Another glorious day has dawned...... So excited to have flushies at our "disposal". So excited to get going, in fact, that I grabbed a bear canister from our neighbour's stash. Oops! Alex & Katie just couldn't figure out why we had an extra one when everyone claimed to have one in their pack. Oh well - they didn't kick me off the trip; so kind........
Since Sierra was still here with the truck we had lots of fresh stuff for breakfast - yogurt, raspberries, melon & granola. Yum!
First up was hiking back to the Reds Meadow Resort before picking up the JMT. Pictures of the "resort" below.
We then set out onto the JMT once again. The first section was through a burned-out forest. It burned in 1992 (the Rainbow Fire, caused by a lightening strike).
We were through the burned area by about 9, and got up higher into the forest. It was nice to have some shade, as the day was beginning to warm up. We continued on a steady climb for most of the morning. We climbed about 1500 feet by lunch time. There was very little water on this section of the trail, although we climbed into a lovely variety of trees. Even in the relatively small elevation change that we were moving through you could notice the change in types of trees. At lower elevation were Jeffrey pines (my favourites) with huge pine cones littering the ground beneath them. My book tells me there were also western junipers, western white pines and white firs. The pine cones went from just plain huge (Jeffrey pines) to longer & skinnier, and then to quite small (mountain hemlock). Guess I noticed the pine cones more than the trees themselves because I spend so much of my time looking down watching for obstacles on the path.
As we crossed Crater Creek this morning, we passed from Ansel Adams Wilderness into John Muir Wilderness. And then a bit later we crossed from Inyo National Forest into Sierra National Forest. Don't ask me to explain the overlapping jurisdictions of National Forests and Wilderness Areas.....
We passed the Red Cones (one on each side of the trail). Seems that this particular area has an active volcanic past stretching back hundreds of thousands of years. The formation of the red cones is relatively recent, estimated to be about 10,000 years ago. With so much deadfall around it was hard to get a decent picture of them.
Speaking of deadfall........ there sure is a lot of it around. Not much soil for the roots to grab on to, and pretty slow decomposition with the arid climate.
Where we did encounter creeks along the way the vegetation perked right up.
But where there was little water around (and that was for long stretches today), the landscape looked a bit lunar.
We continued to climb after lunch, maybe another 1000 feet. The trail was through forest, but a pretty stark landscape otherwise. We had some good views off to our right (west) over to the Silver Range. We will go over Silver Pass the day after tomorrow.
J was kind enough to have his picture taken with me so it would seem like I had a friend. Thanks J....
Today's hike was not my favourite. I think it was because of the lack of water features - creeks, lakes, etc. I must have been in some type of zone, though, as I missed noticing that one of the hikers going the other way was wearing only a loincloth! It was a warm day, but quite a bit of shade and a bit of breeze helped to make it comfortable. Our campsite tonight is really nice. Lots of room to spread out, beside a really pretty creek (Duck Creek?) in a bit of a canyon with lots of little waterfalls, lots of giant granite slabs up top to hang out on. The heat rash is gone but the ribs are still really sore.
It's day 4 and most of the group have developed some type of foot problems by now - blisters, bruises, etc. It seems that only 3 of us have been lucky enough to escape. We three managed to remain blister-free through until the end of the trip while the other 6 continued to have issues and the mental fortitude to push through and not be limited by what I'm sure was significant pain.
We pulled into camp by Duck Creek about 4:30. Elevation is just over 10,000'. Total ascent for the day was 3240', total descent 1140'. Distance about 11 miles.
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