Sierra Nevada Range Backpacking 2023

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The Sierra Nevada mountain range lies mainly in central California, between the central valley and the Nevada state border. Millions of years ago, granite began forming deep in the ground, and then began to rise due to tectonic movement. Finally glaciers shaped and exposed the granite into the range that exists today. The name of the range comes from a Spanish translation, meaning "Snowy Mountains". Native communities inhabited lower lying areas of the region for thousands of years, and American exploration began in the 1820's but was not fully explored until the 1910's because of how difficult the range was to access. The range spans about 640 km (400 miles) north to south, and 80-130 km across from west to east. The southern part of the range tends to have the highest elevations. Much of the Sierra is protected and consists of three national parks, ten national forests, and twenty-six wilderness areas. It also has two national monuments.

When I was younger I remember reading about the Pacific Crest Trail. The trail spanned some 4265 km (2650 miles) from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. Hikers can take five months on average if thru-hiking the entire distance. It seemed like such an awesome adventure but I remember wondering how tough it might be to stay out on a trail that long. Still the thought was planted in my brain. Then I heard about the John Muir Trail (JMT). The JMT is the main trail that runs vertically through some of the most remote areas of the Sierra, and shares the PCT along this corridor. An older hiker would later tell me that the JMT was like the highway through the Sierra. It seemed like a more compact version of the PCT even though it technically is part of the PCT. Named after the naturalist John Muir, who was originally from Scotland but moved to the USA in his youth, and not only explored much of the Sierra but also advocated for its protection and conservation. I have heard much over the years of this place, mainly from hiking and climbing circles. I've also been keen to do a long distance hike for some time. My longest hike up to this point was the West Highland Way in Scotland, some 7 years earlier. I also hiked extensively around the Adirondack High Peaks region, including several backcountry trips, but the Covid pandemic had definitely taken a toll in terms of hiking morale. In fact, back in 2020 I was hopeful of attempting the JMT, and even obtained a permit but we all know how that would end up.

I decided that 2023 would finally be the year. Originally I had always planned to attempt this on my own. My partner Bev, however, enjoys camping and nature quite a bit and seemed like she would be down to join, so we'd be going together. We applied for a JMT permit, as permits are required to limit the amount of people and environmental impact in the mountains. Being that it was a permit lottery, we would have to apply and hope to get a permit for our desired starting date. Traditionally many hikers start their thru-hikes by hiking north to south, but gaining a permit by beginning further south and heading north was a lot easier to achieve. Once obtained, we could then begin to plan our big hike further; arranging time off, gear, food, resupply points, logistics to and from the trail, and a lot more. In fact, of all the adventures I've been fortunate to go on, this one in particular would be the most logistics intensive. I generally like to have a general macro plan, and then just wing things or make decisions on the go for the micro elements of planning. But with a journey such as this, immersing ourselves into the wilderness for a long period of time, would absolutely require advanced and organized planning. Anything less could be downright dangerous, as being unprepared could have dire consequences. We wouldn't be able to just pop into a shop for a needed item or go to a grocery store to get more food. Microplanning would thus be essential, and in fact would end up being my most planned out trip to date.

Luckily I had a decent amount of hiking and camping gear already. So did Bev. Our past experiences meant that we wouldn't be starting from scratch, but we still had a lot of gear that would need to be updated. So we spent the first few months adding to the gear list. We figured we would need a much lighter tent, as well as things like a water filtration system, backpacks (I ended up getting a new one as my older one didn't fit me quite as well as it could have), lighter bear canisters, and a bunch of other miscellaneous things. We had sleeping mats and sleeping bags/quilt already as well. Every paycheck, we would buy something (or several things) as to not go broke and be able to collect necessary things over time. The biggest expense was undoubtedly going to be the amount of food required, dehydrated meals in particular. And not only that, but we would have to plan and ship out food to resupply points since we would only be able to carry so much of it at a time. So even more logistics to deal with.

Then there was training. My physical fitness is generally good but I'm getting older, I have a few past injuries, and I can't just jump into physically demanding things anymore without specific physical preparation. For Bev it was even worse as she has spinal and joint degeneration already. A journey like this one meant that even a repetitive wear and tear injury could be disastrous on the trail. So we discovered a pretty good osteopath and began some "pre-hab" sessions. Basically, working on imbalances and strengthening of weak spots. No guarantees that this would avoid an injury, but does improve the odds at least. I tried not to think of the possibilities of suffering an acute injury either. I continued going to the gym as usual, usually after finishing a shift at work. Once spring arrived, we began walks and hikes. As the seasons progressed, we added longer hikes, and heavy pack training. Sometimes we would just walk around our town and beyond with 30 lbs in the pack and find a hill to go up and down, over and over again. A half hour drive to the west was a little village named Rigaud that had a small mountain and lots of trails, including a 14km loop trail. We walked that loop countless times, always with our weighted packs.

We traveled to New Hampshire and Vermont to do hikes as well, and also bought 5 gallon buckets from the hardware store in a town there, would fill it full of food, and then go to the post office and send them to our eventual resupply points. We would leave home with about 7 days worth of food and then have 3 more resupplies along the trail. We had to take all our vacation days at once plus I worked a ton more to get more shifts switched to have enough necessary time for this trip. We have 4 cats at home, so had to organize a pet service for them. Then a bunch of other miscellaneous things that would have to be done since we would be gone for 5 weeks. We were both pretty tired just with the planning phase honestly.

Finally the day had arrived. We would be heading to Los Angeles on an evening flight. We arrived at the airport with our packs full of our vital gear and food, and checked them in. As usual we would be flying standby, but the flight was very open so we weren't too worried about not getting on. As a bonus, my brother Shawn was working the flight (he is a flight attendant for Air Canada) and would be on layover in LA for about 30 hours. The flight was uneventful, I even managed to catch some sleep, and after retrieving our packs we grabbed an Uber and met up with Shawn at the nearby hotel that his airline set him up in. The Westdrift hotel was located in a neighborhood called Manhattan Beach, not far from LAX, and I was impressed with the accommodation. It was almost midnight by the time we went to sleep.

The next morning we walked over to a nearby strip mall and had some Mexican breakfast food at a grocery store. We stopped at a few other places like Trader Joe's and REI for some last minute supplies. Then we walked towards a Metro station on the green line that wasn't far. Upon arriving, we discovered that the station wasn't in fact open and we would have to take a shuttle to a further station. Then the shuttle broke down and we had to wait for another. Once on the C line (LRT), we continued to the A line (also LRT) towards downtown before transferring to the metro B line. From there we made our way north for a few stations and reached Hollywood. This trip took us about 2 hours. LA has always been known as a polluted car city, and I would never want to drive here, but it seems like there's efforts to expand the transit network and maybe one day it will be more efficient. We walked for many blocks along the famous Hollywood walk of fame, and saw the equally famous Chinese Theatre, where many movie premiers take place. We stopped at an In and Out burger for a bite. Then we walked up Runyon Canyon Park for some views of the city and the Hollywood sign. At this point we made our way back, thinking maybe we could use public transit to get to Santa Monica. But this is LA, and one must respect the time and distances of this city. It would have taken another 2 hours to get there so we just decided to head back to Manhattan Beach. We stopped by a small restaurant that served authentic Mexican food, and ate tasty burritos.

Shawn left early the next morning, and we stayed a few more hours in his room, before packing out with our gear and walking to that little strip mall nearby to get some food. Some lady in the parking lot approached us and offered us some money to buy lunch. We laughed and declined. I mean we weren't even dirty and smelly yet! After eating we grabbed an uber back to LAX, and then caught an express shuttle north towards the San Fernando Valley and then the town of Lancaster. From there we walked to the Amtrak station. We wouldn't be taking the train, but we would be taking the ESTA (Eastern Sierra transit authority) bus up along the 395 until we reached our destination. It was a short bus and seemed like the passengers were all a mix of itinerants and outdoors people. For the next four hours, we traveled north through the Mojave desert until the road passed through two mountain ranges. The Sierra on the left and the Inyo mountains to the right. We reached the town of Lone Pine and disembarked. Lone Pine is a gateway town to the eastern Sierra, especially Mount Whitney. It sits the Owens Valley and looks something out of a wild west movie. In fact many western movies were actually filmed here over the decades, with the picturesque Sierra range in the background. We walked past saloons and climber/hiker shops and spotted other hikers walking up and down the main street. We saw some signs for a campground just off some side street. We walked down there and found Portuguese Joe's Campground. The sites were wide open, in a semi-circular pattern. We set up camp and I chatted with our neighbor, a 70 something year old, who had parked his old van and was killing time for the next 15 days before having to drive back to Arizona. He would sit in his camping chair, drinking and smoking the day away. That evening we walked back into town, got some Subway sandwiches and tacos from a taco truck, and then headed back.

Next morning we walked into town early and tried to figure out how we could get into the mountains. Our permit start point was Cottonwood Pass at Horseshoe Meadows. We eventually found someone called Paul, who would drive the 30 miles and 6 thousand feet of elevation, for a fee. We killed time at one of the saloons, then ate lunch at McDonalds. People seemed friendly here and we had conversations with some, including an older guy who was walking towards the campground and, noticing our backpacks, recounted some tales of his 1978 PCT thru-hike. Paul eventually reached us. He seemed pretty odd, but acted like a tour guide as we drove past interesting areas. Hurricane Hillary had hit California, only a few days earlier, not a common event for this part of the world, and had washed out many roads heading into the range. We were actually lucky to arrive after the event, as many in the mountains had to retreat into the valley for a few days. We worried that we wouldn't be able to get into the range at all for some time as there were road closures but luckily we were finding our way in. Paul dropped us off at the Horseshoe Meadows campground, wished us luck, and then drove off. The campground seemed pretty empty and we selected a site and set up. We were at 9950 feet (over 3000 meters) and felt the altitude as we moved around. We had some left over food from town so we ate that and had an early night.

