JMT 17 & 18: A Marathon Ending

Waking up at my little sanctuary in the trees, all I could think of is "I'm so close to the end. So close to showers and real food and a soft mattress. So close to not being so darned cold in the morning. Could I finish today?" And so I got up and started walking. And I walked and walked and didn't stop till 11am, when I had to get my "Wag Bag" at the Crabtree Meadow junction and decided to have a bite of lunch. And then I walked again till 1pm when I stopped for a wee break to stock up on 3 litres of water at Guitar Lake and contemplate Mt. Whitney before me. And then I walked to the top of the continental United States.

Whitney Junction is where the JMT meets the Whitney route; one hangs a left here to hike 2 miles to the top, then returns and then goes right to Trail Crest and then down the other side. Because you return to the same spot, everyone drops their pack and carries a small waist pack or something with just their valuables, water & jacket for the final 1000' assault on the peak.

It was the strangest thing! Walking without 30 lbs. on my back. At first I wobbled like a 109 year old drunken cowboy getting off a month-long cattle drive. My legs just wouldn't work. Altitude sickness? I checked my mental faculties and I seemed as crazy as normal so I pushed on. Eventually I found my feet and I was flying! Wow, so light, so free! This was wonderful! The trail was difficult  & scary with vertical drops of 3000'-4000' and "windows" with chutes dropping off to infinity; narrow & rocky with patches of large boulders and conversely, easy sand. I was very late in the day to attempt summiting and a couple of people warned me it'd take 2-2.5 hrs (one sweet girl said it took her 3h45m!), but they didn't know how invigorated I'd just become - I made it in 1h10m. Not bad after 16.5 miles and who knows, 5-6000' feet gain? 

(This was the actual trail!)

I hit the summit at 4:15pm and was the only one atop the world! (okay, poetic license) It was amazing and emotional - the end of a long, hard journey. Whitney is the terminus of the JMT; bit silly as that strands you 14,500' in the air, so really, it's a bit longer than advertised.  But I couldn't stay long; the weather was a gift as it was clear as could be but storms roll in quick in this part of the world and the highest point in the continental USA was not the place to be. I also had 4.1 very steep miles with 99 switchback to get down to safety. I took some selfies (wish my arms were longer!), then ran back to my pack.

Reality hit me like a sledgehammer when I put the big pack back on. Ooph! I immediately dumped 1 litre of water but I couldn't go 3 steps without torturous breathing, like someone was trying to pull out a lung with each breath I took. The .2 miles UPHILL(!) to Trail Crest were the hardest steps of my life. What happened? Thank God for the downhill switchbacks. The long sandy & teeny weeny 3-step long rocky switchbacks. Every one closer to camp and my bed.

Whoa! Who turned the lights out? The switchbacks are almost in the dark. The Whitney ridge runs north-south and so about 5:45 pm the sun disappears over the edge and the east is in twilight. With no plans to try to find a site and set up my tent in the dark I scurried faster. Whew, 7:30pm I find a little walled-in patch, threw up my tent, had a salami sandwich and called it a night.

Today's Miles: 20.7

Day 17

3:19am: So close to done. 6 miles and 4000', can I leave now? Nope, still dark. 

4:30am: how 'bout now? If I have a coffee then pack the tent, will it be light enough then? Let's try.

5:15am: the first set of little headlamps bobbing in the greyish light start coming up the trail, heading for peak. Soon I'm on the trail too, pushing against the tide of dozens and dozens and dozens of Whitney attemptees as I'm trying to descend. I wish every one a good morning and secretly hope they know what they've gotten themselves into.

8:10am: I'm at Whitney Portal ordering the biggest breakfast ever, buying a shower, and charging my phone so I can figure out how on earth to get home!

Today's Miles: 6.1

2-Day Miles: 26.8 which makes it a Marathon Ending for me!!

JMT Day 16: A Good Day

Today was a good day. Long, hard, but everything seemed to be in my favor.

