August 4, 2014
We got a super slow start to the day...cold and wet morning. It rained on and off all night, which did not allow our clothes or gear to dry in the bushes we hung them from. It was so cold that Daveed would not get out of the tent to eat breakfast! He made me sit outside and freeze while he was huddled in his sleeping bag.
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| Foggy and wet morning at camp |
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| Daveed's view from his sleeping bag |
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| My view from outside the tent, feezin my bunz off |
No one was psyched this morning. The low lying clouds threatened more rain. We were all still cold and tired from the day before and everything was still wet. Tiphane's only dry clothes were her base layer PJ's. She did NOT want to put on her soaking wet and cold clothes that had been rained on all night. Tiphane and Jackie Ray discussed taking a rest day and hoping that the weather would clear later in the day to dry out all their clothes. We convinced Tiphane to keep going and that it would only be terrible for about 20 mins after she put on her cold wet clothes. Once we started hiking her clothes would dry from her body heat and everything would be OK. Everyone's boots/shoes were a different story. All of our shoes were still wet. After Tiphane changed into her wet clothes, we hustled to break down camp while Tiphane exclaimed "next year I'll go on holiday somewhere warm! At least 80 degrees and sunny!"
It was foggy and misty for the first hour we hiked, then the clouds broke up and the fog lifted. We started up, up, up to Mather Pass (12,100 ft) our highest elevation so far! The trail up Mather was steep and tiring. My legs were still tired from the previous day's mountain goating up the staircase. We had lunch at the top of the pass and enjoyed the beautiful views. We could see back towards Lower Palisade, what a beautiful lake! The clouds rolled in again just as we were packing up our lunch and we were under gray skies again with the threat of rain all day.
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| Starting up Mather Pass, trail on the left |
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| Looking back at Palisade Lakes, a brief clearing in the clouds. I love this picture, it's so beautiful! |
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| Looking south from Mather Pass |
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| Looking south from Mather Pass |
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| Looking back at Palisade Lakes from Mather Pass |
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| Mather Pass, elevation 12,100 ft |
Down, down, down the south side of the pass which was even steeper than the north side. We continued into Upper Basin, which was one of Daveed's favorite sections on the trail, and had pretty views of the surrounding, rugged, rocky mountains all day.
Here is a short video of Upper Basin:
http://youtu.be/EIcKnWG1Jz0
Can you spot Daveed in the pictures below?
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| Upper Basin |
There were many scary and sketchy creek crossings today. The water levels were still high from the previous day and night's rain, but thankfully we made it across them all without falling in. I barely made it across the final crossing without taking a digger, the people on the other side said "wow, you made that look so easy!!" I'm like, what are you talking about?! I nearly lost my balance and fell in twice! They said they didn't notice. Unfortunately Jackie Ray fell in that crossing and hurt her ankle a bit. We caught up to her and Tiphane just 100 feet past the crossing. Jackie Ray was having a bad day and was not psyched. We started looking for camping as this was the place there was supposed to be some sites. The sites we came across already had people in them, so we continued on. After another 10-15 minutes of hiking, we still hadn't found a place to camp and eventually Tiphane and Jackie Ray fell behind and we didn't see them again until the next morning.
We continued a bit further and found a place to camp just before Lake Marjorie. I was so tired! And hungry! My appetite was BACK! My ank is super pissed today. It was killing me from all that mountain goating yesterday and a lot of loose ankle twisting gravel today. We made dinner and I fell asleep immediately. Daveed tried to get me to go outside and look at the super bright moon reflecting eerily off the lake and bright granite walls, but I was too tired. I was barely able to hear him as sleep completely overtook me.
My big toes and balls of my feet are still numb. I'm glad we only got sprinkled on a little today, after all that rain yesterday we were feeling pretty water logged and were not psyched to have another rain day.
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| Camp at Unnamed Lake near Lake Marjorie, elevation 11,000 ft |
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