Day 1 - Horseshoe Meadows to Chicken Spring Lake

After waking up that morning we saw that many other campers had set up near us. Most were already packing up and heading out to the trail. Even though we woke as the sun rose, I'm not a morning person, Bev even less so. But you adjust with life on the trail. Nevertheless it would always take us time to get packed and moving in the morning. We didn't have a big distance to cover on this first day, and we left a few hours later. We reached the trailhead and began our first steps of what we hoped would be something memorable and incredible that we could look back on. Many people I know back home questioned why I was going hiking for such a long time in (at times) such a remote trail. Truth is I generally like trips that involve type II fun. Type II fun is something that might seem difficult and challenging in the moment, but upon reflection later on, is something you are happy you attempted/did. We knew there would be physical, as well as mental adjustments and adaptations that would have to be made. Most importantly was how are bodies would be responding to the altitude. I have had previous experience at altitude, including mountaineering experience, but I knew that each experience is different. Sometimes your body adjusts well, other times maybe not so much. One never knows. We walked through some flat trail with tall trees, and grassy meadows to our left. Then we approached the fist pass of our trip; Cottonwood. West coast hiking is great in the sense that even though you are at higher elevations, you tend to have switchbacks to use up and down. Hiking in the north-east, which I'm more accustomed to, is literally straight up (or down) along creek trails. The mountains are older there, and the soil can't support switchbacks. Our packs were at their fullest, our bodies not yet used to the elevation, and repetitive and continuous hiking hours, and mentally still had to find our stride. A mountain pass can be described as a lower gap within a mountain range that often allows for a crossing. We would have many passes to work through on our hike. We pushed through and reached the top of the pass, with great views of Horseshoe Meadows below. We even heard a rattlesnake warn us away from inside a pile of rocks near the top. We descended down to Chicken Spring lake at 11242 feet. It was mid afternoon but we figured we would find a campsite around here and try to adjust to the even higher altitude. After setting up, I decided to scout ahead and walk further up the trail to have an idea what lay beyond. When I got back about 45 min later, I saw Bev standing with no pants and just a t-shirt, talking to a tall redheaded girl with braids. We had seen Rachel back at the trailhead with her partner Wes. Both were living in Las Vegas, but originally from Montana and Tennessee respectively. It sounded like they were planning on doing similar daily mileages and would be out in the Sierra for a similar amount of time. Apparently Bev had been in the middle of changing when Rach walked over to her to chat, which is why she had no pants on when I returned. Bev thought that she maybe didn't notice but in fact she totally did. And she instantly felt comfortable with Bev, enough to open up to her and tell her a bit about her life back home, as well as other things. It's true that you make friends fast on the trail. I asked them if they had trail names. They did not. A trail name is a kind of nickname that's given either by a hiker themselves, or more commonly granted by a fellow hiker. I once met a woman who had attempted the Long Trail in Vermont, and on her third day, tripped and hit her head on a rock, leaving a large laceration. Some hikers came to her aid and eventually decided that her trail name would thus be Headbanger. This is an example of how one might acquire a trail name. Years ago I was bestowed a name by an Aussie guy in India. He called me "Dawdles" because I easily become distracted and dawdle around. As my ADD worsens with age, this continues to be very true.

Day 2 - Chicken Spring Lake to Rock Creek

Breakfast consisted of boiling water to have oatmeal and coffee. A chipmunk tried to steal part of a tortilla that we were preparing for lunch. We scared him off but from now on any other chipmunk was known as Tortilla, and I felt like he (she?) just followed us along the trail. We would keep going in a northwesterly direction. The trail was flat at first, and went along creeks and meadows full of wildflowers. The previous winter had been one of the snowiest on record in the Sierra, and the snow thaw was very late into the hiking season. Everything was so much wetter than usual, it meant that wildflower season would be extending into September which doesn't usually happen. It also meant that mosquitoes were more abundant around this time than they should be, but generally they weren't that bad above 10000 feet at least. We would stop for snacks and to filter water whenever we came across a water source, which were plentiful so far. For lunch we had tuna packets with tortillas, and more snacks. Another thing that struck me about this area was how tall the trees were. There were various supertall Pine trees, Sequoias, Douglas Firs, and many more. Trees out east simply don't get to these impressive sizes. By the afternoon we were hiking downhill and reached Rock Creek. We decided to camp right before a stream crossing. We boiled some water and poured it into our ziplock bags of dehydrated dinner. Rach and Wes reached us a little later and decided to cross and camp on the other side of the stream. From the distance we could see that they had a fire that evening, with two other hikers that made it there. I actually noticed them at Portuguese Joes campground initially, although I wasn't sure if they were hikers or simply vagabonds. They weren't really hiking partners but traveled together on and off. They were each doing the PCT but probably wouldn't be making it to even the halfway point as the season was almost over. Larry, trail name "Magic Man", was a Californian native traveling with his dog. Dogs aren't typically allowed on the JMT but Larry didn't care. He also didn't really look at maps or care much for advanced planning. He carried about 80 lbs in his pack, including all his dogs food. We later found out that he also carried at least 3 pounds of weed at all times, and on rainy days even had a Ipad and battery pack to play videogames inside his tent. JP was a dude from South Dakota that was slowly making his way north along the PCT. He started in the desert at the end of May, but seemingly became distracted by every side quest possible, including many zero days in desert towns, and even traveled hundreds of miles off course when he met someone in a dollar tree who invited him to hang out with their family for independence day weekend. Ultimately he got his trail name, Peanut Butter, when confiding in another traveler that he had once, while starving, seen a pile of what looked like shit on the side of a trail but inspected it closer and discovered it was actually peanut butter. Then, on all fours, proceeded to devour it while darting his eyes back and forth to make sure no other hiker came across him. These are just some of the characters one can meet during a thru-hike, and we met many others during our trek.

Day 3 - Rock Creek to Crabtree Meadows

We were up early yet again, but as would become the norm, it took us a while to get going. First order of business was to put on our water shoes and begin our first real water crossing. The trail continued across the stream. It wasn't moving very fast, but the water was freezing! A great way to wake up properly. Rach and Wes, also slow in the morning, had just finished packing up their camp and were preparing to move out. We continued on and began having some elevation gains. We were approaching Guyot pass, only a 1000 feet up. As we walked along some switchbacks, we heard someone singing below us off trail. It was Larry, screaming "I should have been a cowboy", as he washed himself. We made it up the pass and then continued along an alpine desert like environment. Some small lakes could be seen along the trail. The benefit of hiking nobo was that generally the sun is at your back, but the skies were blue and clear and that sun warms beats down and heats you up. My hiking wardrobe in the Sierra was long sleeves and pants to cover up my skin from the incessant sun. Even without sun, at this altitude your skin will burn. I also wore sun gloves and sunglasses most of the time. Our water supplies began to dwindle as the miles wore on. The map showed that there should have been a creek coming up, but it just wasn't there when we arrived. Bev drinks a lot of water at baseline, while I don't really, so I gave her the rest of my water and we kept going. Eventually we started to get thirsty but we were approaching Crabtree Meadow, which looked to have plenty of water sources. Bev had a bit of a meltdown, so I had to calm her down, and remind her that we could only keep moving. It was tough as we were still adjusting to walking around with heavy packs, we did not yet possess our trail legs. Seeing water in the distance was a joyous moment. We filtered until our supplies were full and then came upon a water crossing. We took a break on the other side, with beautiful vistas to look on. We ate some tuna packets and chatted with a PCTer who was also heading north. Then we had another hour of hiking up some moderate elevation to reach our site for the night. Unfortunately this was a busy one, as it was used as a staging area to reach Mount Whitney.

Day 4 - Mount Whitney

I woke up at about one AM. The stars were as bright as ever, and this is by far one of the most beautiful areas for stargazing I've seen. Bev was sitting this one out, altitude was still giving her a lot of trouble and she isn't someone who's all that interested in "bagging" peaks. I walked over to Rach and Wes' tent, they were almost ready. We had decided to climb up Whitney, the highest mountain in the Sierra, and in fact all of the continental USA, at 14505 feet (4421m). We all emptied our packs of everything but the bare essentials, and loaded up on snacks for the trip. I generally don't have great vision at night so I let Wes take the lead and navigate. There obviously wasn't a lot to see except for stars for the first few hours. Then we started to ascend. Eventually we hit an area of switchbacks. Soon enough we lost the trail but couldn't figure out why. We did eventually find it, but had to climb over a bunch of loose rocks. We would find out later on our descent that there was a massive rock slide that took out that part of the trail. We took a break to eat something and I noticed a hiker approach. He was carrying his cellphone as a light source. Turned out his headlamp died and he didn't have spare batteries. Luckily I generally carry a backup headlamp on all night hikes, and certainly on a thru-hike. I realized he was a PCTer that had been camping near us. So I lent him my light and told him that if we didn't run into each other on the way down, to just give it to Bev when he eventually returned to camp. It was now dusk and we were so much higher. Wes was really cold, as he had been sweating a lot, but I reminded him that he was gonna warm up fast when the sun hit us. It looked to be a clear morning. As the sun rose, the views became incredible. We hit a junction to Whitney portal, and then had another 1.9 miles until the summit. Wes was having a rough time with the altitude and we took frequent breaks. I shared some Canadian beef jerky that saved the day and upped the morale. It took us several hours just to walk that distance along a ridgeline. The final summit push included a bit of a sketchy walk up some packed snow, that was quickly becoming softer with the incessant sun. I had no traction devices, and wouldn't carry something like that as the weight to use ratio wouldn't have made sense. The heavy snow year really left its mark, even in late August. We scrambled to some rocks and made the final push up. At the top was Mt Whitney hut, originally built in 1909. Other hikers were hanging out at the summit, many of which had come from the other side of the mountain. Whitney was one of the most competitive permits and most sought after of almost all hikes in the country, luckily having our JMT permit meant we had access to Whitney as well. We took some shots and then surveyed the surrounding views. Peanut Butter was sitting up on a rock with some others, so we sat along and ate some much needed food. He had started earlier than us and had been at the top for a while now. The caveat was that he decided to climb up with his 35 lbs pack, because why not? It made for a good challenge. I laughed at how this dude could crush 35 mile days but then chill out for 4 days somewhere. He figured he would relax at the top for a while then maybe even spend the night there if he had enough water (or spare fuel to melt snow). We started our descent, and even found a place to safely buttslide down some of that snow. Then the long descent, but this time in the sun. Despite sunscreen and lip balm, my face felt dry and my lips were blistering. Also we were quite low on water. Over the next few hours we made it down the switchbacks and then past several lakes, including Guitar lake, that we could actually see now in the daylight. We made it back to Crabtree Meadow at 17h00, some 14 hours later from our start. It took longer than anticipated, Wes altitude issues added to that, but it wasn't his fault as one never knows how the body will withstand at altitude. In fact Wes and Rachel had never been up higher on a hike. Bev thought we were dead given that I told her we should be back around 13h00 or so. But I live up to my trail name I guess. I did a few camp chores when I got back and then stretched like crazy. Wes and Rachel passed out almost immediately.

