51 — Muir Pass

Mile 826.3 – 840.8 (14.5 miles)

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Rose: the push to the top, practically sprinting up rock and snow, it was so fun Thorn: getting cold waiting for the storm to pass under the rock Bud: no pass tomorrow!

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It’s warm and humid this morning. It’s a long ascent to Muir Pass: 12 miles and +4000’. The first few hours are a gentle enough climb through a river valley and meadows flanked by granite walls and peaks: a Yosemite Valley all to myself. With the river comes humidity and mosquitoes. Thankfully, my bug spray is working so far.

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While filtering water, Gibbs joined and then a new friend: Blackpacker. She joined us silently crying and needing support. She had just learned that her cat had died. We talked about life and death for a while. Then Magic Beans joined. We hung out for an hour and then hiked on.

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Strange event of the day: we’ve been camping the last couple nights near these three weekend backpackers, two of them wearing jeans. Apparently they were supposed to exit via Bishop Pass today, but the fastest of them missed the turn. Word was sent up the PCT and Bishop Pass trail to look for the guy in jeans while his friends dropped their packs and ran up trail to catch him. No Garmin and the dude didn’t stop to wait for his friends apparently. We helped them leave notes on trail signs. They eventually found him very high up; I saw them having turned around just before the alpine lakes below the pass. Dude added at least 8 miles and +-2,000’ round trip to his day.

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I had planned on swimming in the river or one of the alpine lakes, but sadly when we got to the first lake, the thunderclouds were gathering above the still-distant (3 miles) pass. Uh oh. We hastened on. Gibbs got ahead of me. The thunder rumbled a few times. As I was heading up higher into the treeless alpine, I passed by a slightly overhanging rock. I claimed it for partial shelter from the storm. Time to wait it out and see what it would do.

After ten minutes, Magic Beans joined me. We settled in with rain jackets around our torsos and legs. ~ We giggled and told stories while it lightly preciped and thunder rumbled overhead. We only saw one lightning strike way up. After 30–45 minutes, we saw Gibbs descending the trail to join our partial shelter. And then three JMT hikers we met a couple days ago. Our party of two grew into a party of six.

An hour and a half after my initial settling into the rock, we decided to make a break for the pass. 2.5 miles and +1,000’.

I usually can’t keep up, but I charged it. Huffing up the rocks to the lake, rock hopping across streams, stomping through the snow. I excelled at the snow. We lost the trail a couple times in our haste to thread the weather window but would get high on some rocks to find the next boot path through the snow. This pass has more snow than any of the other passes we’ve encountered. The last few hundred feet, I led the route finding and boot packing. I was first to Muir Pass. Hell yeah. Not only did I keep up with the boys, I was the first to the top. It was so much fun.

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At the top of the pass is Muir Shelter. Although the storm was calm at the top, we went into the shelter to wait out the other members of the group and eat dinner. I saw Riddles, Pantry, and their third woman again.

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After dinner and many photos later, the dark clouds had cleared enough for us to make a break downhill toward Wanda Lake for our camp for the night.

At camp: Hurdle, Gibb, Magic Beans, 2 JMTers