My camp last night was at the base of Glen Pass, so with a 6:20am start, I was at the top by 7:40. Luckily I was warned by the Colorado folks that there was a plateau 1/2 way up that was a 'false top', so instead of being bitterly disappointed at that point, I knew I had to keep slogging on up. It was tough, but doable.

Breakfast Spaghetti with a "Glen View!"

From then on the walking was easy. Very little of the talus shards (thanks my Claremont Southies for giving me the name of my rocky nemesis!), just nice hard-packed sandy trail for almost all the way. What a relief! I felt I could actually hike normally rather than stumbling and feeling like I was rolling backward with each step! Much of the middle of the day was through forest, alongside a creek,  so there was lovely shade and soft pine-needle footing. It turned out there was still tons of elevation, a lot of it at 1000'/mile, but without the dreaded steep stone steps.

I had intended to stop at 13 miles at Bubb's Creek origin, but I was feeling good and there were no clouds building yet on Forester so I decided to go for my second pass of the day. It turns out Bubb's lake looked pretty inhospitable at 12,217':

The trail was still nice sandy, graded switchbacks, but my breathing got labored and the legs started screaming above 12,000. Hike 10 yards, take a breather, take a picture, hike 10 yards. The Pass, like all so far, was impossible to determine from below. Even as I got closer I had no idea to which ridge the trail was taking me. It turned out to be a tiny one! What, 20' long?

The south side was not for the faint-of-heart as the trail had a sheer drop off and very tight corners. With my aching legs I had to take extra care to go nice and slow and carefully plant each step. Then I looked at my watch: 4pm! Get off the mountain! Grey clouds were building but as I hurried down to the ground and scurried by those lakes, the clouds happened to drift off to the west, leaving me scot-free.

(Who'd have thunk that little notch would be a good place for a Pass?)

The only problem of going over Forester in the afternoon, was that it meant I had another 4 miles before I could find a decent campsite and by that time it was 6pm. So this turned out to be an epic day: 2 passes, 12 hours and 18 miles.

Today's Miles: 18.4

JMT Day 15: Weather-Wise

Yesterday I raced down Pinchot to escape the weather, which luckily kept to the heights until the night, when it showered all over my tent and clean socks.  My tent had rain drops that I was able to wipe away with the useless piece of material that was supposed to be my camp towel; the rest of the wet stuff I hung on the back of my pack to dry like some vagabond. Hmm, maybe I am.

The sun shone bright most of the day, making it humid and hot for the relentless  hiking I put in today. It was not quite 5 miles of steep stony steps down to Wood's Creek -2000', then across the "Golden Gate of the Sierras", and 

then 6.7 miles and +2000' up. Who knows what the total elevation loss/gain was, but my feet just felt like they were walking in molasses. The distance and rise/fall are hard enough but the footing sucks. Slow, slow, slow.

I reached Lower Rae Lake and saw a guy walking towards me in a hard hat. Thinking he was part of a trail crew, I waited to have a chat. Turns out he's a climber from Napa, here to do Fin Dome, this Class 5 climb. He was surprised that I hadn't been rained on throughout the day like him.

My tentative goal today was to get over Glen Pass but with my slowpoke mileage and the grey clouds building, I camped instead just short at the junction to 60 Lakes. No big deal, with another Pass due the next day it was either 10m today / 13m tomorrow, now it'll be vice versa.

I had my camp set up by 2:30pm, so had lots of time to recuperate. A Colorado couple from MTR who is shadowing me (they shared same knoll by the lake last night) swung by, and went further down the side trail to camp. They were kind enough to let me use their Sat Phone to cancel my Keasarge Pass hotel & resupply - I have just enough food to go all the way to Whitney though I regret giving away my sweets & cookies 2 days ago!

Early dinner, cause I was cold, hungry & bored. Into my tent at 5:45pm to snuggle up to my iPhone and the rain started to pour. I've been very lucky with the weather!