Day 5 - Crabtree Meadow to pre-Forester Pass

We had two and a half days to go before we had to rendez-vous with our first food resupply and a lot of mileage left between then. Rachel and Wes were taking the morning easy to try and recover from the previous day. Altitude was also messing with their appetites, and they were at an extreme calorie deficit, so the plan was to force themselves to load up on food. Bev was generally well rested, and I was just happy to have another day of hiking. My body felt pretty good, and I had no major or even minor injuries yet. We made our way north through Sandy Meadow, with breathtaking mountain vistas and plentiful bright yellow wildflowers. Then we continued to the Big Horne Plateau. This was a sandy arid area with high altitude lakes in the distance. We were completely exposed to the sun and it was very hot. By dinnertime we had reached Tyndall Creek. We had a water crossing, and then decided to continue north for several more hours, in order to set up for Forester Pass the next day. The terrain resembled more of a moonscape the higher up we got, and the sky turned into a pretty pink as the sun set, before the stars came out. By 21h00, we finally reached a lake and decided we had come far enough. I couldn't see well, and we looked around for any flat space in the rocky outcrop. Then we made dinner as we were starving. And we were dead tired.

Day 6 - Forester Pass to Vidette Meadows

We got started later than we would have liked but looking down at the valley below, I was happy we had covered all that previous distance in the cover of night. We walked up towards the start of the pass. Forester Pass stands at 13160 feet, and considered the highest point of the Pacific Crest Trail, since the PCT doesn't actually pass through Mt Whitney. This was a monster pass but we had camped at about 12000 feet, so we had done a big chunk. Still we had steep switchbacks to contend with. We approached the start of the switchbacks and ran into Wes and Rachel, who had hiked up until past midnight, to arrive and set up camp. They were more or less packed up and ready to go so we started out together. A few switchbacks in we noticed that Peanut Butter was camped along a cliff. He had hiked down from Whitney the evening before and hiked up until this point before catching a few hours of sleep. He was contemplating heading back down to find his buddy Larry. He wanted to warn him that it might be too much to get over Forester Pass with his dog. We made it up and up and eventually reached the top. The views on each side were spectacular. We ran into Kala, whom we had originally met a few days earlier. She was a specialist doctor from San Francisco, and was hiking loosely with some other people who were doing a section or sections of the trail but ultimately she hoped to be able to complete the JMT before returning to work. She was a short woman with a small frame who hiked with a large exterior knee brace due to an old injury. Wes had nicknamed her Terminator because she could just keep going and going, and seemingly covered large distances without getting tired. She took a few photos of us at the top and then bolted down the other side. Bev was freaking out with the exposure, and we had some steep snow fields to cross, so we took our time to ensure there was no slipping. It took several hours to navigate through and around some of the snow, and then to lower enough to reach Vidette Meadows, where the trail finally flattened a little more. We stopped for lunch and stretched like crazy. My legs were super tight after all that downhill. The lower the elevation, the greater the mosquitoes! Again the abundance of water meant they were sticking around later than they should have. We also saw some deer traveling along the trail. Finally it was about mid evening when we reached an area right before the switchbacks to climb out of Vidette were. We donned our mosquito head nets as the swarm was thick now that it was dusk. We set up our tent and began boiling water for supper. We could somewhat see the trail still from our site, and saw Rach and Wes move by. We were in our tent early.

Day 7 - Vidette Meadow to Independence

This was the earliest we ever woken up on this trip. It was 05h00 and time to break down camp, eat a quick breakfast, and then go. We had a lot of ground to cover. Almost immediately we began ascending for the climb out of Vidette. We had about 1200 feet of elevation in only 1 mile. We traversed the switchbacks, and as the sun rose, the views got better and better. Once at the top, we headed east along Bullfrog Lake. Bev wasn't feeling very good, having a lot of nausea. The problem was we had to get to Onion valley by 15h00 to catch a ride into Independence so we could resupply. This would be the one and only time sensitive thing to deal with on the trail, and I hated it. Not a big fan of schedules or anything like that. But the alternative would not have been good. So we pushed on. We had to climb up and over Kearsarge pass (11823 feet), and the day was becoming windy. Bev had a meltdown about 3/4 of the way up, and didn't think we would be able to make it in time. Also she was having bad nausea and just felt weak overall. At that point I just told her that if we made it we made it, if not then we could try to hitchhike or something when we got down. The views of Kearsarge valley were incredible at least. We passed by some cowboys on mules that were making their way to Charlotte Lake with supplies. "I didn't order this wind!" the lead the cowboy hollered to us as they passed us by. Once over the top, we took a break and I scarfed down some food. We chatted with an older hiker who was making his way towards Rae Lakes for a few days. Then we continued downhill, some of the wind gusts were almost taking me off my feet. After a few hours, we reached the Onion Valley. There was a parking lot and a rudimentary campsite and pack station. We even had about a half hour to spare. A lot of people would bring their resupplies to the bear lockers here before starting a a thru-hike, but we didn't have such a luxury since we were coming from so far away. We were supposed to be getting a shuttle ride at 15h00, but that ride never seemed to show. Bev was somehow able to use our Zoleo satellite device to text her sister and have her then contact the resupply people. The driver, known as Lone Pine Kurt, eventually returned. He hadn't seen us, or I guess we weren't at the right pick-up point? In any case we made the drive down to Independence. Lone Pine Kurt had been shuttling to and from the mountains from the eastern Sierra for years and years. We arrived at the Mount Williamson Motel in town and checked in. We had been traveling through some of the most remote parts of the Sierra and a big headache was the resupply of food in this section. It was unclear how we would go about this originally. I did not want to have to leave the trail at all if it could be avoided but we didn't really find any alternatives, so in the end we decided that we would have to hike out of Kearsarge and head into a town to get more supplies. We would be staying the night in the motel and organize our food within our cannisters. It felt weird being back in civilization again, and weirder to take a shower and sleep on a mattress. We walked over to a Taco truck and brought back some burritos. They were amazing.

Day 8 - Zero in Bishop

We awoke and assessed the situation. A freak storm with wind gusts of up to 100 km/hour was approaching the region. We had felt this wind already the day before but it wasn't looking good. Wind was ripping through the valley, and stirring up dust and all sorts of other crap. The original plan was to have Lone Pine Kurt shuttle us back the way we came and we would resume our journey from where we left off. But now we were wondering if it might be smarter to avoid this storm. Injury and weather are the two biggest factors that will derail a hiking plan. Bev had been feeling better physically since we were no longer at such a high elevation. We were both quite tired still, given the last few days of increased mileage. My preference was to resume the trail where we had left off, but if we lost some days, we might not have had enough time to make up the difference. Thus a painful decision was made to skip a section of the JMT and resume from a different pass. The advantages to this though, was that we could continue our hike at a more gradual pace than otherwise, and we would miss most of the storm, which was slated to last about 2-3 days. I wished we would have more time, but time is not usually a luxury when you've got a job back home. So today would be a zero day (meaning a day with no miles hiked), in fact the only one of the trip as it would turn out (the others would be Nero's, meaning a near zero day but still some miles hiked). We left the Mount Williamson Motel and walked along the main street, with our buffs over our faces to protect against the wind and dust. We could have camped in the town, but there wasn't much cover to protect our tent had we stayed in the local campground. We decided to head out to the town of Bishop, about 40 miles north. We stuck out our thumbs to hitchhike, maybe we could grab a ride? No one bit so we continued to the bus stop, and figured we could catch the ESTA. Since the ESTA didn't run on the weekend, we figured it would be smart to not get stuck in Independence, especially since we would be getting back on-trail on a pass further north. We met another hiker couple making their way back to Bishop to resupply and a solo PCTer who had hiked a few thousand miles but wasn't sure if he wanted to keep hiking anymore so was heading to Bishop for some zeros and to think about his future. The bus carried us along the 395, surrounded by blowing sand storms, until we reached the town. There we disembarked and walked to a place called the Vagabond Inn. Didn't expect to stay in a hotel again, but we would hopefully deal with the worst of the wind storm. The usual clear blue sky was covered in clouds, and it was difficult to see the mountains. That evening we walked along the main street, and got to see more wild west architecture. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant and got some take out. We resolved that while in California would should eat as much Mexican food as possible since it's done so well here. Back in the hotel room, we ate our food while watching a pro wrestling event on the tube. We had a restful sleep, once again in a bed.

Day 9 - Bishop to Long Lake

After indulging in the hotel breakfast, we grabbed our gear and set out. The weather was maybe a little better, but grey clouds were still covering the mountains and wind continued to batter the region. Still we couldn't take anymore of a delay, and I was itching to get back in the Sierra, despite the weather. We found a trail angel group on Facebook and asked if anyone might be kind enough to give us a ride to a trailhead. There isn't any public transit to the mountains, so unless you have a car, the only real options are getting a lift with someone, or hitchhiking. A trail angel is someone who provides a generous act to a hiker, such as providing food/drink or giving a ride to and from a town. You can find them along many trails in the country, particularly long trails. Debi was one such person, and she agreed to pick us up in town and drive us some 25 miles. She had 2 Australian Shepard dogs with her. She had been doing this sort of thing for some time. We got the South Lake Trailhead, I passed Debi some gas money, and then off we went, back at altitude. The weather was particularly miserable, with wind gusts battering us every few minutes. We weren't planning to hike for many hours today. Once we reached Long Lake we began looking for a spot to set up our camp. The first spot we found turned out to be far too windy and almost blew us away. The next spot was shielded from the elements a bit so we set up the tent, and I reinforced it with rocks on all ends to help with the wind. We spent most of the rest of the day holed up in the tent.

Day 10 - Long Lake to beyond Bishop Pass

The next morning was still cloudy but the weather did seem to be improving, somewhat. We began gaining more and more elevation towards Bishop Pass (11972 feet). The views were amazing, with copious lakes throughout. We worked the switchbacks up the steepest part of the pass. As we made it over the pass we got to see the Dusy Basin up ahead. The weather added to the ominous feel as we began to descend. And it would be quite a descent. Several thousand feet in fact. We traversed past cascading water running down steep cliffs. We found a place to setup camp and went to sleep early.

Day 11 - Laconte Canyon to Starr Camp

We continued our descent into the beautiful Laconte Canyon. Jagged, towering peaks surrounded us. We descended down to 8700 feet, and the air felt richer. We were back on the John Muir Trail. Then just as quickly we turned north and began another ascent. The beauty of the canyon was overwhelming. The sun was back out in full force and luckily we had tree cover for most of the upcoming hours. We hiked along a large creek for the most part. By mid afternoon we reached a spot called Starr Camp which had large open areas suitable to tents. One of the things we had discussed after our initial week on the trail, was the desire to not have to hike endless hours a day and instead be able to stop early and enjoy the nature. After setting up our camp, we walked down to the creek, did some laundry and filtered some water. Then when we came back we saw a volunteer ranger come by and chatted with her for a bit, before a familiar face came along. It was Kala and she had spent the last several days braving the storm and doing insane miles. She was trying to complete the JMT by a certain date and didn't have the luxury of slowing down. The stars were out again on this night.

