JMT - Day Thirteen

August 5, 2015
14 miles today, 125 total
Piute Bridge to Sapphire Lake

Courtney and I left camp at 7:30am, before Andrew, but we knew it wouldn’t take him long to catch up. We had a few miles of flat terrain before a steep mile or two uphill, but the cool morning air made it pleasant. We headed into Evolution Meadow and walked rolling hills and forded rivers all afternoon. We were reaching my favorite part of the trail, and I was feeling wonderful. I was caffeinated and listening to music on my phone and every step I took felt strong and energized. Courtney and I powered through until lunch, where we stopped at McClure Meadow to wait on Andrew, Heather and Jennifer. We all took a long lunch and enjoyed the weather, which was sunny but slightly overcast due to distant wildfire smoke.

After lunch we had a hard climb up to Evolution Basin, which was my favorite stretch of the JMT. It was only a mile and a half of switchbacks, but the terrain was so steep that it felt much longer. When we reached the top, there was a whole group of people there from the Sierra Club setting up tents for the evening. We were planning on going farther, so we just paused to take in the beauty of Evolution Lake and the surrounding peaks, named after the fathers of evolution: Mt. Darwin, Mt. Mendel, Mt. Spencer, Mt. Haeckel, and Mt. Wallace.

When Heather, Jennifer and Andrew reached us, we all soaked in the view, and Jennifer noted aloud, “well, this doesn’t suck!”
We moved along the trail at a slow pace, taking pictures every five minutes.

We only went another two miles before finding a campsite beside Sapphire Lake. It was only 4:00pm, but it gave us plenty of time to set up tents, cook a hot dinner, and play a few games of dice and cards. We laughed together like old friends and watched the sun set over the basin. The sun turned the mountains a stunning shade of orange, breathtaking to behold.

Photo courtesy of Heather

Photo courtesy of Andrew

When we crawled into our tents, and Andrew under his tarp, we fell asleep to the sounds of giggling as Jennifer and Heather farted in their tent and the rest of us chanted, “Let – it – out! Let – it – out!”

JMT - Day Twelve

August 4, 2015
11 miles JMT + 2 mi MTR today, 111 total
Marie Lakes to Piute Bridge

Courtney and I woke up at 5:30am and said goodbye to Heather and Jennifer on our way out of camp. We climbed over Seldon Pass first thing, which was a fairly easy climb since we had done the brunt of it last night. The view over Marie Lake from the pass with the sun coming up over the mountains was beautiful. We stopped to take photos and video (we took a video at the top of every mountain pass) and then looked forward to the rest of the day being downhill!

We cruised to Sallie Keys Lakes where Andrew had supposedly camped last night, but we didn’t see him there. He must have gotten up early today, too.

After eight miles we reached the junction for Muir Trail Ranch. MTR was another resupply stop, but Courtney and I hadn’t sent a food box there because it was only 20 miles from the last stop. However, we knew Andrew, Heather and Jennifer were stopping there, and it was only two miles off trail, so we decided to check it out.

MTR itself was quite cool: it was made up of a series of little cabins that each had their own hot springs inside. Unfortunately, the rental price was quite steep and had to be booked months in advance. There also wasn’t the option for backpackers to camp or go to the bathroom; the crew at MTR seemed to want to cater only to resort guests, so they weren’t as friendly as VVR. On the upside, they did allow us to to go through their resupply buckets, which were organized and filled with food that other hikers had left behind. Knowing we would probably be short on food, Courtney and I perused the buckets and found some great free energy bars and trail mix blends. We laid our tent out to dry in the sun and used one of MTR’s power strips to charge our phones. We had lunch with Andrew in the grass and waited on Heather and Jennifer, who never showed.

After an hour we decided to try and find the nearby hot springs, so we hiked up the trail a little ways and forded a shallow river that led to a series of small, dark pools in a meadow. We sat in the hot springs for a while before exploring a bit more. We found a beautiful, secluded little swimming hole surrounded by granite cliffs, and when we jumped in for a swim, we were delighted to find that the water was the perfect temperature. We swam to the middle where the pool was deep and Courtney and Andrew climbed the granite cliff and jumped into the water below. We leisurely paddled around the pool, deciding that it was our favorite swimming spot to date.

Photo courtesy of Andrew

Photo courtesy of Andrew

We dipped again in the hot springs before fording the river back to the trail, and hiked back to the JMT at 2:00pm. We hiked for another three miles across Piute Bridge and found a campsite near the river, surrounded by my favorite Ponderosa pine trees. It was only 3:30pm, but we enjoyed being in camp early. The three of us laughed about two hikers we had passed earlier, two girls who were chanting as they walked, “let – it – out! Let – it – out!” and it was only after we passed them that we realized they had been farting all the way down the trail.

