June 22

6/22

22.5 miles (862 to 878, plus 6.5 miles to vermillion valley resort)

Today started nice with a pretty mellow walk up to the top of Selden pass. I met clay at Marie lakes as planned and proceeded to get eaten alive patiently waiting for him to finish fishing. The rest of the day was go go go as it often is when we are within the distance of possibly getting in to town. In this case, not a town exactly but to our resupply and the lure of buying food.

The terrain was much less dramatic as it had been. The granite cliffs were still somewhere in the background hidden behind a dense pine and for forest. I started listening to a new book to pass the time, bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about hiking the Appalachian trail. It isn't exactly a distraction from the tedious task at hand but it is entertaining and very relate able. 

We arrived to vermillion valley resort about 20 minutes before the kitchen closed. We split the pork tenderloin served with polenta and broccoli and two packages of Reese's peanut butter cups. We set up our tent for free outside the store with the other hikers and took glorious 6 dollar showers. 

June 21

6/21

18 miles (844 to 862)

We slept in late and didn't start hiking until 9:30. The evolution lake basin turned into a river canyon. We walked along under firs and pines. The evolution creek crossing is supposed to be one of the toughest, but due to the low snow year, water hit only mid calf. We did get lucky with the low snow, it's made the passes and creek crossings so much easier. 

We walked down to the confluence of evolution creek and the San Joaquin river and followed it down stream. We exited kings canyon national park, entering the John muir wilderness, and began climbing up toward the next pass. Selden pass is supposed to be the easiest so we hope for a relaxed pace tomorrow morning. Clay is going to hike ahead and I'll meet him at lake Marie so he has time to fish and I have time to putter about, take pictures, and eat the snacks I don't want to share. 

June 20

6/20

16 miles (828 to 844 campsite on evolution lake)

Today was so beautiful I didn't even care how hard it was. We camped low last night near 8,000 feet and climbed up the river valley to the headwaters and over muir pass at 11,974 feet. The trail weaved up the river canyon alongside waterfalls, over creeks, and past bright blue fishless lakes. We stopped to eat lunch at Helen lake just before summiting the pass. The top of the pass was mellow, so far the tops had been the steepest, and there was a cool stone hut at the top complete with sleeping pct hikers. We gently dropped down the other side into evolution basin. The views in the last two days have been so incredibly beautiful. We got to camp early, 6:30, a spot on a little peninsula mid evolution lake.

June 19

6/19

17 miles (mile 811 to 828, a campsite along the middle fork of the kings river)

Today was an incredibly beautiful day. We climbed up Mather pass which has been the easiest pass so far. The slope was gradual allowing me to keep ahold of my breath. We descended down to the Palisade lakes, two long skinny lakes in a granite canyon. They were stunning. Clay hiked ahead and I met him at the lake as he fished. We took a long break eating lunch, swimming, and soaking the in view. By swimming I mean quickly jumping in the water, emerging while screaming, and exiting the lake as quickly as possible. Everyone was getting in and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Before we left someone we know walked by, clays sisters friend Katie who is hiking the john muir trail. It's so awesome to run into people you know in the middle of the wilderness. The day ended with miles of steep downhill through a large river canyon and a bit of up, the start of our climb to muir pass tomorrow. 

June 18

6/18

17 miles (794 lower Rae Lakes to 811 campsite at the south fork of the Kings river)

The miles still aren't coming easy, by the end of the day today we were both exhausted. We didn't set up camp until 7:30, making it a long day for the distance that we travelled. 

We climbed about 3800 feet up and over Pinchot pass standing at 12142 feet. It seems that lately we are either going straight up a pass or straight down to reach the climb to the next one. 

June 17

6/17

12.5 miles (7.5 miles up kersearge pass, mile 789 to 794)

We double zeroed in independence so I was antsy today to get back on the trail. We made quick work of going up and over kersearge pass, the trail that goes from the trail head to independence back to the pct. After just a few miles we went up and over glen pass. It was beautiful and steep. Most of the snow is already melted, which is unusual for this time of year, and made for quick and easy travel. Clay sped ahead of me on the way down and fished in Rae lakes. once I caught up, I laid out in the sun and washed my feet in the lake. The mosquitos came out and we decided it was time to move on. We hiked a few more miles and set up on the side of a beautiful alpine lake with a view of the mountains. The buzz of mosquitos is audible from inside the tent. 

6/14

9.5 miles (786 to 788, plus 7.5 miles over kearsearge pass to independence)

Clay and I met up with some friends, another couple, at Whitney and the two boys left early to go fishing at bullfrog lake. Mama squirrel (have I mentioned that we all have trail names?) and I caught up, sat in the sun and took in the views as the boys called out numbers tallying their total fish catches. We continued on, laboring up and over another pass, legs spent from the past few days. The views were gorgeous and we were excited, 10 days passed since our last showers and laundry and of course, food!

6/13

20 miles (766 to 786)

Its later than we usually go to bed. I'm laying in the tent listening to singing, ukelele, and harmonica. 

We didn't make it up Whitney yesterday, with about a mile left to the summit we turned around. We awoke to clouds over the mountain but decided to head out anyway. We were hiking by 5:30. It began to rain, we got wet. As we climbed higher rain turned into snow, we got cold. As we reached around 13,500 ft, it had snowed about 2 inches on top of the feet of snow already on the trail and still snowing hard. Wearing wet clothes and running shoes that I've been wearing since Mexico, I decided I felt I'll equipped for the push to the summit in the snow and feeling like a total weenie, turned around. 

The rumor back at the base camp was that there was trail magic at mile 786, 20 miles away. Spaghetti! So we were on a mission today. We hiked pretty much non stop. The terrain was challenging, we gained at least 4,000 feet and went over the highest point on the pct, forester pass at 13,200 feet. Again, it stormed. It rains everyday! Just as we were reaching the tree line coming down from the pass it started to rain, thunder and lightening. 

We arrived to a little camp in the woods set up by 6 very giving people. They hiked on over 100 pounds of food!  The spaghetti was out but we had salami and cheese quesadillas melted over a fire, they were amazing, and we all gathered and talked. 

I have to mention the toliet where we camped to do Whitney, the crabtree ranger station. Toliets are rare and they are special. There was a toliet here sitting out in the open. Two  walls about two feet high were on two sides of the toliet, leaving two sides totally open. From the camping area one could view exactly what was happening on the toliet at any given time. The walls were on the sides facing a hill, uselessly. You might think that no one would want to use this publicly viewed totally exposed toliet. You'd be wrong. We all used it and it was great.