Day 66-67. Fun couple days of hanging out in Mammoth. Overall just a lot of good fun memories. We had some problems with setting up the room/bed situation but all ended well. Mammoth is such a killer town. And our house can’t be in a better spot. Easy walk to the grocery store and there’s a free shuttle that goes through out the town that makes it easy to get to the post office, bakery, or wherever you have to go. We planned some fun things while here. Our place has a pool and hot tub so we hung out there for a bit, drinking Stat’s really strong dark and stormys haha. The second night we did a big Mexican food family dinner. We cooked a ton of shit. And had soooo many leftovers. Which I don’t get because typically we eat so much, but apparently I just over estimated our eating. It was so great. People made margaritas and we jammed and danced to some music while eating and hanging out. R. Kelly’s Ignition was a definite hit! After dinner we did a movie night and watched Get Out. It was ok. But it was just great to get to be with everyone spending this time together off the trail, letting loose and just hanging without worries. The next day Stats, Emi, Russ, Em, and Lou left to go snow boarding and I cooked a big breakfast for everyone. A nice sweet potato scramble, eggs, we had leftover pastries and goodies. It was too much food. That seems to be how towns go. Overeat to the point of extreme discomfort and continue that until you’re back on trail. Getting back to the trail….the fun part of the trip. The morning was chill after breakfast we packed and cleaned up and hung at the pool. Then we headed to the library to do some online resupply stuff. Then Met one of Tim and Freckles friends at the pizza place before heading out. We stopped near the grocery store and planned to catch the shuttle from there. When we got off the shuttle to wait and get a hitch I realized I didn’t have my trekking poles. At first I thought I left them on the shuttle, but then really thought about it and with the help of the others realized I left them back at the bus stop by the store. I looked at the times for the shuttles and it’d be another 45 min before one comes so it’s just a couple miles or so and I just take off running. I’m annoyed with myself, always so hard on myself anytime I screw up, but mostly just felt bad others had to wait for me. I ran there and found them! And then ran back, much harder than I had expected just so different from a chill walk I’m used to doing. I tried to hitch while I ran but nobody was stopping for me. And I can’t blame them since I had my whippet in one hand which looks like a narrow small axe. Finally I see the group, and a woman had already stopped and offered us a hitch. So there we went, and even better the road was opened so she could give us a ride really close to where we were meeting the others to camp. Today is summer solstice, aka hike naked day, therefore I’m happy we’re not actually on the trail hiking! I also realized I lost a water bottle in the woman’s truck, and couldn’t find my flip flops. I was like FUCK OFF! Luckily a beautiful person in my group had grabbed them and all was good again. So here we are, now 15 ready to take on the next section of the Sierras. Our next stop…Yosemite

Day 65: TOWN DAY! Unfortunately the few miles into Mammoth was much more difficult than I had imagined. We got up really early to head out. Freckles was ready to go! Hopping on our tents giving us tent hugs bright and early. So fun. The biggest thing I remember on the side trail was obviously snow, and a good chunk of downhill, but also “be brave”. Freckles had heard a cool podcast about how women are sort of trained as young kids to be more cautious of thugs rather than just going for stuff. So we kept saying “be brave” to ourselves when we had to boot ski down inclines. At 11am we were there! The road that will take us into town! Thank god! Fucking finally. The road is unfortunately closed so we have a couple extra miles to walk to get to where we can hitch. But it was fun. There were a lot of day hikers out asking us about our hike. Everyone’s amazed we’ve walked here with all this snow. Mammoth is already beautiful. We got a hitch from a couple in their truck and headed into town. The rest of the day was spent eating food, getting rad outfits from the thrift store, and hanging in a rental with 15 hikers. And the good times we’re yet to come.