While we cooked dinner, Courtney and I compared our itinerary with Andrew’s. They were very close, though Andrew had his summit date of Mt. Whitney a day or two before ours. After comparing notes, he decided our daily mileage made more sense, and we made a plan to stick together until the end of the trail.

We played a few games of farkle and went swimming in the river before turning in to bed at 7:00pm.

JMT - Day Eleven

August 3, 2015
8 mi from VVR + 6 miles, 100 miles total
VVR to Marie Lakes

Courtney, Andrew and I were up at 6:00 to pack up our yurt. Cole had plans to stay another day at VVR before leaving – his itinerary was a few days longer than ours – and we lamented that we probably wouldn’t see him again after today.

We went to the restaurant for breakfast and Andrew, Courtney and I debated about the best trail to take out of VVR. There were two options: Bear Creek or Bear Ridge. Supposedly Bear Creek was easier and had less elevation gain, but it was also a few miles longer back to the JMT. We had input about the options from everyone in the restaurant, debating the pros and cons (“Bear Creek is prettier!” “Bear Ridge is quicker!”) and finally we decided on Bear Creek, which appeared to be about 11 miles of hiking from VVR to the JMT.

Heather, Jennifer, Andrew, Courtney and I piled into the bed of the truck that was shuttling us back to the trail, and goodbye to Cole, who ran in slow motion after our truck with his arms outstretched. We laughed at this, but we were sad, nonetheless, that we may not see our new friend again.

L to R: Brittany. Jennifer, Heather, Courtney, Cole, and Andrew

When we reached Bear Creek, the five of us piled out of the truck and started up the trail. VVR was Courtney and my last resupply stop until the end of the trip, so we had twelve days of food loading us down, making our packs easily fifty pounds each. We could barely fit everything in there, and I still worried that we would run out of food before the journey’s end. Our heavy packs also made the uphill hike a beast to tackle. I was struggling more than I had at any part in the trip so far, and I was soon lagging behind everyone else. I cursed and fumed my way along the trail, angry at myself for being so slow. I tried to distract myself with the beauty of the trail - for it was very beautiful – alongside the banks of Bear Creek. But more than anything I just wanted to huck my pack off and go swimming, but I knew I didn’t have time to spare for that.

Finally, around lunchtime, I caught up with Courtney beside the river, and we decided to go for a dip. The water was cold and refreshing and help alleviate my grumpy mood.

Bear Creek Trail was supposed to be 11 miles back to the JMT, but we reached the junction after four hours of hiking, so I guessed it had only been about eight miles. We still had six more miles to reach our destination of Marie Lake, and as was the norm, it was uphill the whole way. The last four miles were brutal – we were slowly climbing toward Seldon Pass – but the scenery was breathtaking.
We arrived at Marie Lake at 5:00pm – exhausted and extremely glad to be done hiking for the day. To our surprise, though, Andrew – who had already arrived – was getting a second wind and wanted to keep going to the next set of lakes. Courtney and I were too wiped and couldn’t join him, so we made camp for the night while we watched Andrew disappear toward the pass.

Courtney and I cooked dinner and were glad we stayed – Marie Lake was beautiful, and the setting sun made the mountains glow as though they were transparent. We turned in early at 7:00pm, and thought we heard Heather and Jennifer arriving at camp as the sky turned dark.

JMT - Day Ten

August 2, 2015
0 miles today, 89 total
Vermilion Valley Resort

We woke up at 8:00am and had breakfast in the restaurant with Andrew and a new hiker named Gaye. Gaye had stayed in one of the yurts last night, but she was leaving today and had an extra night in it, so she offered it to us! We happily agreed – Courtney and I were tired on sleeping on the ground in the rain and a yurt sounded like luxury! After breakfast we packed up our stuff and “moved in.” There was one queen-sized cot and two twin cots, so Courtney and I took the queen, and Andrew took one of the twins. When Cole showed up at VVR, we offered him the last cot. Heather and Jennifer were nearby at their own yurt, and once everyone was settled in and had hung their wet gear in the sun to dry, we convened at the laundry room and spent the afternoon chatting together. We took showers, ate lunch at the restaurant, divided up our resupply boxes, and mostly hung out laughing and talking.

We stayed up until 9:00pm – very late for us! – on the porch of our yurt drinking whiskey and watching the sun set. Courtney and I sent out our nightly text message to our friends back home on our emergency beacon, letting them know we had made it halfway through our journey and had enjoyed a leisurely day letting our feet recover at VVR. We were excited for the next twelve days, which would take us through some of the most remote parts of the JMT, and also some of the most beautiful.