Day 19: Quicksand and Ansel Adams Wilderness

The morning began at the Stellar Brew Cafe with a hot breakfast. I can't even begin to explain how much I love a cup of hot coffee and a tasty treat that isn't oatmeal. The coffee was bold, rich and full of flavor and my eggs and toast hit the spot.

After we'd both checked our emails at the cafe's computer, we spotted a post office. Replay wanted to mail home her UV light water treatment device and I had a couple of postcards to send home. Around 10:00 am we were out of the hotel and on the trolley up to the mountain. Little did we know, but the trolley wasn't our final ride to the PCT. After the trolley we jumped on the bike shuttle bus then we were shuffled onto a National Park Bus. The whole process took about an hour and 15 minutes!

I'm not sure if the extended road trip or my bout of "sea sickness" threw off my map skills, but the first 4 miles of the day were actually not on the PCT. According to the map we were to head South on the out of Red's Meadow and immediately we would be back on the PCT. Not so much! We walked 2 military miles towards Fish Creek not Devils Postpile, which was our first landmark of the morning. Thankfully we ran into 2 other PCT hikers who had made the same mistake as us. We all consulted the map together to confirm our location and decided that the most direct route was to follow the trail back to Red's Meadow and walk in a more westerly direction.

Finally at 1:15 we were on the correct trail along with a million summer tourists searching for the rare geologic site- the Devil's Postpile. This columar basalt formation towers 60 feet high and is a result of lava flow that occrred 100,000 years ago. As the lava was pushed upward it created pillars of hexagonal shape. Honestly it was a spectacular and strange site. Dodging the large groups of tourists who had flooded the park during the summer month to see the sight did take away some of the rock's beauty though.

Back on the PCT we left not only the tourists behind but also the JMT hikers. Until we arrive in Yosemite we won't be running into any JMT'ers from here on out. I think this might be a nice break. The trail was a bit overcrowded the last couple of days. You really can't get into the zone when so many people are passing. Today, however, I began my first serious faze out mode. As we began a steady climb up into the Ansel Adams Park boundary line I feel pretty far behind Replay. The wild irises, untouched hidden lakes, and rocky cliffs took my full attention thus my pace slowed to that of a snail. I got so far behind Replay that she was only a red spec on the horizon.

Once the sky started to get darker, my stomach began to growl. I figured I should at least attempt to catch up with Replay and leave my "rock gazing" til tomorrow. At 7:30 I was finally close enough to Replay to suggest we stop for a bite to eat. Dinner was in the shelter of a couple of trees over looking the valley below. Almost as son as we cleaned up, the temperature dropped dramatically. Our evening hike which is typically our cool down was more of a run. Umm actually it was more like an old woman hobbel. The moment we were out of the wind and in the shelter of the trees we found a campsite and settled in for the night curled up against one another for warmth.