Day 12 - Starr Camp to Evolution Lake

We continued the ascent, as we were approaching the famous Muir Pass. A few miles into our approach and we caught up to a hiker also heading up. Lisa, trail name Mule, was a 62 year old from southern California who had hiked the JMT several times and spent many more trips in the Sierra backcountry doing sections. We would get to know her better in the next while as we were heading in the same direction. We continued up the eastern part of Muir Pass, with Helen Lake to the right of us. This lake was named after one of John Muir's daughters. We had to traverse several thick snow fields and lost the trail several times. Finally we reached the top (11955 feet) and stood in front of Muir Hut. The hut was built in 1930, to shelter wary travelers who might be caught in a storm. We ate our lunch at the top and spoke to Kala, who had started her day late but who quickly caught up and passed us on the way up. She started her way down the other side of the pass, and we never saw her again. But we knew we would never be able to catch her anyway. The western views of evolution valley were incredible as we descended. Soon enough we passed by Wanda Lake, named after John Muir's other daughter. This lake had some of the clearest water I've ever seen. You could see small fish swimming way off shore. The sun was again out in full force. We no longer moved along with Mule, as she was a bit slower than us. We then passed by Sapphire Lake and continued the descent. By the late afternoon, we were crossing some snow fields, and encountered a family of deer as they grazed higher up from us. Evolution Lake was beautiful, and other hikers had set up their tents along the shore. We found an awesome spot and began boiling water for dinner. Mule came along and headed towards a secluded spot by a cliffside that she knew about, since she had been here many times before. The surrounding mountains became golden as the sun set.

Day 13 - Evolution Lake to San Joaquim Bridge

We enjoyed the lake for a bit in the morning, and I walked over to the cliffside to see a spectacular scene of water cascading over the cliff, hundreds of feet below. I decided that the evolution valley was one of my favourite parts of the Sierra so far. I found Mule's tiny one person tent and chatted with her. Frost had formed that morning and the edges of her sleeping bag were damp so she was trying to dry them off in the already warm sun. I headed back to camp and we packed up our camp. We hiked out with Mule and continued descending into the evolution valley. As we were reaching lower elevations, we began crossing more meadows full of wildflowers and forests. We had a few stream crossings as well, which were always refreshing. Mule had hiked in from Bishop pass and her original plan was to traverse over Muir Pass to Evolution Lake and then to backtrack back the way she came. There was a major issue on the JMT this year. It was a record snow year and a major bridge along the trail had been badly damaged from such heavy snow. The bridge had listed to its side and its structural integrity was severely compromised. Earlier in the season, we heard that some hikers were still able to hang on to the side and make the crossing. The stream below was very high during this time, and falling in would be fatal. Other alternatives were 2 day detours along alternate trails, and even a bushwack called the up and over trail that added many brutal hours and required fine tuned navigation to complete. Since it was now September, we didn't know what to expect, but while in Bishop we did hear that some hikers were fording the river as the water levels were now much lower. Bev spent a lot of her early years in a region called the Eastern Townships, south of our city of Montreal, and forded and played in a lot of ice cold rivers, so she was never too concerned. She had always said that the water levels would probably be way lower by the time we reached it. Mule heard that we would be attempting the ford of the river, and asked if she could join us, since that way she could exit at Piute Pass on the other side and complete a loop trip, thus avoiding a backtrack. We hiked along canyons that were carved by the rushing water over the eons. Mule was a very experienced backpacker and taught us lots of stuff as we chatted. She pointed out all sorts of different trees and plants. We talked about other backpacking trips we had done. She had been up many mountains and even to the South Pole. She was quite eccentric and showed us her colourful arm and leg sleeve tattoos. She even offered to adjust our packs slightly to make them fit more ergonomically on us. We found some wild onions and picked some for later. As the day wore on we encountered the occasional backpacker passing us and the all important question was; did you cross the river? We were told by several who had crossed that afternoon that it was a bit sketchy, but we also had to remind ourselves that water levels are typically lower in the early morning, as the snow melt slows during the colder nights. We arrived at a spot close to the river and then set up our stuff before walking to see the, now, dismantled bridge. NPS teams had arrived earlier in the week to take the bridge apart, as word had spread that too many people were scaling the sides of it to get across. They had camps setup on either side of the river. We bushwhacked around the camp as to not be noticed and then scouted out a spot a bit further upstream that a crossing could be possible from. Back at camp, the three of us ate some dinner and then retired into our respective tents.

Day 14 - River Crossing to Muir Trail Ranch

It was a cold morning and the sun, shielded by the surrounding mountains, couldn't penetrate into the valley until much later. It took us a while to get going because it was so cold! Once we did finally pack up, we retraced our route towards our crossing point, then it was time to place our water shoes and take the first steps. The river itself wasn't too high at this point and we estimated that it probably should only take us 1 to 2 minutes to ford. Bev led the way and Mule went in the middle. I planted my poles firmly as I took each step. The water was freezing! At its deepest it only went up to mid thigh, but by the time I got across my feet were red from cold. It took some time to warm up before we put our shoes back on and continued, relieved that we could continue heading north without the fear of having to turn back. We continued for about an hour until we hit a bridge. As we crossed, we entered John Muir Wilderness and left behind Kings Canyon National Park. We ate lunch under the bridge along the rushing river and then filtered some water. We chatted a bit more with Mule until it was time to part ways. We were at the fork and she began up Piute Pass to the Northeast. We continued on, and soon enough reached Muir Trail Ranch (MTR), just a mile off the JMT. We had now almost reached the official halfway point of the JMT, and this meant that the northern part was generally a lot more traveled and slightly less rugged, but just as beautiful as we would find out. MTR is where we decided to send our 2nd resupply bucket. Luckily this meant we wouldn't have to get off the trail like we did on our first resupply. We approached a wooden building and rang the bell. An older women who probably smoked at least a pack a day, greeted us gruffly. We showed some ID and then got our bucket. We walked over to nearby bench table and began sorting through it. We were so hungry so we ate a few of the cracker and cheese snacks found within. The gruff woman berated a hiker who came through the back way, and then called out as two PCTers, who had about 150 miles left of their thru-hike, stating it would "feel like walking on rocks". She was hilarious but a total asshole as well. Once we were done organizing and packing up our stuff, we had to decide if we would carry on for a bit or call it a day. It was already mid afternoon and Bev was having lots of bilateral plantar foot pain. There was a basic camp site right next to MTR for backpackers, so we headed there and set up camp. The cool thing was that we were still close enough to use the filtered water taps and garbage bins to dispose of our waste.

Day 15 - MTR to Marie Lake

As we set out we knew that this day would consist of A LOT of uphill, I wasn't too worried about it but Bev was wary of how her feet would be feeling. We worked the steep switchbacks and encountered a few backpackers heading the other direction, including a pleasant older couple and a younger guy who was using an ultralight fishing rod to fish the surrounding lakes. The hours wore on and we reached the Sallie Keys lakes and ate lunch there. The area was beautiful and it would have been nice to spend some more time but the day wasn't over yet. We carried on towards Selden Pass (10898 feet), it wasn't too bad to get to get up. By late afternoon we reached it and looked over and were greeted with Marie Lake. It was a beautiful scene, one of my favourite passes so far. The descent to the lake was short and we decided to find a good spot to setup for the night. We scouted out a place a ways off from the trail, hidden away. We set up our camp, and like usual, Bev set up the sleep system within the tent, while I went over to the lake and filtered water and then got dinner ready.

Day 16 - Marie Lake to Mono Creek

It was very cloudy and rainy when I woke up. We ended up chilling out in the tent far later than usual. Eventually the sky began to clear somewhat, so we packed up and continued northward. Along the way we saw what I thought was hummingbirds hovering around some flowers, but on closer inspection, they seemed to be giant moths. In fact they were hummingbird moths. Caught a few shots before continuing. We had some uphill to try to get onto Bear Creek Ridge, and then walked about 2 miles on relatively flat terrain, a rarity so far on the trail for us. Then we reached the descent. The switchbacks were endless and our legs became tight and joints sore as we pressed on. We didn't know it at the time but we would learn that in fact there is a total of 62 switchbacks on this section! I did not envy the few other people working their way up. The sun had almost set by the time we FINALLY reached the bottom. We could barely see as we reached Mono Creek and found a spit of land flat enough to setup camp. We forced ourselves to stretch out our bodies for fear of what the following day would bring.

Day 17 - Mono Creek to Vermillion Valley Resort

We woke up and got going early. Today would be a Nero day, we really only had to cover just over a mile. We traveled down the Mono Creek trail until we reached the southeastern point of Lake Thomas A. Edison. Our goal was to reach Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR). This is a place with almost mystical lore in backpacking circles around this region. VVR has been around for decades and is a popular spot for fishing and other activities, and has become a popular stopping spot for JMT and Pacific Crest thru-hikers. In fact it is known for some legendary hospitality towards hikers. We had to check it out while passing by and wanted a bit of down time before resuming the trail. When the lake is high enough (and it was high enough this year), a ferry service operated or one could opt to just hike another 5 miles to the other end of the lake. We wanted that ferry! We approached and saw two backpacks on the ground. We got closer and saw a head pop out as we got closer to the shore. It was Wes! Rachel was next to him, and they both rushed over and embraced us. I didn't think I was ever going to see these guys again, and they had no idea what had happened to us. In fact, they thought we had quit the trail. To recap, we last saw them back in Vidette Meadows, some 10 days earlier. We had the resupply through Kearsarge Pass the next day, and they were planning on hiking out the pass as well earlier that day, to pick up a resupply they had dropped off in Onion Valley. But they also were hoping to hitch a ride to Independence to get some other stuff/take showers. They had left most of their tent/gear at their camping spot, intent to return that evening. They ran into issues getting back to the trailhead that afternoon, and when they finally did it was under the guise of headlamps, while getting battered by wind gusts! They mentioned that had their gear not been back on the trail, they most likely would have abandoned their return trip and just quit. Then a day later while crossing over Glenn Pass, they got caught in a thunderstorm and snowstorm and had to bail down the mountain, and got lost in the process before the weather cleared. They pushed through some high mileage days and managed to cover quite a distance. They almost quit again when Wes' knee started to give out, and Rachel had to carry most of his gear near Mathers Pass. I was quite impressed they made it this far despite such challenges. Bev and I recounted how we had traveled to Bishop and reentered the Sierra through Bishop Pass. It was good seeing familiar faces again. The ferry arrived and before we knew it we were at VVR. We got a free drink on arrival and I got tipsy off of one beer since I didn't have any tolerance left. There was a scale that we could use to check our weight and it seemed that I had lost about 10lbs whereas Wes has lost about 15lbs. The girls weighed themselves as well and I can't comment on anything more than the fact that they both seemed displeased with their result. The store had more or less anything a thru-hiker could want, as well as a varied assortment of snacks. Then we set up our tents in the camping area, known as Mushroom City, before grabbing a lunchtime meal at the restaurant. We got big burger plates with fries and salad. Food never tasted so good. After lunch we chilled near the common firepit. There was a ping pong table and I played a few games with some military fighter pilot stationed out of Fresno. His name was also Dan. That afternoon we got some rain and hail. We also got to finally take another shower and did some laundry. Dinner consisted of some burritos. We sat around the campfire with some other hikers, some who were also doing thru-hikes, some on weekend backpack trips, and some who were just spending some time at VVR. We were up way later than usual.