Day 64: today was not a good day for me. I literally just woke up in a sour ass mood and it lasted a solid chunk of the day. I ended up going into my own zone and putting the headphones in to listen to music. I wish it wouldn’t have been this way it was such a beautiful day. I’m mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted right now. And just ready to get to Mammoth already. Today we did Silver pass, it wasn’t bad and luckily the snow was perfect for the way down it was soft and you could kind of run/slide down it which was nice. Walked along a creek for awhile today and in and out and all around all the trees. I don’t think I can really explain how horrible being in the forest was in the snow. There’s no direct route to go, and you just go around and between tons of trees and up and down a million snow bumps. Me, Freckles, Tim, Stats, and Scotty split from the group and hiked further on to get within 5 miles of Mammoth. We caught up to the Israeli guys and their French guy and all camped near each other. There wasn’t a large dry spot available so we were all a little separated. Although I was in a bad mood, I’m very grateful for these people. Meg and Freckles really helped me through the day by forcing me into conversations and not just allowing me to pout by myself. And actually I enjoyed the last bit to our camp site. I felt tired but had a rush to know we’re almost to town. we finished with a creek crossing and camped right there by the creek. It was cold that’s for sure. And tonight I made probably my largest meal of the trek. I mixed a potato pack, knorr Spanish rice, and dehydrated refried beans together and ate that in tortillas with hot sauce. Hot damn it was good. But this also last me for breakfast and I still had a decent amount left. Waaaayyyy too much food.

Day 63: so today is some big creek crossings. I can’t help but laugh about what happened. We get to the first crossing at almost lunch time. Some people drop their packs immediately to scout around for a crossing. Immediately I say hey there’s a log down there on our left. Hefty was heading to check that way out so I let it go from there thinking if it’s good to go I’ll know soon. After a few min everyone comes back saying there’s no crossing. So here Simon goes, sprinting his way through the snow having so much fun off to find us a crossing. We sit and start to eat lunch. May as well. I don’t know exactly how it started but somehow we came to the conclusion we were going to send our packs across on the rope we have and then group up for the crossing. But this way we know that our packs would stay dry. This took a long time! But it worked and the guys had such a blast. Scotty got over by doing some crazy scary hopping and big jumps onto rocks. Nothing I would ever trust myself with. So the packs one by one headed his way. And then some how Javalou decided to cross by himself to help Scotty. I didn’t see it but apparently it looked really rough. So then all the packs were across. And there’s Simon on the other side of the water. Soaking wet. He takes off running and apparently finds a snow bridge down stream and comes up to us. He decided to check out the situation for the next waterfall crossing as well and crossed it by himself. This dude is absolutely crazy and fearless! I can’t believe he’d do it alone to try it out. Like. What? What if it didn’t go well? Thankfully it did he just got wet. So then packs were across and we all go follow Simon to the bridge. On the way was the log I saw from right when we got there. Perfectly safe and easy to cross on. So we all did. Then we had to scramble back up to our packs. So funny we went through all this trouble and the easy log was there the whole time. Just bypassed. And the Israeli guys showed up as we were crossing the log, so luckily we didn’t talk them into finding a crazy route or anything. Finally were across and have our packs, it’s just a short distance to the waterfall crossing where we know we will get soaked. To be honest. It looks way more intense and hardcore than it was. It was not a strong current just a small section for walking before a large drop. So a slip would have sucked but nothing was really pushing you too hard. Emi is such a bad ass woman and went alone. I went with Javalou and all went well. But we most definitely did get wet. But overall it was just super exciting and fun. We found camp again on some rocks. I found a rock a bit away since the main one was full. Freckles and Tim camped up the hill a little too in their own snuggly spot. It was really funny. We gave Stats a bunch of shit this night because he was going around asking everyone what time they wanted to start tomorrow, then would say that everyone said some specific time. Then everyone would be like, no we didn’t say that. Funnier if you’re there I guess but good memories. We chose to get up at 6. Later than usual. The snow isn’t really freezing much over night anymore so we may as well sleep in. My campsite has such a beautiful view of snowy pristine mountain ranges. This section has been brutal, and I fucking hate the snow. But I’d be lying if I don’t go to bed almost every night thinking how I’m looking at one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen. And for that I am grateful. We also decided tonight that we were going to get off the trail at Mammoth Pass instead of Reds Meadow to get into Mammoth because Reds Meadow is still apparently closed. This means we are leaving the PCT 10 miles earlier than we had expected. Which is almost a whole day out here. So now just 2 days until a break! Thank goodness!!!

Also Simon wins for best facial expressions!

