gross there is brown streaks on them. I look around a little more and notice a little dried pile of poop. Not only did this idiot leave trash everywhere they didn't even both to burry their shit. So frustrating. I did my business used a stick and collected the pages and buried them. The thought crossed my mind to pack out the paper. But I'm no saint I'm not going to carry someone elses poo covered paper for the 5 days.
Whatever time to move on, I can't dwell on other people lack of responsibility...
I don't know if I ever mentioned this before.
So the PCT is no longer just the PCT we are now on the John Muir Trail (JMT). The PCT and JMT will be the same trail throughout the Sierras. it's crazy how many JMTer's that I have passed by already. I'm not used to seeing people walking the opposite direction all the time. I am so used to stopping and talking to everyone that I see out on the trail. But with the JMTer's there is almost no point. I'll never see them again.
So Pinchot pass was pretty easy nothing exciting to report about that. I mean it was easy in the sense that there wasn't much snow. Right after the pass I sat here for lunch.
It was a great stop. I even got to test the water tightness of my iPhones Life Proof case...
I was sitting there eating lunch, and a light gust of wind came up and blew a ziplock bag in the lake. So I sat up right away to grab the bag out of the lake and I forgot my phone was in my lap... yup, splash went the phone sinking quickly to the bottom. OH SHIT! I was wearing my long sleeve shirt but no time to take it off I reached into the freezing water to grab it the water is deeper than I thought. I got wet all the way up to my neck. Dam that water is cold. Lucky the Life Proof case saved the day. haha.
The views through this area are amazing. It's just a consist photo opportunity. But I end up not taking anymore photos the rest of the day.
The views are mind numbing amazing. I find myself just passing by instead of stopping to admire. I look but only for a moment. I actually don't have the luxury of taking it all in like I would like to. I only have so much food with me and I have so far to go. When I was planning my resupply I planned on doing 20+ mile days through the sierras just like through the desert. Come to find out sierras are tough. Most people do 15-18 miles a day through here. Tomorrow I will pry end up doing a shorter day cause I want to sleep in the Muir Hut on top of Muir Pass. but after that I am going to have to do at least one 30 mile day! I need to get to Reds Meadows before I run out of food. I also need to get there before Jordan gets into town.
I got to the top of Mather pretty late in the afternoon. Going down Mather pass sucks. I don't see the trail or foot prints in the snow this really sucks there is a lot of snow here. I don't even know where to go. I hate Mountain passes at this point. I am sick of climbing. I ended up going down over these big boulders it was super sketchy large holes and gaps to fall into and get a leg caught. I must have gone the wrong way cause this really really sucks. I hate Mathers lol. I eventually made it through. I'm finally on the trail again and all is well. except it's starting to get dark and I need to find a campsite preferably with other people. After my "fun" night with mountain lions I prefer not to camp alone or night hike.
I came across 2 green packs sitting in the grass off the side of the trail... I know those packs. It's Worm and Squeaker. I sat down and waited for them to come back. They where down by the river scouting a camping spot. We talked for a bit but they said the site they found was pretty small. They left and went back down by the water. I looked around and there was flat spots but rocks everywhere. No thanks. So my search continues. I came to a bunch of stair like switch backs. I passed a couple earlier who referred to this as the golden stair case.? I don't know if thats what it's actually called but it's like a mile of steep stair like switch backs lucky for me all down hill. I was pretty much running down them at this point. I was trying to get to valley below. Halfmile's notes say there are lots of campsites below. Unfortunately down here by the water and in the trees there is a ton of skeeters. On with the head net and long sleeve shirt. I passed by a few people camping but no room for one more. I continued on. It's almost dark and I am starting to worry I am just going to have camp wherever in the dark and by myself... One more mile I walked and saw a fire threw the trees. I got off trail and started walking towards the light...
I could see a large campsite and a bunch of tarps hanging and attached to the trees. what the heck? I got closer they where Hammocks. 5 people camping with hammocks. This is the first time I have seen anyone with a hammock, and there is 5 of them. I got into camp and was greeted by the guys around the fire I asked them it was cool if I joined them. Everyone was nice, I talked to them a bit while I set up my tent and I ate my dinner by the camp fire. They where hiking the JMT. They where from the east coast which explains the Hammocks. They where impressed by my 24 mile day lol. They asked me about the trail ahead. I tried not to tell them how shitty I truly thought it was. Instead I just told them it was tough and lots of uphill.
I stopped hiking at 8:30 and it's 10 already I dont think I'm going to be able to wake at 4am like I want to. I sat and watched the fire die down, we put it out and all the Hammocks are sleeping now. I stashed away my beer can between some logs and crawled into tent clean my feet change into my sleeping clothes slip into my bag and I am happy. Happy and fed, happy with how far I have come today. 24 hard miles kind of happy. I take a vitamin I, and listen to the sound of quite, and to the sound of my feet throbbing with a dull soreness. It's a sound only I can hear. A sound I have become accustom to...
- Posted from my iPhone
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