Day 14. Friday, July 3, 2009. Mileage: 849 – 864.2 (15.2 PCT miles plus 1.0 mile to Muir Trail ranch on side trail)

Today! Today was a good day. I blasted through the ten morning miles on “town legs” aided by a backpack free of food weight (even though we weren’t going into a town but to an off trail ranch where we sent ourselves food).

We are beginning to pass a lot of weekenders. There must be easy access to this section of the Sierras.















I heard a rattlesnake in the brush this morning, but didn’t get a peek at it. I did catch a morning deer not long after though.

The .5 side trail to Muir Ranch was all downhill and we were excited to get new food that Dangermouse had mailed to the ranch before we left. Howdy, who seemed to run the place, runs a finely tuned system for hiker mail drops. The ranch had only 5 horses but the friendly staff was bustling about to prepare for the arrival of 30 more horses. Muir Trail Ranch is not a place to stay but only a mail drop and internet access, both for a fee. They had a loaded hiker box (discarded items from other hikers that are up for grabs), which I raided for sunscreen and other free goodies. I found a great note to me from my dad tacked to a corkboard outside of a shed, wishing me a happy early birthday from him and Mom!

Holy hot sun and 45 minutes of uphill switchbacks back on the trail. Our packs were loaded from the resupply, and the sweat, dirt and added weight resulted in a mildly embarrassing condition where the skin on a section of my butt became super irritated. Times like this I see Jess in all her caretaker glory. And by times like this I mean times when we stop mid-trail so that Jess can rub antibiotic ointment on my butt so the skin doesn’t get infected.

We walked 4.6 miles from the ranch to the second Sally Keyes Lakes, where the bugs were relentless. We smell disgusting. This makes us laugh.