Day 73-78: miles 865-944

Still enjoying my zero at South Lake Tahoe, and using this time to catch up a bit on the blog!

Day 73: miles 865-881.8

We started the morning with Selden Pass, which was only snow covered for about two miles leading up, though there was snow for quite a ways on the descent, making it slow going. We used our microspikes for a good section of the descent, even though the snow was slushy for most of it - it's no longer getting down to freezing every night, so the snow quality is rapidly deteriorating. Continuing on, we had some nice downhill but lots of river crossings, one of which I stepped on a slippery rock and got soaked up to my chest. Luckily it was very slow moving so there was no danger, but it was very cold. The crossing after that was Bear Creek, which was our scariest crossing yet - it was waist-deep, with whitewater and slippery rocks I couldn't see. Each step had to be incredibly careful, and it was hard to position our poles without feeling like they'd get swept away. We took our time crossing, positioning each foot as carefully as we did on the icy passes days before. We stopped for lunch a little ways after, managing to find a breezy rock outcropping that wasn't too mosquito-filled. I was glad for the chance to let my pants dry a little - the wet fabric was giving me some chafing issues. We soon continued on, going up Bear Ridge and then all the way down. This section was very green, with lots of aspen and ribes, plus copious wildflowers like the shooting stars and columbines. We passed the turnoff to Vermillion Valley Resort, which is 8 miles off-trail, but we were good on food and didn't want to hike off-trail that far. After another tense river crossing, we headed uphill, passing the trail to Mono Pass and then getting to our campsite. Despite being at a decently high elevation, away from water and vegetation, and with a cold night, the mosquitoes were absolutely rampant. We donned our headnets and rain gear just to set up camp, and said gooodnight early as we cooked dinner from within the safety of our tents. I'm really hoping it won't be this bad every night - there's a cold snap coming that will hopefully kill off some of them.

Day 74: miles 881.8-897.3

Slept in a bit before heading off around 8 to get over Silver Pass! The ascent was long and tiring but not too steep, and there was only continuous snow for about a mile before the summit and a couple miles after, and we never felt the need for spikes. The snow was nice and slushy, making the downhill a little wet and wild as we slipped and postholed all over. The grade was nice so it never felt dangerous, and in a couple cases it was actually kind of fun to boot-ski down a couple feet. The trail finally emerged from the snow, though it was very flooded with quite a few blowdowns, but the downhill was overall really nice. But as noon came and went and I didn't see Cheers waiting on the side for lunch, I started to get a little frustrated. At 12:40 I decided I was ready for lunch regardless, so set up at the next nice clearing. But lo and behold, ten minutes later up strolls Shade and Cheers, who unbeknownst to me had gotten behind me on the descent! I was glad I stopped when I did, instead of carrying on for who knows how much longer! After lunch we had a couple more serious ascents - up to Purple Lake and down, then a huge climb up to Virginia Lake and another short down, then finally back up to Duck Lake where we were camping. Our campsite was right by the river and it was really gorgeous. The mosquitoes were out and about but not quite as bad as the day before, so we did dinner outside our tents before heading to bed.

Day 75: miles 897.3-908 + 0.7 off-PCT

We had nine miles this morning into Red's Meadow Resort - a small mountain cabin resort and campsite in the middle of nowhere. There's typically a shuttle that goes into Mammoth Lakes from here, but it's not running on weekdays due to road construction, and none of us needed much food so we decided to resupply from the general store there. We also got some great food, a shower, and laundry before setting up at the campsite there. There was also a hot springs which was very hot and felt so good on the muscles and mosquito bites!