Today's Miles: 10.8

Thought: My odor repels me, why doesn't it the mosquitos?

JMT Day 14: I'll Take A Pass, Make That Two

Mather was another tough one; chiseled out of the mountainside, it was steep and rough, and my highest yet at 12,100'. I ate lukewarm oatmeal at the top as a celebratory breakfast, then headed on down. Easy-peasy switchbacks on the far side, I felt like a character in a video game: go left, turn; go right, turn; left, right, left, and so on for almost an hour. 

Eventually I hit the treeline, then three hours later I was climbing again out of the valley and towards Pinchot Pass.

(Far left in photo is Mather Pass. Hummus for lunch! Lovely spot x-the fighter jets repeatedly circling Mt. Pinchot. Shush!!)

At certain elevations clouds become a living thing; they are constantly moving, changing shape, changing color. One must always keep an eye on them so they don't turn on you. This is what a Ranger reminded me of while I was dragging my sorry self up to Pass #2 - Pinchot. We were having a nice conversation about his job, how I'll see his mule resupply on the trail tomorrow, and how the weather is supposed to improve over the next 2 days, with him then pointing to the dark clouds gathering on Pinchot. Drat! One should be up & over tall passes before late day 'cause of the afternoon storms. Get a move on!

I made it up by 3:30pm (notice the grin/grimace), but I had the following chasing me all the way to my campsite. My body was not impressed, to say the least, of the speed I asked of it but never a drop did fall on me!

Today's Miles: 15.8

JMT Day 13: Stairway To ???

This morning was very exciting! As I was awake at my usual 5am, I decided to have an early start to beat the sun as I was going to have a really tough climb in the afternoon.

So by 6:30am I was motoring down the trail, lost in the peacefulness of the morning quiet when all of a sudden I was shocked out of my boots by "ALLISON!", it was Shannon (& Ed), who were camped trail side. A quick chat and a confab of our tentative destinations and I was away again.

30 minutes later there's a rustle and a crash and a fuzzily antlered deer bounds across my path! Cool.

Exactly 30 mins later again (no kidding, I checked my watch each time) I saw something out of the corner of my eye, about 20-25 yds away, BEAR! Run, deer, Run! Wait a sec, Go, Allison, Go!

My last deer, a doe, was grazing on the trail just before 9am. I was able to follow her for a bit and got this snap. Quite the morning!

A series of PCT-ers passed by today and I had a little chat with each. All warned me about the Golden Staircase, that big climb coming up, so I in turn described what was in their future at Muir Pass. I got worried about how much my pack was weighing due to all my good eats in my bear can, so I actually off-loaded some candy bars and cookies to the last, grateful, PCT guy.

The sun that I was trying to avoid, had actually been hiding behind high thin clouds all morning, broke free just as I reached the start of the Golden Staircase. Great. Up. Up. Up. It's not called 'golden' cause it's special, it's named after the honey-colored rock it was chiseled out of. Pictures cannot depict the unevenness, rockiness, nor length as it kept changing direction, plateauing, climbing, but here's a few.

Having already put a fast 8 miles on my legs before hitting this baby, I can safely say this was one of my hardest days ever. All I wanted was a puddle at the end to throw myself into but the first crook of the creek at the top was already occupied, the second had a CCC team fixing the trail (Thanks, Guys!!) so I had to wait till the beach at Lower Palisades Lake. Aaahhh...

Tonight's camp is at Upper Palisades Lake, last stop before Mather Pass!

Today's Miles: 14

JMT Day 12: Muir Pass

Me no love Passes so much, no more. Can you see the trail? No, me neither. But I jump ahead of myself...

