Day 53-63 Liz 6/6/15-6/16/15 716.7-877.2

Technology is great when it works but when they break down its hard. My solar charger died and I haven't been able to blog, and since I got rid of my journal, too much weight, I'm going to group my blogs together. Now that we're out of the desert I expected to have some rain come down but not every day for the first four days! You'd never know that California is in a drought with all the rain we had. The Sierra's are breathtaking and I can't find enough words to describe their beauty. After a tough climb or hike I'm rewarded with such natural beauty I get overwhelmed. 

The first pass we had to ascend was Forester Pass, at 13180 ft it's the highest point of the Sierras, and our lungs felt it. Going up the narrow switchbacks took awhile and when we finally made it to the summit we had to be pulled over the mountain of snow in front of us. Thank goodness Cobain was there to pull out sorry butts up. 

After a brief break to enjoy the views and have lunch we knew we had to leave and get down into the next valley. I wasn't prepared for the trail to be practically nonexistent due to snow coverage and other people switch backing and making new trails down the mountain. Melinda and I expierenced our first post-holing, rock climbing, and death defying balancing acts trying to get down. I was concentrating so much I wasn't breathing sometimes and I had to remind myself to do it. We lost the trail many times but we eventually made our way down, I was so grateful I didn't fall or get hurt. Who the heck decided it was a good idea to put a trail on such a steep mountain?!

Our next pass was Pinchot 12130 ft, and the hike led us through meadows and around numerous lakes. The youngsters still zoom past us and I swear we're not hiking slow, it only seems that way. 

The next pass was the most challenging, Glen Pass. The trail going up seemed to go on forever and get steeper as we went. The summit was narrow and we really couldn't even sit down to enjoy the view before we had to do our descent. Being a wiley veteran of a few passes my confidence was good we'd be able to get down quickly. I was sooooo wrong. There was snow everywhere on the mountain we had no idea where the trail was. The first 100 feet we post holed, that was the easy part, then we had to climb over loose rocks to more snow covered switchbacks. At one point we had to take our packs off and gently toss them about 10 ft down the mountain so we could climb down rocks like a ladder and not loose our balance. My pack tumbled onto the trail below that had melted snow rushing like a river over it. A lot of the trail now was a river and that made everything worse, just trying to find the correct way down. Climbing over loose rocks and snow was a nightmare that lasted about an hour. 

We had to do a Pass a day for the first four days of the Sierras and it was getting very old by now. Muir Pass was an exciting Pass for a few reasons.

Going up we had to walk over snow with rushing water under it, hoping we wouldn't punch through. We didn't. 

At the summit there's a stone hut, you'd swear you were in the Himalayas if you saw it, and we rested in it for about a half hour. As we headed down the weather turned really bad and we had hail and thunderstorms chasing us. When we finally stopped to set up our tents we were drenched and cold. We ended up cooking our dinners, yet again, in our vestibules. Dangerous but we've gotten quite good at it. 

The next day we had to ford through Evolution Creek, which is not a creek. The water was up to my thigh and the current was very strong and scared the heck out of me. We let three guys go first so we knew where to walk and not fall. The Sierras are testing our bravery and I'm getting darn tired of it. 

Next stop Vermillion Valley Resort.