Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Day 9: (mile 120.5 – mile 139.5)

We got an early start today and immediately climbed up to Evolution Lakes – Absolutely magnificent as the morning light hit all the rocks, plants, and water. There must be 15 groups of JMT hikers camped here. They were all eating breakfast as we passed. We kept climbing until we reached Muir Pass 11,900 ft. The distance traveled was deceiving because you could see the next 5 miles you were to hike, but it took forever to get there. The downhill after the pass just crushed us – we must have held a pace of ½ mph. Our map reading skills even deceived as we placed ourselves 4 miles ahead of our acutal location - we couldn't believe how slow we had become, like our legs had been replaced with obelisks.

This eventually led into LeCont Canyon (spelling?) – Big, glaciated canyon where our final destination, palisades creek, drains into. We set up our tents again in the dark, and have completed a total of 20 miles today. Some Irish ranger saw us 4 miles from our destination and said, “you boys look tired, from the look on your faces, you’re not going to make it [to palisades creek]”. Dumbass - We made it.

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