Shadow Lake to Red’s Meadow

Mileage 11.9 miles (19.2 km), total 62.7 miles (100.9 km)

After the long day yesterday, today was a little easier. We’d had to change our original itinery a little as we weren’t able to camp in Tuolumne so we figured that with higher mileages the last few days we could take a zero at Red’s.

The scenery today was pretty good and fortunately it was cloudier and a little cooler.

En route to Red’s

Pacific Crest Trail

The JMT passed Rosalie Lake and a long descent to Johnson Meadows. There was plenty of opportunities for a break along this section. We kept leapfrogging with a hiker who then ended up hiking with us for a while. Her name was Kendra and she was hiking through the JMT on a fairly quick schedule and was going to hike straight pass Red’s. An interesting fact about her was that she didn’t watch any TV in the evenings preferring to hike instead or go for a bike ride.

Our hiking buddy for a while

We eventually reached the Devil’s Postpile area which was a quite unique place. Ben was pretty excited about this being a geologist in his former life and he took plenty of photos of igneous extrusions and the like. We said goodbye here to Kendra and hiked onwards.

Entering Devil’s Postpile

Inyo National Forest

Devil’s Postpile National Monument

Interesting as all this geological setting was, I had food on my mind so it was time to head off to Red’s Meadow.  I absolutely booked it to Red’s from here as I’ve been told my hiking speed doubles when there’s the potential for junk food at the end of it.

Heading into Red’s

Red’s Meadow was a great place and it was nice to know we had a full zero coming up. The place has a store, a restaurant, a campground as well as accomodation. There were a few hikers there and the place had a great feel about it. We hit the restaurant first up and I ordered a burger and a chocolate milkshake which really hit the spot. It was obviously our day today as when we enquired if there was still accomodation free we were able to score the only remaining room. My wife had also sent me a care package which had arrived here from Australia which was great to receive. After that, it was time to have a beer and relax and have a good night’s sleep.

Restaurant at Red’s

Package from home

Relaxing with our accomodation in the background