Day 18 - VVR to Pocket Meadow

We had a lazy morning before getting up and getting breakfast at the restaurant. The breakfast on offer is massive so Bev and I split it. Then we had to decide what the next step was. Ultimately we made the decision to grab the afternoon ferry out and resume our hike for a few hours. We figured VVR was a little too dangerous to get stuck in. There is a name thru-hikers give to places like VVR or other trail towns; The Vortex. It's very easy to get stuck in The Vortex, and someone like JP is a great example of that. He got stuck in desert towns while in the Mojave for about 20 days. Also your bank account gets battered as well, so best to just keep moving. We had lunch and then played cards with Rachel and Wes. They would be taking another zero day here, but keep in mind that this would be their first true zero on the trail. We headed out and caught the ferry. We met a guy called Cheesy Turtle who was almost done hiking every mile of the PCT. In fact for the past 15 years he was hiking long trails all over the USA. As we disembarked the ferry we ran into a guy who was rushing onto the ferry with his arm in a sling. He had fallen while crossing a stream and looked to have dislocated his shoulder. He just made the ferry and was hoping to get to a hospital. Back on Mono Creek trail, we walked along a creek until we reached a water crossing, we ran into a group of weekend hikers, also on their way to VVR. One of them did not look comfortable crossing and eventually face planted forward. Luckily he wasn't hurt too bad. We continued and made elevation. The sun began to set as we reached a place called Pocket Meadow, a cute little meadow tucked into some high rock walls.

Day 19 - Pocket Meadow to Fish Creek

We woke early and started out with a stream crossing. The sun hadn't quite come over the mountains so we were freezing trying to warm up after crossing. Then we gained more elevation on our way to Silver Pass. We met an oncoming backpacker named Sun, who was heading southbound and was walking with a wooden staff and kilt. We chatted with him and gave him some tips of the road ahead. As we approached the next pass, we walked along a beautiful lake with snow fields on all sides. Smaller lakes appeared the higher we reached, with some of the bluest water imaginable. The approach itself wasn't too bad, and before we knew it, we were looking over the other side. And what a view that was! Countless more lakes could be seen with many more mountains in the distance. We took a moment here and then descended, stopping for lunch a little lower. I always enjoy stepping into a new Valley, as most of the time there are subtle differences with the nature within. By mid afternoon we were approaching Fish Creek and decided this would be far enough for the day. We went down to a forested area and as we were at about 9000 feet, as is usually the case at these elevations, the mosquitoes began to swarm. We built a firepit and started a fire. Fires are generally allowed below 10k feet in the Sierra. I wondered if maybe Wes and Rachel would catch up to us, but figured that type of distance in a day might be quite the challenge (definitely not for a PCTer though). I stayed up later than usual tending to the fire.

Day 20 - Fish Creek to Duck Pass Junction

We continued on and soon enough reached Tully Hole, which rose (or descended depending on the direction) out of the valley through numerous switchbacks. We then walked past Virginia Lake and after a few hours arrived at Purple Lake. We sat by the lake and ate lunch. We saw two people jump into the water and swim out to the middle. When they got out they looked VERY cold. I hate dealing with cold water but Bev has been used to it from a young age. But even she wasn't keen to do much swimming. I thought we would do some swimming, but apart from using the water to occasionally clean nasty body parts, generally we were too tired to jump in and then have to dry off as the daylight burned away. We continued past Duck Pass Junction, crossed the bridge over the stream, and saw a large clearing to our right. There was a large tree, and although a windier area, it looked like a pretty nice camping spot. After we setup our camp, I recognized Rach and Wes crossing the bridge. I always recognized Wes in the distance from his colourful "Be Good" hat. They saw us and came over. At first they weren't sure if they would keep going or not, as there was still a few hours of daylight yet. But in the end they set up their camp near us, and we hung out and ate dinner. Then the sky started spitting rain and we took cover in our tents.

Day 21 - Duck Pass Junction to Red's Meadow

We got going ahead of Rach and Wes, and had a lot of uphill from the start. The views of the surrounding mountains were amazing and I never tired of them, despite being in the Sierra for almost a month. We hiked along some steep cliffside, and spent a lot of the day chatting with Wes and Rach (they often caught up to us), and stopped for lunch. I noticed that the last few days I was constantly hungry and seemingly unable to keep down enough food to be satiated. Then we descended and walked through the remains of charred forests that had suffered devastating fires years earlier. September is typically forest fire season in California, but this year there wasn't any of notable size (northwestern states and Canada had it bad though). Eventually we reached Red's Meadow for our final resupply point. Red's is practically along the trail and serves as as a hiker/camper resort and pack station. Mammoth mountain separates it from the town of Mammoth Lakes. The northern part of the Sierra gets a lot closer to civilization, and we had never been closer to civilization than at this point while on the trail. The main part of Red's consisted of some rudimentary wooden buildings, one of which was the hiker store. We walked in and claimed our final bucket. I had no idea what to expect as I couldn't remember what we had shipped out in this, but I didn't care since I was so hungry I could and would eat anything. Bev and I sat at a picnic table, opened our bear canisters, and then explored what our bucket had in store. We also bought a few snacks at the store like ice cream and pickles. Once we organized our final food situation, it was time to walk over to the camper area and set things up for the night. After all the camping we'd been doing on this trip, setting up at a campsite was anti-climactic, but it would do. We ate burgers from the restaurant for dinner, and that evening, we had a nice campfire with Rach and Wes.

Day 22 - Red's Meadow to Johnston Lake

We figured we had about a week left before reaching the end of the JMT, and figured we'd have just enough food as well. Our daily mileage would be lower as well for the rest of the hike, which I didn't mind one bit. All the toughest passes were behind us, and in fact we would were done with most of the higher elevation of the trail. Our bodies were still functioning, which we had wondered weeks and months prior how long it would take them to fall apart. I couldn't say I had any significant aches and pains which I was quite happy about. That morning I walked over to the nearby naturally-fed hot springs, and sunk into the hot water. It was super relaxing. Then it was time to walk over to the restaurant and grab breakfast (bacon and eggs). After that we did some laundry at the shower house building, since I was washing pretty much everything I had, I was hanging out in my boxers for a few hours. There were power outlets available for charging our phones/zoleo/camera batteries. An older Californian guy had a whole conversation about his time in the Sierra and the decades he spent around these parts. Then once laundry was done we each took showers and then walked back to the campsite. Rachel and Wes were chilling there, and we all had the same general idea for the day. It wouldn't be a complete zero day, but a nero day of maybe 2-3 miles max. We hung out until mid afternoon and then slung on our packs and walked out, and back onto the trail. We traveled with Rach and Wes. Soon enough, along the trail, we passed by the Devils Postpile, a national monument made up of basalt columns in an unusual form. Then we walked at a slight elevated grade. Soon enough the PCT split from the JMT but would connect again after about 15 miles. Not sure what the reason is that they diverge. After another 2 miles or so, the sun was already on its final descent, so we found suitable camping spot across from Johnston Lake. The air was thick with mosquitoes, and we had to quickly don our head nets to avoid being eaten alive. Then we gathered firewood (which was plentiful in this area), and started a fire to keep the pests at bay. Once that was done we could get dinner ready in relative peace. We continued sitting around the fire into the night. I was noticing we were staying up later and later as the trip wore on, but it was always a struggle to get up at a reasonable time.

Day 23 - Johnston Lake to Shadow Creek

We started on relatively flat terrain but quickly began moving up moderately elevated terrain soon after. We walked through a lot of woodland, and saw so many different plant species. We passed by Glady's Lake and then stopped for lunch along Rosalie Lake, with clear and colourful water, as most lakes along these parts are. We then had a steep descent of many switchbacks down Shadow Lake, before rounding clockwise along the trail. We reached the junction of shadow creek, and found Wes and Rach's camp. They had setup about an hour earlier and were relaxing. We covered about 8.8 miles. This area could very well be one of the most popular areas in the whole Sierra, as it was close enough to civilization, that there were many day/weekend hikers, and many popular sites including Ediza Lake nearby. No one is allowed camping around that area to avoid overcrowding. In the evening I walked up a nearby hill with Rachel and Wes and we saw some beautiful sunset colours against the mountains.

Day 24 - Shadow Creek to Garnet Lake

I woke up around 05h00, and joined Wes and Rachel. Bev opted out as she is not one to deal with early morning wake ups, even at the best of times. We silently walked the 1.5 miles through the veil of darkness to the base of Ediza Lake. Then we waited as the sun rose. To the far side of the lake we could see Banner and Ritter Peaks and to the south we could see the beautiful Minarets. We spent some time here, I took some photos at different angles, and then when the sun rose higher we decided to head back. Once at camp, it was breakfast time and then broke down camp. It would be a short rest of the day, only about 3.5 miles or so. The hike out was mostly through meadowy terrain. Bev and I had our first major argument of the trip, not too bad considering the amount of time we'd been on the trail already, but still those next few hours were tense. But luckily the moods lightened when we got a first glimpse of Garnet Lake from below. We descended and walked along the eastern part of the lake and crossed a small bridge. We then made it around a bit to some flat areas near the water. There we saw Rach and Wes' tent set up but they weren't around. We had all agreed to meet up along the lake to camp. It was early afternoon so we had the rest of the day to chill out. Or I guess to get chilled, because while in the sun it was really warm so we decided that maybe we should go for a proper swim at least once in these lakes. We stripped down to undergarments and then slowly stepped into the glacier waters. Banner and Ritter peaks were just beyond the western shores of Garnet Lake, and their snowmelt fed the lake. In fact, like most areas in the Sierra this year, snow still covered the mountainside and the lakes were a lot fuller than usual. This may be amongst the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. I managed to get in halfway and then had to come out a bit. Bev ended up dunking herself fully but quickly got out of the water. Then we heard some screams from the ridge above and saw Rach and Wes heading down. They had explored more along the northern coast of the lake after they finished setting up camp. They saw us and figured they had to try for a swim too if we did. Rachel just jumped in with her smelly jumper and all, and then shrieked and swam right back out. I was sitting on a rock by the water and thought I may as well also dunk in fully at this point so I pushed myself in. This was the coldest water I ever experienced! I quickly got out. Wes was reluctant but peer pressure got the best of him and soon enough he threw himself in as well. No one spent any quality time doing any swimming. I have full respect for those hikers I've met that swim and bathe in waters like this regularly. Maybe it's something that can be built up? Back at camp we changed and dried off. I was pretty cold for a while. We had dinner and then met a group of four hikers that arrived. They were on a multiday backpacking trip, and were friends who lived all over the USA. We ducked into our tents early that evening.

