Ignorance is bliss out there. I wonder if we would still desire to do this trek if we knew how intense and difficult the passes would be. We were warned from hikers that today’s Muir Pass was completely covered in snow for 5-6 miles, but even being forewarned, walking uphill in that snow was so physically grueling that I could hardly believe I kept going. Even my shoulders were weary from struggling to get out of postholes.
We were careful about direction and checking the maps on the way up the mountain since there is no sign of a trail, only occasional scattered and often misleading footprints. We climbed until we reached the highest wrinkle in a blanket of snow and found a distinctively designed hut at the top of the pass, which happened to house a resident marmot who stared out the little window at us as we recovered.
The way down Muir Pass was the least fun I have had on this trip thus far, and I don’t think Dangermouse feels differently.
My legs were so depleted that one leg would posthole to the thigh and I would collapse onto my knees because I couldn’t hold myself up. I call this The Pose of Ultimate Defeat.
It is so difficult to stay on trail in sections such as this one i.e. flooded or snow covered passes with footprints in various directions, but we managed to stay mostly on the trail using the PCT Atlas map. The more we descended, the more the snow turned to small streams, covering the trial in up to three inches of water. I gave up avoiding the wetness, walked right through the melt and felt the swampy, miniature ecosystem build up inside my shoes and my last pair of dry socks.
Having spent 5 hours climbing and descending Muir Pass, we were close to our wits’ end. So at Sapphire Lake, we took an incredibly rejuvenating, hot lunch break and the afternoon opened up to us as a new day. We soon entered a section that looked like images of glistening Swiss Alps in spring. It was all slower ambling along the (well marked!) trail in the afternoon.
We camped at McClure Meadows.
I told Dangermouse today that whoever said the Appalachian Trail is physically harder than the Pacific Crest Trail must have skipped the Sierras. I will be so proud of us when this hike is complete.
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