Daily Miles: 15
Total Miles: 224
We had another warm night last night, but we all slept really good. We were on the trail by 6:00am, which has become our routine.
Shortly after leaving our campsite, we walked across a bridge with a strong creek flowing below. It seemed like the temperature dropped about 20 degrees just walking over the bridge.
The trail headed straight into a series of switchbacks up the side of a mountain. It was such a pretty walk, we kept stopping to take photos. There were bushes that had turned a golden color, peaks that were just getting the first bit of sunlight, and a meandering stream through a meadow.
Once we got to the top of the climb, we came to Lake Virginia. There was an outlet for the lake that we figured we would just be rock hopping over. But in fact, it wasn’t possible to rock hop, so we decided to take our shoes and socks off and wade across. We figured that we would be much happier walking with dry feet for the rest of the morning.
Around Lake Virginia, we ran into another hiker that we have seen several times. We first met FruitCan at the hotel in Lone Pine before we started the hike. We were heading to Kennedy Meadows the next day and she was starting the JMT the next day. Then we saw her again in Independence, as we stayed at the same motel. We saw her again last evening and now again this morning. It is fun to keep running into people so you can hear about their adventures.
At the next lake we came to this morning, Purple Lake, we decided to take a break. While we were there, we saw a guy catch a pretty nice sized fish in less than 5 minutes of fishing. He said he was trying to catch 20 fish during his JMT hike and so far he thought he was at 11.
A ranger came by while we were on break and asked for our wilderness permits. Even though this is the fourth ranger we’ve seen, this was the first time we were asked for our permits. There seemed to be major congestion right in front of us, as a bunch more hikers came by and were asked for their permits. We also got to hear the ranger give his “Leave No Trace” speech multiple times to each of the groups.
The trail felt really busy today. We had an hour and a half this morning before we saw another hiker on the trail. We really appreciate that time, as most of the rest of the day ends up being quite busy with other hikers.
Since today didn’t have a pass to climb, it felt a bit more mellow. It actually felt like a normal day on a longer thru hike. Some ups and some downs, with a very dusty trail and a sun that felt intense in the afternoon.
We arrived at camp around 4:30pm. We are just a few miles south of Red’s Meadow Resort, and plan to get in early tomorrow morning for breakfast. We are all quite excited for that.
Since we had more time at camp, and we are next to a stream, we decided to do a bigger laundry session. We washed the typical socks and undies, but also washed shirts and shorts/skirt. SweetPea is doubtful that her shirt and skirt will actually be dry by tomorrow morning, but our clothes were quite dirty and very much in need of some cleaning.
Ending Locations: 37.590792,-119.059061
The scenery is just amazing
Indeed – so beautiful up there!