Pacific Crest Trail

A zero day in Lee Vining

Day 59 I’ll be frank with you: nothing epic happened today here in the somewhat touristy and mostly calm Lee Vining. So bear that in mind should you continue reading. Speaking of bearing or rather bears, I also apologize for staying here and not camping in Tuolumne, which apparently is kind of the epicenter of bear activity. That could potentially have led to more interesting posts than this one. When I woke up I was…

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Pacific Crest Trail

Island Pass, Donahue Pass, and Lee Vining

Day 58 Probably more than I have ever done before here on trail I just wanted to feel clean again and get back to civilization for a short while. The Vermilion Valley Resort didn’t really cut it with their lack of water, so I hadn’t had a shower since Bishop, which was eight days ago. Between a shower and me were twenty two miles and two passes. I convinced myself to not focus on just…

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Pacific Crest Trail

The devil, deer, and the color purple

Day 57 As with most other days here on the bear country part of the PCT, I start in the dark by relocating my bear canister that I placed over two hundred feet from my tent yesterday. At first I couldn’t find it this morning so either a bear had been playing with it or I simply had remembered well enough where I put it as the surrounding landscape had few very distinct markings. I…

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Pacific Crest Trail

A calamitous crossing of Silver Pass

Day 56 Firstly I must admit that the title of this post is misleading given the fact that there were no calamity today. I just got tired the “EPONYM Pass” titling and wanted to make an ironic jab at clickbait. There was a small mishap, however. Well, I forgot to set my alarm this morning so I unfortunately slept in, which is to say that I woke up at 5:30. The ferry out of Vermilion…

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Pacific Crest Trail

Selden Pass and Vermillion Valley Resort

Day 55 “A mountain pass a day keeps something something at bay”. I wanted to make a proverb like that but haven’t filled out the somethings yet. Anyways, a pass a day is exactly what has been going on since Mount Whitney, but today is the last of the bigger ones, and wasn’t even as big as high as the other ones. It was also much easier than the other ones as there were only…

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Pacific Crest Trail

Muir Pass

Day 54 Today I for once actually got a bit of condensation in my tent, but nothing serious, I can just dry stuff out later. As previously mentioned, I wanted to cross Muir Pass early today so that I could avoid slushy ice and post-holing through it, so I got going before the sun. It was cold as usual, but not as bad as yesterday. First obstacle of the day was a creek fording that…

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Pacific Crest Trail

Mather Pass

Day 53 Coooooold. Cold cold cold. That was how I felt when I got out of my sleeping bag this morning before the sun rose and would start to make the snow slushy on Mather Pass, which I camped less than one mile from. I wore basically all my clothing but that wasn’t enough to be comfortable and even though I was in the lucky situation of having dry shoes and socks my feet hurt…

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Pacific Crest Trail

Pinchot Pass

Day 52 Last night I camped about four miles from Pinchot pass which I intended to, well, you know, pass. Preferably it should be before the snow got too slushy, so I was one of the first out of the bat. My shoes were still rather wet and comd from yesterday’s late fording, but I had a pair of dry socks to put in them, so it wasn’t that bad. Nearing the pass I ran…

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Pacific Crest Trail

Onion Valley Campground

Day 50 The full title of this post should be “Onion Valley Campground or how a broken USB cable got me stuck in Independence and going to the toilet got me out of there“, but that’s too long for the system. Anyway, I had been to and fro about staying another night in Bishop or hitting the trail today but now felt more for getting back, so things had to move quickly for that to…

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