Day 76: miles 908-924.1

We got up a bit earlier this morning to have time to explore the Devil's Postpile, which was about a mile from Red's Meadow. It was such a fascinating structure, with incredibly even columns emerging from the mountain face. The columnar joints were formed in the basalt from volcanic cooling about 100,000 years ago, and then the whole structure was revealed scraped smooth by glaciers moving through. After taking our time at the monument, we carried on for a 3 mile road walk to get around yet another bridge that was destroyed last year in the high snow. Then we had some lovely flat walking before a big climb up to Agnew Meadow. The climb offered gorgeous views of Shadow Lake and the JMT on the other side of the canyon, with the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin roaring in the valley below. We had some lovely downhill, then a couple more ups. Near one of the rivers, I found quite the prize - green onions!! They're pretty common in the Sierra but so far most of them have been deep under snow, so it was a treat to get a handful to add to my pasta dinner! We camped next to Thousand Island Lakes, which was absolutely breathtaking. We were looking forward to the possibility of a swim, but with half the lake still frozen, the most I could do was soak my feet for a couple minutes. To find our campsite, we had to go about a half mile off-PCT, since the area near the trail was closed for restoration, and campsites must be 200 ft from water in this section. We ended up finding a great site apparently very close to a marmot den, and the marmot made its displeasure known by running back and forth for a while. Sorry buddy, but sometimes you gotta have neighbors!

Day 77: miles 924.1-937.3

It was a very windy night last night, and one of my guylines to a stake broke, so I woke around 10 to my tent collapsing :( I quickly fixed it up but found it hard to fall back asleep, as each loud gust of wind had me tensing up. But fall asleep I did, and we left around 8, ready to do Donahue Pass. But first we had Island Pass to go up and then down, with lots of snow, before getting to the base of Donahue. I ended up in the front, and enjoyed a podcast on the slow ascent, descent, then ascent again. I passed a few JMT hikers going southbound - we've been seeing a couple, but it's still pretty early season for most of them. The ascent up Donahue wasn't bad, just lots of route finding and river crossings. Cheers and Shade caught up when I was right at the summit, and we entered into the Yosemite Wilderness together, heading downhill and having a quick lunch on the rocks below the pass. Then we continued down, on a very steep, boulder-y path, where I slipped a couple times. But we finally emerged in a gorgeous, flat meadow, with the Toulomne River meandering next to us. It was truly idyllic with the lush grass, flat trail, and occasional deer grazing nearby. We got to our campsite near the Vogelsang junction and enjoyed a dip in the river. We aren't permitted to camp any closer to Toulomne than here, so we'll just have a sweet six miles into town tomorrow. I was originally planning to resupply at the Toulomne store, but it's still closed for the season - Tioga road only opened a few days previous. Instead, we're going to go down into Yosemite Valley, where I've actually never been before! I'm super excited to see the sights and be a tourist for a day!

Day 78: miles 937.3-943.7

Town day! We set out early, since its a long hitch down into the valley (about an hour and a half), and got to Tioga Road around 9. We managed to snag a hitch almost immediately, from a sweet local who was just coming down on a day trip. She pointed out the sights as we drove down into the valley, and dropped us at Camp 4, the climbing campsite. We then talked to the ranger and was told that though nearly every campsite was full, there's a special Backpacking campground, not marked on any maps, that's first-come first-serve and only $8 (as opposed to the $36 of any other site). We can only stay one night, and our PCT permit is only valid there while the post office at Tuolomne is closed, which she said will only be true for a couple more days. So we really timed it perfectly in the short period where Tioga Road is open but Tuolumne isn't - otherwise we'd have to get a wilderness permit, which might not be too hard early in the season but is hell to get in the height of summer.

We set up our tents, then went to Curry Village for some lunch before coming back and swimming in the Merced River, which was so incredibly refreshing! Then we took the bus to see El Capitan, which was absolutely breathtaking. It's really hard to describe the scale of these rock faces - they rise up on every side and are just massive. We stood at the base of El Cap for a while, watching a pair of climbers slowly make their way up - apparently it takes an average of 5 days to climb El Cap (depending on method and route of course). At the base of the peak, it looked like they were maybe a third of the way up, but as we walked farther from it, it became clear they were probably only 1/6 of the way up - it's crazy how distorted your perspective becomes! We took the bus to Yosemite Village for dinner, and then back to the campsite. We'll resupply and see a couple more things in the morning, then head back to the trail! I'm really glad we made the side-trip to come down here! There's so many tourists and cars, it's quite overwhelming after being on trail, but the views are spectacular and it's been such a special way to see this area!