Wed. August 24         Miles today: 23             Total so far: 1,786.8        Sierras Section H

Hooray, we beat the mosquitoes this morning!  We were up, packed, and headed out before they woke up.  About a half hour after we started hiking, we met Alan, a 70-year-old doing the John Muir Trail.  He was fascinated and enthused about what we were doing, and asked a lot of questions.  Turns out he’s travelling ultralight–no tent, not even a tarp (“What if it rains?” I wondered to myself), and he has no stove.  He’s living on a “superhealthfood protein drink”, granola, Clif Bars, and “Gu” the glucose gel that runners use for instant energy.   He’s in great shape, so I guess it’s working for him.  It’s been very encouraging to meet so many older backpackers in their 60’s and 70’s.  Modern lightweight gear is making it possible.

Talking so long with Alan made us late for breakfast, but we stopped at the bridge over the San Joaquin river, where Bill got water (no falling in, this time!) and we ate as fast as we could.  Much as we love talkng to other hikers, there are so many of them on the JMT, that we are being slowed down considerably.  Sometimes, even though we hate doing it, we just have to put our heads down and blow by people.  After breakfast, we followed the trail as it followed the river steeply downcanyon.  Wow!  What a sight to see the San Joaquin roaring and foaming down its twisting, rocky channel.  Again we wondered out loud, “Has anyone ever tried to kayak this?”

Eventually we reached the turnoff for Selden Pass, and things got more mellow.  The climb up begins by going thrugh a sort of “forest park” with pines and green grass and wildflowers.  We met some trail riders, carrying hunting bows in special holsters, and later a lady wrangler leading a string of empty-saddled dude horses back down the trail.  We guessed they were from Muir Trail Ranch.  Finally we reached a sort of “lake district”–beautiful!  There were lots of backpackers at Sally Keyes Lakes, plus the happy dudes who’d ridden up on the horses and were now wandering about with camersa, excited about “camping out” that night.  We reached pretty little Heart Lake, and began our final climb to Selden Pass up a narrow, lovely canyon with fascinating rock formations, lots of “bonsai” trees, and plenty of wildflowers.  I really enjoyed Selden–out of all the other passes, it doesn’t try to be scary, or try to be impressive.  It is a quietly beautiful, intimate sort of place.  If we hadn’t been trying to “make miles”, I would really have liked to linger there to enjoy it.  Soon we were at the 10,900 foot top of the pass, with great views.

Down the other side, we found a very scenic “alpine” area, but a very rocky trail that was hard on our feet.  Owww!  Several pretty lakes were scattered among the rocks.  Up head of us, farther down the valley, lay the ford of Bear Creek, which is considered by PCT thruhikers to be THE WORST stream crossing of the whole trail.  Well, it turned out that Billy Goat’s comment yesterday was right on–“The Bear” was knee deep!  We crossed with no problem, and began to follow it through an often damp and muddy forest dotted with a number of giant mushrooms.  At last came the final climb of the day–up to the top of 9,900 foot Bear Ridge, where we stopped to camp.  It was very quiet and very cold in the forest, but we dispensed with the tarp in order to have a quicker start in the morning to catch the 9:45 ferry to Vermillion Valley Resort.   I would say that scenery-wise, this day was really beautiful, and not having any really tough trail was a help, too.