This morning we had a big climb up Silver Pass that I was somewhat dreading. In the end, it actually was not bad. We passed a couple of beautiful alpine lakes on the climb up to the pass–Purple Lake and Lake Virginia. There was some snow on the way up to pass but only near the very top. It is interesting how in the Sierra our days are shaped by these passes. We are either on an approach to one and walking uphill or coming down from one walking downhill. It is definitely a different way of hiking than other parts of the trail in that there is a clear goal for the day (a pass) whereas most other parts of the trail are much more gradual. At least for me this equates to a different mental approach where I have to prep myself for these big climbs whereas on other parts of the trail the challenge can sometimes come from the monotony of the trail.
After Silver Pass we had about six miles of downhill which went by quickly. At one point we had a crazy creek crossing where we crossed right next to and almost under a waterfall!! It was pretty wild to stand next to a monstrous flow of water. I was very grateful to be doing so now when the water level is not as high rather than a month or so ago when it was higher and peak snowmelt. As we continued downhill, dark clouds started rolling in and it began thundering and drizzling a little. Wolf Bird and I planned to have lunch at the bottom of the downhill before we had to climb uphill again. Luckily it wasn’t really raining too much and we were able to find a dry and protected spot under a tree to eat, right next to a junction that led to Vermillion Valley Resort, a place many hikers stop by to resupply but one that we opted to skip since we are hoping to make good time through the Sierra. During lunch we chatted with a JMT hiker named Jared, a young guy from Ohio heading to college in the fall.
After lunch we had four miles of uphill and of course as soon as we put on our packs to start walking it began raining pretty steadily! Yote and 2.Toe also caught up to us right as we started to climb. The four of us climbed and climbed up many switchbacks as the rain poured down on us. After over an hour of climbing we were pretty soaked but also finally at the top of the climb. As the trail flattened and then went back downhill, the rain finally ceased. Unfortunately since we were no longer walking uphill and thus working a little less hard, we all got pretty cold since we were wet and the sun was still behind the clouds. We walked quickly to try to stay warm.
All of a sudden we heard the noise of helicopters and looked to the sky to see where it was coming from. We noticed two helicopters flying pretty low following a river that wound through the mountains. They kept flying up the river away from us and then turning back around to fly toward us and then doing it all over again. We wondered what they might be doing. We thought they might be looking for signs of fire from a lightning strike from the storm that had just happened. But they kept circling the area and then started flying very low that we thought they might be looking for someone. We hoped no one was hurt or lost! We kept walking but the loud noise from the helicopter blades was very distracting and soon the helicopters were flying insanely low, just barely over the tree tops! They were so close we could see the pilots! I was freaking out wondering why they were so low and seemed to be circling us! Wolf Bird said that the Garmin GPS that I was carrying must not be waterproof and must’ve been short circuiting and somehow triggered the SOS function and these helicopters were responding to it. A joke of course but he freaked me out because it was uncanny how closely these helicopters were following us! He freaked me out so much that I made him check the device to ensure it wasn’t actually sending some type of SOS! After a while we passed a family and we asked if everything was ok and if they knew what the copters were for. Apparently the dad had twisted his ankle badly and they’d called for help! They didn’t seem too worried and the guy was actually standing on both feet when we saw him so my guess is he will be okay.
As we continued on the sound of the copters faded away. We had a creek crossing ahead of us that our app stated was “one of the wildest crossings” of the trail. I was slightly nervous but heard there was a log over the creek so was hopeful it wouldn’t be too tough. We arrived at the crossing and Yote and 2.Toe seemed like they were going to cross in the water right at the trail crossing. It looked a little too fast for my liking, especially if there was a log option. Wolf Bird and I set off downstream to find the log which was not far. Wolf Bird went first and helped me over the sketchy part at the end. Not bad at all! Again I was grateful that we were here now and not at peak snowmelt.
We decided to camp right after crossing and as we set up our tents it started thundering again. We rushed to get our camp chores done and were glad to be in our tent when it eventually started raining.
James you are going to hell making Julie believe that tale!!!! Baaahaaaa
love u big