Tag: yosemite national park

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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Reaching the start of the John Muir Trail at Yosemite

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It was a very early start the next morning for our trip to Yosemite to start the John Muir Trail. This involved a complex series of trains and buses and, above all, a lot of time. We started off at Union Station. It does amaze me how nice some of the public buildings are in the United States. We had an early morning bus ride out of LA to our first stop in Bakersfield, CA. The last time I was at Union Station was in 1997 when I did a rail trip across the US from New York. I was interconnecting here to catch the train up to San Franscisco.

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