Day 62, 17.73 miles

When I woke up this morning there were only about 10 mosquitos on my tent instead of 100! I was so relieved! I quietly got out without waking any of them up, and was able to eat and pack up and hit the trail by 6:30am! 

I started my day off with a pretty sketchy log crossing. I didn’t wan to get my feet wet so early in the morning, and the log was wide enough, just very high off the water, and slanted upwards. In times like these I just pretend that that log is on the ground instead of a few feet above a river, and that the risk isn’t really there. Since I could easily do the crossing on the ground, mentally it usually makes it easier when over the water!

The trail today was basically always either up or down. There were a couple small meadows and lakes, but the flat never seemed to last very long! The views were constant however, almost like mini-rewards for each 500-1000 feet I would climb or descend. At about 11 miles in, I hit Benson Pass, it was a really steep one and took my breath away. There is however, no snow on trail at this time.

Mosquito Lake

Mosquito Valley

Mosquito Ridge

Mosquito Pass

Mosquito Meadow

Did I mention there were mosquitos today? At Benson Pass I took lunch at the top, figuring they wouldn’t be too bad way up high and with a nice breeze. This was the worst I’ve experienced them yet. I’ve realized I need to just get my gloves on and headnet out, and just accept the fact that they’re here. At one point I could see 30 mosquitos in my direct field of vision, and at least 12 of them were on my headnet...

At lunch there were a few people around on the Pass. I asked if anyone knew Trout, and one of the hikers had seen him that morning, just two hours prior! I knew he was just ahead, but now I didn’t know how far! I just hoped that he saw my last text I had sent him about meeting him at Benson Lake, just 7 miles past Benson Pass. It would be so cool to see him and hike with him!

Smedberg Lake (funny name, but still better than Mosquito Lake)

The last 3 miles of my day were VERY steep down! Definitely testing out the longevity of my knees! The trail descended down down and way down some more. On one of the last switchbacks, I was able to see a glimpse of Benson Lake, the location that I had planned to get to tonight and was hoping that Trout might be at.

Benson Lake (Looks like a pretty standard alpine lake right?) 

This was not your average lake!! There’s a huge white sand beach, the sand drops down gradually for about 30 feet before getting real deep and cold. Because of this the shallow water is still fresh and is about 10 degrees warmer than other Sierra lakes! There is also a nice onshore wind, beeezy enough to keep mosquitos away, but not too breezy that it’s cold! This place is heaven! I had it all to myself for about 1/2 an hour! 

In the water looking towards shore! Sorry about the thumb...

I felt like I was back in Hawaii for a second. Except 30 miles from a road or trailhead, 7,593 ft up high, huge granite mountains and domes surrounding me, with real Aspens growing on the sand!! What a trip! I had raced the 17 miles to the lake to be able to swim and decided if I wanted to stay the night. Although it was only 2:30pm, I instantly decided I would stay! 

About 1/2 an hour later, I saw Wheezer (Weezer?) who also decided she would camp at the lake. Then about an hour later, I saw 20 Prime and Picnic, who I had each briefly met a while earlier on trail. 20 Prime decides to get a few more miles in after he took a dip, and Picnic decided to stay as well. 

A couple hours later, we met a scientist that works for the park whose name was Tim. Tim is awesome. Amongst a variety of other things, it’s currently Tim’s job to go out into the park, once a month, and collect data and check out the Meadows, to see if they will allow stock grazing for the upcoming season. In the summer he backpacks around, and in the winter he hikes, (sometimes snowshoes), and skis!! He had two official Park Rangers with him today. He is teaching/training them how to collect all the data and basically do what he has been doing for the last 5 years. It was so cool to talk with him and pick his brain about this great place!

Wheezer and I learning about all the secret spots in the park from Tim!! 

Ah this place is so cool! I wouldn’t have known about this place if it wasn’t for Ron! I met Ron an Mt. Latina waaaaaaay back at mile 42. He was hiking a portion of the trail with his wife following him in the camper! He and his wife Cheryl let Trout and I set up our tents in their camper site so that we didn’t have to pay an extra fee! He said that when we get to Sonora Pass, he’d pick us up for resupply and we could stay at his close by cabin. I sent half of the food mom sent Claire down with to Ron. This way I’ll have food for the 5 days between Sonora Pass and South Lake Tahoe without having to go into town and spend money! In our email exchange he told me about Benson Lake and highly recommended it! I’m so glad I came down here!

We hung out for a while with Tim, but when he left to go set up camp with the rangers, the three of us turned into our tents as well. The sun was setting and since the wind died, there were a few mosquitos popping out.

Just a few..

The weather was very hot today, toastier than I’ve experienced in the Sierra so far. With all the ups and downs I did today, it’s a recipe for sweaty bottoms and pants rash! I really miss my shorts but I am happy that I have mosquito protection. If it gets any hotter, I might just bite the bullet and make the switch back. Today I have some bad rash on my left hip at pantline. I try and roll my pant line down so it doesn’t irritate the same spot, but then it’s too lose down below and rubs on my inner thigh. Then mosquitos are able to attack my fresh pantline between my shirt bottom and start of the pants. And that’s how I ended up with two huge mosquito bites on my right pant line, which will probably get super irritated tomorrow and start to rash. Man, an endless cycle!!

Left hip

Right hip

These things aren’t the absolute worse; I just include some of them in the blog from time to time to break the facade that everything is going 100% perfect all the time! 

Wow, this is pretty crazy.. So as I’m typing this, I hear some sloshing in the water just behind the main sand bar. I couldn’t quite see what it was so I asked Picnic, who was camped a lot closer to the water. It was a deer! They saw Picnic and got spooked and ran through the water away from our tents. So cool!

Tomorrow I don’t plan to do a super huge day, I might relax here and leave mid morning, making 17 or so miles again. 9:06pm, past my bedtime!!

Thanks for reading!!