Day 11: At Muir Trail Ranch

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Rosemarie Meadow to Muir Trail Ranch

Mileage: 9.5 miles (15.3 km), total 114.2 miles (183.8 km)

Today was a much easier (and safer!) day than yesterday although I was still very sore from top to toe after yesterday’s escapades. A hefty dose of Vitamin I was in order before we started our day’s hike but it was still slow going.

From our campsite at Rosemarie Meadow, it was only a short climb to Seldon Pass and it was more or less all downhill from there to Muir Trail Ranch. The day started off with us passing Marie Lake on our way to the pass. Seldon Pass itself at 10,900 ft was relatively easy – in Sierras terms.

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Day 10: How not to ford a creek

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Vermillion Valley Resort to Rosemarie Meadow

Mileage: 12.3 miles (19.8 km), total 104.7 miles (168.5 km)

Today was a very tough day for a number of reasons.

We woke up and had breakfast at VVR with one of the PCT hikers who was staying at the resort. His name was Mellow and it was not hard to see how he got his trail name. After breakfast, it was time to hit the trail. Due to the low water levels, we had to get road transport out to where the boat to cross Edison Lake was stored. The boat itself was a small tinnie as the water level was too low for the main boat.

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Day 9: Vermilion Valley Resort

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Vermilion Valley Resort

Mileage: Zero

Today was a much anticipated rest day at Vermilion Valley Resort.  The place itself has a nice vibe to it and the day was a great experience. The resort was full of PCT hikers and JMT’ers enjoying relaxing and having a day off the trail. It is well and truly set up for hikers and has some great food and drinks – for a price! This was probably one of our more expensive days on the trail but was well and truly worth it.

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Day 8: Ahhh….VVR!

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Lake Virginia to Vermillion Valley Resort

Mileage: 14.3 miles (23.0 km), total 92.4 miles (148.7 km)

Today was a highly anticipated day for us because we were going to reach Vermillion Valley Resort or VVR as it is commonly referred to. VVR is set on the shores of Lake Edison. Unfortunately for us, as 2015 is such an incredibly low snow year, the water level at Lake Edison is much lower than it would be in an average snow year. Therefore, VVR was no longer running its larger boat (commonly seen on JMT videos) but was using smaller boats and dropping hikers off further away from the trail head.

The night at Lake Virginia was pretty cold but it was a beautiful spot to camp.  We headed out from camp and passed by Tully Hole and Cascade Valley.DSC01120

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Day 7: On to Lake Virginia

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Red’s Meadow to Lake Virginia

Mileage 15.4 miles (24.8km), total 78.1 miles (125.7 km)

We were ready to get back on the trail today after having a zero at Red’s.  The path left Red’s past an interesting sign showing how far it was to each end of the PCT as well as the JMT. Realising we still had 165 miles to go to Whitney, we kept going.

The area was full of felled trees which apparently was due to a fire which had happened some years before.

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Day 6: Zero at Red’s

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Red’s Meadow Resort

Mileage: Zero

Today was a great day and it was nice to have a day off the trail. We knew that the trail would become progressively more difficult one we got past Muir Trail Ranch and that this would be our last zero until the end. So we made the most of it and caught the shuttle bus down from Red’s to Mammoth Lakes to do a bit of exploring.

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Red’s Meadow

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Day 5: Red’s Meadow

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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.

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En route to Red’s

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Day 4: Donohue Pass and Thousand Island Lake

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Upper Lyell Forks to Shadow Lake

Mileage 15.9 miles (25.6 km), total 50.8 miles (81.8 km)

Today was an awesome day but quite tough in parts. The day started bright and early at our campsite at Upper Lyell Canyon with a climb up to Donohue Pass. This is the first serious pass of the JMT and is at an altitude of 11,056ft. After climbing up through the trees, we reached a beautiful mountain tarn sitting just below Mount Lyell in some alpine meadow.  The place was stunning and the water was crystal clear. We stoppped for a short break here out of the wind which was a bit cold. If it weren’t for the wind I could have been tempted to swim here but the water was cold.

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Looking up towards Donohue Pass

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Day 3: Tuolumne Meadows and Lyell Canyon

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Cathedral Lake to Upper Lyell Canyon

Mileage 16.4 miles (26.4 km), total 34.9 miles (56.2 km)

The start of the day was fairly easy with a long descent down into Tuolumne Meadows. For once, it was nice being the ones who were speeding down the descent rather than crawling up a pass at a slow pace. The descent down to Tuolumne was fairly busy. At one point, we passed a Ranger who was on his way up the trail carrying a strange piece of equipment with him. He was pretty friendly and mentioned he was heading up to conduct studies on the fish levels with the lakes. Nice job.

We reached the car park eventually and thought we might catch the shuttle bus but the sight of approximately 100 PCT hikers made us realise that we might have quite a wait so we decided to instead walk the mile or so along the Highway. Eventually we came to the Tuolumne Meadows Grill where we did a small resupply and ate to our heart’s content.

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Toulumne Meadows Grill

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Day 2: Onwards to Cathedral Pass

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JMT/Merced Lake Junction to Cathedral Lake

Mileage 9.8 miles (15.8 km), total 18.5 miles (29.8 km)

The day began with a walk out of the burn and back into the forest and a steep climb up Sunrise Mountain towards Sunrise Pass. This section was quite steep as it climbed along Sunrise Creek and definitely had us out of breath. We ran into our first PCT hikers along this stretch who now had about 900 miles or so under their belt. It was fun to chat with them, they were very friendly and willing to talk about their experiences and respond to our endless questions.

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Starting the day up towards Sunrise Pass

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