Day 14: Muir Trail Ranch Resupply

The applause of the Aspen’s cheered my spirit and gave my tired legs the added boost they needed today. I don’t know if it was my lack of sleep or simply the fact that I was still a newbie in the world of long distance hikers, but my early morning stride was just not enough. I simply couldn’t keep up.

Replay had the spirit of New York with her as she bounced over boulders, skimmed the steep riverbanks, and zoomed down the switch backs. The hikers we passed wondered why my legs were moving so quickly and I informed them that my hiking partner had a resupply in her sight and there was no stopping her. "But you are moving so quickly," they told me. "Ah yes," I said "my quick pace is only due to a lack of real food in my bear vault."

Muir Trail Ranch was the much needed destination of the day. I only had a packet of oatmeal and a single baby bell cheese in my pack and I'm pretty sure Replay had exactly the same plus a tortilla. Both of us wanted something just a little bit different in terms of food and since I packed the resupply container I knew that there were treats waiting for us uphead. Lunch was quick and easy mostly because there was only one choice- baby bell cheese with a wrap and a handful of dried fruit. The unshakeables managed to catch up with us at this point, but like us they didn’t want to waste the day chatting and went on ahead. By 1:30 we were looking down at the handpainted sign that pointed us in the direction of Muir Trail Ranch. What we didn’t consider as we ran down the mountainside was the fact that this steep incline was something we would have to tango with on the way up later this afternoon! Ah but rational thoughts were not on the mind as food had consumed all thinking.

Around 2:00 we made it to Muir Trail Ranch with nothing in our bearvaults except trash. Pat, a ranch hand at Muir Trail, led us to the fresh water spring tap and instructed us to dump our compost friendly products in one container and our empty gas containers in the orange bucket. Betsy, one of the Greman Ranchhands, helped up stock up on any other needed items like Internet, new gas, and toliet paper. She also informed us that there was a great local camping site just at the top of the 2 mile climb up from Muir Ranch. She reminded us that the climb up to the PCT was incredibly steep and if we didn't think we could reach the Sally Keyes Lakes before dark this was a great place to spend the night looking over the valley below. We thanked her for the advice and started the military training back up the mountian.

Yikes were our packs heavier this go round. With 2 liters of fresh spring water pluse the new food the climb was painful. Once we crossed from the tree line to the bare mountian top the Hot Hot sun beat down on us and made for a sweaty afternoon. Just when we thought we wouldn't find the lakes we popped out of the trees and into a swarm of bugs. Ah, we made it to the water!

Even though the bugs were horrible we opted to camp at Sally Keyes. There wasn't much above the lakes excep the next Pass and we weren't going to mess with that buisness tonight! Lessons learned from past passes still remian burned into our hikers memory!