June 29, 2017
Le Conte Canyon (mile 824.5) to Lake Wanda just past Muir Pass
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 55

The day started with an alarm at 5:30am and walking by 7am, with oatmeal for a warm breakfast. We hustled and made 7 miles in 3 hours. I knew the Middle Fork of Kings River was a major portion of what we walked along for most of the day, but tried to keep the apprehension at bay.

At one point Alex told me we would cross it somewhere ahead (I had been quietly holding out hope otherwise), and asked if I knew anything about the crossing. I didn’t! But now, I had something to look forward to (read: worry about).

We saw a handful of JMT’ers, all very friendly and reassuring about the road ahead. The crossing was mostly snow-covered and very mild, as we didn’t cross until nearly the source of the river’s fork.

Everything in Le Conte Canyon smells heavenly and is beautiful despite the massive avalanche damage.

Then we started the approach to the pass.

Muir Pass

We knew Muir Pass was long, but holy hell we didn’t imagine just how long climbing three miles over snowy hills would take. We made a mile an hour, or less. There was no real need for axes, mostly just a trekking pole pass, but it wound through a dozen peaks before you could see the pass, and even then it just looked like another hill.

I have been doing a good job making sure I eat enough, trying to keep my energy and attitude up via food, but Muir Pass was so fucking long. Winding around one slope after another, waiting to come to some kind of final vertical section. Worry that I would be too exhausted to safely execute a technical pass ballooned. If I got to the technical pass portion and was too exhausted, I’d be too surrounded by exposed high-altitude terrain without a snow-free place to camp that I wouldn’t be able to stop.

The worry swirled and built and bogged me down as I tried to keep pushing one foot in front of the other, now within the last hour of daylight, constantly searching the horizon for the final section of the pass.

Then I fell, just once, and silent tears streamed down my face as I collapsed in exhaustion. There was a shitty, lumpy, rocky outcrop that I was ready to camp on, but I needed to at least see what the next, and hopefully the final/technical section of the pass looked like before setting up the tent.

One Last Push

I started slogging the 50 feet up to the top of the mound where I thought I’d be able to see the next section. I realized I couldn’t see anything taller than the mound, except for a peak that looked like the temple of doom. As I took a few steps forward, I realized it was the Muir shelter. I really couldn’t believe we were at the top of the pass. This was the final pass before VVR, and we were at the top of it.

Then we saw the view, absolutely breathtaking. A panorama of new, snow-covered, craggy peaks ahead. I broke down sobbing, hugging Alex, face in my hands because after how freaking hard this past section has been, I don’t think I’d change any of it. It has been so hard. So so hard. And worth every second.

We found a very beautiful but very lumpy campsite in a rocky outcrop by Lake Wanda, just below the Muir hut. The non-designated tent site is humorously lumpy, and I am in a laughing fit from the delirium of exhaustion and relief of finishing the final pass.

After being at the Muir Shelter and experiencing what felt like Mecca, it’s wonderful that we can see the Muir Hut, far off in the distance, from our little rocky home for the night. Being inside the hut, I felt overcome with all that John Muir did to protect nature and give us something bigger than ourselves to appreciate.

There’s a fireplace inside, and a plaque that says the shelter is intended to offer hikers shelter from storms on this exposed stretch of trail. I can just imagine how cozy (if nervewracking) it would be to be a hiker in the 50’s, or anytime really, holed up in the Muir Hut with a roaring fire during a storm. Side note: not really sure how you’d get wood for the fire, but maybe someone from the Sierra Club kept it stocked back in the day!

What an incredible feeling of elation. I feel so connected to these mountains. So in awe. So very at their mercy, but so trusting of them. So much fucking power out here. Amen.