Vidette Meadow/Bubbs Creek Mile 786 to Woods Creek Mile 803
We lingered in camp enjoying our surroundings and cooked up oatmeal and a mocha on a wood fire. It's such a relief to finally feel like I'm out enjoying a backpacking trip! No stressful mornings with breakfast on the go to beat the 100 degree heat. I'm loving it.
Until Mammoth, we'll be crossing at least one High Sierra Pass each day, and today's was Glen Pass - purported to be the scariest and potentially most dangerous of them all. The pass was only 4 miles from our campsite but the going was slow getting there. After yesterday, today was a breeze though - I felt like a pro after someone going the opposite direction complained about the arduous climb that I hadn't really even struggled with! The climb up Glen Pass was very steep but it went fast, and I was on top in no time. I'm so thankful for a low snow year - going down the back side is typically a harrowing endeavor, but it was a breeze for us. We donned our microspikes for the beginning of the descent through the remaining snow fields, but didn't need them for too long. I felt like a true adventurer clomping through the snow with my crampons on my feet and snow baskets on my trekking poles.
We descended to Rae Lakes which is apparently a popular summer weekend destination. Our hike included an accidental detour due to a wrong turn, which added a few miles to our day. The wrong turn put me in a funk, and it felt like that flat hiking to get past Rae Lakes would never end. We finally sat down to have lunch at 3, and at that point we'd only gone 8 trail miles the whole day. It was a frustrating afternoon, and I cried my first tears of the Sierra - darn! I thought those days were over. We finally got going again, and thankfully the afternoon went better than the morning. We crossed over an awesome suspension bridge, and mile 800 and made it to mile 802.6 - still on track to make it to Mammoth!
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