Day 25 - Garnet Lake to Marie Lakes Trail junction

I woke up before sunrise. I knew I didn't want to miss this opportunity. I poked Bev to wake up too and told her just suck it up so you won't regret it. I threw on some layers rolled out of the tent. I headed towards the eastern most point of the lake and I noticed one of those hikers I had met yesterday who was sitting up on an elevated rocky platform that created a natural viewpoint of the lake. He motioned me over and I made my way. It was cold out and I had just woke up so I was close to shivering. I chatted with him (can't recall what his name was), and discovered he was from San Jose and that his friends and him took yearly trips together, backpacking different trails in the country. Bev arrived soon after. The sun began to rise and the most beautiful golden light began to strike the top of Banner and Ritter peaks. As the sun rose higher, the light ignited the mountains further. The water making up Garnet Lake was perfectly still, and created a perfect reflection of what was occurring above. Wes and Rachel joined us soon after, luckily not missing this spectacle. This may go down as one of the most beautiful sunrises I have yet witnessed. And I don't generally see a lot of sunrises in regular life. We went back to our camp and began getting ready for the day. Wes and Rachel departed before us. We had a steep climb out. We passed by some smaller, beautiful lakes called Ruby and Emerald. Then we arrived at the banks of another large lake, this one named 1000 Island Lake. I still preferred Garnet lake over this one but this lake may have been just as beautiful. We hiked along the lake for some time, as the trail climbed higher. We stopped for a break and got to observe a Marmot for a short time. We continued over an almost imperceptible pass, called Island Pass (10221 feet). Then we descended a few hundred feet, before beginning another gradual climb. Our last major pass of this thru-hike was coming up, but we would be attempting to gain as much elevation for the day, and then gain the pass the following morning. We passed by Marie Lakes Trail junction and then continued higher, eyeing spots to setup our camp. Eventually we ran into Wes and Rachel, who were chilling out against a rock just off the trail. I had thought they may very well have attempted the pass today, but they weren't feeling it. Also some dark clouds were accumulating over the mountains and rumblings could be heard. We setup our camp about 150m off the trail. We rushed through dinner prep and ate up because we weren't sure if a storm would pass over us. While the wind did pick up, we never had any rain.

Day 26 - Marie Lakes Trail junction to Lyell Canyon

The terrain as we pushed on was peppered with large boulders and miniature lakes, creating a very unique environment. The approach to the pass wasn't very difficult compared to some of our previous ones. By mid afternoon we crossed through Donohue Pass (11073 feet), and in the process, crossed into Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was one of my most anticipated places to visit for many years. With it's iconic dome like rock formations, large granite big walls, and a fabled presence in the rock climbing scene, I had seen and heard much about this park. It was truly a dream come true to arrive here, and was made even more special by being able to hike our way here. Immediately we began our descent. The terrain was steep in a way where you kind of wish you were going up again, at least your knees wish you were. We passed some small waterfalls and then reached a narrow meadow. Soon enough that meadow became quite wooded. As we descended below 10000 feet, we passed a threshold. We would never again be above this altitude on this trip. Bev hadn't dealt with the altitude all that well overall so this was welcome news for her. After several arduous hours of downhill, we reached the valley floor. We were now entering the Lyell Canyon, and would be walking along a stream for most of this section. This area was also remarkably flat, quite a change from most of the Sierra which is almost always up or downhill. Dark clouds began to form in the northeast, but for the time being seemed to remain constrained to the other side of the large granite mountains that compartmentalized our valley. We ran into what appeared to be a very docile deer, who sat and remained motionless nearby. Bev, who knows animal behaviour quite well, theorized why this deer was acting weird and began to look around. Sure enough we spotted a fawn nearby. She was a mom and was trying to take attention away from her baby, as we could easily be hostile. We got to observe them for a while before they went off together. It was a really cool moment. As we continued to walk, those clouds rolled in closer to us. We knew we were reaching a boundary where there was a supposed 8 mile stretch where camping was prohibited. Wes saw us along the trail and called out to us to come over. They had reached the boundary and stopped around here, then kept a lookout for us. We setup our tent nearby them and then shared a fire that evening. There was light rain but nothing strong enough to be able to put out the already hot embers from the fire.

Day 27 - Lyell Canyon to Cathedral Lakes

We woke up to a misty morning, which quickly cleared as the sun rose higher. Wes started another fire so it took us a little while to get going. We filtered water at the nearby creek and noticed many prairie dogs around. In fact it appeared we walked through a prairie dog town. Kind of reminded me of when we traveled through some northern midwest states. The trail was pleasantly flat for the first few hours, then we ran into Wes and Rachel who were ahead of us (as usual). We had arrived at Tuolumne Meadows. As the name implies it's a high altitude (about 8700 feet) meadow of which a main rode passes nearby. There's also a ranger station, lodge and campground in the area. So basically we were passing through some civilization. In normal years there is a general store and the campground is open, but this winter the store's roof collapsed under heavy snow so everything was closed for repairs. Nonetheless we passed through the ranger station, and dumped some garbage we were carrying at the dumpster nearby. The parking lot was full of cars, and tourists came in and out of the building. I wonder if our body odour raised eyebrows as we walked in. The four of us wanted to see if there was a possibility of acquiring some permits for the famous Half-Dome ascent, at the heart of Yosemite Park. There used to be the option of adding this permit onto a JMT permit when one applied, but this was no longer the case, at least when starting Nobo. The ranger explained to us some options, and in the end found two permits for the next day, and another two for the day after that. Since Wes and Rachel were collectively faster than Bev and I (our trail names were Dawdles and Molasses for a reason I guess), they would attempt to arrive there on the next day. This would mean a bigger day for them however, while we could hike at a more leisurely pace. They wished us well and took off to make some miles, hoping to see us the following evening near the base of Half-Dome when we caught up. Bev and I headed out soon after and our next challenge was to get out of Tuolomne and back onto the JMT. We walked along a road for a while, and had to deal with traffic that was way too close. This sucked and lasted more than a mile at least. Finally we found a junction and then walked back into the woods. This semblance of civilization was overwhelming! We found a large fallen tree trunk and sat against it and ate lunch. Then we climbed again for several hours. The trees were as large as they were high. Foot traffic was certainly more noticeable in the last few days, but especially here, where many people came to the area for day trips. We began to see the mighty Cathedral Peak to our left, named because the top is in fact the shape of a cathedral. Soon after we arrived at Upper Cathedral Lake (9703 feet). There were many campers in the area. We found a nice spot not too far from the shore and setup. I filtered water and noticed that the lake water felt strangely warm. The sky was a beautiful pink as the sun was setting.

Day 28 - Cathedral Lakes to Half-Dome Base

I had hoped to wake up and have the opportunity to catch a beautiful sunrise scene on the lake, but when I zipped open my side of the tent and peaked out, I noticed that the sky was overcast. When I eventually stepped out, frost covered the tent fly. We experienced frost on the tent the last few mornings in fact, now that we were in the later part of September and the temperatures were getting colder overnight. But this morning it began to snow! The snow became increasingly heavier as we packed up our gear. We were now heading in a southwesterly direction towards the Yosemite Valley. We traversed Cathedral Pass, which hardly seemed like a pass at all from the direction we crossed. We had some gently elevation, and then eventually gently descent. As the day progressed our descent became much steeper. The sun never truly managed to peak out. Heavy grey clouds formed and soon enough rain began to fall. We had our rain jackets and pack covers on and continued down. It was pretty cold once we were wet. This weather made me realize how lucky we were with the overall weather on this trip. Luckily the Sierra is one of the sunniest hiking locations in North America. Later on, Bev was hiking ahead of me, and suddenly began screaming and hopping around. We saw a wasp on the ground near her. She had been stung in the back of her right leg! We later learned that around this time of year, wasps tend to be a bit agitated and many are thrown from their nests and are homeless as the weather begins to cool. We suspect that Bev walked over this particular wasp that became pissed off when disturbed. In any case, she now started to freak out about possibly having a full on allergic reaction. Although her sting did get red and swollen, and hurt quite a bit, it never got anymore severe than that luckily. Bev was also dealing with what was becoming a chronic cough. She suffers from mild Asthma and had to take her bronchodilator more often. Lately she was feeling more short of breath than usual, which was unusual given that our cardiovascular systems should be in top shape by this point. She would be later treated for bronchitis when we returned home. By this point Bev had had more than enough of this day. The rain ebbed and flowed and we were starving so stopped for food, partially under some natural cover. By mid afternoon we knew we were getting nearer to the valley. We heard helicopters in the distance, and we kept hearing them as we got closer. Bev mentioned that they were most likely rescue helicopters because they seemed to be hovering around. In the distance we could see what we thought was Half-Dome, most of which was enveloped by clouds. We remembered that Wes and Rachel were most likely attempting the summit, or at least had intended too. We took a break on an overlook and found a bold squirrel very near to us. I took a few photos from different angles. By this point the sun was poking through the clouds in various places. We were planning on stopping at a wild camping spot as close to the start of the Half-Dome trail as possible. Eventually we ran into Wes and Rachel, and they proceeded to explain the hellscape that had occurred. They had camped close to the trailhead but decided to begin the Half-Dome hike by early afternoon. By that point inclement weather had arrived and rain was falling. Half-Dome, as its name implies, is a quartz monzonite rock formation and has the appearance of a dome that had been cut in half (due to erosion). Standing at 8800 feet, it is certainly one of the most iconic structures in the Sierra. It is also one of the most sought after hikes (or climbs), and the National Park Service instituted a lottery permit system to control the amount of traffic. One who starts this hike from Yosemite Valley would expect a 16 mile roundtrip, and an elevation gain of almost 5000 feet. Most who reach the Half-Dome trailhead from the JMT, have already been climbing for many hours and the most arduous parts still lie ahead. So you can imagine how someone might feel to make it all the way up and then see bad weather moving to the peak. The permit system unfortunately contributes to some risk taking behaviour because some people wait for years before they get a permit, therefore many people seem to get summit fever and forgo their better judgment even when conditions deteriorate. And to top it off further, a ranger is typically posted prior to the switchbacks to check permits and give hikers proper instruction and forewarning, but there were none to be seen on this day. They made their way up the steep switchbacks and then took some shelter as the rain began to get heavier. They too heard the helicopters above them and then actually saw one land nearby with rescue crews disembarking. They tried getting closer towards the cables and those making their way down shouted at them to go back. They began to hear the horrors that had unfolded. Every few years, people slip and fall from the cable section. Almost all of them die. Usually this occurs in bad weather, but not always. The last fatality happened in 2019, when a woman slipped and fell more than 500 feet to her certain death. And today, apparently a young woman slipped on her ascent and fell 200 feet, shattering her legs and who knows what else. She was still alive, which is a rarity if you slip from the cables. Some might say she's lucky, but I'm not too sure. Another person slipped and sustained head trauma. At the top of Half-Dome, lightning was striking. There isn't much cover there, but some people attempted to get under a rock overhang. Those still on the metal cables were getting shocks. It's a wonder more didn't fall off. Luckily Wes and Rachel had not made it to the cables before disaster struck. They went back down and ran into us as they were returning to their camp and then recounted what had happened. We were happy they were ok. Rachel was a bit upset about not being able to ascend Half-Dome but I reminded her that the mountains don't go anywhere, but we unfortunately do. We joined them at their campsite and then searched for some dry wood under trees and rocks. We started a fire which help reduce some of the dampness. Like it or not, this was the final night on this thru-hike, for all of us. We enjoyed the fire and recounted stories as the night wore on. I was gonna miss staring up and seeing the copious bright stars that make up the sky, which wasn't something that can be seen in such a way back home.

