Sunday June 8th I met up with Justin and Stephanie in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows. I ate and ate and ate including a double cheeseburger, two Coca-colas, dinner and breakfast at the lodge – YUM! The next day Justin and I headed out on the trail to Echo Lake.

An unusual geologic formation.

Sorry, but I have lots to post and no cell service for weeks.

As I was rushing to meet up with Stephanie and Justin at Tuolumne Meadows in two days I took a bad turn. Instead of following the PCT I took the Duck Lake Pass trail. The trail climbed as it wrapped around the lake and went over a pass. On the other side was a snowfield. I stopped for a snack and checked my GPS location. I was shocked to find I was way off the trail. I happened to notice that I had cellphone service and phoned Kathy to hear her voice and tell her I was “sad” because it was doubtful now I’d make it to Stephanie and Justin in time. Next I phoned Justin to tell him of my predicament, but I did ask him to get some specific resupplies for me. Afterwards I climbed back up the snowfield, went over the pass, came back down the trail around the lake and got back to the PCT.

Eating my afternoon snack during a break in my climbing of Silver Pass. I was worried. It was very late in the day (around 4-5 PM) and the snow on the other side of the pass was soft which would cause me to posthole a lot.

The first picture shows the widest crossing so far. The boulders made the crossing straight forward. On an earlier occasion I crossed Evolution creek. It was deep and the current was strong. For that one I removed my shoes and pants and put them in my pack. Then waded across facing the current and using my poles to brace myself. Brrrrr, it was cold too. On average I have 3-4 serious crossings like these each day. Where serious means I have to wade, carefully step from rock to rock, or cross on a fallen tree.

While climbing Mather and Muir the past two days I thought I saw bear tracks in the snow. Nope, they were just dog tracks.

Each pass was a challenge. Each pass had snow on both the south and north sides. More snow was on the less sunny north side.

For Mather Pass I followed two other hikers who were climbing it. While climbing up the south side I was finally able to get to switchbacks that were relatively clear (on left side of picture below). As I approached the top the hiker in front of me leaned over and barfed on the trail. Eww! It was the altitude. We each react to it differently. Luckily I never had a problem that way.

As I was crossing a particularly difficult creek a rock got in the way of my shin.

Update: A don’t need a tattoo to commemorate my PCT hike. Instead I have a scar from this scrape that still remains.

From Justin’s Blog: Enough food to stay alive