John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 14 – Tyndall Creek to Guitar Lake
Guitar Lake Sunset

John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 14 – Tyndall Creek to Guitar Lake

Our second to last day on the John Muir Trail. Boo! After yesterday’s big day over Forester Pass, today was a relatively easy day from Tyndall Creek to Guitar Lake. There were no real steep ups or down – the trail was rolling and gently graded through this stretch. The day’s highlight was Big Horn Plateau, a large, barren, flat area a couple of miles beyond our campsite. Unfortunately the smoke once again interfered with the views, but it was still impressive.

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John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 13 – Vidette Meadow to Tyndall Creek
Climbing to Forester

John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 13 – Vidette Meadow to Tyndall Creek

What an incredible day! On day 13 of my John Muir Trail adventure we hiked from Vidette Meadow to Tyndall Creek via Forester Pass. This was the day I had both been looking forward to and also dreading – it was one of my higher mileage days, along with the biggest climb yet. But, since I had been on the trail nearly two weeks I had nothing to worry about – it was much easier than I expected. The highlight of the day was Forester Pass, which, at 13,200 ft, is the highest pass on the PCT. I had never been over this pass before and had heard how scenic it was, and it didn’t let me down.

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John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 11 – Humprey’s Basin to North Lake

John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 11 – Humprey’s Basin to North Lake

Muriel Lake
Muriel Lake

I awoke to the smell of smoke. The distant smoke from the previous night that had given me such a stunning sunset had blown into Humprey’s Basin overnight. I had no idea where the smoke was coming from, so I was glad that today I would be getting off the trail. This day’s plan was to hike out to the North Lake trailhead over Piute Pass and catch a ride into Bishop, where I had reservations at the Ramada. Dave would be driving out from the Bay Area that evening and would meet me there.

The smell of smoke was a bit overwhelming – I’m sure the air was just terrific for me to be breathing in while hiking. Some of the peaks that had been so beautiful the night before were now completely obscured by the smoke. But, as I climbed the short 2 miles and 400 or so feet up to Piute Pass, I quickly got out of the smoke. It had settled in the Basin, so at the Pass I was just above it. I ran into a couple at the Pass who told me that they had heard the smoke wasn’t a fire in the Sierra at all – it was actually smoke blowing in from the Zaca fire in Santa Barbara.

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John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 9 – Rosemarie Meadow to Piute Creek Bridge

John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 9 – Rosemarie Meadow to Piute Creek Bridge

View from Selden Pass
View from Selden Pass

Another beautiful day on the trail today, starting off with a climb to Selden Pass that took us by the stunning Marie Lake. I regretted not making it all the way to Marie for camp the night before, but it was a bit windy up there so at least it wasn’t a perfect spot.
The climb to Selden was easy, as was the descent past Heart and Sallie Keys Lakes. The lakes in here were beautiful – I wish we’d been able to camp around there, but the schedule just didn’t work out. Next time. A couple of miles beyond Sallie Keys the trail spit us out onto a steep hillside covered in manzanita. I swear that the temperature instantly jumped 20 degrees. As we went down the long, never ending switchbacks I found myself desperately longing for the next small spot of shade. Unfortunately, as the trail descended to Muir Trail Ranch it just got dustier, sunnier, and hotter.
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John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 7 – Vermillion Valley Resort

John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 7 – Vermillion Valley Resort

VVR
VVR

Today was a much needed Zero Day. Well, okay, it was really a 1/2 mile day. I awoke to the generator kicking on at 7 am. After some minutes of enjoying the cozy warmth of my beloved sleeping bag, I worked my way over to the cafe where I enjoyed an enormous and delicious breakfast. And fresh coffee, of course. Our group scheduled a meeting of the minds to figure out the plans for the next 24 hours. We had originally planned to take the next morning’s ferry back and have a long day of hiking the 13-ish miles to Rosemarie Meadow. Since the previous day we had been hearing stories about the hot and laborious climb out of Quail Meadows and over Bear Ridge and we were not looking forward to having to do this in the hot late morning since the ferry wouldn’t even leave VVR until after 9am. So, we made plans to spend the remainder of the day at VVR, but take the afternoon ferry back at 4 pm and camp at that end of Lake Edison. That way we could wake up early the next morning and get that climb out of the way before it got too hot out.

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John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 6 – Cascade Valley to Vermillion Valley Resort

John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 6 – Cascade Valley to Vermillion Valley Resort

Reflections
Reflections

I started out on the trail at 6:50 today since we had a long climb up to Silver Pass in front of us. The climb ended up being a quite pleasant one – lots of wildflowers and scenic spots along a bubbling creek. As I climbed I noticed quite a bit of smoke to the north, and could even smell it at some times. Never figured out what it was from.

I got some of my favorite photos of the trip on the climb to Silver Pass. As the sun rose and turned the ridges and peaks orange, the reflected colors along the creek were beautiful.

On Silver Pass we met a group of three ‘Old Guys’ who were on a several day trip along the JMT. We joked around with them for a while and they advised us of the incredible food of Chef Roy at VVR. It made me hike a bit faster since that pie sure sounded tasty…

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