Sierra Nevada Adventures

Section H: Crabtree Meadow to Tuolumne Meadow (the rest of the section)

Section I: Tuolumne Meadow to Sonora Pass

Section J: Sonora Pass to Echo Lake

Charles and I are now 1,092 miles down the trail. Our time in the Sierra Nevada is almost at an end, but it was our biggest and most challenging adventure yet on trail. Steep mountain climbs, hiking through snow, river crossings, and mosquitos made the Sierra always interesting.

This post will be a summary instead of a day by day account, since we’ve covered so much ground since my last post in Bishop. All of my pictures (and a few of Charles’) will make up for the lack of writing anyway.

Once back on the PCT we had six passes to do in eight days. The first four days we did a pass a day. We went through Glenn Pass (11,948ft) the first evening and camped for the night at Rae Lakes. The snow wasn’t too bad on Glenn Pass, with a little bit of glisading (sliding down) on the north side. The day after we hiked over Pinchot Pass (12,107ft) early evening. In some places we had to find our own route to the top due to snow. Day three we went over Mather Pass (12,094ft). While the south side was fairly clear of snow, the north side had quite a bit of snow, as well as rivers of water running on the clear parts of the trail.

The next day we went over Muir Pass (11,969ft), an all day affair. Muir Pass is usually considered the most difficult pass due to the couple miles of snow before and after the pass. At about 10:30AM we had about 2.7 miles to go, so I thought we’d reach the pass by about 12:30PM. We didn’t actually reach the pass and Muir Shelter at the top until about 2:00PM because of the snow.

Shortly before the top, we met three hikers with the trail names Picnic, Mission, and Clax. The saying “misery loves company” has never been more true for this section of the PCT as the five of us stuck together for the rest of the day. We weren’t really miserable, but we all had wet feet from falling in the river during a creek crossing and everyone postholed (sinking in snow) to their hip at least a few times on the way down.

We had a day without a pass, which while relaxing, still had steep climbs. Our next two passes were Selden Pass (10,913ft) and Silver Pass (10,779ft). Both had snow, but we’re not nearly as difficult as the previous four passes.

The day before arriving at Red’s Meadow we met a mom backpacking with her three kids. Charles and I both talked to her for a bit as we came across them and as I was going to leave she offered us a place to stay in Mammoth Lakes. Charles and I were both pleasantly surprised and decided to take her up on the offer.

We joined Picnic and Mission for breakfast in Red’s Meadow and then took a bus into Mammoth Lakes. We met our trail angel family later in the evening.

We stayed one night in Mammoth Lakes before hiking for about two and a half days to Tuolumne Meadow. Picnic and I took a quick side trip to Rainbow Falls once back on trail. We only had two passes to go through, Island Pass (10,226ft) and Donohue Pass (11,074ft). Donohue Pass was our entrance into Yosemite National Park.

One of Charles’ friends met us in Tuolumne Meadow for the afternoon. The next day we took a zero to go into Yosemite Valley because Charles had never visited before. Charles went to look at El Capitan while I hiked to Upper Yosemite Falls.

We took four days to reach Kennedy Meadows North with the only outstanding memory all the mosquitos. Everyone was irritable due to mosquitos 24/7. We went through three more passes, Benson Pass (10,107ft), Seavey Pass (9,129ft), and Dorothy Lake Pass (9,533ft). Charles and I braved the mosquitos to go for a swim in Dorothy Lake. Our hike the day of reaching Kennedy Meadows was beautiful and went up some giant switchbacks. We also passed mile 1000, a huge milestone.

From Kennedy Meadows we had another four days to the Lake Tahoe area. The mosquitos finally disappeared, which was a relief. Around Ebbetts Pass we ran into the most amazing trail magic. A group was out making hamburgers and pizzas for hikers, as well as a fried banana desserts. Charles and I both ate way too much, but it was so great. June 30 I had the best on-trail birthday. Charles bought two hostess cupcakes with twenty-three candles to celebrate.

We’re now at Lake Tahoe and staying in Tahoe City to take a zero with Charles’ cousin and family, the Sheltons. They were kind enough to have a cake for us to celebrate my birthday and to take us floating down the Truckee River.

Now it’s off to Northern California and more adventures!