"Pass" is a four letter word!
Between not having cell service and no sun to charge the phones I am combining posts from several days.
We climbed five more passes: Glen, Pinchot, Mather, Muir and Seldon. All at least 12,000 feet except for Seldon which was just under 11,000 feet.
The climbs were tough, the descents frightening and the views and scenery magnificent.
Glen was the hardest both up and down. As usual I made Liz lead the way down. Just enough snow to make it treacherous (maybe that's just my inexperience talking:. Trying to find the packed footprints in the snow and then climbing down rocks while trying to figure out where the trail might be.
Muir I found the most interesting. We'd spent the night at the middle fork of the King River where we had three deer wander into our camp. After following a fork of the King River through some pretty forests it was back to climbing. Lunch at lake Helen with endangered frogs and then towards the pass. Snow on this side plus water running down the middle of the trail. The water was deep enough that you couldn't walk on the trail. Soon we had rain, then hail and thunder in the distance.
Muir hut is at the top of the pass. It looked like we were in the Hymalayas.
Rested there a bit. The weather was looking nasty so we headed down the hill in the rain, hail and thunder. This time with some lightening thrown in for good measure. We finally found a place to camp, got the tents up in the rain and then it was one of the many nights of dinner in the tent. Rocket Man and Snake Bait were camped with us.
After Seldon Pass it was down to VVR. Greg and Bodie made a quick trip there to deliver supplies. It was so good to see them. Liz and I took a zero there. Pretty much all we did was sit all day with Rocket Man and Snake Bait, eat, talk about food and plan our camping together the next night at Purple Lake where RM would catch some fish, I would clean them, Liz would build the fire and SB would cook.
No comments:
Post a Comment