Day 60: a day filled with elevation gain, creek crossings, and butt glissading. We left camp early as usual and got going. First we got to cross a large bridge at the South fork of the Joaquin River. We hung there for a bit and had some snacks while we waited for some restroom breaks. It was a nice place to stop. Very beautiful. It’s special to be out here alone. And I know I’m with a large group of people but we rarely see anyone else. It’s so peaceful yet fierce. Next we pass by the trail junction to Muir Trail Ranch. In typical years this is a big stop for hikers. It’s a side trail that leads to a popular ranch for JMT hikers and vacationers so typically the hiker box is absolutely legit! But they make you pay $75 to deliver a bucket of food to yourself. Yes $75 because they have to bring it in by pack animals. But no worries for us because it is closed so we just pass by it. Next is Selden pass. I now remember this pass so well because of my conversation on the way up and the butt glissade on the way down. On the way up I had a great conversation about movies with Scotty, and part of the time with Hefty when he’d jump in and know things we didn’t. We talked about all kinds of movies, but mostly Disney films. We chatted the entire way up. I couldn’t believe how fast it made it feel. It wasn’t our hardest pass but it wasn’t easy. Nothing out here is really. Once we got to the top we hung out a bit then headed across a small ridge until we could butt glissade down. Everyone was going and Scotty and I decided to race. I was cracking up but he cheated. He stood up part way through and just started sprinting it was so fun! Then shit got real for a bit. Freckles already injured her tailbone pretty badly so she has had to be very careful with any glissading. But she went for it to save time. And all the sudden we see her roll over and hear her yelling. She had her ice axe in hand and we all wondered if she hurt herself with it. Scotty went sprinting up and him and Tim got her. She didn’t stab herself, thank god. Just a bad bruise on that tailbone so it really hurt her. Then we had to be ready to take on the worst creek crossing yet, apparently nobody had been able t to get past it from what we had heard in Bishop. So we all sat and chilled on some rocks while our guide, Simon, dropped his pack and took off running to see how things looked and find an alternate. He was gone for a bit then came back that he had found a good alternate where the creek is split and much more mellow. It ended up being a brutal alternate. Not the crossing but the walk was so steep and sketchy. Sometimes I think we try and avoid things and make shit potentially more sketchy. But I can’t navigate so I can’t complain. The creek ended up being pretty easy. And we headed back to the trail. Seeing the actual crossing I think we could have done it but it did look fairly rough so I’m totally content with our choice and so grateful for Simon to always go check stuff out for us. When it came time to camp some of us wanted to walk further so me, Meg, Scotty, Javalou, and Crocs walked further to a nice dry campsite. We built a great fire and had good chats and lots of laughs while hanging out and eating. Tomorrow is just a few miles to the junction for VVR which will give us a quick vacation from the trail. Some people just need to get boxes there and resupply. It hasn’t been open which is why we packed enough food to get into Mammoth but we now heard it just opened so we will be good to get there tomorrow!

Day 59: woke up bright and early to head up for Muir. The first part of the morning was brutal! See Simon likes to take us up really steep fucking climbs. He is our guide, he competes in Orienteering in Sweden, he knows his way with these paper maps! So I know I walk behind just trusting his every move. And he’s always saying “keep elevation” “stay high” it became a big inside joke for our group. But this hill, I swear my knee was coming up to my chest with each step. It was one hell of a grind. And this wasn’t even the climb to the pass. We were all like….damn that shit was hard! So after we trudged up that climb we started to the pass. At the top is Muir shelter, a small cabin used for emergencies. If you don’t know who John Muir is, or even if you do I highly recommend looking into him more. How he looked at nature is just the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read. The actual climb was really easy, I want to say that today we walked across another lake on the way, but I don’t for sure remember. Then we see the cabin! We all decide to hang out in the cabin. It’s beautiful we sit and make jokes, chat, and drink hot drinks. It’s so great to look around, to see this group of people, all from different places, California, Philadelphia, Oregon, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. We all just met, we don’t know a lot about each other. But at the same time I know these are my people. This is my family. And we are all so connected in this amazing place. After a bit we descended down the mountain. About half of the group followed Simon across a snow bridge to the other side of the river, while Freckles, Tim, Meg, Scotty, and I stayed on the side of the PCT. Evolution creek was coming up. We had heard bad things about it being really sketchy and dangerous. So Simon thought it’d be best to avoid the crossing, but we thought it looked kinda sketch and tough so we chose to stay on the PCT side and see how the creek was. We luckily had dry trail for a bit. We stopped and ate lunch and chatted then walked up to the ranger station. Nobody is there but can you imagine being able to live out here??!! Wow. Anywho to the fun part. We took an alternate route which led us to a meadow, a wider section of evolution creek that we hoped would be more mellow. We got fully prepared to cross, shoes off, minimal clothing on, Tim even made his shorts a nice thong for us. Haha. Then packs on our heads we start walking across, and it never even touches above our thighs! Like really? This is a creek people had us flipping about? Although, every day is different out here so I guess we just got lucky. We decided to jump back in once we crossed and skinny dip! Freckles had just gotten out when the other group was coming across! And luckily they all decided to jump in too! Simon a couple of times! Everyone’s facial reactions from the cold were priceless. This was so much fun. We all got back together and hiked a couple more miles until camp. 18 miles done today! That’s a big day for the Sierras.

