Start: 0700 - by Lake Virginia
End: 1900 - near Devils Postpile
Miles (today): 17 (15.5 PCT, 1.5 alternate)
Miles (cumulative): 965.5 (821 PCT, 91.5 alternate, 53 off)
My leg concerned me quite a bit this morning- it felt weak and stiff when I walked to get some water and, worse, completely buckled on me when I swung my pack over my shoulder (I ended up dropping the pack and wincing in pain). Walking on flat, smooth terrain was ok, but jumping over rocks and navigating loose gravel over uneven terrain was rough.
Lake Virginia was like glass this morning!
Happily, I fell behind Van Gough, who was hiking at a pace I could maintain. Even better, he talked a lot, which kept my focus away from my leg. When Van Gough stopped for a break, I fell in behind Jet Pack and Animal - they kept me going at a pretty quick pace and we had such a good conversation that suddenly 12 miles had gone by and it wasn't even noon. :). The trail is pretty forgiving today but still - I thought it would take me all day to go 12 miles with the way my leg felt this morning.
Walking and talking with another female was fabulous. Jet Pack is open, friendly, and so very nice and we shared stories about our roughest days on the trail - she made me feel SO MUCH BETTER about myself. Walking with my wonderful, strong, stoic, "I've never had a bad day on the trail" husband is great and all, but it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who sheds a tear or two from time to time.
As much as I hated to, around 1130 I decided to stop and wait for Nick at a stream - I didn't want to get too far ahead of him (and I was out of water and had to pee). We had a quick lunch and then walked the easy 4ish miles to Reds Meadow.
We got to Reds Meadow around 1330. The first thing we did was shower (they were expensive - $5 for 5 minutes - but they were hot and wonderful). After our showers we did laundry (my hiking shirt was difficult to put on in the morning). While the clothes were washing we went to the restaurant for some food. Nick ordered a chocolate malt, double cheeseburger, fruit cup, and pie a-la-mode. I had a roast beef sandwich with fruit and a salad (I haven't had a salad in forever!).
note the distances to Mexico (915) and Canada (1735) - we are over 1/3 of the way there!
Our timing was excellent - we were in the restaurant about 10 minutes when it started to rain, and about 5 minutes after that the rain turned into pea-sized hail. We are so grateful we weren't on the trail for that!
We waited out the storm in the restaurant (my phone was still charging, anyway) and while we waited we chatted with some JMT hikers. Then we went to the general store where we bought some extra food to get us through until our next resupply (we are eating a lot more now and also don't think we'll get to the next resupply as fast as we once thought).
In the store we ran into Turquoise, who we haven't seen since Mohave. We also saw Golden and Far Out earlier in the day - they are hikers we met early on (before they had their trail names). I really love seeing hikers I haven't seen in a long time!
Golden and Far Out
By 1800 we were ready to hike out. We decided to take an alternate route so we could see the Devils Postpile (a national monument), which was pretty neat.
Devil's Postpile
Along the trail:
we crossed a lot of double log bridges like this today - why can't someone put bridges like this everywhere?
a former burn area - so sad
Nick purifying water in a mosquito infested area (hence the bug net). I took the pic because of the difference in color of his shorts and the zip-on pant legs (obviously he doesn't wear the pant legs much)