We woke up this morning at our beautiful camp site around six and enjoyed a slow breakfast. We didn’t start hiking until around eight and had a pretty steep yet short initial climb up to Island pass, our easiest pass so far. The view was outstanding looking over Thousand Islands Lake. The reflections of the islands and mountains in the water was outstanding and both Mackenzie and I stopped to take it in.

After Island Pass, we had a fairly steady climb up towards Donahue Pass, a much higher and steeper pass than Island Pass but still much easier relative to the earlier climbs in the Sierra. Right before the peak, Tiber, Cheeky and I stopped for a swim and lunch before Icy and Rummage showed up. We thought they were ahead of us so it was nice to run in to them. This let us game plan our next move, hiking to Yosemite Valley.

We realized that all sections of the JMT into the valley allow us to camp but it’s a 26 mile hike down into the valley which wouldn’t give us much time to enjoy the sites so the six of us got a hitch a bit down the road towards the valley and are currently camping in the national park near a gas station. We enjoyed our dinner in the parking lot and after hastily setting up our tents, we’re heading to sleep dreaming of a hot cup of coffee from the gas station.

Happy drinks…