Day 61, 12.46 miles

Today was such a blast!! Claire and I left our forest camp this morning and headed over to Lee Vining for some breakfast. As we approached the area, we joked that the restaurant would be in the Mobil gas station. It turns out it actually was!! The food there was pretty good though, and we felt great heading into Yosemite.

What made us feel even greater is that when we told the person working the entrance booth that I was hiking the PCT and that Claire was just headed in to drop me off, he let us go in without paying the $35 entrance fee! Woo-hoo! We were ready to pay it to get in, but I figure I’d at least ask and it paid off!

We drove right up to the PCT on Tioga Pass Road, and we decided to go ahead and hike Lembert Dome. It was a pretty short hike, maybe 3.5-4 miles round trip, we made it into a little loop. The hike included a little granite scramble to get to the top, and the views were great! On the way down we joined up with the PCT for the last mile to head back down to the car. 

On the false peak, headed to summit!

The view from the drop-off

The drop-off!!!


We made it! (Photo from Claire’s phone)

A cool dad and daughter from Italy took our picture a couple times at the top! (Photo from Claire’s phone)

After our fun hike we went to the Tuolumne store once more for some food and for me to check if Trout had made it there. There was no sign of him. I had been in contact with him and it sounds like he is in the proximal area. He might be a day ahead or behind, but it’d be great to pair up with him! 

Claire dropped me back off at the Lembert Dome parking lot, and the spot that I had veered off the PCT and onto the John Muir Trail to head down into Yosemite Valley to do Half-Dome and to finish the JMT. It was time to say goodbye! Again, I’m so glad that Claire came to visit me, and the time off trail was greatly appreciated! I love you bebita!

I must admit I’m feeling a little nervous. I can hike solo no problem, but now that I know Julian isn’t on trail, I don’t have a buddy to catch up with or to wait for or to camp with and talk story with. I’m sure I’ll catch up to some of my friends, but for now there are no familiar faces in my immediate area. It feels strange!

I remember walking the first mile or so with Dad and Micah and Claire back in 2016 when they picked us up for a few days off out of Agua Dulce. It was really pretty then, but now I wish we had gone a few miles more and they could’ve witnessed what I saw today! I only went 12 miles today on the PCT, but it was some of the most scenic miles yet! IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL OUT HERE!!!

In the Sierra, you can always count on the horse poop to lead you the right way! 

This was a big guy. I’m guessing ~60ft!!

Ahhhhh!!!

A meadow as beautiful as Tuolumne, but with zero other people!! It’s crazy what 8 miles out from the roads will do the the crowds :)

As you can see, the trail was absolutely beautiful today! The ONE thing.. the one and ONLY thing that was not so great about it; were the dang mosquitos!! These is no safe place! There is no wind constant enough, no repellant strong enough, no head net invincible enough to stop them! I’m seriously surprised that I don’t have Malaria yet.. 

I knew I wanted to do less than 15 miles today to get warmed up and used to the trail again. I had envisioned stopping around 5pm and getting some blogs done with a sweet view! Reality: I stopped at 5pm, tried to eat, ran into my tent to reorganize my bearcan (yes, I’d rather fight a bear because I smell like food than deal with these dang mosquitos), and am now still holding my pee and waiting to brush my teeth. It’s 9:30pm and there’s still over 50 on my tent waiting for me!

From ~7pm

I opened my tent twice for a few seconds each, just to throw my stuff in after setting it up. Afterwards, I killed 11 mosquitos that had entered my tent in those few seconds. I spent a few minutes eating outside, having everything covered but my hands and feet... at least 8 bites on my hands and 2 or 3 on my feet! At one point I counted over 40 mosquitos just on the DOOR of my tent, and over 85 on the outside of my whole tent. I’m not even near water!! I collected two liters about 1.5 miles ago, so that I could get to a nice windy, dry campsite... but alas, those don’t exist here! 

Whew!! Sorry for that! Gotta get that out of my system every once in a while... Mosquitos be cray..

Thanks for reading!!