We made it up and over the pass by 11:30am, and dropped down into Marjorie Lake and its surrounding lakes.
We walked down past the lakes and down into the wooded valley. We had a lot of stream crossings today, some of them were really intense! Eventually we forded two forks of the Kings River at the bottom of the valley and started back up to the next pass: Mather Pass.
From where we had camped we had been planning in just making it 14 miles and camping just before the final mile ascent of Mather Pass in the morning. But as we climbed the beautiful trail up towards Mather and crosses 3 or 4 more fords, we realized how great we were on time. We could make it up and over Mather Pass today! Why not?
The climb got steeper and steeper, and we finally came up to the last 0.8 miles. Switchbacks STRAIGHT up the mountain! We were so tired but kept pushing and pushing and finally made the top!! I had hoped to reach the top by 7pm and we had done it by 5:50pm!
Starving, I whipped out the stove up at 12,100 feet and we downed two packs of ramen. Mmmmm, how satisfying on the top of a high Pass! It felt so nice to just relax with my baby way up there and overlook the gorgeous view in front of us.
On the way down the North side there was lots of snow. Enough to get 2 really fun glissades in!! Even with the glissades, the two miles down from the pass took a LONG time. Because of the precariously positioned and unstable snow drifts, we often had to make our own way down the mountain!
When we finally got back to the snow-free path, we were stopped in our tracks once again but this time by something different:
The colors of the sunset in the area we were coming down into blew our minds! Pink mountains and beautiful clouds with far off peaks in the distance and some lovely lakes nearby. What a way to end the day!!
We found a nice campsite just before it got dark. We normally try to find a campsite by 7pm but today was so fun and worth it! When we get the urge to keep going for a long day, we take advantage of it!
Today we did 17.35 miles, which is VERY good for the Sierra!! We went 5,100 feet up and 3,416 feet down! We only took 3 short breaks, yet somehow, we still feel great! My shoulders are pretty sore from the pack weight, but that's about it. My beautiful surroundings energize me and make me forget about the occasional annoyances and pain and soreness of backpacking. This is the most beautiful place I've ever hiked through, hands down!
Tonight we're camped at 10,870 feet! We're right above that lake pictured in the last photos. Today was perfect. It was a new favorite day on the entire PCT for both Claire and I! And tomorrow is Claire's birthday! Man, life is good...
-Thanks for reading!
Oh my goodness! What superb views you had! I LOVED today's pictures! The cascading short waterfall, the brook coming down the hills with the pines, but my new favorite picture the pink sky with the pink wildflowers in the foreground. THANK YOU for going on this beautiful adventure and for giving us all the privilege of getting to follow along! Thank you so much for the effort of blogging. Love ya!
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