Day 58: Short day today. 9 miles but that even feels like enough sometimes. We ended up camping a few miles before Muir Pass. We ended super early today. The morning was weird, there was actual dry trail for a bit. Then some weird creek crossings. But a majority of the day actually seemed dry, from snow, but we had to do a lot of tree climbing up and overs and wet water walking. We had to cross this creek and there were logs everywhere so there were multiple paths to take but none of them seemed like the best way. I think we almost all literally went different routes. I personally thought I was taking a quick route then realized my log ended and I had to back track and jump back to another area then walk up and around on multiple other logs. Emi unfortunately slipped and fell in. She was ok but had to change her clothes! We finally all ended back up in the same place. Another group disagreement happened and some of us decided to keep hiking while others stopped to eat and take a break. We laughed, and I can definitely look back at it now and realize how silly it all is. We can split up. The big group is really only needed for a dangerous water crossing. As long as nobody is alone we 12 don’t need to do literally everything together. Pretty soon after leaving all the sudden my energy starts to tank! Like drop so freaking fast I had to stop and get a bar out. Maybe lunch wouldn’t have been too bad of an idea. But the snack helped! Then up up up up we went to our campsite. It was in a wide open space surrounded by snow and there we found ourselves. Laying on a big rock in the middle of the Sierras tanning and listening to Nahko. My heaven ❤️❤️. We sang and chatted and just kicked it for hours. It was really hot too, you’d think with all the snow around that would mean cold weather, but it was hot fairly often. Like tank top and shorts hot. Then we ended up squeezing 6 tents on this rock! Funny what we will do to avoid sleeping on the snow. Camp is at about mile 835. I love these people; they make me laugh and smile so much. Scotty is fucking hilarious and Simon is literally the most adorable and kindest person in the world. Anytime we are going up a gnarly hill he stands at the top cheering us on and always saying good job when we get there. Tomorrow is a long day, I’m praying it doesn’t get windy in this exposed spot, or too cold. We spent the rest of the evening eating and enjoying each other’s company. And dreaming about Mammoth. Our next town. We talked of all gettin a place together, things we’d do, and food we would eat. We’re all ready for it!