I had a brilliant camp last night, spread out over a huge boulder flat with a nice sandy patch for my tent, water just far enough away the bugs couldn't find me and a chance to hit the switchbacks first thing this morning before the sun crested the ridge. 2 miles up before 8am, who needs coffee? Anyway, the beauty of Evolution Valley would get the heart rate going all on its own:

Steadily the trail wound upwards past lakes and streams; also as steadily the flora grew smaller, then infrequent, then non-existent. Welcome to the moon-country look of high elevations. Rock, boulders, stone, pebbles. All thrown into the path of the trail so one is constantly stumbling or clambering over something. At least there are some gorgeous crystal clear tarns for visual relief.

Muir Hut is atop the Pass, at 10,981'. It was built by the Sierra Club as a shelter for wayward hikers, and served as a beacon of respite (and lunch) for weary hikers before one has to disappear down over the opposite side.

If going up Muir Pass was hard, coming down was steep and treacherous. It appears several rockslides have run across the path so a sharp lookout is needed to spot the cairns marking the continuation of the trail. At one point I was staring off into the abyss when 2 friendly PCT-ers called to me and pointed the way, 175° from the direction I was looking!

The sun radiated intensely off all that granite so I dunked my hat frequently before finding a delightful bend in a tiny creek and had another cooling bird bath and a rest on a warm rock, before finishing the rest of the day.

After the Pass it was 6 miles and a 2500' drop to my little campsite in the trees near Big Pete Meadow. I almost felt as if the mountain had got me but I won in the end!

Today's miles: 14.5

JMT Day 11: And Then There Was One

Jo & Misty decided at Muir Trail Ranch that weren't going to finish the JMT; the only problem was how to get home. MTR is on the west side of the Sierras, and not close to anything, so it turned out the easiest (and most scenic) route for them was to do the 4-day hike south exiting at Bishop Pass. As I had a deadline to keep with my next resupply and miles to make, I headed out solo this morning.

The first hour out of MTR was pretty forgettable, just a rocky trail beside water rushing through a rocky ravine. Then as the sun got hotter, the trail got steeper until it turned into 1.8 miles of thigh-crushing rocky switchbacks until it finally plateaued at the Evolution Meadow. With a bear canister bursting with 6 days of food, my pack was at the heaviest it'd be for the whole trip, and my whole body was feeling it. I stopped for a half hour rest creekside to have lunch & soak my toes

only to have to switch to Crocs just a little further down the trail for a 60' wet crossing of Evolution Creek so the feet got a double dose of cooling today!  The trail was then flatter and roamed between well-spaced pines and sunny granite boulder flats = never any real escape from the heat.

I finally turned a corner into McClure Meadow and everything just got better. (See pic above) The view towards the end of the valley was stunning, and before me a lazy shallow river so inviting I stripped off my pants & shoes and plopped down in the middle of it for a refreshing lazy man's laundry! I laid down on a granite flat to dry and almost fell asleep. The draw to spend the night right where I lay was very strong but if I did I'd be hitting Muir Pass too late in the afternoon tomorrow to still make a decent campsite so I so very reluctantly packed up at 3:50pm to hit the trail for another 3 miles.

As tired as I was, this was my favorite hiking of the day: lots of shade, the birds were chirping, a soft wind blew in tree tops, the wildflowers reappeared and thankfully the sun was at my back. 

Another favorite campsite:

Today's Miles: 13.5?

I met a podiatry student hiking the JMT northbound today. She stopped me for a 10 minute survey on feet, blisters, general aches & pains. Certainly one way to find a test group!

JMT Day 10: Day of Rest

A zero day! We will accomplish exactly zero miles on the JMT today and will be loving it! We slept in till 6:30am, had countless cups of fresh coffee and a large breakfast. Chatted with fellow resortees about their days' plans. Fussed with "Mabel", the old-fashioned washer and the wringer-thingy trying to get our laundry from dirt-black to at least mangey grey.  There was more resupply rustling and backpack fussing, hot tubbing and hammock testing, cat petting and napping, and of course eating to do!

Today's Miles: 0