The last week has been marked by big mountain passes. After we resupplied in Independence and Bishop, we returned up Kearsarge Pass (11,760 ft) to the Pacific Crest Trail. We then proceeded to climb up and over a big pass every day for the next five days:

Glen Pass (11,980 ft) on a crystal clear day

Jen stretching on Pinchot Pass (12,100 ft)…gotta get limber for the way down

More spectacular weather and scenery on Mather Pass (12,080 ft)

Muir Pass (11,955 ft) looking southward towards some nasty weather that we barely avoided

Seldon (10,870 ft)

The Hoary Marmot of Silver Pass (10,900 ft)

We’ve been averaging about 17 miles/day while on the trail – just enough to keep us moving the whole day yet leave some time for breaks to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Our days now have a fairly well established routine.

  • Solo hiking in the morning for an hour or two gives Jen and me the opportunity to have space for meditative contemplation, really being present to our bodies, our breath and our surroundings.
  • We’re getting good at really monitoring our food and water intake. Unlike our oldschool philosophy of carrying 4 liters around a lot of the time, we now mostly only carry 1-1.5 liters. At 2.2 pounds/liter, that takes as much as 6 pounds off our backs and makes a huge difference in how we feel about schlepping our packs around. We we pull into resupply locations, our packs are down to minimal weight of around 17 pounds (after Yosemite it will only be 15 when we get rid of our 2.5 pound bear cans).
  • We stop at a lot of water sources to soak our feet and wash our socks. Sometimes we’re washing our socks 2-4 times/day. This sounds ridiculous (heck, it is ridiculous), but it makes a world of different in how our feet feel.
  • We usually stop at a lovely lake or a mountain pass for lunch. If we’re doing a bigger day, we often will also stop and cook dinner on the trail and then hike for another few hours before bedding down for the night.
  • Once we settle on a campsite, usually we read out loud to each other for an hour or so before going to sleep. Having a 6 oz Kindle e-Ink along allows us to bring several books on loan from the library at a time and ensure that we never escape the modern techno-gadget inundation of our lives. Great books that we’ve recently finished include: Scott Jurek’s Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness, which has Rog inspired to try his hand at an ultramarathon once we’re done with our current adventure. We also really enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, which has helped expand our perspective on the cultural factors, timing and attitudes that create the conditions for individuals to be truly successful in a specific field. We also really enjoyed Novella Carpenter’s Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. While we don’t think we’ll be raising rabbits, chickens or pigs any time in the immediate future, Novella’s candid, funny and well researched piece was a fascinating and fun read and re-inspired us to garden, especially with heirloom varieties when we return to “real life.”
  • After a few days recuperating in Mammoth from a nasty head and chest cold I’m looking forward to ending our overeating binge, getting away from clean sheets and hot showers and heading back to the mountains!