Tag: hiking

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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Day 1: Climbing out of Yosemite Valley

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Happy Isles to JMT/Merced Lake Junction

Mileage (8.7 miles/14 km)

We began the day bright and early at the campground. It was busy with lots of tents and the night before was quite noisy with so many people around. We were keen and enthusiastic to get started on the trail as it had been a lot of waiting and planning to get to this point.

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Campground at Yosemite

We caught the shuttle bus and started our walk from Happy Isles.  We crossed the Merced River and started our long walk south towards Mount Whitney. Yosemite itself was very busy (unsurprisingly) and it felt a long way away from the remoteness we knew we would soon encounter.  It was great at the start of trail to reach the High Sierra Loop Trail sign which I’d seen many times in photos and guidebooks. It was also hard to believe that there was 211 miles of trail ahead of us through some of the most majestic scenery in the Sierras.

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Mail drops, the Dodgers and Universal Studios

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A night of decent sleep afterwards, it was time to experience a bit of Los Angeles in the time we had available. Unfortunately, much of the time before starting a hike (especially overseas) involves grocery shopping and mail drops. There was a Wal-Mart near the hotel for us to get all the food shopping done and there was a US postal office right next to the hotel so we had everything we needed close by.

Unfortunately, one of the mail drops on the JMT requires mail to be put into a bucket which must then be sent by UPS to the destination – Muir Trail Ranch. This is understandable given the remoteness of the destination and the fact that all mail must be brought in across Florence Lake and then by mule to the Ranch. It is great Muir Trail Ranch do this because otherwise the second half of the JMT would be problematic.

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Grocery shopping at Walmart

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