Day 54, 22.75 miles!!!

All three of us woke up pretty lazily today. I had set my alarm for 5 but was laying on my phone so I didn’t hear it or wake up until after 5:30am! I woke up to Julian telling Keglegs that he saw eyes looking at him in the night last night. Spooky!

The youngins headed off while I still had my tent set up and was eating breakfast. I’ll catch up, I always do.. There was about a mile more of down before a whole lot of up! It was impossible to set up for Selden Pass yesterday unless we had done a 28 mile day through the Sierra, but since we heard there wasn’t much snow an 8.7 mile climb to the top wasn’t our hugest fear.

Oh man, I DID sleep in! It’s already 10:13!!

The morning was peaceful, and I didn’t see another (human) soul for what seemed like hours. I did see a LOT of deer, and even a grouse! I stared a big climb with lots of switchbacks cut through bright green bushes with beautiful views. I passed the place where Claire and I saw our good friend Orion 2 years ago, after not seeing him for over 500 miles! What a great moment to recall.

 Shortly after that I had a cool encounter with a deer. I saw it up above the trail and stopped to wait until it noticed me. I felt like it was about to jump down and cross the trail so I got my camera out and caught there’s next two photos of it. Sorry the lighting is bad but just look right in the center of the pictures!

Action shot

Scared and clumsy, yet surprisingly graceful!

I met and passed Keglegs and Julian, and I climbed up through a few beautiful lakes. It was very pretty but the mosquitos were the worst they’ve been so far, so the stops were limited to about 5 seconds for a quick picture.

Close to the top of Selden Pass looking back South

After a few delirious and steep miles up, I finally made it to the top of Selden Pass. Looking down the other side would’ve taken my breath away if the climb hadn’t already done so! I waited at the top for Julian and Keglegs and we had something to eat before I zoomed down ahead of them.

Facing North from Selden Pass

The Cool Kids.. (sorry for those stupid red lines!)

A small glissade I made in the way down. You could say I had a bit of an unpleasant surprise near the bottom (on my bottom).. A Sierra speed bump!

Beautiful frozen lakes

I had a beautiful moment to myself sitting on a large boulder with the view of the last picture above. No mosquitos, no people, no talking, no anything. Just me and the gentle breeze and sunshine on my face. The calm of a place so untouched, I’m constantly reminding myself that I’m actually in it. It was simply perfect.

There was just a few patchy miles of snow on the backside, NOTHING compared to Muir, and I made a pretty quick pace hopping over small streams and charging down steep switchbacks downhill. After a few more miles of this, I came across Bear Creek. This was the largest creek crossing that I remeber in 2016, and it’s definitely been the biggest yet this year as well. I waded across carefully, at only around mid thigh deep. I found a nice mosquito-free granite slab on the other side, and waited there for Julian and Keglegs.

Jules charging

Keglegs going for it

When we were all together on the other side, we reviewed how many more miles we had to go until VVR, and the two youngins decided they wanted to hike a side trail into VVR todnight instead of taking the ferry in the morning. This doesn’t work for me since that’d mean breaking my continuous footpath or hiking 15 extra miles and not getting my ferry ride in! I felt comfortable with them splitting since we had just done the last “dangerous” creek crossing and pass. 

They sped on and I took my time, climbing up Bear Ridge and then heading back down the other side. In a lack for better words the climb up was miserable and mosquito filled.. but I DID manage to Dona a nice breezy cliff side to gaze out at where I had come from:

I descended waaaaaaaaay down back into the valley over some impressive switchbacks. I reached Mono Creek and my campsite for the night, the ferry to VVr just being a mile away. I know I sound like a broken record but dang are these mosquitos brutal! I’ve gotten 4 new bites on my face alone just this afternoon, a couple where my long sleeve ends on my wrist area, and a few super irritating ones on my neck. Ruthless!

I’m getting a nice and quiet early evening tonight, I’ve had a long day! Longest day in the Sierra yet! Tomorrow I can sleep in as I just have 1 mile to the ferry and then VVR! 

Thanks for reading!!