Day 29 - Half-Dome to Yosemite Valley

I woke up excitedly. We would be leaving the tent and our heavier gear behind, and return in a few hours (hopefully) to pack out. Frost covered our tent and it was one of the coldest mornings yet. Rachel didn't want to get out of their tent. She kept saying if she could stay here than the trip wasn't over. Bev and I packed some day hike supplies and wished them well, hoping we would run into them back down in the valley that evening. We proceeded the short distance to the trailhead and then began the ascent. From where we started it would only be about 1000 feet elevation gain, but this would be very steep. Soon enough we reached the steep switchbacks, and then we saw a ranger who arrived and began checking hiker permits. We pulled ours out and handed it over to her. Then she checked them over and, along with a few others who'd arrived near the same time as us, began explaining the rest of the ascent, including the infamous cable section. "You are risking life and limb", she said. And then explained that this was not the place to have a panic attack or meltdown, if we're not comfortable in ourselves its ok to not attempt the climb. We curiously asked her about the day before. She said that they had two sick calls from rangers and didn't have anyone posted as a result. She told us that the woman who fell was beyond lucky to still be alive stating "they never survive something like that!". We began up the switchbacks, and I could tell Bev was already getting freaked out with this section. She continued up for a short distance and then decided this wasn't for her. To be fair, I don't think she knew what she was getting into when we excitedly applied for our permits. And this "hike" is not something I would ever pressure someone into doing. We decided that she would descend and I would try to go up and down and then rejoin her near the ranger. I carried on and worked up some steep slabs. I passed some day hikers that were sweating profusely. It wasn't a fair comparison as I was acclimated and had several hundred clicks of recent training under my belt in the last few weeks. Finally I reached the cable section. An 1864 survey of Half-Dome declared that this peak would never be climbed by men. About ten years later the first ascent was made. In 1919, the cables were first installed. At their steepest, the incline is about 60 degrees. Looking up they sure as hell looked way steeper than I was expecting. I stowed my polls under a rock and gripped the cable and began pulling myself up. Quickly the ascent became quite vertical. One hand in front of the other as I went. Soon enough I went past an area with a large red splotch tainting the rock. I knew what had happened here, not sure the others climbing along with me did. I noticed some people were wearing harnesses and clipping into the cables as they went. Probably smart. Although supposedly the lady who died in 2019 was wearing a harness and fell while trying to clip in. Sometimes these devices can give you a false sense of security. I'm generally very confident in my physical abilities, but I'll confess I was worried about those climbing above me. It might be hard to avoid a human missile flying down towards me. There's no way I would have attempted this in wet conditions though, much higher risk of slipping. A few years earlier I had climbed up a class 4 route without any gear in the eastern USA, but again I felt quite prepared as I had a lot of climbing experience. I made it up the cables fairly quickly, only getting stuck at the very end and steepest part behind a slower climber. The top of Half-Dome is large and flat, and has unparalleled 360 degree views of Yosemite. The famous valley could be seen to the southwest and dome like mountains were all around. This was truly a special place. I spent longer up here than I expected. The descent down the cables felt a little more sketchy because I was looking down a lot but soon enough I was back at the cable base. I then backtracked down the slabs and switchbacks and reached Bev who was sitting in some shade. I was delighted to have successfully made the summit and back down again. I supported Bev's decision and knew she had made the right decision because this was not something she would have enjoyed. We went back to our camp, hidden deep in the forest foliage. We spent about an hour packing up and eating some tuna and snacks. We really didn't have much food left and needed to get back to civilization promptly. We began down the final section of the JMT leading towards the valley, but we still had about 5000 feet of descending to do over 8 miles. This was gonna suck on the knees! The hours went on and we progressed. We rationed the remaining snacks but knew they wouldn't suffice for such exertion. The trail was becoming more and more like a highway the further we descended. Many people were doing day trips, overnights, or long weekend trips. We reached a junction where the trail split and decided to take the steeper one down because we would get some nice views of waterfalls. The first was the nearly 600 foot Nevada falls, which was amazing to look at as we snaked around it. Then further on was Vernal falls at 317 feet. The final 2 miles was brutal, our legs ached, our stomachs were growling and the overall exertion of the day was taking a toll. We passed a young guy who was limping and using his polls as crutches. He had summited Half-Dome but his knee acted up on his way down. We offered him Ibuprofen and wished him luck. Many hikers rely on good ol' Vitamin I. The trail was now pavement and hurt the feet as we continued. Finally we reached the famous High Sierra Sign, signaling the start, or in our case, the end of the trail! We had made it! We sighed with relief but also sadness that such an adventure was ending. I personally could have spent a few more weeks or months hiking more trail, Bev on the other hand seemed to have had her fill for now. We walked another .2 miles and found ourselves in Happy Isles, the northern terminus of the JMT. We crossed a well paved road and walked to a bus station. The sun was setting. Yosemite has a shuttle service that runs between many points within the park. A bus pulled up and we got in. We tried not to knock our backpacks into anyone. The bus was full of tourists, and looked at us awkwardly. I doubt necessarily because of how we looked but I'm sure we smelled something awful. The shuttle brought us to Curry Village. We walked through a parking lot and found a bunch of restaurants packed together with shared outdoor seating. It certainly was a lot warmer down here in the valley. We found a restaurant called Pizza Deck, we probably smelled it before we saw it. Nothing was going to taste better than pizza at this point. We got in line and ordered a large pie with garlic bread. The area was packed, people laughing and speaking loudly, children running around and screaming...the dichotomy between this scene and our experience over the last weeks was profound. I was having some difficulty managing the stimuli, which I was no longer accustomed to. We managed to find a free table and were setting down our things as Rach and Wes arrived. They had been down in the valley since the afternoon and had already had a few meals since then! They joined us at our table and I talked about my adventure up Half-Dome. They, in turn, told us about their descent into the valley and running into a descending hiker who had been at the top of Half-Dome when all hell broke loose. The hiker had been trying to hide under a rocky overhang but had been struck by lightning that went through the rock. A bolt had entered his scalp and singed his hair, and exited through his toe. Had the lightning not struck the rock before reaching him, he may very well had died. In true American fashion, when Rach asked if he was going to get investigations at the hospital, his response was "I can't afford that shit!". There was much reminiscing as we downed the pizza. Rachel, who's really good with numbers, calculated her and Wes overall mileage, and also our own mileage as well. They had done about 280 miles overall. I had done more miles overall then Bev (mainly because of Whitney), and I poured over the map looking at her calculations. Amazingly, despite missing a 40 mile section of the JMT (but adding the Cottonwood section, Kearsarge and Bishop Pass trails, as well as various side trips), I still ended up hiking 238 miles! Or 384 kilometers as I'm used to. Bev hiked about 218 miles. We all agreed we should thank our bodies for being so awesome. Then they asked us if we wanted to join them at a campground on the outreaches of Yosemite. Wes and Rachel, since they lived in Las Vegas, were able to drive in separate vehicles and leave resupplies in several areas. Rachel left her SUV at a Happy Isles parking lot, and then they drove down to Cottonwood in Wes' car, where they would begin the hike. So when they finished their hike earlier that afternoon, they reached her car and were able to take showers and change into fresh clothes. We walked over to their nearby car and piled in. Luckily she had an SUV or it would have been quite cramped with all our gear. We drove off in the veil of darkness. Rachel had been to Yosemite many times in the past, and knew the park well. We stopped in front of El Capitan, a giant granite monolith wall rising 3000 feet from its base. It is considered one of the best places in the world for big wall climbing. Many of the best climbers in the world have sharpened their skills on these granite walls. More recently it was in the forefront again when, in one of the greatest individual accomplishments to date, Alex Honnold free solo climbed a route to the top. We talked of this feat often. We got out of the car and stared up at the giant wall and could see headlights of several climbers making their way up the wall late into the night. This was one of my favourite moments in Yosemite. We enjoyed the view for about 20 minutes before continuing on. We reached Hodgdon Meadow Campground, where Rachel and Wes' roommate Bobby was waiting. Bobby was one of Wes' best friends from Tennessee, and came out to Nevada for a fresh start. Bobby welcomed us with his deep southern drawl voice. He was making a cheese fondue and seemed like he was equipped to the gills for car camping. Since moving to the region he had visited a number of national parks since the American southwest is rich with them. Of course we made a large fire and sat around until way past midnight. This is undoubtedly the latest I've stayed awake since our trip began, shocking since I'm such a night owl back home.

Day 30 - Exploring Yosemite (by car!)

