Daily Miles: 18
Total Miles: 147
Great day up and over Mather Pass.
The campsite worked well last night. While it was somewhat close to the river, there wasn’t too much moisture in the air, and our gear stayed largely dry. It was quite cold, however, but we were all plenty warm.
The climb up to Mather Pass was quite pleasant. We had camped at the low point between Pinchot and Mather Passes; however, the climb up to the base of Mather came quickly, and we were at the pass by mid-morning.
Views from the top of the pass were excellent, especially to the north, where there are a couple of beautiful lakes.
The descent down Mather Pass took the bulk of the day. Climbing Mather from the south side is significantly easier than from the north side. Going down from the pass was seemingly never-ending. The descent has a few steps to it and plateaus for a while at different places.
We had lunch near a beautiful lake midway down. There wasn’t too much happening, with only a couple of people swimming in the lake and a few solo hikers passing by.
While the descent was long, our knees handled it pretty well. Sweet Pea did wear her slip-on knee sleeve for the duration of the downhill, but the knee did well.
We started up LeConte Canyon once we hit the low point for the day, at about 5 p.m., and walked about a mile and a half to get a little bit of the climb in.
The campsite is uphill from the Middle Fork of the Kings River and the river is audible. Tonight should be a bit warmer than last night.
Ending Location: 37.067635,-118.591862
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