Sun. August 28        Miles today: 22.6           Total so far: 1,842.4          Sierras Section H

Well, no bad mama bear or naughty cubs came calling last night.  In fact, Bill and I slept very well–TOO well!  I didn’t hear the alarm go off, and woke up a half hour late.  Oh well, more light made packup easier and quicker, so maybe we didn’t lose that awfully much time after all??  We walked as far as the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River before stopping to get water by the pretty wooden hiker bridge. 

Then we followed the PCT through the “back side” of Devil’s Postpile National Monument.  We didn’t do the “tourist alternate route” because we’ve seen the Postpile before and we’d never seen the PCT.   Well, the PCT route was really interesting.  Part of it wound through a very narrow canyon.  I half expected to see Robin Hood or maybe (this IS Califronia!) Black Bart, ready to relieve us of our heavy “purses.”   Eventually we got to another bridge over the San Joaquin,  where we could see happy fishermen downstream,  when whom should we meet snacking by the trail, but Dick Tracy and Wildhair.  We last saw them in northern Oregon!  We had fun catching up on each others’ adventures before moving on.

As we continued to follow the PCT, we had to cross many creeks that run into the San Joaquin.  One had a log laid across, but had added a center support post–good idea!  Now came a very long climb up to Agnew Meadows.  The trail stays high on the canyon wall of the San Joaquin River. As we neared the Meadows, we began to meet clean, spiffy, WAY overloaded backpackers just heading out, as well as even cleaner, spiffier dayhikers.   We probably didn’t smell very good to them, but to us, they just REEKED of artificial scent from laundry detergent, fabric softeners, deodorant soap, etc.  Long after they have passed, we could still smell what I call “eau de scented laundry soap” along the trail where they had been.  Gack!

Once we got to Agnew Meadows, we found it green and very pretty, but all fenced off so nobody could go in.  Bummer.  We stopped for a drink at the water faucet before tackling the climb to The High Trail, and there was a guy by the faucet with a HUMUNGEOUS heavy backpack.  He said he was just doing a training hike for a trip next month, and that carrying a heavy pack was “character building”.  Sure–also foot wrecking, knee destroying, and shoulder dislocating!  He was struggling mightily just to put on his pack.  Sad.  Well, we took our much lighter packs and were off to The HIgh Trail.  Wow!  Views!  Rock formations! And wild delphiniums taller than I am!  The High Trail has lots of springs, so all the plants thrive.  I’m afraid we shocked a couple who caught us in the act of filling our water bottles at one of the springs, without filtering the water.  “Aren’t you afraid of getting sick?”  “No–we just make sure to take water from a reasonably safe source, and this is a spring.  Looks good.”

Then came the climb to Thousand Island Lake.  As usual, it was a rocky trail, but with many small meadows, lots of wildflowers and butterflies.  When we reached the lake, with its stunning backdrop of Banner Peak, all we could do was just soak up the view.  Awesome, awesome!  The Sierras and the North Cascades (plus Jefferson Park in Oregon) have the most beautiful scenery you can imagine.   There were a number of very happy backpackers by the Lake.  Wow, it was tempting to just stop and camp there, but not when you are a thruhiker with several hours of daylight left, so on we went to Island Pass.  I’m not sure when we crossed it–there was no sign–so we headed on for Donohue Pass.

I was looking at all the beauty as we hiked along, and concluded “There must have been a lot of snow here–there are so many green meadows, pretty creeks and wildflowers.”  The flowers were amazing–they lined the trail, and sometimes covered whole hillsides.  As the sun went lower, the late afternoon light on the mountains and rocks was beautiful.  We climbed up and up the VERY ROCKY trail to just a bit short of the summit, and found a dry, flat, grassy spot to camp.  There was light enough to go on for a bit, but we didn’t know what lay on the other side of the pass, campsite-wise, so thought it best to stop.  The evening sky was clear (hooray! We have had no more storms!) but it was very windy.  As I was going to sleep, I was thinking, “If our Floodwrecked world could still look as beautiful as we have seen today, I wonder what it looked like before?   God really does bring beauty out of ashes.”

Sat. August 27         Miles today: 24.7         Total so far: 1,819.8            Sierras H

It ws very cold when we got up to continue our climb to Silver Pass.  The air was so still that we could see a perfect reflection in one of the lakes we passed.  Finally we stopped for breakfast, but it was still so cold that there was ice on the puddles.  So we tried a new idea.  Instead of having our hot mochas at noon when we usually stop to cook, we decided to have them at BREAKFAST.  We knew that it would be hard to light the alcohol stove in the cold morning, so Bill had been carrying the fuel bottle under his jacket to prewarm it.  Even with the “prewarming”, the stove was still hard to light,  but we were determined, and the end result were two tasty HOT drinks!  We sipped them and warmed our cold hands with the cups, and watched the beautiful morning light growing on the mountains. 

Now for the final push to the top of Silver Pass.  The trail was VERY rocky, but by 7:45, we had made it to the 10,900 foot crest.  The views were really spectacular, and the trail down the other side also had beautiful mountain views and more pretty lakes.  Funny–the High Sierra PCT/JMT is just loaded with lakes, but everybody tends to camp at the same few.  Why??  Along the way, we met more southbound JMTers, but not as many.  I think their “season” is starting to wane.  However, many of the fellows we met today were VERY happy fishermen! They said they’d had great catches and were having trout for dinner every night. 

Eventually we reached pretty Tully Hole and then another big climb up to Lake Virginia at 10,300 feet.  By lunch time, we were at Purple Lake, where we had a great seafood chowder lunch, and just as we were packing up (drum roll, please…..) a RANGER arrived.  He saw our bear cans and was very pleased.  We told him we wre PCT thruhikers, and he didn’t even ask to see our permit.  He was very nice, but i wonder what would have happened if we had no bear cans????

The rest of the afternoon was bascially uphill and contouring above deep valleys, through evergreen forest.  Sometimes it was miles before we got any views.  The trail was often deep sand and pumice–it was like walking on a beach; slow going!  Twice we were passed by loaded mule trains.  Coming in to Deer Creek, I saw what I think was a fox, running down the trail ahead of me.  We stopped at the creek for water, and met a really nice guy who was with a group of JMTers.  He was so enhusiastic about what we were doing, that he wanted a picture of himself with us.  Hope he gets to be a PCT thruker someday!  We sat on a log and talked to him for a little while.

Finally we got to the point where the trail heads down 4 miles to Red’s Meadow.  We didn’t have much time till sundown, but figured we’d find a flat place to sleep somewhere.  But then, we overtook a very odd group of three people–a GUY with a hunting bow (arrow on string, yikes!), a GIRL with a huge camera, and a GUY with a little tiny dog.  They said they were following a BEAR, but let us go by.  We went on another half mile and moved off the trail to camp in a forest fire-blackened zone.  We don’t like camping where there has been a fire–the black soot gets on our stuff–but we had no choice, with the sun already below the horizon.  Awhile later, the “Odd 3” came by, warning us that a large mama bear and cub were nearby.  Well, ALL our food was in the bear cans, so there was no way any bear could get it.  We prayed for God’s protection on our camp, and went to sleep, wondering where the threesome were from.  None of them had packs.  Red’s Meadow, maybe?