Sunrise over Sapphire Lake
 |
| High Alpine Meadow |
Tuesday, July 10th
Fishing
wasn’t so good last night, but I made up for it by taking a lot of pictures
from around the area. I would like to
get better at taking time lapse photos but I think the video of the sunrise on Sapphire
Lake posted above is my best so far. I
am really looking forward to the rest of the hike all the way to Mt. Whitney. I am entering the most remote regions of this
wilderness now. Between Muir Trail
Ranch, my last resupply and Mt. Whiney is about 115 miles by trail and this should
add to the feeling of being disconnected from civilization and the modern
world. Although, I am still carrying my
Spot Transmitter which is beaming out my location as I trek down the trail so I
guess I don’t need to get too crazy with this disconnected stuff. I definitely am feeling like I am in a
different world out here now and away from all that drama that must still be occurring
down below. I am extremely glad not to
be hearing anything about our upcoming elections. Shameless plug here right now – vote the
environment! (Well, I am not actually on
the mountain right now.) Check out the following link.
 |
| Wanda Lake |
 |
| Hikers headed up Muir Pass |
 |
| Marmot |
I have
about 1,000 feet of vertical climbing to get to the top of Muir pass from Sapphire
Lake. The views in every direction are
enormous and breathtaking with snow speckled mountains reflecting on glacial
lakes set in the hard grey granite high above the tree-line. It’s almost hard to make progress because I
want to keep taking pictures. At the top
of Muir pass I have lunch at the famous Muir Hut. Muir Hut was built in the 1930’s by the Sierra
Club as a refuge for travelers caught in a mountain storm and was dedicated to
John Muir. Also sitting at the top of the
pass is a north bound PCT hiker enjoying a book and the nice weather. I forgot her name, but she says she is not
one of those people who have to hike all day long. In fact, she says that she probably not going
to make it all the way to Canada this year – maybe just to the top of California
and save the rest for another time. That’s
far enough, because the northern boundary of California is probably at least
another for or five hundred miles away.
 |
| Muir Hut |
 |
| Inside Muir Hut |
 |
| Heading back down the south side of Muir Pass |
 |
| Fresh cold clear glacial spring water |
I make
my way back down the mountain, and eventually I am below the tree-line again
first seeing the familiar Fox Tail Pines, then dropping down further below
9,500 feet I enter the upper montane region teeming with Lodgepole Pines. It always feels good to get back down into
the protection of the forest when crossing the high passes. Up above the tree-line in the alpine regions you
are left very exposed, and getting caught in a storm up there wouldn’t be any
fun at all. Perhaps up there we also feel
that our inner being is getting exposed, and the resulting to introspection can become brutally
uncomfortable like a cold swift wind bellowing off a glacier. Society offers us lots of protection from
introspection by keeping us busy with endless details to attend to, but for now
I feel better back down in the forest.
Thus it is a pleasant surprise to bump into some extremely
friendly and photogenic deer on the way down.
These deer seem to know how to play the part and they have probably
never been hunted by humans. Around
5:00PM, I make it to Little Pete Meadow and I camp in the shadow of the
towering Langille Peak. The trail though
this meadow is invitingly leveI and packed with soft dirt and I decide to change
into my trail shoes and go for a run. During
my 1 hour run, my legs felt fast and strong.
I am looking forward to running the San Francisco Half Marathon which
will be just two weeks after I finish this trip. I am hoping that all this backpacking will
leave me in extremely good shape and perhaps a few pounds lighter too. I still have some time left before it gets dark
and I fly fish the Middle fork of the King’s River. I catch two golden trout using a mosquito dry
fly and just release them back into the water.
You guys are lucky I still have so much food I am trying to eat
though. Back in camp, one of those
friendly deer keeps walking around.
While I am setting up my sleeping bag, I hear a noise behind me and when
I turn around that deer is standing right in the middle of my camp. I try to shoe it away but it resists. I have to toss small pebbles at it to get it
to move. When I tuck into my sleeping
bag, I can still hear it close by. Oh,
well she can’t get into my food and won’t do me any harm so I’ll just forget
about it and let her wander around.
 |
| Langille Peak |
 |
| Grouse |
 |
| U-shaped glacial valley |
 |
| Langille Peak |
 |
| Fly Fishing the Middle Fork Kings River |
 |
| Who goes there? |
No comments:
Post a Comment