Day 12. Wednesday, July 1, 2009. Mileage: 816.5 - 835 (18.5 miles)

I am now sleeping later than Dangermouse, though she usually takes more time in the waking state (and also does less frantic ripping off of the winter gloves, knuckle popping, and mumbling “I gotta get outta here” than I do). Maybe I didn’t sleep well last night; thunder woke me up a few times. Though last night wasn’t as chilly, I am still shivering cold most nights and rely heavily on having Dangermouse’s body heat being nearby.

As we had heard, the trail up Mather Pass was indeed covered in snow and appeared unwalkable. We surveyed our options and decided to climb and rock scramble straight up the mountain, off trail on sliding dirt and rock.

Occasionally we would switch to kick-stepping through a snowy section when the rock slides became too unstable to make significant headway (think one step up the mountain only to slide downhill three steps in a dust cloud of sliding rocks). It was a killer physical challenge but we both felt super strong and reached the summit quickly.

As is now the norm, we lost the trail several times in the flooded downhill. We each took a video of the other one glissading down the sections that were too steep and snowy for walking. Naturally mine looks like the how *not* to glissade segment but, man, I love to slide down the chutes; it has the thrill of an afternoon recess.

We had lunch at picturesque Palisades Lake.

I wanted to try and walk consistently for 3 miles per hour for the rest of the afternoon just to challenge myself. This speed of walking made our river swim/bath in the afternoon all the more enjoyable.

Much of the day I walked alongside raging, white rapids that reminded me of A River Runs Through It – always conducive to unabashedly singing my heart out.

The day’s destination was meant to be Big Pete’s Meadow, but we must have blown right past it, because it was suddenly getting dark and the terrain indicated that we were beginning the climb to Muir Pass, which we planned to summit tomorrow morning.

There were no places to camp and there was certainly no Big Pete’s Meadow nearby. I think we were both panicking a bit, worrying that we would soon be hitting an elevation that would be even less favorable for camping than the rocky mountainside we were already on.

Eventually, Danger found us a spot to put up the tent after 8:30 somewhere near Le Conte Canyon. I am exhausted but a bit giddy from walking 18.5 miles and making it through another day.