Week two in the High Sierra - GREAT!!!!

Okay this week has been absolutely awesome.  We have been hiking over a pass a day and each one we find more beautiful than the next.

6/13 - Day 49 - Onion Valley to Kearsarge Pass to mile 795 - 12 miles
The day we leave a town to get back on a the trail is always a hard day... especially when our bed at the hotel is as comfortable as the one we had in Bishop.  But we had a ride from our friend Ducky so we reluctantly left Bishop to hike back up over Kearsarge Pass back to the trail... it was a 5 mile uphill hike with an elevation gain of over 2,000 feet.  Combine that with 7 days of food means that our packs were heavy and our legs were tired afterwards.  Making it to the top was a great feeling but then we still had to hike another 2.5 miles till we were actually back on the PCT.  Then once we did that we had to climb over another pass - Glenn Pass - which was only 2 miles more but extremely steep.  It was much harder than we expected.  I would say one of the hardest passes we did which was weird because it was so short.  The way down was pretty sketchy too with a bunch of snow and ice covering the trail.  But we made it and had a beautiful spot to camp at by a lake.  That night there were three deer hanging around and they didn't seem to mind us one bit.  They were running through our camp and just ignoring our presence.  It was really awesome and beautiful.  We thought that it was a once in a trail kind of an experience but throughout this whole week we have had very similar experiences... once I was having a conversation with another hiker and a deer just sat laid down about 10 feet away from us and didn't care much that we were there.

6/14 - Day 50 - mile 795 to 813 - 18 miles
We woke up bright and early... it was a cold morning so we packed up our stuff fast and headed off on the trail.  We had a beautiful 5 mile downward hike in which we got sort of lost for about 20 minutes and I ended up getting my feet soaked in a river that we didn't actually have to cross.  In spite of that, we still were having a really great time... and we were excited to get to mile 800! It felt like we had been in the 700's for so long!  Mile 800 marked the start of Pinchot Pass which in our opinion was one of the hardest this year.  2013 is a very strange year here on the trail... there is almost no snow - even on the passes - which makes our experience very different from other years.  We have talked to people who hiked in 2011 and they don't even remember going over Pinchot... but they remember a couple others to be very hard and difficult that we thought to be some of the easier ones.  But back to Pinchot.  It was a long, steep, 8 mile uphill climb.  I had expected us to finish it in 4 hours because even on uphills we normally were averaging 2 miles an hour... but not on Pinchot.  This one took us a very long time.  It was beautiful, don't get me wrong.  We followed an amazing stream up a valley for a very long time and had amazing and gorgeous views but boy were we pooped.  So pooped that a mile before the last push to the top we stopped and had to eat lunch to give ourselves a little extra energy.  But boy getting to the top of that pass was really satisfying.  I don't even remember going down Pinchot - the experience of the ascent eclipses it so much.  We made it down to the bottom and went a couple more miles back uphill towards the next pass (Mather Pass) so that we could hit it early in the morning.  That night we camped with a bunch of other people at a beautiful stream that luckily didn't have too many mosquitoes.  It was rather cold that night and we both woke up the next morning to find that the condensation in our tent had frozen and our sleeping bags were covered in a thin layer of ice.

6/15 - Day 51 - 813 to 835 - 22 Miles
Up Mather Pass!  We loved Mather Pass!  It was not too steep on the way up, short section of switchbacks, and great views on the way up, from the top, and on the way down.  This pass however is one of the passes that in previous years has been really hard for hikers due to the snow.  Not the case for us.  We loved it.  One of the best hands down.  We were up and over pretty fast and started the 10 mile descent.  What a gorgeous, gorgeous downhill descent.  It was rather steep at times but completely worth it. Again we followed a river down into a valley and there were just tons of waterfalls all day long.  They were coming down the side of the mountains around us just gushing into the stream we were following.  Oh it was great.  Although it was beautiful I was pretty happy when the descent ended.  My knees were pretty sore from the constant pounding they were taking from going downhill.  But I was also pretty intimidated of the pass up ahead.  We were about to start going up to Muir pass - an 11 mile uphill climb that I heard was pretty hard.  MudD however was very excited and insisted that we do another 7.5 miles up towards the pass to make the next day easier on us.  And I'm glad we did.  Again we had a beautiful campsite right next to a river with a waterfall a couple feet away from us and more friendly deer running through our campsite.  The first 5 miles were fine but the last 2 were really hard and really steep.  But I'm glad we did them... MudD was right, it did make the next day easier.

6/16 - Day 52 - 835 to 855 - 20 miles
Up Muir Pass! So the place we camped the night before set us up for having to hike under 4 miles to the top of Muir Pass.  Although it was tough and steep and we often lost the trail due to snow it was hands down our favorite pass.  We would hike up these switchbacks that would plateau out into a lake that we would walk around and then up more switchbacks to another lake that had a stream flowing into the lake we had just left.  Amazing, just amazing.  At the top of the pass there was a hut that was built in the 1930's I believe by the Sierra Club.  It was built for hikers stuck at the pass in bad weather and even though there was not a cloud in the sky when we were up there, but hut was still really cool and amazing.  It was made out of stones from the area and it blew my mind that people had actually hiked up there with enough supplies to build that hut.  Muir Pass is one of those things that we experienced that is too cool for words... I hope our pictures will give a little taste of our experience.  The rest of the day we spent doing a knee-breaking 23 mile descent.  It was great and beautiful and we even got to ford our first big river.  Like the passes though, it was much easier for us due to the fact that there was such little snowfall this year.  Our guidebook told us that sometimes that river could reach up to your chest!  The water at the place we crossed at didn't even reach our knees.  We found a waterfall off the side of the trail to have lunch at.  MudD was even brave enough to take a swim in the freezing cold water coming down it.  That downhill was so long that MudD and I couldn't even finish it that day.  We camped beside a river and had another great fire and slept great, excited for the next day and the next pass.

6/17 - Day 53 - mile 855 to 879 - 24 miles
We finished up the rest of the downhill from Muir pass and then started up Selden Pass.  Selden Pass was long but mostly gradual.  We sped up that thing faster than any other pass... partly because of the gradual grade but mostly because of the smoke in the air.  There was obviously something on fire that was not supposed to be... it smelled like a fire and the smoke scared me into flying up that hill.  MudD was less concerned but happy to be moving a pretty good clip.  We spent very little time at the actual pass because even up there the mosquitoes were biting us.  All day long we were getting eaten up... especially on our lunch break.  There was hundreds of mosquitoes swarming us for those 30 minutes.  It was awful but it was worth stopping for a good meal.

6/18 Day 54 - mile 879 to 901 - 22 miles!
We did our last pass in the high Sierra today - Silver Pass.  It was great!  I can't write much about this day because I'm running out of time on this library computer and we still have to upload pictures!  The highlight of the day was getting to mile 900 - what an amazing feeling!  The next day we ran into town!  We got a hitch, got a place to stay, and at a ton of food!  We are having a zero day and then heading out again tomorrow, the 21st to celebrate the summer solstice on the trail!!

 Headed back to the trail after Kearsarge Pass

 Made it to mile 800.2

 MudD at the top of Pinchot Pass.

On the way up Muir Pass.  It was so clear that day all the lakes reflected the mountains around them.

 The hut at the top of Muir Pass

 Heading down Muir Pass.

 Fire! Hanging out at camp.

 Holy cow mile 900!