Day 64, 21.12 miles!!

Man, whoever came up with the term “Happy Camper” was not experienced mosquitos at the time. Whew! This morning they were baaaaaaaaad! I don’t get it... let’s say you love pizza right?  If you were walking around and saw a giant, 1000 foot pizza, but it had huge arms, and 50 dead humans smashed all over it, would you try and go up and take a bite or just leave it alone and go look for less-deadly pizza?! Like go find a deer or something that won’t kill you! Argh!!

Anyway, enough about skeeters. That was only 1/2 my day and I’m putting that half behind me! Today was a great day filled with mile markers, beautiful sights, changing landscapes, and new friends! 

The start of the day was super swampy and wet, but there were still beautiful things to see and try and take pictures of as I hurried through the morning without really ever stopping until noon! It was a gradual uphill for the first 7 miles or so, and the only way to keep from going insane from the mosquitos was to keep moving!

I apologize in advance; my camera on my phone is really going downhill... all pictures are coming out blurry, there’s red lines half the time, the focus doesn’t work, and the general picture quality is suffering because of it. I really don’t know what I can do while out here on trail without taking a lot of time off to try and fix it in a bigger town. This saddens me because I’m out here in such a beautiful place, and I’m not going to do it again, and none of the pictures I’m taking are coming out the way I’d like them to and the way I’d like to remember my hike. So, knowing that, excuse the blurry photos! 

I’m really stoked about the custom trail mix I’ve been eating. I really love trail mix because I can eat it on the go along with my bars, without needing to stop and prepare anything. It’s a mixture of a couple things I bought plus all the snacks that mom has been sending me:

Peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, cranberries, banana chips, chocolate covered almonds, yogurt covered coconut bits, nutter butters, and pistachios!

Soon I was passing Dorothy Lake, and Dorothy Pass, which marks the official end of Yosemite, and where near canisters are no longer required, woo-hoooo!!!!

Dorothy Lake

End of Yosemite (they had to put one last stagnant mosquito pond in the middle of the trail to properly send us off!)

It was a welcome change for me! Soon, granite trail turned into dirt, the mosquitos magically died down, and there were beautiful small pink flowers all over the place! 

Sooner than I knew it, I crossed the 1,000 mile marker! What a feeling! I’ve walked over 1,000 miles this spring/summer so far! What?! Wheezer and Picnic were there at the marker, and they were able to take a picture of me!

1,000 miles yay!!

I met some new people today, including an older couple named Hotlips and Caveman (they are a cool retired couple who hiked ~1,000 miles last year), Trashqueen (a cool hiker from Alabama), Crinkles (a guy I met yesterday around the same time as Magic), and Keyboard and ______, (a cool European couple, I forgot the girls name!). And although I had met them before a few times, I hiked with Wheezer and Picnic on and off for the rest of the afternoon. 

I hike a bit faster than them, but since I’m not trying to get to Sonora Pass too much earlier than noon tomorrow, I was able to han our and be more social than I usually am. Wheezer quizzed me on the other members of her giant group who are currently a day behind (the group that includes Gnarwhal, and Bits and Cosmo from Portland), and Picnic (who just turned 19), taught us “old timers” all the new hip things going on with the kids these days, and taught me about Generation Z, the new generation after millennials! I’m just 28 now and Wheezer is turning 30 soon, but I never felt as old as I did today! 

Like I said, the mosquitos just magically faded, and the grade seemed a lot easier, and the composition of the ground much more favorable. It was almost noon, and the next water source I saw after the Pass was so inviting that I sat down and took nearly a two hour break! I had already done 11 miles and it was just noon! Some of the other hikers I mentioned hung out there for a while too, but I was definitely there the longest! Haha. First to come, last to leave!! 

The first shaded water source for over 100 miles that I haven’t had to continually swat myself at...

After this the trail started to climb once again into snowy capped mountains, but this time a lot less Sierra like and a lot more Mars-like! It was such a strange landscape and I absolutely loved it! I took sooooooo many pictures during this next section, it was so beautiful! I soon caught back up with Wheezer and then Picnic at the very top.

Loved this tree!!

What an awesome trail!!

I took the “Summer Route” instead of the switchbacking “Winter Route”, but still had to go straight up this snow..

Baby blue tinted granite!!

Wheezer!

Trail continuing forward

Cool picture of me that Wheezer captured!

Looking back

Goodbye Sierra!!

Like I said earlier, this is a welcome change for me as I’m excited for less mosquitos and I’m excited to do some bigger days and see what the new terrain will bring! This last pass-like area felt different from the other Sierra Passes, and had elements that reminded me of Wrightwood area, Cajon Pass area, and some high Sierra Passes all bundled into one! What a cool one!

Soon after the last picture was taken, I came across a place that my Guthooks app listed as the last campsite until Sonora Pass, about 6 miles later. I had already gone over 20 miles so decided to stop. Wheezer and Picnic also had long days and decided to stop nearby. We had dinner together and then walked out past the shelter of the wind blown trees to check out the sunset from nearly 10,400 ft up!

At this point my phone was really acting up, so they both air-dropped me some of the photos they took:

From Wheezer

Love this pic Picnic took, hahaha

What a crazy place!

Ugh, I’m so bummed about my camera! Wheezer and I have the same phone. This first picture is from my phone, and the second is from hers:

My crappy, out of focus, discolored camera

A clear, crisp, good quality from a normal

iPhone 6...

Well, enough complaining from me! Tomorrow I do an easy ~6 miles to Sonora Pass, and meet Ron and Cheryl around noon. Looks like I’m sleeping in again! Although the moon is almost full, the trees I’m camped near block lost of its light, and I have a pretty impressive star-spread I’m about to gaze at before drifting to sleep to the sound of the wind blowing across the ridge.

Thanks for reading!!