Day 6

Donahue Pass to Island Pass

I loved having the night to my own. I got to have my baby wipe shower and a lot of time to think. I’m not sure what it is, but I have a hard time thinking when there are a lot of people around me. I just react and hope for the best… so it’s nice when I can make time for myself to hear my own thoughts.

I did a “roll out of camp” breakfast. Which basically means that I quickly pack my bag with the intention to re pack in a few hours later. I make coffee, put it in the baby nalgene and grab either stoop waffle or Oreos and eat them while I am hiking and sipping the coffee. The intention is to get me out of camp as quickly as possible. Later (usually after I’ve walked a mile), I’ll sit down and have a proper breakfast and re-pack my bag.

This morning’s roll out breakfast was around 6:30. By 8:00 I had already done half the pass. By 8:30 I was at the camp ground that Nick and Alex were at. Everyone was still there, waking up and packing bags. I felt validated of my choice to stay lower and wake up earlier. Group camping is always slower to get started for me.

I saw Melissa and Eagle and checked in on them. Melissa has a video of KT tape being used on her knee that I wanted, so we airdropped (thank goodness for Apple phones). Eagle enjoyed Lyle Canyon but was still having some knee pain.

The big camp group started to break up and begin the day. Today was the first major pass and when we exited Yosemite National Park and entered the Ansel Adams Wilderness. This would be the day of snow crossings and river crossings, so it was nice that we had a group to go together.

One of the nice things about the JMT that I’ve noticed is that if the path starts to get hard… then you are off trail. That’s a bit opposite of Washington trails, where like Asgard Pass… if the trail is hard … then you are on it.

That was the guiding principal for our navigation of Lyell Fork. The snow was covering some of the path, we’d lose it for a bit, but then quickly re-find stairs. In the first 30 minutes we had to cross a few streams and got our feet wet (everyone except Alex who changed shoes or found magical ways to rock hop).

We picked our way up Donahue Pass and listened to snippets of each others stories.

Chris has family in Washington (sister and brother) and lives in San Diego. He initially did the trail with his family but they parted ways at Tuolome.

BJ and Sarah were also a bit overwhelmed by the crowdedness of the campsites. They are from Australia, had been dating for 10 years and recently got married. The JMT is a honeymoon of sorts.

The views of Lyell fork were beautiful and in no time … we were on top of Donahue.

Which had cell phone signal.

It was comical to watch everyone grab their phone (present company included) and call/text their family back home. Nick even got a FaceTime with his children.

For me, I checked in with Ryan and Keiko and uploaded blog posts. I noticed I didn’t quite know what day of the week it was.

While I was waiting, Eagle and Melissa came behind.

They joined the cell phone gang, with Eagle calling back home. She still wasn’t feeling well and was planning on leaving the trail at Red’s Meadow. This meant Melissa would also have to leave.

We were only about 26 miles from Red’s Meadow, which there was a bus to and from Mammoth, which had transportation options. They were hoping to finish the pass and do half of those miles so they could reach Red’s in a few days.

We bid each other goodbye. I wished Melissa well… and they headed down the mountain.

I stayed on top of the pass for a little. Just sitting there, letting the wind and sun hit me. Donahue Pass was the end of the first segment of my trip and it felt like a blur. I wanted to take it slower and soak in more of the feelings of being there.

A few more moments and a new batch of hikers came up… I decided to leave. I was solo again, the group I came up with had headed down already.

About 30 feet down, I noticed Melissa and Eagle were still on the pass. They were putting on microspikes (traction devices for the snow). I accessed the ten feet of snow and decided to chance going without and trusting my poles. Somehow I ended up in front of them.

While we were walking down, we talked calories. Both of them are Vegan and (I’m a mostly vegan). They hadn’t planned the trip with a consciousness or calories and were feeling the effects. I wondered how much of Eagle’s issues were from dehydration and lack of calories. I had two extra days of food (which were vegan in my bear can) that I offered them. They said maybe, but had food waiting for them at Reds.

They followed me down the mountain, but I was concerned for their pace. If they wanted to make it to their destination tonight, they would need to pass me and to go on ahead.

Eventually they did.

We bid eschother goodbye again.

I entered the Ansel Adams Wilderness. The landscape reminded me of Willy Wonky’s Chocolate factory except with water and crooked trees. Stream crossings everywhere.

I saw a woman with a Bucce’s hat and asked if she was from Texas. She said no, but was a fan. We laughed about the fact we both knew what Bucces was. My shoes got wet at a lot of the stream crossings and I was thankful that I last minute swapped out my waterproof Keen boots for the Altra Olympus Trail runners I was wearing. Even though waterproof is nice, it doesn’t dry out as quickly as the regular shoes… and I was crossing water where my foot was fully submerged.

A few miles later inReach beeped at me. It was Melissa and her message read, “I’m not feeling this log crossing.”

I got worried. This meant there was a substantial water crossing ahead and I didn’t want to cross it alone. I picked up my pace and ended up meeting them at the log crossing over a extremely full and fast moving Rush Creek.

There was a log that had fallen over but it was cracked in the middle. Eagle had already made it over but Melissa was on my side. I decided to take a chance at it before my head could freak me out. I unclipped both my belts, jumped on the log, said a quick prayer and moved. Using my poles as balance keepers rather than extra feet, I was over in about twelve steps.

Once I got to the other side i saw Melissa trying again. She wasn’t confident in her balance and turned around to go back. If she didn’t get across the log, she wouldn’t be able to make her objectives. I took a look at the water, at the log and decided to go out to help. I stepped into the moving water and with my poles, planted. Three points of contact (like ice axe traversing)… move… face the current. I got to the middle of the log where Melissa had stopped. We tried again, but it didn’t work. Luckily the Bucces hat woman came and also took a look at the log and assigned it a hard pass. She was going to try to cross farther up in the water. I traversed back across to the shore and went to meet them where they were going to cross. Eventually we all made it, thankfully only wet from the waist down and with squishy shoes.

That took a lot of energy out of us. I had Island Pass left to do and needed to find a campsite. I said goodbye to Melissa and Eagle again… and they hiked on ahead of me.

A mile later, we were at another river crossing and all were reunited.

This one was easier, there were four log options and we all chose the one that made us the most comfortable.

We said goodbye once again…

And then, I ran into them because I scrambled up a rock to look for a campsite to only find it met the trail. I just gave in. I would walk with them until I found a suitable campsite at Island Pass and say goodbye when that happened.

We chatted about how Donahue Pass took a lot of energy. How the stress of the water crossings was taxing and how this was close to the hardest thing we’ve done. Energy levels were close to zero around 5 PM so we decided to stop, pull out our stoves and eat dinner.

There Melissa and Eagle decided to do the PCT route to Red’s Meadow rather than the JMT. There were less water crossings, no snow reported and the elevation profile was more forgiving.

After dinner we tackled Island Pass (which ended up being easier than expected). At that point, I decided to go with a hunch and look for a campsite… and an epic found one.

I went to say goodbye to Eagle and Melissa for the last time, when it turns out they decided to join me in my camp site. We exhaustedly set up and crawled into the sleeping bags to watch the sunset and went to sleep.