Day 64

Campground to south fork San Joaquin river - 17.4 miles

Total - 853.6 miles

Got a lil late start to the dad aka left at 6 to head up the mountain. Choked down two bars and called it a morning. It was basically straight up rock stairs all the way until we hit our first snow field. Crossed it easily and got to a gorgeous stream until we realized we had to cross it. We hopped and skipped across until I hit an ice patch on a rock and slipped full left leg into the river, really setting the tone of the day. I now had to hike basically the rest of the day with a wet shoe. So fun. We headed up this large hill (felt like a mountain) only then to realize we had to go down it to make it back on trail. I was dying. We hiked for a little bit with the girl who lost her bear can the day before. Happy to report she was able to get it back. We trudged through snow field after snow field, passes lake after lake. The 3.5 miles felt like forever. It was also getting hot as the sun heat down at us at 7 am in the morning with the snow reflecting it. It was slow going. It also felt like it was false summit after false summit. The last push was straight up hill and I just had to keep reminding myself that it’s better to keep moving slowly than stop a whole bunch of times. So that’s what I did. We made the final push to the summit of Muir pass and was rewarded with a shelter hut and gorgeous views as always. We signed the book and hung out for maybe 15 minutes choking down another bar before heading down as we had maybe 5+ miles of more snow fields that were quickly melting potentially leading us to postholing. At first it was easy going but then we started postholing. Not too horribly as I didn’t want to scream in anger but enough where you had to lock in and focus. We cross a large river and drank straight from the stream before looking back and seeing Marc and Caleb had caught up to us. We knew it was going to happen but goddamn they were quick. We stopped and waited for them and once they reached us we caught up on allllll the drama (not much sadly). They were beat but still looked good surprisingly. We planned for a coffee break at a lake and trudged there. The sun was out and shining down on us making us all warm and fuzzy as we ate our first lunch. After we kept walking (obviously) before we reached the most perfect alpine lake with grassy shores that led to sandy/clay lake bottom. Just asking for us to swim. Plus the sun was getting intense. Caleb pleaded like a lil girl asking to swim. So I let him. He immediately jumped in after the wind subsided and dad followed. I was a lil more cautious or I would say lady like and walked in gracefully before asking for a count down to dunk. The count down always works. We laid around and dried off before heading the very long way down through the forest. Rocks and trees is pretty much all I saw. Initially we were in a group but then we spread out after grabbing water. I stuck with dad hoping to see a bear or any other animal. We didn’t see anything sadly. We had to take an alternate route through a marsh to avoid high waters of the river. So we got dirty and wet once again. The theme of today is wet. Wet shoes, wet socks, wet, wet, wet. Trudging through the mud was fun. The guys and I broke away from dad just far enough where I could still see him lol. Talking and chatting and spreading the goss like it’s the gospel. Lots of clarity was found (not really). Got to camp in no time and everyone quickly set up, but I, not a follower, went straight to the creek to dunk once again. I smell like shit, and I needed a lil bath. I dunked and then washed my pants and shirt. Pretty sure it did nothing but in my head it did. Caleb found me sitting, soaking up the last bit of rays before he went to dunk himself. Marc soon followed. We saw some rainbow trout two feet away breaching the surface swimming amongst the rapids and bubbles of the river. So peaceful. Then we ate dinner. Chili and ramen. Doesn’t sound good to y’all but it was delicious. The mosquitos were bad and I’m going to have 50 tomorrow. It’s the first bad night of mosquitos for at least me and dad. Still nothing beats the Yukon so I feel like I am pretty tolerant. Early bed time as the boys had two big days. Don’t know how they continued to walk but they are machines. Only know one term and its charge forward. We will see how far we get tomorrow, we are either pushing or we are sticking to my plan. Who knows. We never stick to the plan.