We woke up and had to figure out what we would be doing next. But first I needed to take a dump. For the past few weeks I would happily wander off into the woods, dig a hole, fill up the hole, and then bury my business. Now I had to contend with a busy public camping bathroom. There were only two stalls and it seemed like people were waiting around for their turn. Dehydrated food remains are generally awful, but when I flushed the toilet the water started rising and only stopped at the lip of the toilet rim. Luckily there was a plunger nearby but I had to carefully insert it as to not overflow the vile water all over the floor. Somehow, after longer than I would like to admit, the contents descended and I breathed a sigh of relief. The younger people might say this story is TMI (too much information), and it is, but I couldn't help but laugh at my situation now back in civilization. Back at our campsite, everyone wondered if I had died in that bathroom. Bev and I discussed if we would try to get going, or explore the park more, or stay another night here. Finally we decided that although staying as long as possible in Yosemite would be awesome, we probably should begin making our way out sooner than later. But we made the decision to leave in the evening, to have more time exploring one of the arguably coolest parks on the planet. We broke down our camp and loaded up our backpacks. This was bittersweet because we knew we wouldn't be camping again for a while. Rachel really wanted to show us around a bit, so the five of us piled into her car and off we went. First we headed back to Curry village. We walked to a cafe to grab some overpriced food, then checked out a giftshop to see if they had any related JMT gear. They did not. Then we drove around to different viewpoints. We stopped at the iconic 'tunnel view' area (named because it's usually people's first view of the valley as they exit a long tunnel in their vehicles), and this view was breathtaking! One could see El Cap, Nevada Falls, and even Half-Dome in the far distance. We continued on to Glacier Point, which may have been even more impressive. Great views of the next valley over could be seen, as well as an impressive sight of Half-Dome in its glory. At this point we really were doing the classic tourist route through the park. By the late afternoon we made our way back down to Yosemite Village. We checked out some last minute shops and I got an overpriced Yosemite T-shirt just because. Then we headed to the Yarts (Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System) bus stop. We said goodbye to our friends, and wished them well, happy to have shared such a great bucket list adventure. They told us we're always welcome visit in Vegas. I truly hope I run into them again some day. The bus arrived and then continued on, stopping at different stations within the park before heading west into the Californian Central Valley. The sun was already setting as we had some last glimpses of El Capitan as the bus passed by. Surrounded by the darkness, the bus hummed along, and I couldn't help but think how this whole trip seemed like a dream already, as cliche as it sounds. Two hours later, we found ourselves in the town of Merced. The bus dropped us off at an Amtrak station, and we booked a room at a Days Inn a few miles away. Uber didn't seem to operate here, so we had to call a Taxi service. I did suggest we walk but Bev was not comfortable with that idea. A strange taxi driver brought us to the door, and for the first time in a while we had a bed and shower at our disposal.

Day 31 - Epilogue

We woke at a reasonable hour and went through our bags, trying to reorganize things and getting rid of trash and gas canisters from our bear canisters. Then we walked over to the lobby and got some free continental breakfast that I ate copiously. We checked out and walked down the main road. We might have looked homeless but a lot of these intersections looked rough. Plenty of homeless people pushing around shopping carts full of belongings, and some people shouting and punching the air as they walked. Bev was probably right about not walking through town last night. In fact Merced has one of the highest crime rates in the state. We went to the Amtrak station, and while we initially intended to take the train, we decided to get the Greyhound bus in the end. The bus pulled up and found some seats for the ride. For the next few hours we traveled west through the Central Valley, making various stops in different towns. We went through western Oakland and saw a lot of rundown neighborhoods. Then we crossed the Bay Bridge and reached San Francisco. I had been here once, maybe 15 years ago or so. I had some good memories of this city. We decided to get to San Francisco more from a geographic region rather than anything else. Since this city is a major flight hub and the closest city from which to connect to an AC flight from our finish in Yosemite, it just made sense. The bus dropped us at the central station and from there we took an Uber to Fisherman's Wharf. We had made a decision that once we finished our trek, we would get a nice place somewhere for a night or two. Just so happened we found a pretty good deal at the Hotel Riu Plaza for the night. We weren't gonna have a ton of time in San Francisco but we wanted to at least see a small amount. We checked in and our room was pretty nice, but the location was also great. Fisherman's Wharf is quite a touristy area, but for the amount of time we had it would work. We dumped our bags and walked over to nearby Pier 39, as Bev really wanted to see the seals that piled onto the docks to sun themselves. I still wasn't used to such a densely populated area, as there were loads of people cramming the area. We walked around the pier, and walked past loads of shops selling all sorts of tourist junk. Having had more than our fill of stimuli, we walked back to our hotel room, dumped some stuff off, grabbed our jumpers and went back out. We headed south along Columbus Street. You would think that we'd be sick of walking anywhere by this point, but exploring is best done on two feet. We stopped at a pastry place and Bev got some coffee. Bev loved coffee and although we had packed some coffee packs during our hike, it didn't compare with a proper cup of overpriced brew. We sat on a bench at nearby Washington Park and watched loads of people walking their dogs. San Francisco is considered one of the most expensive places to live in the USA, and I wondered how people afford to live here. We continued down and arrived at City Lights Bookstore. This bookstore (also publisher), is a San Francisco landmark that began in 1953 and was a meeting place for many from the Beatnik movement such as Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg. We spent some time perusing through the store and picked up some pretty cool books too. We continued south into Chinatown. San Francisco has the largest and oldest Chinatown in North America, covering 24 square blocks in the downtown region. We were starving (my hunger had not yet recovered from our hike), and the goal was to find some hole in the hall restaurant that would serve great authentic Chinese food. We found one such place after a few blocks called Chef Hung. I had a giant plate of Chowmein. Then we walked back to the hotel in the night.

The next day we were up for one of the fanciest buffet breakfasts I've ever experienced. There was literally anything and everything on offer, although the seating area felt like a zoo with so many guests. After breakfast we checked out and brought our backpacks to hotel storage. We headed back towards Pier 39, and figured that to make the most of the time left in the city, we would use the hop on-hop off bus to try to hit as many interesting places as possible. This is probably one of the easier ways to get a taste of a city, although the most touristy way, but fuck it we are tourists after all. The bus went through the downtown area and continued west. We got off and saw the famous painted ladies, colourful houses with a backdrop of the city. Then we decided to walk for a bit and stopped at a cool comic book shop. Eventually we reached the intersection of Haight-Ashbury. This neighborhood was at the forefront of the counterculture movement of the 1960's as well as the Summer 0f Love in '67. We walked past former homes of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix among others. There were tons of psychodelic rock shops, head shops, cafes, and souvenir shops. We got back to the bus stop and observed two homeless dudes in dresses hanging out with their dogs. The bus comes and we get on the top level. We reach Golden Gate Park, and drive by a number of historic parts. I would have loved to spend more time walking around. The bus continued, and of course, we couldn't miss driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. We had good views of the city and the ocean as we crossed each way. Then the bus came back towards our starting point, passing many more interesting neighborhoods that would have been great to explore more in-depth. Maybe next time. We walked near Pier 39 and I stopped at an In & Out burger, because I had to have another taste while on the West Coast. Bev stopped at a Mexican place to get something vegetarian. Then we went back to the Riu Hotel and got our bags. After 5 weeks it was time to get to the airport and head home. The Uber driver pulled up in a fancy Tesla, and we chatted about his job. He lived about an hour away from San Francisco (as no average person can afford to live here), but told us that he makes good money working here and invested in his new car for that reason. The Air Canada flight looked very open (for standby), so we had no worries about not getting on. It was a direct redeye flight back to home.

This trip, like many, felt as though it both flew by and lasted forever due to so many memories and experiences. I lost about 15 lbs in the process and never quite recovered from my hunger until many weeks (and weight gain) later. The physicality, the mental aspects, and the logistical planning make this an experience I will never forget. I'm fortunate that my body works as well as it does and allowed me to travel 384 kilometers in possibly the most beautiful scenery on the continent. Whatever previous injuries I have didn't stop me. I'm fortunate that I get along with my partner and that there aren't many people out in the world that I would have been able to do something like this with. And I'm beyond fortunate that I can continue to travel and explore on my own terms, and will not take this for granted. Until next time.

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Photos

Garnet Lake
Sunrise over Garnet Lake. The first rays of light ignite Mount Banner and Ritter

Sunrise Whitney
Sunrise as we hike up Mount Whitney

Wildflowers
Wildflowers with Guitar Lake in the background

Deer
Caught this scene while traveling through the Evolution Valley

Kearsarge Lakes
The beauty of Kearsarge Lakes as we heading out over the pass to resupply on food

Camp
If below 10000 feet, having a fire was always nice, and kept the hordes of dusk mosquitoes at bay

Over Bishop Pass
Photo of us as we were traveling over the Bishop Pass with a full resupply

Selden Pass
After you've been hiking up several thousand feet with a heavy pack to get over the next pass, getting views like this makes it completely worth it

Squirrel
Chowing Down

Yosemite Valley
Iconic tunnel view

Wildflowers
September is generally not the time for wildflowers, but this was such a wet year that they were everywhere

Crabtree Meadow
Plenty of water sources

Marie Lake
After Selden Pass, we were greeted with Marie Lake

Hummingbird Moth
I thought this was a hummingbird from far, but it is in fact a hummingbird moth

Bishop Trail
Cloudy and windy day

Bear Ridge
The steepness that is Bear Ridge, we later found out there are 62 switchbacks

Muir Hut
Muir Hut, at the top of Muir Pass. Built in 1931 to shelter any wary traveler caught in a storm

Vidette Meadow
The climb out of Vidette Meadows was brutal, but the views as the sun rose became better and better

Sallie Keyes Lakes
Sally Keys Lakes. Had a memorable lunch stop while hiking through. Should have spent some more time.

Trail Friends
We ran into Rach and Wes again, while trying to catch the ferry to VVR

Garnet Lake
As the sun rose higher

Prairie Dog
Camouflaged

Tortilla
Tortilla. First encountered this creature on our second day on the trail, trying to steal some tortillas we were prepping for lunch. From then on he (or she?) would be affectionately known as Tortilla the chipmunk and would be spotted multiple times a day, everyday, hoping for some food scraps.

Cloudy Half Dome
Half Dome covered by clouds. We could not have realized the hellscape that was occurring when this photo was taken. Rescue helicopters could be heard. Inclement weather had resulted in someone falling about 200 feet and shattering their legs (and maybe more). Someone else suffered head trauma. Multiple people were struck by lightning. Two of our trail friends abandoned their attempt (rightfully so). I would later summit Half Dome the following day (in better conditions).

Yosemite
The domes that make up Yosemite

Selfie at Yosemite
We are comically bad at taking selfies but this one turned out alright

Painted Ladies
Our short time roaming around San Francisco

JMT Map
JMT using Google Maps

Comments

[Home and Away]

Wow!
That is all I can say about your amazing adventure.