Back to the trail again, at last. We left our hotel and began the process of getting back to the trailhead at Reds Meadow. A town trolley to the mountain bike shuttle brought us to Mammoth Mountain and from there the Eastern Sierra public transit bus returned us to the meadow – what service! The bus drivers up here are positively awesome. Without us even mentioning that we were thruhikers, our driver asked the full bus to be extra nice to us be wise we were “hiking all the way from Mexico to Canada.” We actually got applauded just for being on a 6 month dream vacation.
It was much hotter than we were used to up here – consequence of a heat wave – and we were sluggish to get going. We stopped for lunch in the little cafe and then dragged ourselves out of the town vortex and started up the trail. First stop was a short detour to Devil’s Postpile National Monument, a natural formation of hexagonal rock columns nearby. We had seen something similar last summer on the Wonderland Trail. Also attributed to the devil (though I’m not sure what it is about hexagonal stones that screams evil), the Devil’s Pipe Organ had been a little more impressive in scale since it covered an entire massive cliff face. This formation had a trail to the top, so we could see the tops of the columns all fitted together like a huge, half-buried turtle shell.
Afterwards we started north again and soon came to a junction where the PCT and the John Muir trail diverged. From Mt. Whitney (the south end of the JMT) the two had shared the same track, but here they diverge for about 15 miles and run up opposite sides of a valley. We had decided to take the JMT arm – said to be more scenic by some people, and we thought it would be fun to say we hiked the length of the entire JMT on our trip since we plan to follow it to its northern end in Yosemite Valley soon.
We started uphill through pine forest and over big stone man-steps. This route changes elevation more than the PCT alternate, but we were all rested up and well fed from town and we powered our way up. The bugs got bad very quickly – much worse than we’d seen in the middle of the day. They were even bad while moving, while before we could avoid getting bitten by hiking at even a slow pace. The bugs and the heat encouraged us to stop and camp earlier than we might have otherwise. We dropped packs at the first lake we came across – a mosquito haven, but how much worse could it get? In record time we had the net tent up and were safely inside, performing the now-standard ritual of squishing all the lucky ones that made it in with us. They have been a constant hum around us all evening. I think I have to swallow my pride and admit that they’re swarming worse than I’ve ever seen them in MN – although they’re not as aggressive as they were in the BWCA, where DEET was only a placebo. Thank goodness.
The lake behind us is beautifully still and reflecting the pink sunset clouds off its surface. I hope it cools down tonight. Tomorrow we’ll hike the rest of this alternate leg, then rejoin the PCT and head for Tuolumne a few days away. Even further out is Tahoe, and Tahoe is just across the state line from the casinos in Nevada, and in the casinos are all-you-can-eat buffets…but we’ve got to take it one day at a time.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:JMT alternate mile 4