Day 41: mile 878.5 - 893.6

VVR "ferry"
Silver Pass
One-third down, two-thirds left to go

It was up with the sun, packing our packs, and sitting down for one more hot meal before returning to our regular oatmeal and granola. After a stack of pancakes the size of my face, and more eggs/bacon, all that was left to do was pay my tab (ouch...) and take the ferry across Edison Lake to the trail.

When I first heard the "VVR Ferry", I imagined this big boat similar to one of the ferries that takes tourists across the Hudson. Not quite. Turns out you can fit six hikers, and their packs, in a little fishing boat. And that little fishing boat can make it all the way across a big lake! Once we were at the trailhead, it was goodbye to Misguyver and Doublecheck, and off down the trial!

Or "up" the trail. It was about eight miles to Silver Pass, and it was all uphill. I didn't make it very far before my shoes and socks were wet again. Oh well, being dry was nice while it lasted. I was expecting to feel like crap given all the food and alcohol I had over the last 36 hours, but even with the heavy pack the miles seemed doable.

Aaaaand back into the snow, this time on the approach to Silver Pass

I thought the views would start becoming more ordinary after leaving Kings Canyon. Boy was I wrong. The view from the top of Silver Pass was spectacular. The contrast of the white and brown jagged peaks with the clear blue sky is stunning. And the views to the north were just as good.

Sometimes it's tough to gauge the snow depth. Not so here

It was another eight miles before calling it a day. The 10am start, and the snow travel, made for a shorter-than-usual day. Somewhere along the way I passed mile 883.3, which marks one-third of the trail complete. We are getting somewhere. One step at a time.

Day 42: mile 893.6 - 922.9

Bridges?!?
Rainbow Falls
Devil's Postpile
Black clouds

I hate starting the day in wet shoes. But due to late-day fords and snowfields yesterday afternoon, my shoes were about as wet this morning as they were last night. At least I can find solace knowing that they would have gotten wet soon anyways.

Views like this make the wet-shoe mornings more manageable...

Or so I thought. As I approached the first expected ford of the day I was met with a welcome sight. A log bridge! And not of the a-tree-fell-in-a-convenient-spot variety, but of the someone-came-in-and-deliberately-built-this-thing variety. And this turned out to be the theme of the day. This was the first day on the trail that my feet didn't get wet, thanks in large part to the bridges over every major waterway. It almost felt like cheating. Almost.

Despite trying to put in some bigger miles today, my maps persuaded me to take a one-mile round trip detour to see Rainbow Falls. One mile goes pretty fast when you leave your pack and the trail junction and just walk. Though I almost forgot how to walk without a pack on. Takes a few steps to get the balance right again...

The falls were worth it. They were "only" 100 feet, but looked so picture-perfect that it almost seemed as though nature couldn't have carved them. And, being a Wednesday (I'm getting better at paying attention to the day of the week) the trails were empty and I had the place to myself. That meant all I could hear was the sound of rushing, crashing water. I could have stayed there for a while.

Twenty-five year old burn. Not growing back very fast...

But it was back on the trail, only to be derailed (or, detrailed?) by another detour. This one took me past Devil's Postpile National Monument. Driving from Reno to LA along highway 395, I had seen signs for this before, but never actually knew what it was. While not as grand and spectacular on the surface of some of what I have seen in the past few days, I was lucky enough to pass a guided group who was learning how these hexagonal, 20-30 meter tall vertical columns were formed. Suffice to say nature is pretty wicked, even on a smaller-than-mountain-sized scale.

Then it was time to start walking. It was another fifteen miles of up and down (but generally up) as the trail prepared for the last pass of the JMT. I'm camped about 6 miles from the pass, in a terribly windy spot. If I would have had more energy I might have looked for a better spot, but after a 29+ mile day (plus detour miles) my feet and legs overruled that little voice in my head. Earplugs will come in handy tonight...

Day 43: mile 922.9 - 942.5

Little Voice: 2 - Garrett: 0
Donohue Pass
Lyell Creek/Canyon
Elevation flatlining
Tuolumne Meadows

I woke up in the middle of the night with the roof of my tent pressed against my face. Either a bear was sitting on me (literally my first thought), or the wind had flattened my tent. It was (fortunately?) the latter. I pushed on the roof, and it popped back into place. Not a minute later, another gust flattened it. This time one of the poles broke. Shit. I should have walked that extra mile to find a better spot.

So I stuck my hand out of the door, holding the tent pole together, waking up, and trying to figure out what to do. The tent could still partly stand, and I didn't want to try fixing this in the middle of the night (my water bottle was already frozen, and the wind was still howling). I started by crawling outside and taking the rain fly off so the jagged edges where the pole broke didn't tear a hole in it. I wasn't sure how I would fix a torn rain fly with what I had. I also put some duct tape around the break so that those edges wouldn't fray/cut the elastic cord on the inside of the pole. If that cord broke, I wasn't sure I could MacGyver something together. As is, I figured I could fix it with one of my tent stakes and duct tape.

It didn't break any worse the rest of the night, and I actually slept well in my half-collapsed, wind-swept tent, albeit with ALL my clothes on. Cozier, I guess? It was so cold and windy when I got up that I didn't eat breakfast or go through my usual morning routine. I just broke camp as quickly as possible, and started walking down the trail. Or more like stomping down the trail. I wasn't in a great mood.

Once my phone got warm enough to turn on...

As soon as I got to a calm spot I sat down and properly dressed and fed myself while getting my attitude turned around. Then it was back on the snow-covered trail to Donohue Pass, the last major pass on the JMT portion of the trail.

The views to the south were sobering. It has only been a few days since coming through those high snow-capped passes, but as I looked towards the smaller mountains to the north, it made me miss what we had just come over.

Remembering past scenery with a look south...

... and looking north towards the future!!

Then I came off of Donohue and into Lyell Canyon, and I wasn't missing things quite as much. The last nine miles of today's trail had 75 feet of elevation gain, and 475 feet of elevation loss. In other words, it was about as flat as you can get in the Sierra. It was nine miles of trees, meadows, deer, and southbound JMT hikers who have a heck of a challenge ahead of them.

I rolled into Tuolumne (pronounce two-all-um-knee) Meadows in the early afternoon. The Post Office/Grocery Store/only building in the "town" had my resupply box - this one will get me 150 miles to South Lake Tahoe. They didn't have WiFi, and there was no cell service here, so I'm still like 200 miles behind on updating my blog. And I have no idea what is going on in the real world. Which, after the first few days, is really nice.

The campground wasn't officially open, but they let hikers stay at the backpacking site for free. Now it's time to stretch, massage my feet, and get ready for an early start tomorrow. Oh, and my tent pole appears to be holding up fine after using a tent stake and duct tape to splint it. No wind tonight, so we'll save the stress test for another day. Now as long as a bear doesn't sit on my tent tonight...