Day 57: Woke up freezing cold. Looked outside and there was a fresh layer of snow everywhere. My shoes were legit frozen, I couldn’t move the laces. There was snow on all my stuff, and trekking poles had ice all around the handles. And trying to put your stuff away with gloves in is so hard. But necessary. We all met up at the rocks where some people had camped bright and early. We had heard about Mather Pass. It is one of the “sketchiest and hardest” passes on the PCT. Someone had told Megan to make sure when we hit a specific part we head to the left. The actual trail went to the right, but with the snow the left was easier. Well here we go, luckily Simon encourages us to stay on the right side of the creek, raged than crossing it 2x as the trail does. The thing with all this snow is, as long as we’re going in the right direction and it’s safe that’s the best way to go. There’s no need to make unnecessary crossings or hiking when you can just follow a more direct route on the snow. So no crossing for us! And we get to be “dry” that much longer. Even though dry isn’t really possible in the Sierras. We had to walk along snow fields getting blasted by freezing wind that was blowing the fresh snow straight across the fields. It was miserable, but the sunrise this day created was unreal! the sky looked like it was on fire. Literally one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. We made good time to Mather and we’re ready to head up but there is another group of hikers ahead going really slow. We don’t know who it is, but Twigsy was there waiting at the rocks at the base and said they’re having to make foot holes to step in since the fresh snow came in. So they were doing work that will make our trek up 100x easier. We knew it wouldn’t be smart to just head up because then we’d get stuck behind them on the ridge and just have to wait at higher elevation. So we stay at the rocks. With no exaggeration I can say I don’t think I have ever been so cold in my life. I was uncontrollably shivering and miserable. I couldn’t barely do anything. I took my poncho out to try and have an extra layer. I legit felt nauseous for quite awhile and after extremely fatigued. It was horrible. One by one we started moving up and I was almost last. Scotty stayed behind like usual to look out for us ladies. And Tim was in the front leading us and making good footsteps. The guys in our group are seriously amazing! It is a slow, very slow ascent up. And scary. But funny enough looking down and thinking of falling I was less scared of getting hurt than I was about thinking how I’d have to walk all the way back up here. This side ridge was so steep that we had to shorten our whippets to be able to lean into them on our left side while the right was very exposed to just well sliding right down into a hug snow/ice bowl at the bottom of the mountain. The left side was so close to us as literally had to lean into it and use our axes to stay close. Then we had some really awakened and steep steps before continuing on. One slip could have been a disaster. To make it worse our hands were so frozen we couldn’t even use them. So there was a low chance we could even grip and self arrest if needed. But luckily it never came to that. We finally got near the top where there was a nice wall we had to pull ourselves up and over. Of course nobody waiting for us up here, it’s freezing and we too immediately head down. When we get down we meet Thomas, Javalou, and Crocs(who I met in Big Bear) they ended up joining our group! Thomas is from France and Crocs from Japan. Then we keep hiking and this is the day we lose Simon at lunch. The rest of the day consisted of a lot of shoe skiing. The guys crush it but us ladies, well we fall A LOT! Shoe ski turns into a butt glissade really quickly. Unfortunately we were going down one spot that had a weird little curve in it but we all tried to go on our feet. Meg ended up slipping and hurting her knee pretty bad, it still affects her today. But she’s a bad ass and honestly with no other choice but to continue we moved forward. I always have fun shoe skiing for a bit then I get really sick of it. Probably by the time my quads get tired or that I fall about 5 times. Then I’m fucking over it. But we made it to camp..sort of. As you can imagine with a group of 12 not everyone will always agree. People want breaks and lunch at different times, some want to stop and camp and some want to continue on. Then it’s hard because we can chat for a bit and half the people don’t care then no decision is ever made. So after some time we decide to hike a little further and ended up finding some dry sites near water. And plenty of space for all of us. Hefty was walking so fast he got ahead and missed this campsite and is ending up camping about .5 miles ahead of us. He’s so independent and I really really look up to him for it. But I’m excited to be done with Mather and tomorrow will just be a short 9 mile day.

Day 56: Pinchot day! I slept so amazing. Seriously anytime I’m by flowing water it’s just heavenly. But I woke so warm and cozy, it made getting up for 4am hiking pretty hard. The whole place was up. All the groups were packing up and some had already left. We crossed the bridge into more greenery. And dry trail! We hiked for a bit to a creek crossing. There was a way to do it keeping your feet dry. And I watched a few people do it. At the end there was a long stretch of jump you had to do. So I followed Tim and just walked right through the water. It was easy and safe but my feet were basically wet the rest of the day. Some of the guys helped the girls get across, actually if I remember right it was Tim who went to the rescue! We stopped a bit later for some bathroom breaks and layer removal. Then it was step ups galore! Just big rocks stops over and over and over again! At this time I was very grateful for all my Crossfit training. Disclaimer* my journal for today is very minimal so if anything I say is from a different day, please say so! We did the pass then I remember stopping for lunch after walking along a shit ton of sun cups. We were searching for water for a bit then finally found a lake. We all stopped but Simon is so speedy and so far ahead. We tried to yell for him but no luck. He does this often we think we lost him and then he’s somehow magically ahead of us. Finally we see him walking back towards us. I’m glad he found us but I’m sad he had to have lunch alone. Today we also crossed mile 800! Then we had to walk along the outside of the lake and around it to keep heading towards the base of our next pass, Mather. We ended up finding a spot where some people could camp on rocks, some camped on snow, and I got to camp on dry land under a tree. Perks of my Mountain Hardwear Ghost UL1! It’s like I’m the same size as if I were just cowboy camping. We all kind of had dinner on our own because well it’s pretty fucking cold. It’s been chilly and windy all day. We hiked 11 miles today and I’m wiped. It’s about 4pm, and I’m heading to bed very soon. The only way to do it, since we have to get up so early is to sleep and put my beanie down over my eyes to make it dark enough to go to sleep. I’m definitely tired enough that’s for sure.